The Hartford Herald

WOMAN'S CHANCES GOOD,
Ella Wheeler Wilcox Says Women
Find No Trouble Getting Along
While Men Starve.

Recently a man declared he was obliged to adopt female attire to secure work.
It has long been my belief that a poor young woman fares much better in the world than a poor young man.
There are no flowery paths of ease for either, but there are a dozen hands reached out in sympathy to the struggling girl, where not even a finger is offered to the struggling youth.
There seems to be a silent but settled impression in the public mind that it is a man's own fault if he is out of work and money. Just as strong an impression prevails that it is the fault of the world at large if a woman is poor and needy, and that something ought to be done for her. If she is not too particular regarding the kind of work she wishes to do, she can always find employment to keep her from starvation.
Not so with the poor young man.
Men and women turn him away with only a brusque "We have nothing for you to do."
The same men and women listen with sympathy to the story of poverty which the poor girl tells and give her a word of cheer if nothing more.
A great deal more consideration is shown poor workmanship in woman than poor workmanship in man, whether in the trades or arts.
Ladies put up with slipshod work in the kitchen which no man would endure in the shop or field from his male employees.
A young woman came to New York last winter anxious to secure engagements to read for the public. She possessed not one entertaining quality as a reader, and she was an unmitigated bore; but a dozen people to my certain knowledge used time, strength and money in aiding the girl, who, in spite of all this assistance, made a fiasco.
For success, to be permanent, must start from within. It is like the shoot of a plant, and assistance from the public is like the sunlight which helps the shoot to grow. But not all the sunlight of the Orient can coax a leaf out of a barren twig.
No young man who made himself such a bore personally and who read so badly would have found New York people ready to waste hours and dollars upon him.
Mediocre painters, writers, teachers and toilers of all kinds receive far more consideration and material encouragement when pursuing their vocations in skirts than they do when attired in trousers.
Of course, while our present conditions exist there will be innumerable cases of distress and poverty for both sexes, but there can be no gainsaying the fact that to-day woman's chances for obtaining employment are far better than man's.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox