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WHAT WOMEN CAN DO '' Bythe best reckoning of the finely, dressed, well-fed, prosperous de partment store headsr whoj last week, took the witness stand hi the white, slaveTinquiry, it takes at least . $8' a week to support "a working girl so that she will .not.be underclothed, underfed andj soul-starved. . ! And the" average pay of the great majority .. of girls" in department stores there and -here is under. How shall they make up 'the difference? f Mrs. Augusta Lehmanh, chief owner of one of Chicago's most profit- ' able big stores, has a remedy. She says N f "These girls are getting too much pay as it is; far' more, than they are worth. They haven't got the brains to.be worth what they are paid. Why don't they leave .home and become domestics? "7 "Become domestics,"at $5 a week, TVith hours that never end, no chance for social, life 'and under the stigma which society attaches to domestic service? .. Would Mrs. Lehmann do it if her millions were suddenly swept away? But there is-another remedy. Many of the' big merchants insist upon it. They won't.employ.a girl who doesn't live at home. They want' the girl's father, mother, brothers or slaters to make up what -they themselves . are too greedy, to pay in order that she may have 'ah., honest income on which to live, ' Suppose however, she has no home, no relatives willing or able to patch out'her paltry -wage? "3 In every city there are thousands of such girls. If they are ignorant", who makes them, so? If, obeying thenatural craving of all' women for fine clothes, enough toeaf, amusement, at least the appearance of affection by some one of the other Bex; they, in their ignorance, fall for the false excitements of the , masculine hyenas .who in every city lay-siege, to feminine weakness and drift into "the easiest way," who is responsible? Is the blame,, the burden, the suffering all to be upon them? Is this the last word, of a Christian .civilization? x ' ' It is glorious that people at last are coming to think. about this great question. ' s It is .fine, that sheltered women, secure in the affection of clean hus bands, are breaking, over the selfish barriers of the parasite woman's home to inquire into the causes of the downfall of thes poor, wayward sisters! The good 'women of ' this .land alone can bring the pressure to bear which can reduce this social evil. ' - - Men cannot. Notenough of them wdnt to, for one thing for most .men are selfish, if .not unconsciously cruel. To "most men the frail sister- hood are but themes of jest or prey, to be stalked and enjoyed, regardless of the' .consequences. , Women, 'good women, women who have the divine fire of pity and compassicican. They must Let. theni buy -no goods of a merchant who seeks his profit at the expense- of .woman's virtue.- -.. " -Let them allow no peace- to the beasts of men who do not help them to fights to save the. future mothers of the race. From Philadelphia News-