If our traveler is practical and depends upon her own pocketbook instead
of papa's she adopts a specialty and makes her trips pay for themselves.
She may be attached to some paper or magazine; for the blue-stocking is as
fashionable to-day as once she was disgraced. Some women make capital of
their travels in extraordinary ways. One breaks records climbing mountain
peaks at the risk of her life and then lectures to thousands upon the
perils and pleasures of her feats.
Another is with her husband on the Congo searching for traces of ancient
African civilizations for the British Museum. In Mexico and South America
several women archeologists are at work digging out relics of the Aztecs,
Peruvians, and the original tribes of the Amazon River. A recent book on
Egyptian hieroglyphics was partly the work of a woman.
Then there are the women who take parties abroad, arranging for steamers,
trains, boats and hotels; buying tickets; looking after baggage, and
keeping everybody interested, instructed, and satisfied.
Such women--and there are many of them--must know half a dozen languages,
be familiar with the history, customs, and attractions of the countries
visited, be quick in an emergency, full of tact so as to keep the party
harmonious, and clever enough business women to give every one bargain
rates and come out with handsome profits at the end of each trip.
But traveling for business takes other forms. In the United States there
are nearly a thousand feminine commercial travelers, selling everything
from perfumery to men's shoes and babies' soothing syrup. There are women
factory inspectors who travel constantly from place to place. The United
States government employs a woman as Superintendent of Indian schools. She
covers thousands of miles every year and wields absolute power over the
institutions under her care.
The woman who does not travel no longer need stay at home in the old
sense. Indeed she has little to keep her there. The spinning, weaving,
sewing, and knitting which formerly were the home industries have been
swept off into great factories. In consequence the woman who does not want
to be idle follows the work outside of the home and down-town.