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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 18, 1912)
The Omaha Sunday Bee Magazine Page . - - I j Copyright, 1912, by American-Examiner. Great Britain Right Reserved. "My Lxd with enencer "FiVER since the Political Equality Leagu ri started Miss Mary Donneley has been ' on of its active manageresses. The E. L. is the central orgatuotion of the American militant suffragettes. Iff headquarters ore in New York and it is controlled by Mrs. 0. II. P. Belmont. Miss Donneley is noio no longer Mrs. Belmont's first aidess. Here she tells why: By Miss MARY DONNELEY T HAVK left Mr. 0. H. P. Belmont combined uf J frsge, restaurant and beauty parlor became I can; not work out the exact relation! between women' fight and corn planter; political equality and balr tonic, and becauie, while I reside that a restaurant, where a working girl and a working man can receive excellent food at reasonable rate, I a good thing to color a mind toward suffrage. I am perfectly lure that the combination of society, suffrage, food and hygiene 1 terribly Indigestible tor our cause. There are lot of women just as Important to our cause a Mr. Belmont, who object to thl pot-pourri of Industrie. It la tact that Mis lnex Mlllholland, the prettiest suffragette in America, ha tried to act a a balance wheel. Aa for me, I am for suffrage for women, and only cuffrage, and I do not believe that society methods, how-to-be-beauttful Ideas, or pink pill can bring about vote for women. That la why I have cut away from my position a first aides to Mrs. O. , H. P. Belmont, the leader of the Political Equality League, aa It now itands. I am going to give you a part of the Inside story of My experience at society uffragettlng. Mrs. Clarence Mackay founded the qual Franchise Society for Idle rich. Mrs. Belmont founded the Politi cal Equality League for the working poor. She spent thousand of dollars on branch club. She provided free gymnasiums, tree dancing lessons, tree books. Hundreds of girls, and many men. Joined under ber banner. Every few weeks she arranged entertainments for her combined organisations. A year ago, la September, (he opened a clubhouse and lunch room on Thirty-fourth street. This waa the gathering place for the Fourteenth Assembly District. All sort of working people cam to eat Artists, writer, doctor, banker. This enterprise was a finan cial and suffrage success. There Is, and always will is, a eloae connection between suffrage and food. In the evenlnga the young women of the district met there, and, naturally, the men followed. They talked suffrage and "Down with man," and danced the Boston lip and two-step. Those were bappy day for auffrage! But tbey are all over now, and the songs of the suffragettes have given way to the song of the Beauty Barken. It la soap, not votes for women, It Is down wltt corns, not with man, to-dy. Mrs. Belmont, at heart, means well. Whatever ahe does Is lor the good of the cause. But In her recent experiment that ahe I using bad Judgment, is the opinion of the majority of khe prominent women asso ciated with her. Of course, the Political Equality League la a one-woman organization. It la Mrs. Bel snont's club, supported by ber money. Consequently whatever she say, goes. , In Mrs. Mackay s club there 1s a Board of Governors. Mrs. Belmont has thus been tree to work out her own projects. Many of them have succeeded admirably. "And Mrs. Bel. mont'a high priced butler had to put on a waiters apron and serve meals. . n ai szr- ?i MSIW ri V -U I V I I U 111 Nv I p. 'MX U ft . V!sTSl Hit - h aJocietv jufrradette The Intimate Anecdotes of Mrs. O.H.P. Belmont's V li ex-First Aidess,Who Quit I Because She Couldn't Approve of Fashion,. Food, Beauty and "Votes for Women" as Team Workers Here the Artist Hat Given His Idea of Mis DonneleyV Descriotion of Mrs, Belmont's Progress from Her Landau Into Her Restaurant, Through Her Kitchen Up to Her Hygiene Department ana to Her Private Beauty Parlor. Last September, Just when great success was smiling on the Thirty-fourth street lunch room, Mrs. Belmont abandoned It and opened the new headquarter on Bast Forty-Am itreet. 8ti had spent thousands ul dollars in transforming the original building. When all waa ready she told the member of the Thirty-fourth itreet branch that they must move on to the new bead quarters. They moved. And whst did they flndT Inatesd of the old neighborly hospitality there were formal talks in hygiene and bow to be pretty, though plain. Instead of coxy sitting rooms and reading tubles, there were soap counters and shelves filled with pills snd dandruff cures. Mrs. Belmont sent forth circulars Into New Jersey, Connecticut and up the State, advertising her hygiene department, and auffrage became subservient to hygiene. Well, at Drat the new Idea worked well. Soaps, skin foods, hslr tonics and corn plasters sold like hot cake. Women came In from the country expecting to get free dental treatment and free doctor's attendance! They thought hygiene covered everything. A few weeka ago the business dropped off. The demsnd ws for food, not soap and pills. . Mrs. Belmont la a good business woman. She man ages the big estate left by her husband, and takes charge of her own investment. She aw that to get business, she must go after it. and so she established be Beauty Barkers, snd this Is the move which con servative suffragists deplore a undignified. Of course, the pill snd hair tonic are not sold on the same counter as the plea and sauerkraut The medicated restaurant la on the ground floor. You go In the street door and turn to th erlght You top at the desk In the office (It used to be my desk), and pay In advance for what you want. Then you go into the restaurant and help yourself. At least you do It you can escape Mrs. Belmont snd her beauty barkers. Right at rhe door they stand and sing the song I have mentioned at the beginning of my tale. . The Hygiene Department la up one fight, over the restaurant. There Is one street door. Customers who wanUlha perfectly delicious food served there, enter and turn to the right, where I had my office. There were slwaya several chair here, and customers would top and talk auffrage on their way in. This waa all changed a few weeka ago. Mrs. Belmont stationed her barkers at th door, and a soon ss a woman entered she was greeted with: M1I . nui trimA our balr tonic. and pink pill" ' . , ') If a man entered. r. , . V tT - another barker , ?r-j- 3 would ing out: "Won't you try our corn plaster and dandruff cure" Now. I ask you. was thia the way to advance our great cause T Was thl the way to convert aan to our ' standard? Mr. Belmont's contention i that a he lose money on the restaurant, she mus1 mke good o the Hygiene -Department. I am .sure : SkS"'"'' that Mrs. Belmont work hard enough to succeed. Every morning she arrives at the headquarter at 10 o'clock. Her foot man hopa down from the box, opens the door of the limousine and stands at atten tion until ahe enters the building. Then he drops his grand manner and hustles in to help. His mistress I already bard at it by that time. First she rushes Into th restaurant, oversees the setting of the vtabjei, helps Sit aalt cellars, duats the chairs and Inspects the kitchens. And the - know Just how things should be. She won't have any loud talking or any ' noise. One dsy she objected to tie waitresses calling out: "Bean and for two!" "Mercy me!" sb ejaculated, "thia la no hash houi . Tou must wslk slowly, but gracefully to the left an4 gently say: Pork and bean for two, please." One day the waitresses struck It aeem bard to keep help at the headquarters id Mrs. Belmont ordered her butler down to help. Is awfully English and grand, and be did look funny in a bi.. white apron over his handsome livery! But this did r-t help our cause! It turned him, a voter, against It. The next day there were no dishwash ers, tnd she ordered her footman In to help to deer up. "Here, take my apron and wash those plates." she said. But )he refused, and she fired him. Anr turned him against us. too! Next day his mother came around and remonstrated. "Why, my son never hsd to wait on the table even at his own home!" she said. But Mr. Belmont believe that If she I willing- to do things, every' one else should to forming part of the decorEtions of the 9. After tn tauies are reauy. s out and pastes up the cards announcing t"-- special. "Sauerkraut and Frankfurt era 15 cents." "Pork and Beans 10 cents," "Lamb Stew 25 cents." And she is the mother of the Duchess of Marlborough. Pills snd hair tonics are great social levelers. Mrs. Belmont does not encour- WasieThat CanBe Turned to Money TREE hundred million eggs are thrown away in thia country every year, accord ing to the figure of the Department of Agriculture. These represent IS per cent of all the -eggs produced in the United WW !l I Miss I I Ines I I Mill- I I holUnd. ! I I Whom 'M' . si . : . sir : . , -'J-f -rTr T XT age any one to peak- to her on any other aubject One day she at in my office counting the customers. A woman came in and aaid: "Is this Mrs. Belmont!" "No." she replied, "I sm Mr. Belmont's secretary." (He's a man.) "Oh, I wanted some hair tonic," the woman said. And right there Mrs. Bel mont's business instinct got the better of her excluslveness and she said: "Come right upstairs. It's the best stuff 1 ever used. It keeps my hair on." And oft they went like twlns. The soap and drug department is ber pride. She Axes the shelves, fills the bot tles snd dusts everything, with her foot man to help. One day when she was perched high on the step-ladder dusting. Dr. Mary Walker came in. Mrs, Belmont at first thought she was a man, and waa quite annoyed at being caught. Then there was the farm.' It is all broken up. That farm had been on the market for four years. When the public read about the farmerettes. It got busy buying, and to-day the last acre has been sold. , When the farmerettes went to Brook holt they signed an agreement to stay two years. This was last March. In Septem ber Mrs. Belmont aent them all away. Tbey could not pack their trunks. Mrs. Belmont kindly sent her Turkish servant to pack for them. Bellm Is a full blooded Turk. He wears the Turkish costume, tunic, turban and trousera. Oh, It was funny to see him burled under billows of lingerie and fluffy frocks! Selim did not like the Job. He Is used reception hall at Brookholt Manor House and not to working. With all Its drawbacks, the farm was better for suffrage than the Department of Hygiene! One could draw in deep breaths of oxone without getting soap, hair tonic, pills and corn plaster odors all mixed together. A Table Set in the League Restaurant "Vote v for Women" on Every Plate. Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont at Her Desk in Her Political Equality League. States the total money lose by this particular waste being wot less than 145.000,000 annually. Nearly all of the loss Is due to Improper methods of handling eggs on the farm and at the rural stare, and every penny of It comes out of the farmer pockeL Thl la only one of many food waste There are many parta of thi country where actually It doe not pay to harvest apple. It is cheaper to let thou rot than to pay for labor to pick them and barrels to bold them, the .price the farmer can get for them being so low. Tet apple of the same kind are selling la our markets at price so high that only well-to-do people can af ford to buy them It Is the same way with other kinds of fruit One solution of the problem suggested Is that small communities shall establish co operative plants for the conversion of such waste fruit into Jam and Jam stock. But to do this, of course, demands knowledge and some little capital. An immense amount of garden truck goes to waste which might be put up by similar 1 home-canning out fits, using factory methods. Study of this particular problem has beeu taken up recently ' In North Carolina and some other State by the State Boards of Agricul ture. Many vegetable and other canner ies b.ive" off sea sons, during which their plants nre Idle. In Germany the expedient has been adopted of utilising the equip ment of such can neries, during the off time of th; year, for putting np meat and US'! "entrees" with made dishes" from has sauce, and otbrr Inexiiensive materials. This already proved very profitable. Until recently it never occurred to anybody to imagine that prairie grass bad any value: yet at the pres ent time many square miles of grass carpets, attractive to the eye and of excellent wearing quality, are being manufactured annually from this very material. In New Jersey and many other States there are vast aseas of marshes covered with coarse grasses and rushes which some day will be harvested and util ized. The rushes, for instance, now permitted to go to waste, will be turned to account for making chair seats and fr many other purposes.