File:Our Philadelphia (1914) (14581830159).jpg

Identifier: cu31924032492773 (find matches)
Title: Our Philadelphia
Year: 1914 (1910s)
Authors: Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, 1855-1936 Pennell, Joseph, 1857-1926
Subjects:
Publisher: Philadelphia and London, J. B. Lippincott
Contributing Library: Cornell University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ay,but for me it was next to no roses at all. To begin with,I was poor. My Father had lost his money in the years ofupheaval following the Civil W^ar and had never got itback again. Nowadays this would not matter. A girlof seventeen, when she comes home from school, can turnround, find something to do, and support herself. Shecould in the old days too, if she was thrown on her ownresources. I had friends no older than myself who taught,or were in the Mint—that harbour of refuge for the youngor old Philadelphia lady in reduced circumstances. Butmy trouble was that I was not supposed to be thrown onmy own resources. A Philadelphia father would have feltthe social structure totter had he permitted his daughterto work as long as he was alive to work for her. When hehad many daughters and luck went against him, the ad-vantage of this attitude was less obvious to them than tohim. Exemplary as was the theory, which I applaud myFather for acting up to since it happened to be his, it had 130
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THE CUSTOMS HOUSE THE SOCIAL ADVENTURE 133 its inconvenience when put into practice. To be guardedfrom the hardship of labour by the devoted father did notalways put money into the daughters pocket. Had I been more at home in Philadelphia, my povertymight not have stood so much in my light. A hundredyears before Gouverneur Morris had praised Philadelphia,which in its respect for virtuous poverty he thought somuch more generous than other capitals where social splen-dour was indispensable, and in this the town had notchanged. It was to Philadelphias credit that a girls socialsuccess did not depend on the length of her dressmakersbill or the scale of her entertaining. More than one as pooras I would have a different story to tell. But I sufferedfrom having had no social training or apprenticeship. TheConvent had been concerned in preparing me for societyin the next world, not in this, and I had stayed in theConvent too long to make the many friendships that domore than most things to la

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