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THIRD EDITION
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U N I VERS I T Y P RE SS
Contents vii
Marriage 225
Marriage as a Legal Contract and the Challenge of Gay Rights Activists 225
History of Marriage in the United States 227
Marriage Promotion in the United States 230
Love and Marriage 233
Widowhood 233
Parenting and Caregiving 234
Motherhood Mystique 23 5
Work and Family in Latino and African American Families 236
Working Mothers and the Mommy Wars 238
Welfare Mothers 239
Temporary Aid to Needy Families 240
Parenting by Fathers 242
Men Balancing Work and Family 243
The Fatherhood Responsibility Movement 245
Biology and Parenting 246
Another Kind of Family Caregiving: Elder Care 247
Gendered Styles of Care Work 249
Grandparents and Care Work 250
Balancing Work and Family 251
International Comparisons of Family Support Programs 253
Divorce 255
The Gendered Economics of Divorce 256
Challenges of Divorce for Men 258
Variation in Divorce Laws in Different Nations 259
South African Divorce Laws 259
Repudiation in Muslim Nations 259
Making Comparisons 260
Gender Matters 261
CHAPTER 9 GENDER- AND RACE-BASED ILLNESS: DISEASES Of THE DIVISION OF LABOR 319
CHAPTER 14 GLOBALIZING, ORGANIZING, AND MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE 500
Glossary 521
Index 537
GENDER IN EVERYDAY LIFE
BOX 2-4: FROM THE INTERNATIONAL BILL OF GENDER RIGHTS, ADOPTED JUNE 17, 1995,
HOUSTON,TEXAS,USA 52
•••
Xlll
xiv Contents
BOX 4-3: VIOLENCE AGAINST GAY MEN: THE CASE OF MATTHEW SHEPARD 115
BOX 8-3: COVERAGE OF ''SCHOOL SHOOTINGS'' AVOIDS THE CENTRAL ISSUE 285
BOX 8-4: MEN CAN STOP RAPE CELEBRATES 10 MILESTONES DURING 10 YEARS OF
PREVENTION 288
BOX 8-5: CRITICAL RESISTANCE/INCITE! JOINT STATEMENT: GENDER VIOLENCE AND THE PRISON
INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX (2001) 297
Contents xv
BOX 8-6: THE JUAREZ PROJECT: NAFTA AND THE FEMICIDES 303
BOX 9-2: WILL SWEATSHOP ACTIVISTS' BIG VICTORY OVER NIKE TRIGGER BROADER
INDUSTRY REFORMS? 329
BOX 9-4: BOLLYWOOD DRIVES THE USE OF STEROIDS AMONG BOYS OF INDIAN DESCENT IN
SOUTH AFRICA 341
BOX 9-6: ''OUR BODIES, OURSELVES'': GOING, GOING, GONE GLOBAL 351
BOX 9-7: STATEMENT OF THE ABORTION COUNSELING SERVICE OF THE CHICAGO WOMEN'S
LIBERATION UNION, 1971 355
BOX 10-2: MINOR CRIMES, MAJOR SENTENCES: THE CASE OF SERENA NUNN 391
BOX 12-4: WHAT DOES YOUR SCHOOL NEED TO DO TO PROVIDE EQUITY ACCORDING TO THE
TITLE IX GUIDELINES? 455
BOX 13-2: MUSLIM WOMEN VOICE THEIR OPINIONS OF GENDER AND ISLAM 472
BOX 14-2: AFRICAN FARMERS AND ENVIRONMENTALISTS SPEAK OUT AGAINST A NEW GREEN
REVOLUTION IN AFRICA 514
PREFACE
The first edition of this book was a work of faith-faith that we could grasp the massive the-
oretical and empirical work of feminist scholars in one brief volume. This third edition is our
continued effort to tap into the global discussions on gender and to introduce our readers to
an even broader array of empirical research and theory-building that increasingly makes
feminist scholarship so vital today.
Much of the popular discourse on gender consists of sound bites about feminism and
women, platitudes about gendered work and violence, and ideologies about sex and gender.
Widely circulated in the popular media and among students are such notions as ''feminism is
sexist," ''feminism is no longer necessary," and ''the differences between men and women are
an inevitable feature of our biology," alongside assertions that ''I'm not a feminist, but ..." and
''this generation has pretty much eliminated gender inequality." We hope that introducing
students to feminist scholarship will produce a better understanding of these issues.
This book is our attempt to bring together the multiple strands of gender and associated
research from local and everyday manifestations of masculinities and femininities to the gen-
dered global force s that lie beneath today's political and social crises. To do so, each chapter
builds on five principles.
First, we weave together theory and empirical data rather than segregate them into sepa-
rate chapters. The book gathers together much of the scholarship-mainly sociological, but
also interdisciplinary-that has accumulated in many substantive areas. For example, readers
will learn about research on violence, families, media, sports, politics, sexuality, religion,
education, health, and bodies. Theories that have grown up alongside this research and help
to interpret its meanings are woven into each chapter, so that students are able to see how
theory emerges from and helps to explain empirical studies.
Second, we connect personal experience with sociological conceptualizations. We offer
both social constructionist and social structural approaches that explain the production of
inequality in face-to-face interaction within constraining organizational and institutional
structures. We ask how the gendered features of our everyday lives are given life, shape, and
meaning by the larger organizations and institutions that contain them and how we, in turn,
act back on these structures, shaping new forms of gendered relationships, challenging gen-
dered worlds, and perhaps even eliminating gendered differences.
Third, this is a book about gender and gendered relationships, and not only about
women. Men's lives are shaped by gender relations as much as the lives of women. In addi-
tion, we call our readers' attention to the ways that the categories of ''men'' and ''women'' are
constructs that conceal other sexualities and genders. Our task is to uncover and attempt to
••
XVII
xviii Preface
understand how the binary of man and woman are constructed and how it might be elimin-
ated in the ways we think, interact with and treat one another, and the ways we construct and
maintain our social institutions.
Fourth, this book takes seriously the understanding that there are important differences
among women and among men. The ''intersectionality'' that differentially locates individu-
als and groups in what black feminist theorist Patricia Hill Collins (2000) called a ''matrix of
domination'' is a core feature of each chapter. There is no way to understand gender inequal-
ity as a phenomenon that can be separated from the multiple cross-cutting inequalities of
class, race, sexuality, and nation. Gendered identities are accomplishments, not fixed states
of being, and they include dynamic relationships of privilege and subordination. Some men
may be privileged as men, but many are subordinated along racial ethnic, national, sexual,
and class lines. At the same time, women have varied relationships with one another and with
men along these same lines. In each chapter, we explore these advantages and disadvantages,
as well as actors' complicity with and resistance to them.
Fifth, this book takes the world as its starting point. Our goal is to help readers gain a
sense of the similarities and differences in gender across the globe. We hope to encourage
students to see the many ways gender is experienced as well as the many ways in which
gender injustice is being challenged around the world.
• Updated all of the data, especially statistics, and streamlined the presentation of
information to make it more readable.
• Separated the Media and Sports chapter into two chapters.
• Incorporated clarification and further explanation of topics suggested by the
hundreds of students who have used this book in courses taught by the authors.
• Added critical thinking questions and key terms at the end of each chapter and a
glossary defining the key terms at the end of the book.
• Added content on: the cult of the virgin, the intersection of gender and sexuality
in media, the Bechdel Test for films, gender in reality TV, mothers and youth
sports, theoretical models of assimilation and reform to sports, benefits of sports
for women, women in combat, fair sentencing, sexual assault in the military,
gender politics in rural China, child brides, lesbian parents, and images of mother-
hood in recent political campaigns.
Chapter 1 provides a brief overview of the assumptions we make and the tools we use to pro-
ceed with our exploration of gender. Chapter 2 begins with the question of biology. Agree or
disagree: no matter how much gender relations have changed and are changing, biological
sex-the underlying differences between human males and females-are important natural
facts. If you agree with this statement, chapter 2 will try to convince you that you are mis-
taken. Even at the most basic level of genes and hormones, not everyone fits into one of the
•
Preface XIX
two standard and supposedly exclusive sex categories of male and female. Historically, the
conventional idea of ''opposite'' sexes turns out to be a relatively recent invention, and cross-
culturally, different societies employ different and sometimes more numerous sex categories.
The chapter concludes with a section on a gender-bending movements of intersexual and
transgendered people, movements which underscore the political nature of so-called biologi-
cal categories. The chapter makes the case that biological sex is a continuum, not a dichotomy
between male and female, and suggests that by relinquishing our faith that male and female
bodies are naturally and forever different in consequential ways, we make space for the ''play-
ful exploration'' of the many possibilities of embodiment (Fausto-Sterling 2000).
If biology is not the basis of gender difference, racial variation, or alternative sexualities,
then what is? Chapter 3 reviews three answers to that question. Regarding gender, one answer
is that we learn appropriate ways of being gendered from our parents, teachers, and friends. We
see examples of gendered behavior on television and in books. From our first days, we are
schooled in gender roles, and most of us are good students. A second answer to the question of
how gender differences arise draws on the idea that by interacting with one another we actively
produce the worlds in which we live. Instead of ''being'' a gender, we '' do'' gender in social
encounters. A third answer points to the ways organizations and institutions build gender and
other inequalities into the ways they function. As you read this chapter, test these theories
against your own experiences and observations of the ways you have become gendered, raced,
sexualized, and turned into a member of your class. Have you ever resisted some of these iden-
tities? How, and in what contexts?
Chapter 4 explores sexuality through intersecting dimensions of gender, race ethnicity,
class, and nation. Normatively, men and women are expected to be heterosexual, to be sexu-
ally attracted to and engage in sexual activity only with each other. In fact, actual sex prac-
tices offer much more complicated and interesting examples of the ways racial ethnic and
gender identities enter into and produce sexuality and sexual identity. Feminist and antiracist
studies of sexuality have exposed the very political character of constructions of sexuality.
The chapter moves from discussing the construction of conventional sexualities by means of
sexual scripts and gendered double standards to describing the global sexual politics of sex
tourism and sex trafficking, and exploring the queer movement's resistances and challenges
to normative sexualities mounted by queers and others demanding sexual human rights.
What does water have to do with education? In chapter 5, you'll read about how lack of
access to water and sanitation in poor countries directly affects girls' ability to enter and remain
in school. In the global North, girls' education has become similar to that of boys in terms of
attendance, graduation, and choice of studies, and in some ways girls have surpassed boys.
Globally, however, the story is quite different. In the poorest countries of Haiti, Colombia,
Malawi, Madagascar, Surinam, Tanzania, and Lesotho, boys are less likely than girls to go to
school, but in these countries school is a luxury many children cannot afford, and many boys
as well as girls do not go to school. Worldwide, two-thirds of children not attending schools are
girls, and 60 percent of illiterate young people are girls. Illiteracy, low education, and poverty
mean higher mortality rates, decreased income, hunger, and even death. The intersections of
gender, race ethnicity, and nation can be deadly.
You've been students now for at least fourteen or fifteen years, and perhaps longer. Can
you recall the ways that you and your teachers relied on gender in your classrooms? Most
studies show that for many years, teachers often consciously and unconsciously built on the
xx Preface
dichotomy between boys and girls for purposes of teaching and to exercise control over their
students. Did you make separate girls' and boys' lines at lunchtime? Did girls and boys play
separate games in the schoolyard during recess? Did boys and girls compete at spelling and
geography in class? Did the teacher listen more attentively to boys' answers or give more time
in class to unruly boys than to well-behaved girls? These were common practices in American
classrooms of the past and perhaps in some classrooms today. Chapter 5 shows that assuming
differences between boys and girls in the classroom becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, an-
other piece of the puzzle that helps to explain how gender differences are created. Racial/
ethnic differences also matter in classrooms, and the crosscutting dimensions of race ethnic-
ity and gender construct hierarchies of educational success. This chapter makes clear that
gendering in education is not a simple story. Gendering creates problems for boys, too, exem-
plified by the greater proportion of boys who are diagnosed and treated for hyperactivity.
Racism and poverty contribute to the diminished educations that many children receive.
Overall, chapter 5 shows how gender, class position, and race ethnicity intertwine to play
central roles from kindergarten through higher education, and that we all pay a price for these
inequalities.
Chapter 6 turns the lenses of gender, race ethnicity, class, and nation on local and global
economies and on the gendered and raced character of work. For example, the relationship
between paid and unpaid work is also a relationship between men and women in the gen-
dered division of labor. Much of domestic labor-cleaning, cooking, shopping, and caring for
children and other dependents-was for a long time, and to a certain extent still is, invisible.
The only work that was visible and therefore appeared to be ''real'' was that done by men, for
pay, outside families. Was domestic work invisible because it was the work of women? Was it
invisible because it was done inside the home? Was it invisible because it was not paid? Or,
were all three factors interrelated?
The gender perspective has contributed many useful concepts to the study of working
lives, concepts that you will learn about in chapter 6. The glass ceiling is a term for the invis-
ible obstacles facing women who try to make it up the ladders that professional men have
been climbing for generations. The glass escalator signifies the seemingly effortless ways men
rise to top positions in women's professions such as elementary-school teaching or nursing.
Emotional labor refers to some of the invisible tasks required of workers-being nice and
absorbing abuse from customers in the service economy; being tough and instilling fear in
bill collecting and policing. The former is work more likely to be required in jobs assigned to
women; the latter, in jobs assigned to men. The pay gap and the feminization of poverty de-
scribe the consequences of gender, class, and racial inequalities in the labor force; to remedy
such disparities, activists promoted the policy of comparable worth. In recent decades, the
global economy has come into view as a reality directly connecting the fates of workers
around the world. Despite the better situation of some women in the global North, women
around the world have less status, power, and wealth than men. The implementation of free-
trade agreements has meant the loss of jobs in the United States to countries in which labor
is vastly cheaper. It has also meant that workers in those nations with cheap labor are toiling
for wages that aren't sufficient to support themselves or their families. Moreover, it has meant
the impoverishment of millions of third-world farmers, who cannot compete with subsidized
American goods from corporate farms that undersell their products and drive local growers
out of business.
•
Preface XXI
The family has been a loaded political issue in the United States for the past forty years, as
conservatives hold its so-called decline responsible for the ills of contemporary life. In chapter 7,
you will have a chance to draw your own conclusions about family life today. Does marriage
prevent poverty, as those who promote marriage among the poor believe? Will allowing same-
sex marriage undermine marriage as an institution, or give it new life? Promoting marriage for
the poor and prohibiting it for gay men and lesbians dispensed with love as the basis of mar-
riage. The gay/lesbian community fought back, and the right to marry whomever you love has
been their increasingly successful rallying cry. Not so for poor families. A similar contradiction
separates middle class and poor mothers. Middle-class women have been and still are exhorted
to be good mothers by staying home with their children, even as mothers on welfare are re-
quired to enter the labor force.
Chapter 7 demonstrates that the massive entry of women into the labor force is produc-
ing significant conflicts between the needs of families and the requirements of jobs. Among
other things, these conflicts have produced a child-care crisis in the United States. Mothering
and caregiving are examples of invisible and unpaid labor, absolutely vital to the well-being of
families and absolutely necessary to sustain the labor force. Comparative data from other in-
dustrial countries shows that the United States provides the least family and parental support
for child care and gender equity.
Chapter 8 shows that gender is a central feature of the continuum of violence that
stretches from our most intimate lives to the ongoing global tragedies of militarism and war.
Street harassment, rape, domestic violence, gendered violence in prisons, militarist masculin-
ity, wartime rape, the enslavement of women by militias, sex trafficking, and growing civilian
casualties in wartime of women, children, and elderly-what do you think can explain such
relentless and pervasive gendered violence? And a related question: are these different kinds of
violence related in any way? Some observers have attempted to naturalize violence as evolu-
tionarily or psychologically necessary. Some feminists have evoked biology as an explanation
for violence by characterizing it as men's violence against women. Feminist antiracist research
has broadened and complicated this simplistic naturalized picture of gendered violence.
Some women-poor, working class, of color-are at greater risk of sexual and gendered vio-
lence than others. Likewise, inequalities of race ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality shape
men's relationship to violence, both as victims and as perpetrators. These new understandings
of the ways gendered violence enters into the lives of individuals, communities, and nation
states suggest innovative remedies and courses of action, which we explore in the chapter.
Chapter 9 recounts the many ways that illness and health are gendered around the globe.
Everything you have learned up to this chapter helps to structure the distribution of health
and illness: the sexual division of paid and unpaid labor, race ethnicity, the political econo-
mies and ruling orders of the nations in which people live, membership in particular sexual
communities, and so forth. After reading this material, you will understand why health is a
collective good requiring collective action to secure it for all people. This chapter also de-
scribes feminist and antiracist social movements around reproductive rights that have grown
from local actions into transnational movements linking reproductive and general health to
a wide range of rights: housing, education, employment, freedom from violence, and health
services, with the goal of prioritizing human interests over those of market forces.
Is changing the gender of officeholders sufficient to make positive political change? Ac-
cording to the studies reported in chapter 10, the evidence is mixed. The question of women's
xxii Preface
impact on politics remains open, because men dominate all channels of contemporary politics
around the world: electoral politics, the news media, and the metaphors of political discourse,
war, and sports. Despite the prevalent belief of Americans that they are leaders in and teachers
of democracy and equal participation, the participation of U.S. women in legislative and execu-
tive positions is close to that of women in Chad or Morocco. It is Rwanda, Andorra, Cuba,
Sweden, Seychelles, and Senegal that have the largest proportion of women in government
leadership. Politics is not just about elections and offices. There is a gender politics of women in
prisons, girls in gangs, and women in combat. Some suggest that politics is even broader, includ-
ing all activities in which people engage to link public and private concerns and to develop
power that brings about change in their everyday lives. Given the broader definition, think
about the ways your activities and those of your friends and family could be seen as political.
You are the media generation. Your daily lives are saturated with media. Try this test:
keep a diary of all the media-connected contacts you have from the time you wake up in the
morning until the time you go to bed. Note when and how long you listen to the radio or
watch television. Don't forget to list the advertisements you encounter, including those that
come to you in the mail, on bulletin boards at school and work, on billboards along the roads
you travel, and on the Internet. Remember to include the papers and books you look at today.
The thousands of images and messages we receive in these ways exhort us overtly or subtly to
view, experience, and act on the world in certain ways.
Chapter 11 explores the gendering of these messages. Women are still missing as sub-
jects of media stories and behind the scenes as reporters and writers. Stereotypes of women
and men abound. The ads show some differences in different countries. Women outnumber
men in Japanese and Turkish ads, although men are, unsurprisingly, the primary characters
in automobile, financial services, and food and drink advertisements. One consistent image
is that women are nearly always young. Middle-aged and older women have been ''annihi-
lated'' globally in such ads. In the United States, the images are of powerful white men, white
women as sex objects, aggressive black men, and inconsequential black women. Men and
women who are Latino, Asian American, and First Nations people are nearly nonexistent in
the ads. Similar stereotypes and absences can be found in movies, magazines, video games,
song lyrics, and televised sports.
Chapter 12 covers the topic of sports. For women, athletics have been a place of exclu-
sion, expressing the idea that femininity does not include athletic ability and experience.
Learning to be athletes and learning to be masculine are closely related. Critics of organized
sports cite violence, disrespect for human bodies, and excessive competitiveness that damages
athletes. Athleticism for women is different. One student of women in sports claims that
women's athletics create new images and new ways of being women that challenge men's
dominance (Messner 1992). Ironically, sports are a way men prove they are masculine, but
participation in sports often forces women to prove they are feminine. Studying gender and
sports forces comparisons between the highly organized and competitive fan-supported sports
that have become big business today and participation sports, comprised of more loosely de-
fined and organized activities, the former the sport of spectacle, the latter its democratic and
participatory alternative.
In chapter 13, we focus on gender and religion, one of the most loaded topics of debate
today, as the rise of religious fundamentalism has put the roles of women in the spotlight.
Although fundamentalist religions restrict women, it might surprise you to learn that more
•••
Preface XXIII
women than men are fundamentalists. Women's support of these religions makes sense when
we realize that religious communities, regardless of doctrine, can be places where women
find collective support and the social space for expression-arenas of freedom in otherwise
restrictive societies. Not all forms of spirituality and religious organization constrain women.
Women often resist the constraints imposed on them religiously. For example, some Catholic
women are calling for an end to the ban on women priests. Also, religion has played impor-
tant positive roles in movements for social justice. The black church in the American South,
with its high level of women members, played a pivotal role in the civil rights movement, for
example. The peace and antiwar movements of the past century attracted many religious
activists who were women. Finally, ancient and indigenous societies created forms of worship
that were egalitarian and that revered women's bodies for their life-giving abilities. In this
chapter, we ask if these partnership forms of worship could provide the models of more
humane and socially constructive forms of religion.
Chapterl4 returns to some of the questions we have posed throughout the book, by devel-
oping our thoughts on the future of gender and gender studies. What can we conclude about
the gender gap, and what intellectual and political tools will we need to not only understand
but change our gendered world?
Our world is filled with injustice, inequality, and pain. It is also filled with the hope and
promise that grows from the many who contribute to resisting injustices, promoting equality,
and creating a world of that promotes our potentials and our pleasures. We dedicate this book
to furthering those ends.
REFERENCES
Collins, Patricia Hill. 2000. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of
Empowerment. 2nd edition. New York: Routledge.
Fausto-Sterling, Anne. 2000. Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality. New
York: Basic Books.
Messner, Michael.1992. Power at Play: Sports and the Problem of Masculinity. Boston: Beacon Press.
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having been so long in the service; secondly, because I don’t like the idea of
causing trouble to the young lady."
"The young lady!" Owen couldn’t help breaking in.
"Yes. As I say, I’ve decided that I’d better tell the truth," said Pop
Andrews. "I do know something about that letter. There was a pink
envelope in the box when I went to collect the mail. I gave it to the young
lady who was standing at the box waiting for me. At first I didn’t want to
give it to her, knowing it was against the rules, but she begged so hard, and
finally, when she began to cry, telling me that it meant all the world to her
to get that letter back, I decided that I’d take a chance, and I handed her the
pink envelope."
"She told you that it was hers, of course, Pop?" said Owen.
"Yes; she said that she’d dropped it in the box only five minutes before,
and that it was a letter that would cause a lot of trouble if it was sent, so she
wanted it back. I believed her, and I let her have it, not dreaming that it
wasn’t hers—that she was working a game on me."
"And I suppose you have no idea who this young woman was, have you,
Pop?"
Once more the gray-haired carrier looked pityingly at the young
inspector. "Yes, Mr. Sheridan, I have. I hate to tell you, knowing what she is
to you, but it was the young lady who works in Mr. Sammis’ office, Miss
Dallas Worthington."
Walking so quickly that his pace was almost a run, Owen Sheridan
hurried around to Walter K. Sammis’ real-estate office. It was past ten
o’clock, and Dallas was usually at her typewriter by nine; but there was no
sign of her now. Her employer stood in the outer office, and looked at Owen
questioningly.
"Hasn’t Miss Worthington got down yet, Mr. Sammis?" the young man
asked.
"No, she hasn’t, and I can’t understand what’s keeping her."
Without stopping to say another word, Owen hurried around to Dallas’
boarding house. It was ridiculous, of course, to suspect that she could have
stolen that letter; but the mystery must be cleared up immediately.
"Where’s Miss Worthington?" he inquired of the landlady, who came to
the door in response to his ring.
"I couldn’t tell you, Mr. Sheridan," the woman answered; "she left here
last night."
"Left last night!" repeated Owen blankly.
"Yes; she came in here just before supper time, rushed up to her room,
packed her suit case, and hurried out of the house as if a thousand demons
were after her."
CHAPTER XVI.
UNWELCOME DUTIES.
As Sheridan entered the post office, and stepped moodily into the private
rooms of the superintendent, Henderson looked at him with an expectant
smile. "Well, Mr. Inspector, have you solved the mystery yet?"
"Not quite, Henderson. Is Pop Andrews in? I’d like to have another talk
with him."
"Yes; he’s upstairs in the swing room, I believe. I’ll send for him."
"Now, Pop," said Owen, as the grizzled carrier came into the office, "are
you absolutely sure that it was Miss Worthington to whom you handed that
pink envelope last night?"
"Yes, sir; I am quite sure."
"You don’t think there’s any possibility that you could have been
mistaken—that it might have been some other young woman who
resembled Miss Worthington?" asked Owen.
"No; I’m positive, Mr. Sheridan. I know her well. You know I had that
delivery route for six weeks last summer, while Smithers was sick, and I
saw her, of course, every day when I called at the real-estate office with the
mail, so I couldn’t be mistaken."
Owen nodded gloomily. "That’s right, Pop; I recall, now, that you had
that route while Smithers was laid up. As you say, you ought to know her.
Now, I want you to tell me, Pop, exactly what passed between you when
she asked for that letter. Give me every word of the conversation as near as
you can remember it."
"Very good, sir," said the old man. "Well, to begin at the very beginning,
the young lady was pacing up and down in front of the letter box in a very
nervous manner, as I came along. When I went to open the box, she touched
my arm, and said: ‘I just dropped a letter in here, which I’d like to get back.
I’ve changed my mind about sending it.’ ‘Excuse me, miss,’ I said, ‘but
before you go any further let me tell you that us carriers are not allowed to
hand back anything that has been mailed. Its strictly against the rules,’ I
says. ‘The only way you can get your letter is by going around to the post
office and seeing the superintendent. He can let you have it if he wants to;
the rules give him that right; but I can’t.’"
"And what did she say to that?" inquired Owen eagerly.
"She said that she didn’t care to go around to see the superintendent; that
she didn’t think he’d do her the favor, and she began to plead and beg,
saying that if I knew how very much it meant to her to get that letter back,
she was sure that I wouldn’t refuse her."
"Didn’t she tell you what was in the letter?" asked Owen. "Surely she
must have mentioned something as to the nature of its contents, Pop?"
"No, sir; she didn’t. She merely said it was a very important letter, and
that it would do a terrible lot of harm if it went through the mail. And she
said, also, that she could pick the letter out without giving me any trouble,
because it was in a pink envelope, and square-shaped."
"Square-shaped!" repeated Owen, turning eagerly to Superintendent
Henderson, who sat listening to this conversation. "Then that goes to prove
that——”
"I believe I forgot to mention, Mr. Inspector, that according to Mr.
Sammis and his clergyman friend, the letter which they dropped into the
box, and which is now missing, was also in a square envelope," interrupted
the superintendent.
The look of joyous relief which had come to Owen’s face immediately
disappeared. "Well, go on, Pop," he said, in a discouraged tone.
"Well, sir, the young lady pleaded so hard that finally, like a weak old
fool, I consented to do her the favor. It wasn’t until she began to cry that I
gave in; I can’t bear to see a woman in tears, and I didn’t dream for a
minute, of course, that there was goin’ to be all this trouble about that letter
afterward; so I told her I’d take a chance and let her have it."
"And when you handed her the pink envelope, you noticed, of course,
the address which was on it," said Owen, clutching at straws. "Are you
quite sure, Pop, that it was addressed to a person in Pennsylvania—the
same person to whom the clergyman’s missing letter was addressed?"
He asked the question fearfully, realizing that Dallas’ fate depended
upon what answer the old carrier made. If Pop Andrews answered in the
affirmative, then there could be no doubt, of course, that the letter which
Dallas had asked for and received was the letter which contained the
clergyman’s hundred-dollar bill.
But the veteran shook his head. "No, I couldn’t swear to that, Owen; I
couldn’t tell you whether it was addressed to the same party or not, because
I didn’t see the address side at all."
"You didn’t see it?" exclaimed Owen incredulously. "You mean to say
that you handed her the letter without even looking at it, Pop?"
An exclamation of astonishment came from Superintendent Henderson.
He, too, looked at the old man incredulously.
Pop Andrews’ air was sheepish. "I must admit that I’m all kinds of a
careless fool," he said; "but, you see, didn’t give me a chance to look at the
address. As soon as I opened the box and took out its contents she reached
for the pink envelope, which was lying on top of the heap, and she said:
‘Here it is; thank you very much.’ And she grabbed it before I had a chance
to object. I was about to tell her that she couldn’t have the letter until she
had convinced me that it was the right one, but before I could say a word
she was hurrying up the street with the pink envelope in her hand bag."
"And you didn’t follow her and insist upon her giving it up or letting you
examine it?" exclaimed Owen.
"No, sir; I didn’t bother. You see, I supposed everything was all right. I
thought the young lady acted like that merely because she was excited and
nervous. You know how jerky a woman’ll act when she’s got something on
her mind. I put it down to that, and went ahead with my collections, not
thinking any more about the matter until I got back here, and was asked to
produce the pink envelope containing a hundred-dollar bill, which the
parson had dropped into that same letter box."
As the old man finished, he turned anxiously to Owen. "I hope you
believe what I’ve told you? You’re not going to place me under arrest, are
you, Mr. Sheridan?"
Owen hesitated, but only for a moment. His glance traveled from the
veteran’s grizzled hair to the gold stars on his coat sleeves—emblems of
forty years’ faithful service in the department. Then a look of determination
came to the young inspector’s face.
"No, Pop. I’m not going to arrest you," he said. "Hard as it is to believe,
I feel that you’ve told me the truth, and I can’t be so unjust as to make you
the scapegoat."
Superintendent Henderson looked at Owen in astonishment. "Excuse me
for butting in, Mr. Sheridan," he said, "but being that you’re new at this
work I take the liberty of reminding you that it’s usual in cases of this sort
to arrest the carrier. I don’t want to make things unpleasant for Pop, of
course, but, at the same time, it seems to me that you can’t very well let him
go free. You see, Mr. Sheridan, he admits that he handed the missing letter
to the young woman, and, therefore, innocent though his intentions may
have been, in the eyes of the law he’s a party to the crime."
"I guess that’s right," assented Owen, his face flushing at thus having
displayed his greenness. He turned apologetically to Carrier Andrews.
"What the superintendent says is undoubtedly so, Pop. I’m sorry to say that
I’ll have to place you under arrest, after all."
TO BE CONTINUED.
"Safety-first" Candle.
Candles can easily be fitted with attachments to put out the light at a set
time. Mark a candle of the size used and time how long a certain length of it
will burn. Then suspend a small metal dome or cap, to which a string is
attached directly over the flame, and run the opposite end of the string over
nails or through screw eyes, so that it can be tied around the candle such a
distance from the flame end that the part between the flame and the string
will be consumed in the time desired for the light to burn. When this point
is reached, the string slips off the candle and the cap drops on the flame.