One of Margaret's clippings: Montreal Standard Newspaper  1913


<<What constitutes a 'perfect lady.' The question has been discussed by a number of the public women of New York. Their views are interesting, if some are expressed in rather strong language, even at times not exactly parliamentary.

For example: Dr. Anna Howard Shaw says that 'the perfect lady is a pig." The ordinary perfect lady is the most selfish human being ever permitted to live, she says. "She's so afraid she will do something someone will consider 'unladylike' that she just does nothing. She'd rather be a lady than a human being."

"A perfect lady," asked Miss Mary Garrett Hay. "I have no use for it. I do despise the word 'lady' just as I do 'gentleman'.

I like strong forceful women. The perfect women is a woman who is interested in her home, her husband, her children, her town and her country. She is ready to do anything she can to make them perfect. She isn't concerned with her own perfection. She has strength of mind to do the right, whether it is ladylike or not.

A perfect lady, Huh? said Miss Mary Donnelly. "She's a person with no brains. She's one of these clinging vines that are parasites, living on men and never did a day's work in their lives. They make me tired."

These strong opinions have been criticized by another New York Woman, Eleanor c. Erving, who writes: "It is evident that people who attack the 'lady' and 'gentleman' are a little confused as to what ladies and gentlemen really are. The terms signify standards of conduct in a given position, whether it is that of wielding a scrub brush or a sceptre.>>