Ishbel's Thoughts

Sturdily Miss Ishbel MacDonald refused to speak or write for pay while her Prime Minister father was the guest of President Herbert Hoover (TIME, Oct. 14, 21). But safe back in England last week, the Scotch lassie put by a tidy bit for three articles sold to the New York Evening Post. Like Ishbel's eyes, the articles sparkled yet were thoughtful. They answered the question: "What does Ishbel MacDonald think about?"

Homes. Not counting the big white official house of Mr. & Mrs. Hoover, where she had slept, she wrote: "I have not had one glimpse of the inside of an American home. . . . All I have been able to see in New York, Washington. Philadelphia, Buffalo and Niagara Falls is the outside of homes. . . . What is the atmosphere of an American home? How do parents and children get on? What attitude has a boy on the fifth floor of an apartment building toward his small sister lying in her crib by the window? How much is the care of these children left to nursemaids?"

Distinction: "To me the most important distinction between American and British women is the practice many American married women have of working outside their homes. ... In the United States the viewpoint seems to be: 'I'll go out and earn some money if my husband and I cannot afford to employ a cook without my adding to our income with my earnings.' In Great Britain the girl whose husband is only moderately well off would say: I shall go and have a few cooking lessons so that we need not employ a cook.'"