The Charm School
poor Aunt Sophy. You know as well as I do, sir, that education—one of the great necessities of modern life—is wretchedly behind from a commercial point of view. Educators are not business men—nor even philanthropists; they don't give their services and yet they don't get a big return. Are great fortunes made out of education? No. Why not? I'll tell you: because the one great business principle which has made the commercial success of the stage, the movie and the newspaper has never been applied to education."
"What principle is that?" asked Mr. Johns, not even pretending that he wasn't interested.
"Giving the public what it wants."
"Giving the girls what they want?"
"Mercy, no! Who cares about the girls? No, the parents—the parents of our public in education. Now, Mr. Johns, what is it that every parent who sends a girl to a fashionable school really wants?"
"To get rid of her," answered Johns, with utmost conviction.
"Very true, but that's not all. It's no good to get rid of them for four or five years and then have them back on their hands forever. Parents want them made into
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