New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-10-28
Womeu% Rights and Duhes-Palse
Pride and X eusehsId Service.

the Risht of Suffrage and the Worcester
Convention. The article was full Of /" no.
liabilities in breeches and in pet.icoats,' y
"voroep in trowsers,' :" smashing of bon
nets and mussiug of curls," On case of wo-
men voting at Primary Electlons,) " Bhoys
and G'hals' promiscuouSly, women en-
gagged in omnibus driving a-stTaddle, &c.
&c, after the usual pattern Of Express
righteousness, in which a very small guam
tity of wit goes a great way-the upshot OF
all being that Women might better please
their husbands, nurse their babies and let
Worcester Conventions. Right of Suffrage
and all manner of Radical Reforms alone
Thereupon. woman ventured to ask the
Editor this question:" What shall those
women do who hare no husbands and chill
dren, and who, being poor, plain and OBJ
scure, cannot look to marriage as re-
source, but must hit upon some means of
earning their daily bread.
This earnest question rather checks the
exuberant gayety of The Express. Tie IS
confronted by the fact that there Is some
thing in the demand Of wider sphere for
Woman which will not be laughed out of
countenance. Bloomers may be ever so un-
couth: Women's Conventions may be very
masculine. ridiculous affairs; but the pale,
sad faces of thousands of young, dellcately
nurtured women, who cannot find opportu-
mites for earning a comfortable, creditab.e
livelihood, and who for want thereof are
daily sinking into misery, despair, ruin and
untimely death-these present spectacle
which checks the mirth of this grinning
Comus in mid-career, and cOnstrains him to
a more serious. thoughtful mood. He grudg-
ingly admits that there is some apparent
need of a wider range of employment for
women, saying:
" As to unmarried women II is well asked, what
shall they 90 This is a question that merits an
answer, and the writer Is welcome to our views
But let US remark, AT the start that, as we thlnk
woman's pride, false pride, even, especially IN our
cities, often dOomS females 10 occupations utterly
unsuitable TO their health, because they are too
proud 10 work IN situations that are healthy, and
that would be agreeable but for their false pride
1t Is well known, for example, there are young gTs
IN this city working from twelve TO eighteen hours
every day at their needles. In miserable garres and
cellars, and there barely earning wretched lveh-
hood. when the city is full Of handsome mansions
in which chambermaids are wanted, or nurses, or
house seamsresses or ladies' maids. where, IN such
employmeDts, they would not be overwoTked, and
where they would have good beds, good fires, good
kVA. thfrfr Shn n mn q
comfortable The pride of Amerlcan-born girls IN
the cities almost altogether excludes them from such
employments and they are given over to the Irish
immigrants We take up the raWest and gfcenest
cod- hoppers fresh from the soil of Ern who often
don't know AZ start waterm lion IRON pump
kln, and go down in our kitchens while giving them
handsome wages, to teach them the trade Oi cook
lng simply because our American born girls, framed
III all the culinary arts would scoTn TO be seen as
"a servant" III the kitchen. We cannot, We VIII
not, saw they, live III house where We can't eat
at the table with master and mistress, AS If there
could be any comfortto either party IN eating bread
together where such relation existed, and where,
If real good judgment ruled, the girl ought TO decline
eating at table with master and mistress, If they
desired II, consequence of the mutual em0arraSs
ment and restraint there would be upon the parties
all round Now, half Of Ireland, and no small por-
tion of Germany, have been brought over here, all
the over the Atlantic by money earned ia these
emplOymentS, which our American women IN the
cities soon. 1t is not too much 10 say, however,
now, that IN these domestic employmenis there Is,
IN the cities there has been for years the greatest
death OF and the greatest demand Tor females htteu
for such empOyments. An American gIl, once cS-
tablished In house, can almost fix her own wages,
II she Will, by her usefulness only make herself IN
dispensable to her employers. Nevertheless there
are no doubt no IN this city 5000 American girls
with scarcely enough 10 eat and 10 wear, and with
but gloomy winter prospect before them, whom
scarcely any wages could tempt into a comfortable
house before a well filled table, supplying all their
wants. Their pride iorbid>,-but Is not the pride
false"
There is here clear recognition OF
The iact-and we bless God that it - a
fact-that our Free Institutions develop
character with which Domestic Servltude
Is becoming more and more incompatible.
" American-born girls, who have habit
of attending Fourth-of-July Celebrations
and hearing the Declaration of lndepend-
ence impressively read, do more and more
realize that in the Divine Economy no hui
man being was created TO be the satellite,
the implement the convenience of other
human beings, but that each is qualified for
a nobler career, a loftier destiny. Slavery,
complete or partial, with other unjust and
oppressive institutions, NAV have cramped
and dwarfed millions until they seem to the
casual. disappointing eye, fit only 10 scour
pans and wash dishes but under the
coarsest husks and wrappages of misused
Humanity, there exists a faculty and Mt
ness for this, truly, if 1t come in the line OF
duty, bat also for much more and higher
than this Most heartily do we rejoice that
Domestic Seryltude, as it existed in former
ages, is felt TO be Incompatible with that
Political Freedom and Equality which is
the birth-rlght of every white American.
American-born girls, we are told by
by The Express. would scorn TO be seen
!