The Winchester weekly appeal. [volume] (Winchester, Tenn.) 1856-1856, 1856-12-19
NUMBER H..
WHAT WOMAN CAN DO.

We frequently hear the complaint,
that, under the present organization of
society, there is nothing for woman to
do. Nothing for woman to dol Is
there no wrong, or sorrow, or death?--s
Are there no molherless children, fam.
ishing equally for mortal and imfnor4
tai food. Are there no families where
the little ones are more than orphans,
because the parents are drunkards and
criminals, or both? Is there no broth
er, or other relative, whom womanly
sympathy might take by the hand, and
eadpast the yawning pit of ruin, as
the guardian angel, in the picture,
leads the small child past the beetling
precipice? While trouble, or evil, or
death exists, there will be plenty to be
done by women. whether unmarried
or married. In fact, the province Of
single women lies more nigh these out
door charities than that Of the wife or
mother. Wisely has it been ordered,
that some ofthe sex shall be denied the
sweet solace of domestic life, in order
that they may initiate their divine mas
ter, by feeding the hungry, clothing
z
the naked, comforting the widowed
and the fatherless. 70. ia
But as the greater majority of wo-
men enter into the married relation, it
is of them we ought to speak, in an
sWer TO the question, "what can wo-
man dol" AS wife and mother. wo-
man can make or mar the fortune and
happiness other husband aud children;
and even if she did nothing else, sure
ly this would be a sufficient DESTINY.
BY her thrift, prudence and tact she.
can secure to her partner and herself
a competence in old age, no matter
how small their beginnings, or how ad-
verse a fate may occasionally be theirs.
By her cheerlulness she can restore
her husbands spirits, shaken by the
anxieties of business. By her tender
care she can often restore him to
health if disease has seized upon his
overtasked powers. By her counsels
and her love, she can win him from
bad company, if temptation, in an evil
hour, has led him astray. By her ex-
ample, her precepts, and her sex's, in
sight into character, she can mould
her children, however diverse their
dispositions, into good and noble men
and women. And by leading, in all
things, true and beautiful life, she can
refine, elevate and spiritualize all who
come within her reach, so that, with
others other sex emulating and assist
ing her, she can eventually do more to
the world than all the
statesmen or reformers that ever leg
islated.
She can do as much, alas! perhaps
even more, to degrade man, if she
chooses it. Who can estimate the evil
that woman has power to do? As a
wife she can ruin her husband by ex-
travagance, folly or want Of affection.
She can make devil and outcast ofa
man who might otherwise have be-
come good member of society. She
can bring chickering's, strife and perpet-
ual disccrd on what has been happy
home. She can change the innocent
babes whom God has intrusted to her
charge into vile men and even viler
women. She can lower the moral
tone of society itself. and thus pollute
legislation at the springfield. She
can, in fine, become an instrument of
evil, instead ofan angel of good. In
stead Of making the flowers OF truth,
purity, beauty and spirituality spring
up in her footsteps, till the whole earth
smiles with loveliness that is almost
celestial, she can transform it to a
black and blasted desert, covered with
the scoria of all evil passions. and
swept by the bitter blasts Of cverlast-
ing death.
This is what women can do for the