The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1864-12-01
The Profession Of Wome,i

women is housekeeping, declares it thoro'ly
dishonored and offers the following proofs
The delicate constitution and failing health
of young girls, the sickness and sufferings Of
mothers and housekeopers, the miserable
quality of domestic service, the stinted wa.
ges of seamstresses, the despair Of thousands
who vainly strive for an honest living, and
the awful increase of those who live by vice,
are more and more pressing on public atten-
ton.
What is the cause of all this? The chief
cause is, that sconadn is not trained for her pro-
feSsion, Dltite that profession is disgracsd.
Women are not trained to be housekeep-
ers nor to be wives, nor to be mothers, nor
TO hc nurses of young children, nor to be
nor to be domestics.
And yet what trade or profession of men
involves more difficult and complicated du-
ties than that of housekeeper?
When parents are poor, the daughters are
forced into considerable practical training for
future duties, though many mother tolls to
the loss of health that her daughters may
have all their time for study and school.
In the more wealthy classes the young
girl is subjected to constant stimulus of
the brain, involving certain debility of the
nerves and muscles. Books in the nursery
books in the parlor-books in the school
room surround her. aHer body is deformed
by pernicious Dress her stomach weakened
by confectionery and bad food She sleeps
late in the morning, lives more by lamps and
gas than sunlight, breathing bad air in close
rooms or crowded school, A round of sci
entific study and fashionable accomplish
ments alternate. while her ambition is slim
ulated to excel in anything rather than her
proper business. .--~. ..-.- .
School is succeeded by round pleasurable
excitement till marriage is secured, and then
perhaps in one short year-the unframed
novice is plunged into all the complicated
duties OF wife, mother, and housekeeper aid
ed only by domestics as ignorant and I'M
trained as herself.
What would a matchmaker be called who
should set up his son in the trade when he
had never put together watch, furnishing
only journeymen and apprentices as igno
rant as his son !? If in addition to this the
boys right hand were paralyzed, he would
be no more unfit for his business than are
most young girls of the wealthy classes
when starting in their profession at marriage
Then, on the other hand, women who do
not marry, especially in the more wealthy
class, have no profession or business, and
are as ill-provlded as men would be, were all
their trades and professions ended, and moth
ing left but the desultory persuits of most
single women who do not earn their living.
A few such can create some new sphere as
authors, artists or philanthropists But the
great majority live such aimless lives as men
would do were all their professions ended
Almost every method that can be devised
to mako woman's work vulgar, and disa-
greeable, and disgraceful has been employed
till now the word 'lady," signifies woman
that never has done any of the proper work
of g woman.
Dark and dirty kitchens, mean and filthy
dress, ignorant and vulgar associates, in
convenient arrangements, poor utensils,
hard and dirty work, and ignorant and un-
reasonable housekeepers-these are the at
fractions offered to young girls to tempt
them to one OF the most important depart
ment of their flu ture profession.
The care of infants and young children
is made scarcely less repulsive and oppres-
sive, and usually is given to the Young or
the ignorant. Thus the training of Young
children at the most impressive age, the
providing of healthful food, and suitable
| clothing, and most of homo comforts are
turned off to the vulgar and ignorant A
woman of position and education who
should attempt to earn her living in any of
these departments of woman's proper bust
ness would be regarded with pity or dis
gust, and be rewarded only with penurious
wages and social disgrace
Meantime, while woman's proper business
is thus disgraced and avoided, all the ex-
elements of praise, honor, competition, and
emolument are given to the book learning
and accomplishments. The little girl who
used to be rewarded at school for sewing
neatly, and praised when she had made 4
whole shirt for her father, now is rewarded
and praised only for geography, grammer
and arithmetic. The young woman in the
next higher school goes on to geometry, al
zebra and Latin, and winds up, if able to
afford it, with French, music and drawing.
Twenty other branches are added to these,
not one of them including any practical
training for any one of woman's distinctive
duties.
The result is that in the wealthy classes
woman no more thinks of earning her liv-
ing in her true and proper profession than
her brothers do of securing theirs by bur
glary or piracy.
This feeling in the more wealthy classes
descends to those less favored by fortune.
Though forced by lack of means to some
degree of training for womans' business, the
daughters of respectable farmers and me-
chanics never look forward toward earning
a living in their proper business, except as
the last and most disgraceful resort of pow
erty. They will go in hot and unhealthy
shops and mills, and even into fields with
men and boys, rather than to do womans'
work in private family. Not that, take
the year round, they can make so much
more money, but to avoid the tyranny and
social disgrace of living as a servant in the
kitchen, with all the discomforts connected
with that position. Few except the negro
and the poorer German and Irish will occu-
Ply the place which brings to respectable
and educated woman social disgrace and
the petty tyranny of inexperienced and un-
trained housekeepers who know neither how
to perform their duties nor how to teach in
competent helpers to perform theirs.
A Reliable German PAPER.
| From the Chicago Tribune, Nov. lltb
| In appertioning the credit of the splendid
victory of Cook county, won last Tuesday
the Illinois &Gats Ze5tunq is entitled r. >