The Louisianian. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1870-1871, 1871-05-07
ABOUT WOMEN.
t'Br A woAAS-(aArL aAx1LroS).

'"'A'sr woNAS-(aArL HAlnLroS).
$3.50 -sC1.Tn 9-s-aI ~ '1"t ia
I'd It is not 30 much opportunity that wo-
men need a. qualities. They do not sue
ceed in business for the same reason that
men do not sueceed-because they are
timid, tame, 1unadventurous, ineffective
They have not energy, enterprise, persist
ence, spirit. daring. They are not far
seeing, ready in plan, fertile in resources.
Nothing else fails them for success. It is
not that they are poor, for the ranks Of
our merchant princes are replenished
from just such poverty as theirs Itisn not
political disability. Men with political
ability have failed in just such careers, and
women With political disability have sue
ceeded. If this day men and women
should change places-the successful men,
and the unsuccessful women doubt not
thatin five years everything would be
just as it is now. The thirty thousand
starving women would have gone into the
stores and Offices; would have lived COM
fortably, dressed tastefully, never have
acquired q half understanding Of their
business, nor whole understanding of
what understanding business means, until
the whole thing had slipped through their
hands. The thirty thousand men who
had taken their places would ut the start
have looked around them, seized the first
opening for making money, or made an
opening if none appeared, thrown away
the needle, combined forces, and in five
years be bullying the poor sewing-women
just the same as ever. And the poor sew
ing-women would stand and take it Just
as meekly as ever. ,.o~r ~ ,ua
This is what all need for success, will
will that takes no account of obstacles
except to overcome them. What is the
use of talking to women about wider op-
portunities. when opportunities are dying
every day for want of being used9 What
is the use of lamenting lack of employ
ment, when women are still feebly fumb-
ling around in a jungle Of employments?
Why talk about poor pay, when it is
allAost by sufference that women get any
pay at all. Women in trade are nothing
butmen. If they are week, helpless, COM
planning men, we may as well acknowl-
edge the fact; but, weak or strong, they
are men, and must be dealt with as men.
What does q man do when his pay is not
enough? If he is a commonplace man,
one of the multitude, he joins strike;
which he has perfect right to do. If he
is very ignorant man, with utterly crude
notions OF liberty and tyranny, Of right
and wrong, he not only strikes work HIM
sell. but attempts by force to preyenth his
neighbor from working, and thus makes
himself criminal and dangerous to so
cety. But II he is q man Of metal, he
only works al the harder, and presently
makes himself so necessary to his en-
ployer that he becomes master Of the
situation. When q man gets precisely
the service that he wants, few dollars
more or less are a very trivial matter to
him. It is exactly so with woman.
What mother of household would hesi-
tate between two dollars and q half to an
ordinary house,naid and three dollars to
one who would do the work exactly as
she wants it dones What young lady
would hesitate between paying ten dol
lars for an ill-ftting dress and fifteen dol.
lars for well-fitting one, Women are
employed in telegraph Offices, and receive
from fifteen to twenty dollars week It
is said that they understand the details
as well as men, that they manipulate more
deity, and are more faithful at their posts.
do not know the wages of male opera
tors; but, if the female operators surpass
then. in skill and service, they are in the
right way to win not only their own case.
but the case of all women. Every wo-
man whopegitimately succeeds in legiti-
mate business helps all women. And
when I go to one telegraph Office ten
minutes after the hour Of opening, and
find it closed; and to another, and meet
a woman, crusty, Indifferent, and negi-
GENT. treating me as If il were favor to