The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1873-02-21
OF BEGGING AND DIGGING.

Tragic Death, SETS forth that MISS
Magernie, q native of Pittsfield, In
Massachusetts, died of starvation
and opium, the other day, at St.
Paul. In the best of reporters
English, it is related that her father
was rich, and gave his daughter d" a
thorough education," but, dying in
| solvent, left her " friendless in the
cold world" Going to st. Paul she
attempted to make vests for live
lihood, but "her want of skill pre-
venting success" she tried other
means of honorable support, which
always failing, she took opium, and
was found in her room in dying
state.
Now, we concede that there is q
tragedy here, but it is not, to our
thinking, the final taking-off. Adj
uniting the story to be true, the
poor child's death seems the only
act of the drama which was not
tragic. The real element of TRACE
dy lay in the vast disproportion be-
tween her needs and her capacities.
between the qualities she brought
to life, and the qualities which
life demands. The failure to live
was the tragical thing. And the
contemplation of it opens up the
wide subject of the training of our
girls.
The mistake, as it seems to us, of
our whole system of female educa-
| tion,is fundamental one. ItconteIn-
plates only schools, and not func-
lions. Whereas the modern Amer
lean finds the only satisfaction of
life to be usefulness, and has right
to demand the training which shall
open the way alike to a noble con-
tentment and to prosperity. We
shall yet have something to say of
the inadequacy of the boys instruc-
ton to his probable occasions F: but
what with modern technical schools,
with opportunities for apprentice
ship, and with the width of this
broad continent wherein to better
his condition, the boy, from the
staff, holds large odds against fail
| ure. Moreover, however miserably
| the means may fall short of the end,
the thought that underlie's q boys
education is that he must study that
he may be able TO get his living.
The community excuses neither idle
ness nor incapacity in man. And
the harder and more intelligently he
works, the more he sits at ease in
the high places of public approba-
| ton. In this one condition his adj
vantage over his sister is inimita-
Bile. For the community practically
coddles and admires idleness and in
| capacity in a woman, as is shown in
the quality of her education, and in
the popular filings at the =" strong
minded A wOrhing-boy rows his
boat with the current. A working
girl rows hers, usually, against it.
We need no ghost to come from the
grave to tell us of the wrongs of all
this. But the ghost of Nellie Mayer
ME will not down. Here was girl
born in Pittsfield, city of famous
schools for girls, receiving there, it
is said, "a thorough education."
We all know what that means. 1t
is an education beginning with the
scale of G natural on the piano,
and ending with sonatas Ill u mi
nor, and lie Roi deS M0ntdgRes, if,
indeed, it comprehended anything
so vigorous. 1t is an education
which fits q girl for the trade of a
fine lady. Leaving out of view the
Insult implied in the notion that
this teaching or existence can salts
| fly any immortal creature, there re-
mains the certain and deliberate
cruelty OF it. For there is no class
of girls in America, as in aristo-
cratic countries, exempt from the
| necessity of labor. Wealth alone
can assure that freedom, and wealth
is nowhere so insecure as here,
where the basis of it is seldom
landed property. OF twenty girls
| brought up under this aimless sys-
| tenn of instruction, and reared ex-
pensively, ten must, sooner or later,
earn their bread, or If they do not,
| it is because they will be meanly
content to take il, nnearned, from
! father, brother, relative, or friend,
who cannot afford to give il. Froude
says there are but three ways to get
ones living: to earn it, to steal it,
or to beg it, and that he who does
not choose the first takes, perforce,
one of the other two. There cam
not be much question which is the
wise way, one would think, yet,
virtually, we teach our weli.bred
girls to be thieves and beggers if we
refuse to teach them to be workers.
And by workers we do not mean
superficial teachers of superficial
studies, nor snowy and faulty pian-
lists, nor companions, on sufferance,
of richer relatives and friends. We
mean competent operators in some
trade or handicraft. We mean pho
tographers, telegraphers, watch
makers, glass-engraveFs, wooden
graVers, designers, tailors, dress
makers, jewellers, manufacturers,
1 ,rSr oh Nnf q
architects, gardeners, farmers, poul.
terers, fruit-growers, bOok-keepers,
upholsterers, picture-dealert, gro
GERS, decorators, tin-peddlers, ifany
choose. Whatever business is hon
est and profitable for boy is hon.
est and profitable for a girl, other
things being equal, since Heaven,
less discriminating than modern
sentiment, has made capacity of no
sex. Nellie Magernie finds her
thorough education" of no possi-
bic use to her when, for the first
time, she needs to profit by it.
Yet in the city where she died
there was probably hundred fam
lilies wherein thoroughly compe-
tent American nurse or waitress
and chambermaid would have re-
cefved exceptional wages, and q
safe, ifnot an agreeable home. We
do not speak of q cooks situation,
because Q good cook Is the creature
of careful training and long prac-
tice, and no novice can fill that
place. But other household avoca-
tons are comparatively mechanical
and simple, aud within the range of
moderate capacity and of inexperi-
ence. And when we say that we
have very little respect for a wo-
man who would permit herself to
, starve to death where domestic ser
, vice stands begging for honest
hands, we mean TO condemn not so
much the false notions of this indi.
vidual girl as the false notions 81
the society that produced her. The
theory of our body polite is the es-
sential manhood of man, and the es-
sential dignity of labor. The prac-
tice, as far as concerns women, save
. in the case Of few employments
counted as "genteel,' is TO deny
, their essential Womanhood, and TO
hide their necessity to labor under
! thin and mean disguises.
For two reasons we have spoken
only of the disabilities of those girls
who are called highly educated
First, because girls OF q lower social
grade, trained from the beginning