The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-09-11

find time TO mend my mans stock
iugs.'
"Are you bringing up your daughters
TO assist you -
"No; their father saws he can't eat
unless / cook il; and as TO
washing dishes and such work, be thinks
schoolgirls ought not to work, and
somehow it seems to me their lives will
be long enough and hard enough il they
begin when they must"
Infinitely harder il they are brought
up in Ignorance. But let me ask you
question or two: What was your life
previous TO your marriage >"
''Oh, was house-keeper for years in
a nice family. / just looked after things,
and had plenty of spare time. / used to
read in those days a great many nice
books the young ladies had, and once
studied French with Miss Frances, be-
cause she thought Of taking me abroad
with her, but / was engaged, and then
got married, and there was an end 10
reading and good times. ] took all my
money out of the bank and bought our
house and furnished il all through, and
my friends made me great many nice
presents. ] have tried real hard to make
him a good wife and bring up the chill
dren as they should be, but what with
never a dollar Of my own, after handling
and having it since / was twelve years
old, and the old, up-and-down and in
and-out work, work, don't know, but
life seems sort of disappointing"
Why wasn't she happy with pants,
stockings, and babies? She was pre-
maturely old, over-worked and misera-
BILE; TO use her own words: "She worked
harder than any factory operative fol
her board only, and never went SO
meanly before; even the girls told heI
/ her dresses were old fashioned and
shabby"
She is one of the many. We meet
| them on every hand, these household
drudges. Men may write of the idle
women, OF the luxurious homes, of dia-
monds and pearls, but they write of one
side only. Their talent may give them
a passport into the circles OF wealth
where a few women resort 10 games and
sports TO ''pass away the time" but, il
they would turn their eyes and lOoR
about them, or IL they would experience
lone touch of humanity, that makes
the whole world kim" they would fine
women pleading, begging, praying fol
a better and nObler life; they would
find them sOrrowful and repining be,
cause no mental training made them
content with their lot; they would FIND
them disappointed and unsatisfied
would not men be?
"HousewOrk is healthy says Dr
Holland; grant it. "Butchering is con.
sidered healthy" would the DIR. like
the labor and stencil of the slaughter
house?
'HOusework is wOman's appointed
work, her sphere" says another writer
grant il; would he like every man 10 b,
a farmer on the same principle?
Sewing is wOman's legitimate busi.
ness" says one; would you make every
man ''man-milliner' or = tailor?
"Men would be happier" said Car
lyle, ''if they only knew how to sew
Indeed, would they oh, philosophical
Thomas, and many woman too. if tn,
man who "worships her'i would hell
her mend the stockings and then go on
with her into Gods free air.
"How absurd ~ says boyish clerl
lingering an anticipated moustache
'.just think of HIy darning stockings =
lie goes home TO his little tenement 4
find his wife still hard at work he eat
his supper in silence, and goes dow
town for a stroll, with nice cigar il
his mouth and she ! oh, she mends, o
tends baby, and is happy!
"Believe me, a woman is never :
happy" etc. | must not quote that sen
tence again; il hurts me; and Nigh
grow angry, aud anger is unseemly-i
woman; besides, must visit \ poo
/ creature in the back street, with 81
: children to work FOR, and lazy hu,
: band TO support and keep out OF jail
! she told me that if it wasn't for Bidd
, and Annie and Micky she would b
Z glad TO drop down dead any day. Sh
= was rocking the twins in the wOode
: cradle with her foot and nursing littl
, Micky; and this is the way we han
= down names TO posterity,
! "Life is real, life is earnest, >" and man,
poor soul knows that by heart, VIII
: has never heard the cheering words q
2 Schiller in his sweet song Of Hope.
! There's a voice at the heart that pro
. claims aloud
I'VE are born for something better"
! Worcester Palladium.