Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1874-05-15
VOL. XLVII.
Women and Books.

In the course of last year there were pub
lished in England FIVE hundred and sever
new novels, and two hundred and twenty
one new volumes of poetry. To these may
be added, for the years product, half a:
many more books of the same sort published
in this country A similar fertility has oc
CURED in previous years. But how many Of
these books have had any Just pretepsions tc
be read or remembered To be as chari-
table as possible, it may be asserted, that
nine-tenths of the annual crop of novels and
poems represent only the waste of human
industry and the disappointment of human
aspirations. But as waste is the law of ma
ture, as millions of herring's eggs are pro-
duced for every herring that runs in the
rivers, SO it is inevitable that hundreds OF
novels and poems should he printed for one
which gains even transient popularity.
Of the writers of these books, large
number are women. Some women, when in
distressed circumstances, bereft of the means
of support which they had enjoyed while
their natural protectors were living, take to
writing stories or poems, as other women
take to dress-making or stage-acting, with a
vague belief that it may de mode of max
ing livelihood. Their motive is not to be
condemned. Whatever condemnation their
sets may Justify belongs to the husband
who, while living. provided no means for the
future supper. of his family and, dying, left
the widowed mother to shift for herself.
own support, and being unable for various
reasons to do mechanical, scientific or artis-
tic work, she makes an effort to get living
1..-4 I
pathy. And the catalogue of last years
publications may be read with the belief
that many of them represent the struggles
of slow wly-sinking families to keep their
heads above the sea into which improyident
habits of the father had cast them. Behind
the novel and the poem is the poor widow
left with n family to take care OF. The
reader is reminded of her desperate efforts to
make her daily expenses and income meet,
her increasing difficulty 10 keep up respec-
table appearances. the declining patience of
her husband relations. her appeals to the
patrons of charity, and finally the straits
which have driven her to the publisher,
hoping to find in print some more reSpec-
table means of livelihood than in beggary.
Now, what IS the moral to be drawn from
this lamentable history? Is 1t not this
that it is always the duty of the father of
family to provide a respectable support for
his wife and children in the future rs well
as in the present after he is dead a. well
a, while he is living?
There are other means besides the ire
gular savings from his own labor by which
he may do this; means which he can COM
mand even while he feels confident that his
fail 81
precaution for every family. The time Is
likely to come when it will be needed, and
the time 10 secure it Is before the necessity
for it tarrives. In the Proverbs of solomon
we are told, that the ants are a people ex-
ceedingly wise, because they prepare their
meat in the summer" Though an insight
fcant creature, it is prudent enough to pro
vide support and comfort for its family in
anticipation of that bleak season which is to
follow the present sunshine The man who
does not feel that he has a similar duty 10
perform for his own family possesses less
wisdom than the ant. And a. life insurance
has proved itself to be the one steadlast and
reliable source from which this provision
may be drawn, how shall those be estimated
who are content to live in utter neglect Of
il? More than thirteen thousand persons
were insured last year by the Equitable Life
Assurance Society. More than thirteen
thousand families were thus provided for in
the future more than thirteen thousand
seeds planted to Weld hundred fold in the
harvest time. 1t is in this manner that the
good, rather than the evil, which men do in
their lives is made to live after them; and
every year, as it passes, will deal out a
larger measure of justice to the memory Of
those who, while the opportunity IS offered.
place their wives and children under the
protecting shield of life insurance.
at IS not Just We take il,
This mystical world ofo
Lies field WI yield, as We make il,
harvest Of thorns or flOwers'
Christian I'aI0H