The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-11-27
pIsTAKOED, NOT DoWETRoDDEN.


Has any wife moral right to suffer
herself to be outgrown in character by
her husband? This very pertinent and
suggestive query we find in a paper upon
Chow to Combine Intellectual Culture
with Household Management" F" read be-
fore the Woman's Congress recently as
sembled in Chicago, by Rev. Edna
Brown Blackwell.
The proposition SO plainly stated ad-
mits Of but one answer-a decided and
most emphatic negative. No wife has
a right to assume position, or allow n
position to be assigned her, that cramps
and dwsrfs her mentality, thus render
ing her at best an uninteresting and tire
some companion, where she should be a
strong, capable and loving mate. That
women SO often after marriage degener-
ate, or at least cease to develop men,
tally in proportion to the men who walk
beside them, is in q great measure their
own fault. Nothing remains stationary
in this world. That which does not adj
vance retrogrsdes and she who quietly
and silently wraps the mantle Of house
hold cares about her, taking interest in
naught besides, need not feel astonished
that her husband seeks elsewhere for
eompanionship, for which he looks in
vain beside the hearthstone Of his home.
And when, as the years 20 on, she sees
him drifting away from her in thought,
plan and purpose, she must understand
that it is because he has been steadily
climbing, while she has not advanced a
foot from where they started together.
! Who has not seen homes, presided over
by women possessed of every household
grace, pains-taking, neat, thrifty and
careful women, yet whose husbands
never spent a social hour with them,
seeming to regard their homes as places
merely for them to eat and sleep in.
We cal to mind as we write woman, a
/ fitting illustration of this dwarfed men,
tality. Married, poor child, when but
fifteen, yet being possessed of good
health, and a natural disposition for
thrift and neatness, she gave her undi-
vided attention TO the ways Of her
household, with such eXactness, thor
oughness and precision, that it is. not at
all likely that her liege ever in the
course of his married years had reason
to say, in an injured tone, "My dear,
there is a button off my shirt" Declar-
ing that she had "no time to read"
daily made to blush for her ignorance Of
the commonest events transpiring in the
great world around her, what wonder
that her husband invariably went to a
neighbor's, or to the village store, to talk
over the news of the day, with those bet
ter Informed than his wife? Now, we
again assert that no woman has n right
to thus dwarf her mind and allow her
husband and even her children to out
strip her in intellectual attainments; no
right to thus deprive herself of her hus-
bands companionship; no right to de-
fraud him of the pleasure he has right
to expect in her society; no right TO de-
pIlNc utE cltiuiGu vi the ntnldi COLl-
panionship of mother. Her plea that
her household cares occupy all her time
is no plea at all. Quoting again from
the paper mentioned at the beginning of
this article, "Working women, more
than any others, need the strength and
consolation which are TO be derived from
a wide field of ennobling thought; need
thorough, persistent self-education, and
all the dignity which is given by rich
and poor alike to well-cultivated in
tellect." The highest work that can be
done for ones family is teaching them
practically that the mind is of even
greater mark than the body. Is any
woman ambitious for her family? There
is no better way of promoting their
welfare; example is immensely better
than precept, and she is more influential
than all other teachers in forming their
plant characters.