The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-04-07
ANNA DICKINSON.
WHAT'S TO HINDER?"


reputation and her real merit. Probable
many more would have been present than
the hall would accommodate had there not
been a shadow of uncertainty in the public
mind that Miss Dickinson would be able to
be present and take the platform. She
was. however, at her post, though seriously
indisposed, and was introduced by Mr..
Hay, who said that he felt
honored in presenting to the
audience ''the most eloquent woman in
America" Miss Dickinson stepped quickly
to the front and with a touch of sarcasm re-
marked: There seems to be q diversity of
opinion on that subject in this city, so it
may be as we'll not to open the discussion
From this she passed directly to the work
in hand. She stated that there is no law.
human nor divine to prevent woman from
entering upon any pursuit for which her
tastes and inclinatiOns fit her. Twenty
wears ago it was said, let women write and
in quiet way work the field of lit
erature, but to lead and instruct,
no, no. To-day women stand
ropolitan journalism in the best cities of
the United States. Twenty years ago
woman could sing or play on the stage, but TO
attempt to mould public opinion, no, no,
that would not do. Twenty years ago
woman was debarred from any and all of
the learned professions; now the doors are
open, or will quickly yield if she do but
may not be smooth, but it is
broad. The barriers being down, then
what's to hinder any woman from entering
in and achieving all that she aspires to, and
is capable of? OF all the great and varied
obstacles that lie in the way of this result,
the greatest is herself. Never were truer
words spoken than those of Florence Night
ingale, when she said that four-fifths of all
the troubles which environ women arise from
exempting themselves from doing for them
selves. One million eight hundred and
sixty-seven women in the United
States are on salaries in one form
or another, and of these 100000 are
servants. Yet in going all the way between
the two seas the pitiful wall met her every
where for q decent servant. But women OBJ
ject to the calling of a servant, they consider
il degradation. She wished to say that
any career is desirable to him, or her whe
knows how to make it so. She could find a
man doing service as a cook at salary of
$1,000 year. She would be glad to find a
woman
COMMANDING $1,000
for like services. Did the man receive 5000
because he is a man, and the woman three
or four dollars a day because she is a woman {?
Not at all. The man renders service worth
the money to his employer, while the wo-
man does not earn the half Of what she gets.
brain, nerve, will, and bis whole
and by which he expects to succeed
The woman does not pick her work, out
takes what comes first to hand as an expe-
dent. She goes. into the kitchen, not to mag
nifty her skill and achieve the best results,
but to wait there until some man shall call
he nj To a L OF w ma
may poison him with bad cookery and him
discomfort and dyspepsia for his nat
ural lite. 1t is not genius that
is wanted but good training, a
cause for thorough preparation for COM
potency in what is undertaken. A girl
should learn her work, whatever it is, by
special assiduous and faithful trsining. But
the ambitious girl does not like the idea of
work unless il is something that she and the
public consider fine and fitting for delicate
hands. The speaker saw, wherever she
went, the matronly householders weight
ed down by day and harrassed in
dreams by night with duties in which they
could find no aid, willing to give halt their
yes, and half their hearts for agood
There are tens of thousands
of places where competency by women is
desired. There are 1900 seamstresses and
but of them all, only a small
part rendered desirable work, and the few
q
and good pay. She had visited the great
sewing establishments where machine work
is carried on. The proprietor of one says:
1 have 900 employees, 100 of them make
large pay, are first class hands and l want
them at any price; the other 900 make but
little, and don't want them at all. This
point was fully amplified and illustrated by
many statements of fact. There is one key
to success in labor and no man or woman
holds it or can confer it on another
1t must be forged in your own brain. Preju-
dice will always go to the wall before COM
women engaged in teaching. How many OF
them teach as man teaches? Not the adj
venturer of three months but the man who
chooses to teach as a profession and trains
himself for the task. Forty thousand of
these women have no business teach
ing at all. They hate it. II they
had sat, down face to face with their own
tastes and tendencies, they would have
found what they were fitted for. If we had
WOMEN ARCHITECTS,
We should then haye houses planned that
would be fit to live in. In Germany there
are trade schools, and schools of design, and
almost all the work done in this
field in America is by foreign skill.
The field here is ample and broad, the
work delicate, refined, esthetic and
richly paid. In this hall, bare and
severe as it is, there are fifty kinds of work
required that woman could do. Forty
women are teaching as an expedi.
ent, necessity because it is an approved
method by which woman may get money
which she must have, and still be lady.
But no one ever made successful
career who did not put r. into her
work the energies of the viii, heart
and conscience, besides the desire for
money. No matter how crowded the posi-
ions are below, there is plenty OF room
np higher. But no one will ever put thee
there Thou must climb with bloody fingers
II need be, but by thine own exertions.
The speaker here drew pretty highly coll
)red contrast between the young
man and young woman as clerks in
|, store in which it was main
aimed that the girl Is usually In.
efficient as a salesman. The graphic picture
wound up with an appeal of deep feeling,
when Miss Dickinson cried out withgushing
ears: Ny little sister, take up thy work so