The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-12-05
NEW ORLEANS BULLETIN
NEW ORLEANS, DECEMBER 5, 1874.
JkRL, SEIZURES IDEAS ON FEMALE
EDUCATION.

The following extract from II spSecn recent
= deIvcred By that distinguished orator am
sound thinker, Carl Schurz, We commend t
fhe special consideration Of our lady readers
it is gospc! truth every word Of it:
The matter of female education has beer
discussed with great vi2or, and as is usual,
the case tlIe advocacy Of extremes is reached
On the one hand We are told that girls may be
educated 50 that they shall be able to work
their way through iiealone independently, not
only a. teachers OF writer's, but as physicians,
III lawyers, as civil engineers, railroad direc-
tors, members OF Congress, or as Presidents;
and that is one extreme. The other Is, we
hear it stated very frequently, that women IN
order 10 remain good women must not KNOW
too much.
As to the second OF these propositions, de-
clare myself against il. Neither women nor
men can know too much Women ought to
know what they do know well. But ITS to the
first, il is true that the education OF girls
should be so that they can work their way
through life, and therefore all OF those avoca-
lions for which their physical and mental con-
stitution fits them should be open TO them,
snd full measure of reward should be ten
.lered to efficient labor. Applause. But, on
4, The other hand, | think no system OF education
should stimulate in a woman the desire to work
her way through life independently and alone.
Tt is not well for women to remain alone.
Applause. l think it is the calling OF women
20 get married. Applause. As it is in the
natural order of things that man should feel
himself destined to become husband and
A father, or in the natural order of things
a woman should feel herself destined to be-
come a wife and mother, any education
which should tempt men to remain bachelors
would be considered morally destructive to
society, and We must therefore, coademn
any system calculated to influence young
women TO remain splnsters. Education ought
TO be directed to make men good husbands
Ind fathers, and women good wives and
mothers, and it is vastly more important in
the case OF the female than OF the male, for
The field where women will exercise the most
saiutary influence, that field is and will remain
the family circle You may ask If | want
women educated merely for the household?
1 say ne. regard woman as the source from
which TIE best moral aspirations Of the COM
munity shall How. The home is the first
,inysery of society, and the wife is the woman
who before all others holds the leading
strings of social order ia her hands.
She has as wife and mother the most ex-
llted s,ion, and for this reason it is neces-
sary not only that her moral nature but also
the mental and intellectual capacities of the
girl should be prepared by the best educa
ional influences. 1t may be Questionable to
call them our "girls, but prefer the girl of
sixteen or seventeen to the modern young
lady OF that age The girl should first learn
how to manage a home, and she should be in
spired with the desire to have home. In
our day the practice of living III boarding
houses and hotels IS pernicious. The board
ing house is not home. There is no privacy
there. and family life loses there what it ought
never to lose, its mystery Of home influences
A very large proportion OF the domestic
troubles so common in this age are directly
traceable to the influence of the hotel and the
boarding house. [Applause.]
Why is it that boarding is so frequently re-
sorted to In great many cases it may be
necessary, but IN great many other cases it
can be avoided, and then think it is resorted
to because too many young women have not
learned how to manage home economically,
and therefore do no. tru, themselves to man
age it at all or they have not acquired any
taste for it. To make home what it ought
to be requires no carpets or curtains OF silk
nor SO many thousands year, but it does re-
quire wise economy which wastes nothing
and turns small things to advantage. It does
require good temper and training OF the mind
and heart which shall impart to nome a cheer
In its mental and moral atmosphere That
atmosphere which makes children good and
keeps them good, and there is no other human
power that know of equal to that of the wife
and the mother. She is the natural queen of
the household, and any organization OF society
that does not recognize her as such will turn
nut a vicious one.
To manage home will require as much
ability as the outside business of the husband.
SO if girls are brought up with the idea that it
is their duty only to look handsome, then
habits of luxury will soon take root in the ma.
ton. On the other hand, if women are
brought up with simplicity, in virtue and
wisdom, their influence will surely purify the
body polite. even though corruption has
already attacked it. We denounce the de-
of our public life, and We seek
remedies in various ways; but to apply the
true remedy we must touch the true seat of
the disease. The evils are not originally the
growth of our political life. 1t will be utterly
in vain to attempt the cure tor these evils by
mere political means. The true remedy lies
i'm the cultivation of the domestic virtues. 1t
is, therefore, Of vital importance for the well
fare of the nation that everv possible agency
SHOULD be used to educate the wife and the
mother, the bulwarks against those evils
which are threatening the existence of the
nation.