Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-11-03
STUDY AT HOME.
BY HELEN M. BINGHAM.


torial appeared in the New York
zribuue, explaining and commend
ing the work Of the Society to En-
courage Study at Home. It espec-
tally commended the society because
it ''brings into play that delightful
relation which may SO naturally ex-
ist between an elder and a Younger
lady," and closed as follows: "To
pass from the wrangling Of high
voiced women in public, to the sim
pie intercourse of the wise, and the
young in the privacy of correspon-
dence, is like stepping out of the
noisy street into green fields" Com
mandatory though it was, it was
not an editorial to please everybody.
Very soon an indignant woman de
manded of the Woman's Journal
the castlga'ion of an editor who
would write in that way Of women
who speak in public. One of tn,
late Zribuue's brings the complaint
of another reader. The writer
says: "The tendency among our
young people to disregard home au-
thority, or at least to slight it, is al
ready too strong; if we substitute
in any way outside organizations for
this authority we augment the evil.
The Society really encroaches upon
the prerogatiye of fathers and moth
ers who are or should be governing
their houses The plea of lack of
interest and too much other work
cannot, he thinks, excuse parents
who do not superintend their chill
dren's studies. In the case of igpor-
ance, parents may still give some
kind of glowing help" which will
render the Society unnecessary and
Sin its most legitimate sphere y
bring into play the relation denomi-
mated by the Tribune delightful.
Some of the views here set forth
are peculiar to the ignorant and mar
row minded. No thorough scholar
will recommend to a young student
the glowing help Of those unac-
duainted with the studies he is pur-
suing. No parent Of broad and en-
lightened views will feel that pa
ternal authority is endangered when
the daughters of the household re-
ceive letters from elder ladies encour-
aging and directing them in their
studies. A feeling similar to that of
the Tyibuue's correspondent was
aroused among the ignorant class in
Arkansas few years ago, by a bill
brought before the legislature, for
bidding the practice of medicine to
physicians having no diplomas. It
was rejected for the singular reason
that the claw of nature confdes the
Care of sick person to his imme-
date relatives and friends, and no
law Of mans making, should inter
fere with this law 1t was argued
that if the bill passed, no father
would have a right to offer a sick
child a glass of water. Fortunately
such fear of educated teachers and
physicians is rare in the northern
S ates. Ag ain, no one who has
been a solitary student can fail to
understand the enthusiasm, the in
spiration, that comes from hearing
of the efforts of others in studies
like his own. Said an enthusiastic
tic naturalist,'sI was about to give up
the studies that had occupied all my
boyhood's leisure, when / saw an
other lover of zoology, and l was
saved. Talking with him, I was
born again." Both mothers and
daughters in families where they are
SO fortunate as to be interested in
the same studies, can derive assist
ance from the sympathy of women
whom they know only through
their correspondence with them.
The writer says that if girls need
that Society to tell them what to
read and when to read it, this need
is proof that they have not been
well taught in school. But young
men, college graduates, who study
law and theology profit by the di-