The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1875-11-26
Illogical Fireworks.

Since the woman question began its
agitation, there has been not a little of
this sort of illumination. Quite re-
Gently a rocket of this description was
sent into the presence of a company of
teachers, to the effect that if every
teacher in the country should resign on
any day her situation, the very next
every place could be filled, and so on
for twenty days in succession. This
very startling proposition was said to
have originated in the brain of a school
superintendent, high in rank, and was
borne to this little group by one of our
foremost female reformers, delivered
with the assent of her profoundest rea-
son.
Admitting that nature abhOrs
vacuum, and generally manages to fill
emptiness with something, we will al
low that the vacant schoOl-rooms might
be stocked with as many pounds avOir-
dupois as had left; perhaps more. But
ignorance would take the place of intel
ligence, inexperience of professional ex-
perience, in this department, for no.
where could this fresh arrival Of teach
ers have had opportunity to obtain the
invaluable treasures afforded by expert
ence, that the departing teachers would
take with them.
The very fact that the latter had held
the keys to these halls where this
knowledge only could be obtained,
proves this beyond a question.
All knowing, worthy the name, is OBJ
tained by experience-the subject with
the object; and, in the teachers profess
sion more than any other, experimental
knowledge is the only kind that can
hold its own for any long period Chill
dren will not be manipulated with ig-
nOrant fingers, without making a very
bad appearance, and putting forth de-
cided and long-cOntinued objections,
which in the end will result in their
ruin or in routing the teacher from her
position.
The pulpits of the country, the medi-
cal chairs and lecture platforms could
much more easily find substitutes in
one day than the teachers desk. For
older people are far slower to detect the
alloy than child is; and, il detected,
the older head might possibly endure in
silence, when the child could not re-
strain the muscles and sensitive nerves
of its little body from revealing the
whole story, even though the tongue
were unable to express it.
Truth endures, though falsehood NAV
sometimes be more showy, and mag
netize more quickly. Women should
not be induced to seek new conditions
in life, except through physical, men
tai, and moral fitness; and they should
be sure that they obey the demands
each of her own existence, and not an
| impulsive desire for some fiattering
change. Hundreds of women are, with
out doubt, in school, who have no SYM
pathy with the occupation; but thOus-
ands more are there because they love
the work, and by long experience and
hard study have gained such knowledge
OF the profession that their removal
would be an irreparable loss to the ed
ucational interests of the country.
This profession is a noble one for
either man or woman, when nature
leads on to its adoption. And as It will
in time become as remunerative TO
woman as man, 1t will be one of the
most honored and satisfactory of profess
sions. On the other hand, there are
vast fields of industrial and professional