The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1875-12-03
SISTERS EXPORTED TO SELF-SAO-
RIFI0E.

SISTERS EXH0RTBD TO SELF SAC
RIFIOE.
We find the following sentiment ex-
pressed in the last number of the At
Idltic, which, for assumption and impu-
dence, is little in advance of anything
which even that periodical has given
before:
In Chicago, after reaching the age of thirteen
years, the boys who remain in school are to the
girls fourteen to nineteen, proportion
which we suspect would be found very com
mon throughout the United States, owing to
the early age at which many boys are expected
TO get their living while their sisters are not ex-
pected to do likewise at any age. Ifthe daugh-
ters of the trading and working classes from the
age Of eighteen could relieve the family purse
by their earnings, to the extent of their board
and clothing merely, it is probable that their
brothers could stay longer time at their books,
and thus the American voter be better prepared
for his political and social responsibilities.
"The boys who remain in school after
reaching the age of thirteen are to the
girls as fourteen to nineteen" Yes, for
the very reason that with scrimping and
saving on the part of mothers and sis
ters, performing the part of tailor, laun-
dress, chambermaid, cook and scullion
for the embryo voter, the pitiful econ
Omy in personal expenses that every
woman in the middle walks of life so
well understands, these boys of the
household are sent to college or to some
special school, while the girls, not hav-
ing means to bear them company, re-
main year or two longer in the public
schools.
We advocate at all times the propri-
ETY., nay, the necessity of giving girls a
chance to become self-supporting; not
that their brothers may stay longer at
their books, but because they, like these
same brothers, have needs that must be
met, and because it is right and proper
for them to make and preserve an indi-
viduality in the family that shall be un-
trammeled by pecuniary needs. The
class to which the critic above quoted be-
longs would set young women to work in
order to "increase the family purse by
their earnings" and then grudge them
their wages, and pay them according to
their sex, instead of according to the
labor performed. The proportion OF
young women who do thus not only pro-
vide for their own necessities, but add
IN. hn fo " iG
one. 70,S72 women reported by the
last census of Massachusetts as engaged
in manufacturing and mechanical in
dustry in that State alone, shows no
lack of industry.
In view of the sacrifices that mothers
have made from time immemorial for
the education of their sons, and the
efforts and self-denial of sisters for the
advancement of their brothers, this ad-
vice savors ofsuper1uity, ifnot of down
right impudence. A former President
of Harvard declared his belief that one.
quarter of the young men who were be.
ing carried through that University
were enabled to remain there only
through the self-denial and special en-.
deavors of women.
Does this look like mothers and sister:
of New England need to be exhorted tc
self-sacriffce? Are they not there, a:
elsewhere, only too ready to overtasE
themselves for the benefit of sons and
brothers? Have they not indeed done
this until, in many cases, the boy
scarcely in his teens has learned II
regard himself as in some myteriou,
way infinitely superior to the feminine
members of the household, and they
created solely to humor his whims anC
supply his wants nntil the luckles
sister of some other incOnsiderate pro
spective voter takes the thankless tasI
off their hands
Give the girls chance to earn a liv
ing by all means; not that their broth
ers may he kept longer at their books
but that their own education may b.
completed, their pecuniary independ
ence established, their minds broadenet
by experience instead of narrowed b!
pitiful economy, and all this to the en-,
tnat the future american voter ma,
be better prepared for her political an,
social sponsibilities" as well as he
brother for his.
Deal with us nobly, women though we be;
And honor us with truth, if not with praise.