Smyrna times., 1876-07-19
mise eI[U25 e OWS.
The Useful Woman.

\ lively and entertaining newspaper, de-
voted, though not exclusively, to the rights
of woman, tells us how one woman fought
the battle of life and won the victory.
And this is the story:
There lives widow out West, " SAYS this
Friend of Woman, who never did anything
useful until after her husband died and
left her half dozen children to take care
Of"
But here we pause on the threshold with
uplifted hands of amazement. A woman
had borne and reared six children, and yet
has never done anything useful Let the
startled mind pause, however, till the
history of this useless woman is completed;
She thought great deal of her hus-
band, but he did not leave her enough sub
stance to buy him grave-stone; and this
fact set her to work. She determined that
the poor mans grave should have a respec-
table mark. So she got marble slab, and
went to work on it, making a grave-stone
for the departed. Thus she began to carve
out her fortune and ended by learning
andprosecuting the successful and lucrative
trade of stonecutting.
In what touching tangle do facts and
opinions and judgments lie in the mind of
the compiler of these short and simple
annals of the poor Taking care of six
children is nothing useful, but cutting out
grave-stone for man who never had
caliber enough to do it for himself is useful
ness. five are to lcol upon this as vera.
cious history, and not as a mere fable COM
posed to teach that with sufficient spur
women can do whatever men can do, we
Immediately revert in Imagination to the
necessarily narrow home of man who is
not worth his own grave-stone. There are
SIX children, the eldest undoubtedly about
nine years old, and they have all to be
nursed and fed and dressed and housed
the table is to be set, the meals are to be
prepared, the dishes to be washed three
times day the rooms are to be swept and
washed, the clothes to be washed and
lroned and mended, as well as made, and
some of the children are to be got to
school. From morning till night that
woman can never have known one hours
cessation of work and watch. For, be it
observed, her subsequent attempts and
success show that she was a resolute, en-
ergetic and able woman. She was not the
kind to stuff an old hat into the pane of
glass that her boys ball-which she had
rolled up for him out of the last desperate
fragment of an outworn stocking-had
unhappily broken, even though her easy
going, shiftless husband had no more
money to spend on GLACIERS than grave
stones. She was the kind that would send
Tor pane of glass out of some old window
that she had observed standing lamely
against a neighboring fence, and, with
pennyworth of putty, have that window
nended two hours after it was broken, and
Johnny we'll warned that he was not to
play in such dangerous proximity again.
Her boards were always secured clean, and
her bit of carpet thoroughly swept, and
herrude furniture carefully busted. But of
course she had no time for stone-cutting.
Every cent that her mild, mindless husband
earned she spent with the wisest thrift; for
us eonsoling to reflect that he was only
weak, not wicked. He did not waste his
small substance in whisky and gambling.
ne smoked an illsmelling pipe, but that
was his only vice. He brought all his
money to his wife, not so much submissive
as lnstinctively, and he admired her and
uelerred to her; and she, like many
another stirring, active, capable woman,
really liked the inoffensiye little creature
"hom it is difficult not to imagine her des-
pising.
And so by-and-by he died, that is, he
just faded out into little more than his
previous insignificance, and so disappeared
nom the earth, for his personality could
Withstand no diminution. What, then,
uOes this perverse woman, his wife, do, but
,,ohcentrate herself on grave-stone, giving
I,in thus more aolidity in his death than
al the quintessence of his whole life could
.urnish. What possible edifcation in per-
ps'uating the memory of man who for
'u'rty or forty years has never accumulated
= much as grave-stone p man who
Asu introduced six children into the world
s''nout making. the slightest provision
wi their future, and then skunk out of it