Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-05-19
Published by request.
OUR DAUGHTERS.
BY MARION HARLAND.

ulcIIllucuC-bG lHc sloIy VI "ios
Priscilla's abject perplexity when the
"Reverend r. c." her father, was
seized with spasms of indigestion al
a wrctched German inn, with nc
English-speaking persons near, ex
ceptlng his bewildered daughters.
GAS she ran over the list of her ac
complishments," the biographer tells
us, ''thc more she remembered what
she could do for her sick parent, the
more helpless and useless she appear
ed. For instance, she could have
embroidered him a night-cap, OF
knitted him a silk purse, or plated
him guard-chain, or cut him out q
watch-paper, OF ornamented his bra
ces with bead-work, or embroidered
his waistcoat, or worked him pain
of slippers, or open-worked his pock
ct handkerchief. She could even, if
such an operation would have been
comforting or salutary, have rough
coated him with shell-work, OF coated
him with red or black seals, or Ell
crusted him with blue alum, OF stuck
him all over with colored waters, OF
festooned him-but, alas! alas! what
would it have availed her poor, deal
papa in the spasmodlcs, if she had
even festooned him from top to toe
with little rice-paper roses?"
The comic catalogue Of our School
mistress capabilities was brought to
my mind, not long since, by saddel
story of real and present life. Would
that it were an unfamiliar recital! A
lady, one who had, until the recent
rapid succession of monetary panics
lived in affluence, found herself, in
one year, widowed and beggared.-
Not beggared!-her proud spirit
would have repelled the thought OF
asking charity from any mortal-but
so nearly penniless that she saw the
absolute need of seeking employment
by which to earn bread for herself
and children. I Irepeat, as nearly as
possible in her own words, the tale
of her experience as it came to me:
"My father" she said, "gave me an
exceptionally thorough education, in
the belief, as he often reminded me-
that l would find in it more than q
mere support-a Fortunes should
ever need to use 1t for that purpose
/ speak French and German well
having studied both these languages
abroad. l am q brilliant performer
on the piano, and have kept up the
study as well as the practice of music
by lnstructing my children. / I'M
derstand all the branches Of a solid
English education, even the higher
mathematics, and am good Latin
scholar. All of which assertions !
am prepared to prove by the test of a
severe examination. Yet, for half a
year, haye hawked my qualifications
from private families to seminaries.
from seminaries to public schools.
praying for an opportunity to make
them available-and in vain. There
are one hundred applicants for each
vacancy, even to teach in the primary
departments. Teachers of our sex,
especially of music and Other accom-
plishments, are drug in the market
I am in dcspairr'
1t was the old lament: "While
am coming, another steppeth down
before me-" Without powerful pat
ronage she could do nothing. Yet
after all, but one can be chosen for
each vacant post. For the ninety
and-nine disappointment is the inev
table portion. And when had
listened to her .pitcous narration,
went away sorrowful. Not only be
cause I was powerless to help her,
and many others as needy and as
worthy, but because John Newton's
exclamation, as he saw a drunkard
reel by him into the gutter, came
back to me with new and pregnant
meaning: "There, but for the grace
of God, goes John Newton!"
We are all, through the workings
of our charitable societies, especially
the grand organization Of woman
helpers, of which we are, to-day, the
representatives, conversant with the
hardshlps of working girls, usually sc
called-those who by nature and for
tune are destined to be underlings
all their lives; who, for the lack Of
energy, intelligence, native aptitude
or what the world styles "the knack
Of getting along" rarely acquire, by
their own eXcrtions, even modest
competency. The terrible problem
Of overwork and insufficient wages is
one that racks the brain and pains
the heart of each thoughtful observer
of the daily lives of this class. EN-
ployers and middlemen grow rich
while operatives fight the wolf, pov
erty, at the best at arms length, ant
account themselves fortunate if they
can but hold him thus far off. A
single example will suffice-one thai
has within few weeks fallen under
my own notice:
a fashionable modiste has in hel
employ young girl whose specially
is sacque-making. She has nimblt
fingers and excellent taste, and used
both to such purpose that her mis-
tress went SO far as to compliment
her, one Saturday night, upon tho
very satisfactory manner in which
she had toiled that week. II have
received for the sacques you have
made, besides your other work, forty
seven dollars" she said, complacent
ly, and proceeded to hand out to the
weary creature who, as her friends
told me, had been haunted in hel
nightly dreams oy the cutting, fitting
and trimming that had occupied hel
all day, from A. NJ. to 10 P. M.-the
amount due for six days labor-sey
en- dollars!
/ have called these things "terri
BILE problem" To those OF us who
are In middle life, and the mothers