The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-10-20

porous village who have a competence
provided for them, with no thought OF
care of their own, except to spend ii
prudently? Would not great deal OF
the pinching and distressing privation
which no eye but One sees be done away
with if women had their own private
purse with which they could supplement
the scanty fund doled out to them, some
times from necessity, sometimes from
sheer parsimony? Then, too, when
thrown on their own resources, they
would have something to depend on be-
sides the hard bread of charity. ,.nr.
Within square of my house there is,
first, a young lady who is obliged to get
her living by housework. She is nice
American girl, but can make a surer,
steady support by that means than by
any other, and so has wisely chosen it.
She is treated like one of the family by
the aged pair with whom she lives. She
would not take situation in every home;
but girl of her steady, tidy ways will
never be out of place.
Next is a home where a widowed
mother and two widowed daughters live.
They cultivate their little garden and
are all vest-makers, and live as cozy and
comfortable as possible.
Then comes another widow lady who
owns house or two which she rents,
and attends to her business with as sharp
and accurate attention as any man. A
maiden sister lives with her, who makes
a handsome living as nurse.
Then come two maiden sisters, one of
whom gives music lessons. They board
an aged widow lady who has a good
support and so they make out living.
These are only within few doors of my
home, and do not think our village is pc
culiar There are many single women in
every place who are largely dependent
on themselves for a support, and often
have little clinging hands about them
which hinder their work, and which look
to them for daily bread.
You cannot tell, mother, how it will
be with your dear girl whom you are
rearing so tenderly. She may be left
widowed and alone when you have no
power to help her. Begin early to teach
her some useful art that could, in an
emergency, earn bread and shelter. Let
the little girls have this in view from
their early years. Tax your powers of
invention to devise ways and means to
help them in it. If you live on farm,
give them some perquisites, as a patch of
strawberries to cultivate, or dozen to-
mato or cucumber hills. Let them pick
wild berries, if they abound in your re-
gion, and have the proceeds for them
selves. Let one daughter qualify herself
as a dressmaker, and you have in man
ner made her self-supporting. If one
child hasa marked talent for music, give
her as thorough an education in that line
as you can, though her chances of max
ing living by it are much less than the
dressmaker's.
Whatever the line you mark out, be
sure to insist on thorough training in it;
for it is this only that will win success.
The great army of incapables is large
enough now without seeking to add to it.
1t is they who swarm about the places
where "slop-work" is given out in our
cities; it is they who constitute mainly
the suffering classes" when times of
financial disaster sweep over the coun-
try. Train the girls, even the little girls,
to be bread-winners as well as the boys,
and you will do much toward making
them truly independent and comfortable
without sacrificing anything in the way
of womanly refinement and delicacy.
Good common sense is sterling virtue
in either man or woman. Farmers Home
Journal.