The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1878-05-10
A PAEAOEA.

A woman in "Waldo Hills" who re-
joices IN the venerable sobriquet Of
"Aunt Lib" has discovered il. And
with the customary unselfshness that
characterizes the sex, she resolved to
give poor struggling humanity the BEN
eft Of her discovery; and fred with this
laudable purpose, she heralds Il abroad
through the Statesman. She says:
Let there be more young ladies suitably edu-
Gated 10 be wives, and there VIII be more
young men worth having, and, as a oonse-
quence, they will more readily seek the mar
riage relation.
Now, as is we'll known, the education
and training Of young women in all the
past decades has been carried on with
the exclusive view of fitting them for
wives, and when this supposed fitness,
which generally consisted 10 being able
10 cook, wash and sew with becoming
neatness and celebrity, was attained the
girl was expected to spend her time in
praeticing small economies while she
waited for the coming man to put in an
appearance and elect her chief cook,
laundress, seamstress, nurse, chamber
maid. and scullion for a home where she
could be Supported" It isagainst this
system Of false education-a system
which has made women helpless de-
peudents upon the bounty Of men,
rather than independent arbiters Of their
4 sI..rr-H.HrfsH
in the woman movement have directed
their most earnest efforts during the
past quarter Of a century. These efforts
have already compassed such gratifying
results that intelligent girls pursue their
studies side by side with their brothers
in our high schools and colleges, gravely
meditating upon future plans for self
maintenance, in which suitable profess
sions or trades figure, to the eclipse, If
not the exclusion, Of misunderstanding
Ifthere is anything more unwomanly
in all the catalogue than in sitting down
and wailing for a proposal of marriage,
busying the brain meanwhile with
transparent articles that are brought to
bear upon every eligible ''catch" that
comes along, we confess that we have
not as yet heard Of it.
But our friend neglects to make it
plain just how educating women with
the sole purpose of becoming wives is
going to increase so largely the number
of young men worth having" If we
should reason from such a point, COM
mon sense would certainly compel US 70
reach a conclusion directly opposite to
the one expressed. If all girls and
women were solely dependent upon
matrimony for q maintenance; If IA
were marry or starve, and that without
exception or remedy, young men could
be as worthless or as vicious as possible
without at all impairing their chances
in the matrimonial market, and every
woman would feel herself impelled 20
close with the first offer, lest she never
received another. To increase the num-
Der Of young men worth having, girls
must learn to be self-reliant-able to de-
pend upon themselves financially-and
this lesson many Of them are fast learn
ing. We don't know how It is in the
"Waldo Hills" but in places Of which
we have knowledge we note no disin-
clination on the part Of young men, OF
old ones, either, "to seek the marriage
relation" and in our opinion the num-
ber Of women in this State, at least, who
remain single from necessity, is incon-
siderable, if not altogether mythical.
This panacea is so old, has been SO
often prescribed and administered in
such unsparing doses, that sensible peO-
pie refuse to swallow it, and even mine
ing misses gulp it down with many a
WY grimace.