The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1879-07-24
False Sentiment as to Work for Young
Ladies.

A false sentiment has rendered it de-
rogatory for woman to be business
woman, for girl to earn or appreciate
dollars and cents, If she can possibly
ind father, brother or uncle to sup
port her. The noble army of working
women, who of all women best demon
strate their raison d'etre, is in general
despised army; and while society ap-
plauds the woman who is an artist, an
editor, an author, it does SO by calling
her a genius, and setting her out of that
grand corps where she legitimately be-
longs. Families with three, four Or
five daughters, whether there are sons
or not, if the father can possibly sup
port them, are brought up to do moth
ing but help mother little. This he elp-
ing is not generally really learning
housekeeping and seamstress work in
all its varieties but skimming the surface
of things, making cake, dusting the
room, trimming gown, and leaving
those weightier matters Of the law,
as shirt-making, ironing, bread
making and beef cooking to some
one else. Girls speak of it as hard
ship, if obliged by circumstances
to earn d support. Gamma thinks
it so hard; all her friends have their
time to themselves, and she is forced to
teach, poor child" The whole train
ing of the girl is aside from knowing
any thing about business; she reads
stories and fashion magazines, not
newspapers, and works on science and
architecture, and practical, every day
lifo Che Iooa NOT 1oorp folooro bu or
carving, or furniture decorating, or gar
dening, or book keeping, nor does she
go into her fathers business and learn
it as her brother would if she had one
bless you, it would make her working
woman! Thus out of this army Of work.
ing woman are kept, so far as possible,
all women of education, means, refine
ment, cultured taste. These organized
into society make no end of blunder;
in business, and regard them as credit
able rather than otherwise, as Chinese
lady che1ishes the deformity of cramp
ed foot. If they read common law
and medicine so as to be
as well informed on these points as
ordinary men, bless you, they are very
odd,' at the least. These good ladie:
with the very lest intentions undertake
to handle the working woman question
they are thrown into contact with tht
poor, and knowing absolutely nothing
of what it is to earn living, or what i
costs to earn dollar, or what a dolla
can be made to bring, they have onl,
the most general and no particular sym
pathies; on the one hand, they will b.
deceived and kill by over kindness; Of
the other, they will misunderstood ant
kill by hardness. 1t needs workin!
wome to understand and help workin,
women; then they know that bein|
bread-winners does not forfeit for then
their position as wives and mothers
that while they earn daily wage
: they have the affections of tn
, hearth; that the poor mother, lei
. a widow, wants to keep her children i
home, not to sow them broad
T cast in orphan asylums; that tn
: poor couple who have passed their maj
ried so years, uuhonored, it is true, b
- . a golden wedding, do not want to b
, thrust, one into an Old Mems Home
:, the other into an Old Women's Home
, or put into the separate wards of a
! almshouse, or one 90 to one blino asJ
- lum and the other to another. There
y fine kind of charity in England, whel
I endowments have been left so that d.
+ cent, destitute old couples, or sing
- - people, can have nice three roome
! cottage, with fuel, water and light
= and certain number of shillings weel
>. y ly on which to subsist; and they ca
g take in an orphan grandchild, or feeb
~ child, living as in their own home, su
y ject only to certain regulations of sobl
~ ~ ETY., cleanliness and good order.-Su
~ day afternoon for July.