Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-09-27
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..
Perfinent and Practical PROPOSE
tiOns from a Promiuenf
Preacher.
Correspondence Of the American.

Preacher.
Correspondence of the American. 4
Ny attention has to-day been
called to an article in your paper of
August 10, In which the writer asks
my views on the need for more em-
Payments for Southern women. At
the time the article appeared ] was
not in the city and it escaped my
attention. The question is one of
deep interest to every Southern
phianthrOpist. 1t is one on which
/ have spoken frequently and earn
estly both from pulpit and rostrum.
There can be no question upon the
part Of any liberal thinking mind
that the position of our educated
women who are compelled to seek
support by their personal exertions
is deeply deplorable. The only
avenues opened are the school room
and the needle. Seventy-five appli-
cantS for two vacancies in the pub
lie schools tells a tale of sad and
hidden wretchedness. The needle
does its work with fearful rapidity
on the disappointed. 1t is one of
the painful duties of a city pastor to
watch these women fade through
few short years of poorly recon-
pensed labor and then to give them
Christian burial.
After years of effort to correct the
false sentiment prevalent among
our Southern people as to wOman's
sphere, coupled with effort to find
employment for individual women
in our city, | have found the prob
lem far more complicated than | at
first apprehended it to be.
Where | have once succeeded by
appeal or personal influence in Sc
curing positions for women in new
spheres of labor / have found il
more difficult to succeed a second
time with the same employers. The
reasons assigned are in some cases
those mentioned by p. S. in the
article above referred to, such as the
fact that our women in shopping
give decided preference to male
clerks. This thOughtlessness upon
| the part of our women certainly
merits decided censure. But alas,
the trouble lies deeper still. In too
many cases the women who seek
and obtain such places depend on
retaining them through the sympa-
thetic philanthropy of the employees
rather than by resolute effort to
make this employment matter of
necessity to the employers. They
are timid, hesitate, expect shrink
/ ing and delicate manners TO accom-
plish what only earnest, careful
work can achieve. The employer,
| both in store and home, hesitates to
ask of them certain work, yet that
work must be done. The only way
to cut the knot is, for the party
wanting work to be so on the alert
! that the work is done before the
employer begins to be perpleXed as
! to who is to do it. Our women for
! generations have been educated to
almost absolute helplesSness, until
! they become matrons and centers Of
! family circles, many of the most
useful features in the character of
either man or woman are so little
called into service that they are
! almost obliterated. 1t is this radi
cal defect which pervades every
effort to help them. No one can be
| helped who is not TeSolute in the
purpose to help themselves. If,
when had found Il place in a store
for woman, [ could meet the pro-
prietOr a siXmonth atterWard and
! he would thank me for having found
him an invaluable clerk, the work
would become easy to. send male
! clerks from dry goods stores, and in
many cases from the bOOk-keepers'
desks to the plow- handles or the
mechanics bench, where they ought
to be. But this will only be done
when women do the same work as
! well or better. | would not write
as | am doing if it were not for the
| belief that they can do such things
as well or better than they are being
done now. What good is accom-
pliShed when, by Importantly, Il
| hOusekeeper has been induced to
take a woman for whom no other
place so promising could be found
into her employment, when month
later you are informed that she is
more delicate in her ideas than the
employer herself; that she hesitates
where an Irish girl goes steadily
forward?
/ lam not blaming the women who
are compelled TO seek support for
them my heart bleeds, and, by
| Gods help, my plans are maturing
to do more for them in the future
than we have been doing in the
past. What | am Directing to is
the ridiculous nursing and cooling
to which the fathers and brothers OF
the South subject their daughters
and sisters from the injurious effects
of which our civilization allows no
escape but marriage. The trouble
is widespread and without reform,
tears, bitterness and moral degrade
ton will be, in larger measure, still
the sad fruits. Let it be understood
that it is the duty of young women,
as it is of young men, to find useful
employment that to work does not
bring social Ostracism; that only
idlenesS or moral degradation can
J do this. Let it he realized that il
; finding such work as she can do as
we'll as a man, woman is but fill
: ing her proper place; then she will
: throw aside her timid hesitation
and unshackled by false ideas, com
pete successfully with men in a score
of places which men now in Nash
: vile mOnOpOlize.
) In this war on effete modes OF
family education, suffering women
! may ever command my voice, per
: and hand. AS l have often said, il
: is barbarOus to wiring tears from
, women as we are doing by shutting
5 them out from employment which
they are fully competent to fill. Fol
; the first time I have dared in this
paper to point out to them the fact
that the remedy lies with them.
= ID. c. KELLEY.
Speculation.