Chariton courier. (Keytesville, Chariton County, Mo.) 1878-current, 1879-01-11
What Girls Should be Taught.

IL Is u IctIlul IuiiiS " Ouih "a nuluiii
being adrift upon life with no knowl-
edge of its responsibilities or its possi-
bilities. The old German sovereigns
showed their prudence when they re-
quired their children each to learn some
trade which in time of need might
prove more valuable than crown or
scepter.
1t is favorite boast of American cit
izens that they are each and every one
sovereigns in their own right, yet they
do not initiate, many of them, the pru-
dence of the king that counts his es-
tates by hundreds and his soldiers by
thousands.
1t is not only necessary that girls
should be taught professions and trades
as boys are taught, not as something
they take up merely as an occupation
until they marry, but they should aspire
to excel.
The world demands to-day from work
ers of every class, and of both sexes, a
greater skill and greater degree of ex-
cellence than has yet been required.
There can be nothing more dreadful
than the prospect of fretting away mis-
cradle years an intruder-an unwelcome
and dependent poor relation-a PEN
sioner on the bounty of those who give
the little that is bestowed, grudgingly
and with reproaches.
What girl before whom rises such q
prospect can not picture herself bearing
the insolence and cruel tyranny of chill
dren, acting in the capacity of nurse and
governess in all save receiving pay; do
ing the troublesome bits of household
drudgery which fall to her because they
are troublesome, wearing the faded, cast
off garments of those who remind her
constantly of her helplessness and pov-
erty, while her eyes grow dim, her hair
turns gray, her cheeks grow hollow,
and her heart grows cold and bitter or
breaks.
1t is bad enough to grow old at best
with those who love us-to pity our in
trinity and love us. But helpless,
friendless, dependent old age is the
worst of all the ills of life.
Such fate is so terrible it seems to
me that every woman would do all that
lies in her power to take up some kind
of work-even if she should be at pres
ent beyond the seeming necessity of it
and master it thoroughly, so that
she will be ready, while health and
strength are hers, to meet whatever
may befall.
There are always places and wages
for those who do well what they under
take, and, better still, the love and re-
spect of those whose good opinion is
worth having.
1t would be considered disgraceful in
young and healthy man to spend his
days in idleness, depending upon the
father who is growing old, for food and
clothing. 1t should be considered a
disgrace for young and healthy wom-
an to expect all the pleasures and lux
uries of life, and fold her hands while
the years go by, giving nothing in re-
turn.
The world owes every woman, as well
as every man, a living, but it only owes
it to those who have made the world
their debtor by using the minds and the
hands that have been given them in
making it something better.
No human being, with the free use OF
the faculties of mind and body, can say
that nothing is asked or expected OF
him, and the consequences of shirking,
or doing her duty unwillingly, are as
dire to a woman as to man.
There is a satisfaction in knowing
| lIdI Wolh DCCh uohOy uul WCll uoiiCi
| that nothing else can give, and not only
is there satisfaction, but the beauty and
comfort that money can buy, and the
feeling of independence with which one
who, as 4 dependent, would stand
cringing on the threshold, receives the
honors that are bestowed upon wei
coined guest.
repeat again that girls should bt
taught, from their childhood-that there
is future of active usefulness and glo
rious possibility for them, if not in some
happy home which their knowledge anC
skill can make more beautiful and hap
py, in the active and busy world. lie
mind and hand both be trained so tina
she shall wait for the future with
brave and hopeful heart, and not will
the weak and abject fear of coward
Mary II. Krout, in the Cravtordscill
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