The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1879-09-18
LADIES COLUMN.
HARoLINE HAROLD, EDITOR.
SITUATIONS
Pertinent and Practical PROPOSE
tions from a Prominent
Preacher.


was not IN the city ana IL escaped
my attention. The question is one
of deep interest to every Southern
philanthropist. 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 anyliberal thinking mind that
| the position of our educated women
who are compelled to seek support
| by their personal exertions is deep
! Iy deplorable. The only avenues
| opened are the school room and the
needle. Seventy five applicants for
two vacancies in public schools tells
tale of sad and hidden wretched
ness. The needle does its work
with fearful rapidity on the disap-
pointed. 1t is one of the painful
duties Of city pastor to watch
these women fade through few
short years of poorly recompensed
labor and then to give them chris
tIan 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
Of 10 / ha
more difficult to succeed second
time with the same employers. The
reasons assigned are in some cases
those mentioned by 2. S. in the ar
ticle 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 employer
rather than by resolute effort to
make this employment a matter of
necessity to the employers. They
are timid, hesitate, expect shrinking
and delicate manners to accomplish
what only earnest, careful work can
achieve. The employer, both in
store and home, hesitates to ask Of
them certain work, yet that 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 abso-
lutte helplesGness, until they become
matrons and ceuters of family cir
cles, many Of the most useful feat
lres in the character of either man
DR. woman are so little called into
service that they are almost obliter-
ated. 1t is this radical defect
which pervades every effort to help |
hem. No one can be helped who |
s not resOlute in the purpose to |
lelp themselves. II, when | had |
'ound a place in a store for a |
woman, i could meet the proprietor |
| sixmonth afterward and he would |
hank me for having found him an
invaluable clerk, the work would be-
,Ome easy to send male clerks from |
Try goods stores, and, and in many |
,ases from the book keepers desks
o the pillow handles or the mechan-
c's bench, where they ought to be.
But this will only be done when wo-
neu do the same work as well or
better. | would not write as | am
loing if it were not for the belief
hat they can do such things as
veil or better than they are being
lone now. What good is accom-
)lished when by Importantly, q
has been induced to
axe a woman for whom no other
lace so promising could be found
nto her employment. When a
month later you are informed that
he is more delicate in her ideas of
he work to be done than her EN-
1loyer himself, that she hesjtates
where an Irish girl goes steadily
Onward.
/ am not blaming the women who
ire compelled to seek support, for
hem my heart bleeds, and, by
Iod's help, my plans are making to
10 more for them in the future than
We have been doing in the past.
What l am Directing to Is the ridic
llous nursing and codIing to which
he fathers and brothers of the
'onth subject their daughters and
listers from the injurious effects of
which our civilization allows no es-
ape but marriage. The trouble is
and without reform,
ears, bitterness and moral degrade
ion will be in larger measure, still i
he sad fruits. Let it be under ,
TODD that it is the duty of young I
-omen, "a it is of young men, to
nd useful employment, that to
'ork does not bring social ostra-
ism; that only idlenesS or moral {
egradRtiOn can do this. Let it be )
ealized that in finding such work
$ she can do as well as = man, =
oman is but filling her proper
lace, then she will throw aside her
mid hesitation, and unshackled by
ilse ideas, compete successfully q
18th men in a score of places which
len now in Nashville monopolize.
In this war on effete modes of
.mily education, suffering may ever =
my voice, pen and hand.
IS have often said, it is barbarous
} wiring tears from women as we
re doing by shutting them out
'om employment which they are
ally competent TO fill, for the first
me have dared in this paper.to
oint out to them the fact that the
smedy lies with them.
ID. G. KELLEY.