The Osceola times., 1880-11-13
WOMEN IN PUBLIC.
Obstacles In the way OF Intellectual Life
for Women.

The obstacles which women have
found in the way of public work. says
the London Spectator in an able and in
teresting article on "The Political Char.
acteristics of Woman" 50 far as they
arise from general sense of its being
mwomanly, will disappear in the future,
and have, TO considerable extent, dis
appeared already. But so far as these
obstacles belong II the nature of the
employments which they already carry
on, and which they cannot give up, we
have no right TO expect any change.
Speaking generally, We should say that
the change OF feeling will liberate single
Somen from the barn iers that have made
a career difficult, and them alone. No
change of feeling can set free for a
career the mother of 10 children. We
could not say. indeed, that all our re-
formers have been single women. Mrs.
Fry is not the only wife whose activity
will be remembered in connection with
the welfare of class, but an exception
here and there does not invalidate the
obvious rule that household gives work
enough for one person TO do. And not
only the amount of work must be con-
sidered. but its character. 4 mans work
Is continuous, and great many women
might make their work continuous il
they would exercise sufficient self CON
trul; but the mother OF a family. under
ordinary circumstances, must consent to
be interrupted at any moment. The
leasure that remains after work that is
interrupted is as unlike the leisure that
remains after work that is continuous,
as the cornfelds, quilted by foracing
party in the enemy's country, are to the
cornfclds left by reapers who have
finished their days work. The demands
of the nursery and the household could
never be compressed into a compact di-
vision of the day, from which no strag-
Cling detail should ever invade the ter
rltory given up to a study of social or
political problems. The attention OF
women TO such problems is ALWAYS
affected by lis fragmentary nature.
"Work is not interfcred with by homo.
geneous interest" says one Of the mos.
profound observers Of human nature
Aristotle-"but by Heterogeneous" The
mind, therefore, unconciously seeks to
preserve a certain continuity of interest
through any change of attention, and
Sits out what is familiar from much that
may he far more important, not froll
any frivolous tendency, but from a
healthy desire TO grasp only what can be
incorporated with possessions already
gained.
1t is not difficult to foresee what aspect
Of poll ical matters will alwyas prove
most homogeneous with a woman's in
teresls. A difficult political problem re.
quires the same kind of attention as a
volume Of history; hardly ony one could
read a volume of IIallam or Hume at
odd 10 minutes while he was kept wait.
ing; and any valuable opinion, for in
stance, on Mr.. Forster's Irish bill, would
be equally difficult to form under these
circumstances. The truth is, says the
writer, in conclusion, that the old no.
tions ABOUT a woman's place were right
at their centre, and wrong only at their
circumference. We have only TO take
the starting point of our ancestors and
pass beyond their boundaries. II is
true, as the Noodle says in sydney
Smiths "Oration," that woman's proper
place is in the sick room; give her, then,
authority in those large sick rooms
which we have built for many sick, and
call hospitals. 1t is true that woman's
proper occupation is with the poor; allow
her, then, voice in what is surely a
very important part of the duty OF tie
state-its dealings with the pauper class.
IL is true that woman's especial vocation
is the bringing up of children; give her,
therefore, an influential position with
regard to the still more important part
of the duty Of the state, that, indeed,
which, on the whole, seems TO us Its
most important duiy-thc education OF
its future citizens.
When we go heyJnd this, and enter
the circle of questions which, in the last
resort, must be settled by the arbtra.
ment of arms, we enter on ground which
appears to us much more questionable.
1t is a wise general rule, though subject
to many exceptions, that people should
abstain from interference with their
equals in those questions OF duty the
strain of which will in no case fall upon
them; and those who cannot allow that
onc-half of mankind are justified in
putting any limit on the activity of the
other, except such limit as we all mu-
tually impose in asserting our own
claims, may yet feel that the danger OF
strong impulse from womanly SYM
pathies, given in direction in which it
could not be followed up by womanly
activity, is neither unreal nor insight.
cant.
Talked Her jaw Out of Joint.
Louisville Couricr-J journal