Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-05-05
What Seven Women Did.

1t was not planned, it happened. Seven
women began it, The seven were house.
keepers who, without servants, washed and
ironed, baked and served, for families of
from three TO eight members. Not one
of the seven had received an academic edu-
cation, two had not attended school since
they were twelve years old. All were over
forty, two were nearly sixty years of age.
One of the seven were convalescent from a
severe attack of in1ammatory rheumatism,
and on thanksgiving day the other six
made her little surprise party, not real
party, but they came in together, intending
to stay an hour. The talk turned, as it usu-
ally does at such times, on the trbulations
of life, the winter and the short days, when
the household machinery creaks little
more than it does in the long bright days of
summer. At last one of the seven proposed
they meet at each others house once in two
weeks. "We'll have little visit" she said !;
"we'll fetch our knitting or mending, and
we will never STAY to tea. 1t will make the
winter seem shorter" al sew enough at
home suppose we read some book together ?"
proposed another. The sick woman, who,
once in her life, had seen representation
of Hamlet, suggested they read Shakespeare.
They laughed at themselves. They all said,
Z" We cannot do t." but after talking and
considering they determined to try. They
were SO afraid of failure they kept the mat
ter profound secret. Some of them did
not own Shakespeare's plays. Before they
bought anything they had always to say to
themselves, Can | not do without this p
So, to buy book costing SO meant self-de-
niI. One went without winter bonnet.
Another made very shabby cloak do, and
nnrohaaal of Anlr l..
sake of order they elected a president, and
at each meeting a critic was appointed to
watch for mispronounced words One Of
the seven owned pronouncing handbook,
and the critic was armed with it at every
meeting. They began with the play Of
Julius Cesar" Each one studied "her
lesson,' as the sweet old president called
the reading. Each one tried to learn all she
could about the history Of the time the play
portrayed, and at the meeting, after each
one of the seven had asked six questions, if
any one had failed to tell ali she had learned
in her answers, she volunteered the informa.
ton. 1t was wonderful the joy the seven
got ont of their meetings. They grew so in
terested they did not care when an observ.
ant neighbor found out all their little secret
and when one or two women asked to be ad
mitted, the seven said Yes,' very cordially
That club yet exists it is now eighteen
months old. One of the original seven has
left the town, but she goes on as well as she
| can alone with her lesson, and once month
she writes report to the society. One OF
| the original seven | know well and love ten.
derly. Her lot has been very hard, her cares
many, her JOYS few. Her hair is very white
and she is fifty-two. " / really don't know
what would have become of me, if the soc
ETY. had not happened when it did" she said
to me with tears in her eyes. "When | was
fretted by our money troubles, and tired
with my work, | would sit down in my
big chair aud read our next lesson, and try
to think what it meant, and somehow the
load would melt away. II did not read
more than ten minutes, | felt refreshed.
| Mary Putnam Jacob says that women are
much more dependent than men on the in
terest they feel in their work. they cannot
so well bear the strain of working at some
thing they do not like. Household labor i,
hard and uninteresting, much of it down
right toll and drudgery, but it falls to wo
men. Not more than two in ten who are
mothers of families can hope to shift thi,
burden from their backs till they fall into
the grave. But little of the self-denia
they practice so willingly for husband and
children; little wise self-consideration and
self-appreciation above all, resolute deter
mination to prefer always the higher to the
lower good, will give them the time to get a
| glimpse of the world of literature and art
OF thought and beauty. Given these cond
tions, there is scarcely a neighborhood in
which the housewives cannot secure fol
themselves the delight and refreshment found
by the seven women whom have described
Chicago Inter Ocean.