The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1882-11-11
WOMAN AND HOME.
Life and Toll In Western HOmes..'
Education and the True Mar.
riage Sphere.
Dress, Fancy Articles, Recipes
and Household Hints.
Woman. Drudxery and Marriage.

Woman. Drudgery and Marriage.
North American Review
II is tlesstrange that while most trades
and professions are shown to be unhealthy for
women, no inquiry is made into the physical
results of the pursuits which, by the common
consent Of mankind, are left to them.
The cook roasts slowly over the kitchen fire
until her nerves become 80 irritable as to rem
der her ill-temper proverbial The parlor girl
stands on her feet month in and month out
She runs up and down, carries heavy dishes,
goes ont Of errands, when, according to tho
professors of sexual hygiene, she ought to be
comfortably tucked up in bed, with some one
10 wait upon her. The laundress washes.
irons, and scrubs the floor until she is full Of
rheumatic aches and pains, which may and
which may not be peculiar to women. The seam
stress, if she sews all her life, is fortunate to
escape consumption or spinal disease. Even
collaborating, upon which such stress is laid,
has not only it's great suffering, but its horri-
BILE and CHASTITY dangers. Where the function
is used in excess it destroys health and short
ems life.
The common assertion that men can do the
work of women much better than women
themselves shows that the absolute division Of
capacity which il supposed to exist between
the sexes does not exist Men can sew, en-
broider, wash, cook, dress hair, upon occasion.
Women can teach, preach, keep accounts, set
type, write books, print and model. They can
question in determining what either shall do
is, first: what needs to be done?" and Sec
| ondly: "Who is there to do it?"
If the farmer cannot spare any time from
the bayfield,, the farmers wife must dig the
potatoes for his dinner and her own. If the
men Of the village are fighting their country
battle, the women must tend the crops and
reap the harvest If the children are to be
fed, and there is no father to provide for them,
the mother must find bread for them as the
wages of any honest work she can get to do.
| The improvement of education among wo-
men must needs lead them to entertain WORTH
Ter ideas of marriage, and to give more CON-
plete assent to the obligations which it involves.
| If it leads them also to seek and expect a
higher standard of merit in the intimate COM
panion of their life, the result can only be
most beneficial to humanity. If the improved
| judgment of woman shows her that man
whom che might marry is british, cruel,
| averse to reason, and deficient in conscience,
she renders service to the human race by moi
becoming party to the transmission OF his
type
| There is an insincerity az well as q falsity
| in the statement so often forced upon us,
| that the function Of maternity should be the
| paramount theme of women's thoughts, and
the supreme ends of their lives. We have
tried to show that, for civilized women, child
bearing is only justifable under strict condi-
tons Of respect, retirement end sympathy
This for tho fact, but as Tor the feeling
Does any mau Of education desire TO ink II
| himself tins creature trained to marry the frs
man who asks her, to bear as many children
as possible, and to limit her interests and ac
tivities to the sphere Of the kitchen, the table
! and the wardrobe? Does any man i'll hi'
| senses WISH to see this mulicbrous ANNA
take the place of the women who are the in
telligent companions of men, who appeal t.
their most chivalrous sentiments, and stimu
late their highest capacities?