The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-10-12

Wnen they find leaders who obtain their confidence
either through their religious their patriotic feel
lngs, they follow with enthusiasm too frequently
nntempered by reason. These defects have been
recognized in women, and believe, are generally
supposed to be innate rather than due to false ideas
I However, remedies proposed. remember hear
I ing lecture from distinguished politician and
eloquent speaker, advocating the higher education
OF women as tending to remedy these defects and
thus Mt them better for wives and mothers and he
urged oung women, especially of the weathieF
classes TO devote some of their abundant leisure to
the prosecution of favoritc studies and to the en-
largement of their minds. But this gentlemanswas
opposed to any extention of the sphere of wemens
labor; and there was shown what l think Is the
fatal weakness of all schemes of liberal education
| for women which do not contemplate their taking
some additional part in life than what will fall to
them as wives and mothers; and that is that while
they propose arduous labor, they offer no incite-
ment likely to move the youthful mind. For,
Granting most cordially that education is too lib
eral for the duties of wives and mothers and that
knowledge in itself is most noble reward of labor
itmust be borne in mind that to become wives women
must first please men; and to do this observation
shows that graceful versatility is vastly more eifec
tive than solid attainments, the possession of the
latter, indeed, being popularity supposed to be posi-
tvely repellaDt to men, while acq uiring them must
consume several years of the bloom of youth. To
appeal TO dormant feelings of maternity is GER
tdhly ~ lcilsataae inanaratua Az to
the love OF knowledge that seems to me motive
suited to the calm and reflective mind of middle
old age rather than to.ardent and eager youth; es
pecaly as in these schemes it is entirely dissociat
ed from hopes of fame some even going SO far to
say that it is womanly to conceal unusual attain
ments keeping them solely for personal delectation
Such motives not now filling our colleges and
think never will. But teach girls from infancy
that all the prizes of life free for them to wn
hold up TO honor those women who have walked in
lofty paths above all impress them with the noble
desire of self maintenance that will make them
ashamed of hanging as useless weights upon the in
dustry of others, and there will be no lack of young
women eager to improve every faculty Of body and
mind, nor will they shrink from the seversst edu-
cation. Then doubt not that frivolity and blind
Enthusiasm, as typical of the female sex, will be-
things of the past; while in every profession
and every science the world will reap the benefits of
| the combined talents of and women. More
than this the hopes of philanthropsts will be full
F! filed, who desire to bring to the duties
| of wives and mothers strong and vigorous minds
and energies well developed by training and
cse And to obtain these desirable results it is not
necessary to suppose that every shall receive
/ collegiate education, that every woman shall
add trade or profes sion to her domestic duties 1t
will suffice that enough women are highly educated
to raise the ideal of womanly capacity and excel
lence it will suffice that enough women shall attain
| wealth by their own labor to show that women who
faithfully devote similar talents and energies to the
duties of housewives and mothers fairly entitled
to their share of the family earnings, and to make
them repel with indignation the idea that they
| are supported.
| have not cared to touch upon the various OBJ
| iectons urged to women's right of competition as
laborers. Some of them are evidently the product
of prejudice and selshness in men, and are unwor-
thy of rely. Others come from fears that wifely
| and motherly affections cannot survive if women
have other interests; little observation of life is
better fitted to reassure these timorous objections
than argument. And still other objections there
are more or less specious, founded upon views of
expedency; but to and all of these there is the
answer that the right is always expedient. 1t is
enough for us to find out what is right; when we
have found it, we trust that all its consequences
will be good "a good tree cannot bring forth evil
| fruit
Mrs Foster of Michigan commented briefly
upon the paper. She said that she was recent
ly visited by the wife of prominent business
man of this city, who declared that the great
est desire of her life was to have an opportunity
to earn an honest dollar for herself. This lady
has an excelIont and liberal husband. She
voices the sentiment of all earnest women.
DR.. Maria Zaksyeuka followed with an in
teresting description of the various motives
which induce men TO marry in Europe. The
banker desires that his wife shall be book
kaapar and % on down to 4ba au,r ho mo y,
wish to secure wife capable of bringing up
bricks to him if necessary. On the continent
of Europe the woman has all her rights to
labor, She had encountered more opposition
among women in he profession than from men.
The latter we had always found helpful and
considerate. All we can claim is that we may
have an opportunityto do whatever one is best
fitted for.
Miss Mary f. Eastman said that she has
never known women to be debarred from labor
but they are excluded from particular lines
of labor. just as soon as there is neither profit
nor honor in certain kind of work, then there
is no talk of the business being unwomanly
| A case was cited of tobacco factory where
women did not receive as much pay as men,
because as the overseer stated, the men had
their families to support, and in the other part
of the factory she found the families of these
men, wife and children being supported by
..a; -
Tho reading OF Miss u. U. Lapham's paper
| upon Possibilities of Success for Women in
| the Industrial Arts" followed.
MISS LAPHAM's ADDRESS.
An excellent paper entitled 'The possibili-
ties oil Success Tor women In the Industrial
Arts" was presented by Miss Ella @. Laph am,
! of Buffalo, of which the following is an alb.
| stract
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