Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1882-03-16
The Women and Railroads,

Woman appreciate the benefits of rail.
roads with q keener relish than men.
Railroads have brought to women aud te
he family blessings of a peculiar and
7aluable character. Isolation is the dreary
lot and portion Of the rural women OF
America. The lives of farmers wives are
duh and insipid; they are without recrea.
ton and amusement; they are distant from
works and displays of art and science,
their lot and that OF their children is one OF
loneliness. For this reason farmers' wives
suffer from mental and moral weariness:
life loses its Zest and freshness for them,
and their children flock to the cities to seek
new ways Of industry, enter
prise and enjoyment. Women
feel the need of society more than
men, while they have less opportunities for
social intercourse, and they appreciate il
more because they have less Of it, and have
sharp sense of their need in that respect.
They are more sesthetic; they covet person.
al and household adornment, and they have
an Unsuitable longing for the means by which
their tastes may be gratifed. All this
would be more and more as it iS, this con-
dition of things would increase and intensi-
fly, but for the civliZing and refining influ-
ences created by railroads, and but for the
means and facilities for culture and social
improvement. which they have created.
The railroads make the city and country
near neighhors. They break up the rustic
and old-fashioned habits and
ways of life which have
prevailed on the hrms and in the remote
villages they are the direct agencies in ed
ucatirg, refining, polishing and elevatirg 6
the classes Of people who have been in the
past without the possibilities Of culture and
refinement. The railroads carry books,
magazines, fresh newspapers, models of
taste and labor, patterns and knowledge
Of art, the results of experiment and
science, to the most distant communities
and to the scattered homes and resides
through out the vast areas of our common
country. They have removed from the
ways of rural life the curse Of isolation.
and the shackles which bound men, women
and children to sameness of scene, toll
and effort during their life time, and
from generation to generation.
The railroads have made the cOuntry
cosmopolitan, and they have brought every
body within the radius and influence Of the
highest sources of enjoyment. The great
est singer in the world comes to the netrop-
Oils, and the railroads make 1t practicable
for thousands from near and far TO listen tc
the miracles of her minstrelsy. The great
orators, through the facilities created by
railroads, visit all the people of the country
at their local centers aud places of resort,
or the people are enabled to go long dis
tanres to listen to their arguments and elo-
quence. Famous men and women in all pro-
fessions are no longer strangers to the mass
es of the people. Travel has been cheap
ened and made comfortable and convenient
by the railroads, and it has greatly enlarged
the field Of every ones vision.
The women of to- Gay are vastly privileged
beyond their mothers. The first settlers
in the West came in OK teams, and were six
"over the hills and far away, and they left
in the unapproachable distance behind
them all that was dear and delightful by
association and memory The railroad has
opened means of transit from the past to
the present, from the farthest east to the
ultimate west. and few hours or a
day or two by rail will carry the men
and women on the borders of civil
liZaion, to the scenes of their
childhood, to 1the old folks at home," to
the old homestead and fire-side. Railroads
enable friends and relatives to he set down
at the far distant bed side Of the sick and
dying, and to minister to the cheerless and
forlorn wherever their lot NAV be cast.
Men value railroads because they facili-
tate business, enhance the price Of land
promote speculation, and aid in money get
ting. The dollar mark is the mark of
mans appreciation of railroads. Railroads
are Of inestimable value to women, because
they add so much to the possibilities and
delights of social intercourse, because
trey make rural life pleasant and
Pdiversify it by means of travel and recrea-
s.>ka
association between city and country, adj.
| ding to the polish and urbanity Of one the
| natural truth and freshness Of the other,
| and because they introduce the modes and
fashions of polite city society to the homes
in the fields and villages remote from the
! noisy and busy centers Of population. For
the women, railroads have been an un-
mixed bless ng and benefit in all their re-
lations to the daily life of the people.