Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-03-24
Business Women.

N~A
It Is estimated that in Great Britain
there are 100000 more women than men.
OF these about one-third inherit mean
of support, and the other two-thirds must
earn for themselves or depend on the
earnings of those who have little to di-
vide with them. 1t can be readily seen
that these 0 $1,000 women to whom mar
rage is impossible must have something
to do with their lives, and that there will
be some among them who will see clearly
and advocate fearlessly the opening Of
new avenues for industry and success for
women-that the woman movement was
inevitable.
The preponderance of women over men
in the United States is not so large as it
is in Great Britain, though in o eStates
the proportion of the sexes is about the
same here az there, and in these States
the same questions that agitate the
British female mind agitate the Ameri-
can female mind. No one pretends to
say or to think that a happy marriage is
not the happiest lot of woman, or that
she was not born for domestic life. But
where there are not men enough to make
marriage possible, those women who do
not find husbands must find another
career than that of wife and mother.
The inventions of men in behalf of wo-
men have removed from feminine hands
the great processes of manufacture, and
machinery does better and more cheaply
than human muscle the heavy work that
vas formerly done in the family. The
maiden sister, once 30 valuable a member
sof the family, finds her hands idle and
empty, and lest her mind and heart be-
com 10, she must have something ade-
quate to occupy mind and heart and
hands nobly and This is the whole
secret of the woman movement, and
wherever in any enlightened community
there is a pr%eponderance of women over
men this movement must manifest itself
until women have a chance to make for
themselves such careers as they are capa-
bic of making.
There is a class Of men and women
who arc not made for marriage, but
where the sexes are equal in number in
any State this class does not disturb the
balance of society, its members finding
easily enough congenial occupation.
Many women who are naturally in
clined to domestic life, fear to enter upon
a business career lest il injure their
chances of marriage. A member of the
British Parliament, speaking Of this
phase of the subject, gave it as the result
Of his observation that business women
had better chances in marriage than
their sisters not in business. They had a
wider outlook, a larger acquaintance
with, and a better knowledge CT men,
and not being influenced by the desire of
being supported by a husband, they were
able to choose with more judgment and
discrimination, and hence rarely made
shipwreck in their married lives.
The opening to women of the emu
of industry until within a few years mo-
nopolized by men has not been followed
by any assertion anywhere that women
have become less womanly, less feminine,
that they have been robbed in any way
Of those charms hat are deemed ex
clusively theirs. On the other hand it is
admitted that they have been greatly
benefited every way by their enlarged OPP
portuaities. There is nothing strange in
this. The work partakes always Of the
character of the worker, and good work
like fine character is of no sex. Though
there are many businesses for which
women are by nature unfit and unsuita-
BILE, yet there is scarcely any business in
which they may not become the helpers
of men. In every department of science,
from astronomy down, in every depart
ment of art and of industry, we find
women doing excellent work, and fitting
themselves to do still better work when
admitted to branches of industry now not
open to them.
It is granted on all sides that the asso-
citation of women with men in the bust
nesses of life has been productive of only
good to men. Those in charge of col
leges where the co-education Of the sexes
is permitted, with scarcely q dissenting
voice, agree that the presence of women
in college life %refines, restraints and i'm
proves young men, and far from lowering
the standard of intellectual attainment,
the cases are numerous where the highest
prizes of merit have been awarded to
women.
The training of business education is
invaluable to every woman who receives
it. She becomes wider in her apprehen-
sion, larger in her sympathies, frmer in
her convictions, and capable of graphing
with the problems and the labors Of life.
Her patience, her endurance, her staying
qualities, are strengthened, and her CON
fidence in herself established. Called to
domestic life after such a training, as
many women have been, she proves by
practical demonstration that her ex-
periences have rendered her more capa
BILE of performing with efficiency and per-
fectness the duties of her position.
The time is not far distant when the
majority of girls will look forward as
boys now do to some special occupation
as a means of certain livelihood, 50 that
they shall be independent of the muta-
tons of fortune, and sure of a life of honor
able industry and INDEPENDENTLY Y.
I The agent of a pianist travelling with
concert company in the West, adapts a
romantic story to advertising purposes.
is first called to "the peculiar
ly sad expression that rested on his face
and the far-away look that crept into his
eyes, as he tenderly dwelt on the dreamy
of the Chopin nocturne." And
thereby hangs the tale. When he was
n ~ -. I