The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1884-05-15
Advica to Girls.

On the question whether girls should lear
to provide for themselves, Elizabeth Stu
Phelps says:
honester, safer, nobler and more womanly 70
woman TO be able to care for herself and 10
the father, orlmother, or brother, or husband
or child, whom hundred chances may, at an
hour, fling upon her warm heart and BRAY
hand for protection. As q rule, a girl shou ID
make herself perfect mistress Of some indu
try, or art, or profession, or trade which has q
market value in the great struggle for ex ist-
ence into which God has plunged this weary
world. AS rule, she can succeed in doing
this If she determine to, and will fail IN it II
she does not.
Girls, first make up your minds that you
will be somethingi All the rest will follow.
What you shall be comes more easily and
clsarly in due time. When you have perfectly
and solemnlS decided to be something, your
battle Is half fought.
There are exceptional parents, as there are
exceptional daughters. But this You may de-
pend upon, little women, If your whole heart
is set upon, aud your whole head is trained for,
becoming an elocutionist, or q green grocer, or
an engraver, or florist, or a singer, or doc.
tor, the chances are that elocutionist, or green
grocer, or engTaver or florist, singer, or doc.
cor you will be. Your mother may forbid you
whim she will not disregard purpose.
Your father may laugh at q notion; he will re-
friend to encourage you in jerky, hysterio,
vague attempts to acquire fame without ge-
MUS, or wealth without labor, or success with
out perseverance,.
All over the terrible ocean, among the law
less sailors, the men with wives aud children
TO work for, are those who lead the gentlest
and cleanest lives. So, on the great ocean Of
school life, the girls with aims to study for, are
those whose labor is the richest and the ripest.
Ahl you will never realize till you have tried
it what az immense power over the life is the
power of possessing distinct aims The voice, the
dress, the look, the very motions Of . person
define and alter when he or she begins to live
for reason. fancy that can select in .
crowded street the busy, blessed women who
support themselves. They carry themselves
with an air of conscious self-respect and self
content which a shabby alpaca cannot hide.
nor Bonnet silk enhance, nor even sickness
or exhaustion fuit0 JEas ont
But, girls il you don't mean to make thor
ough business Of the occupation you have
chosen, never, never, never begin to be ocou-
pied at all. Halffnished work will do for
amateurs. 1t will never answer for profession
ais. Don't expect to get the return of skilled
labor for unskiled effort. Remember that,
no matter what you intend to become, you
cannot avoid apprenticeship. Don't expect, X
you bring your education to an end at IS, TO
become teacher or preacher, q lawyer or a
physician like your brother, whose preparatory
studies last till he is %. Don't think you
can rush to the art-galleries and sell your am.
ateur water-colors in competition with artists
who have given years and years OF drudgery to
the handling of their brushes and the culture
of their inspirations