The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1884-09-18
Education Of Girls.

Education Of Girls.
: That girl has the best education who
is the most thoroughly qualified TO take !
care of herself in a hand to hand tight
with the world; who has a basis of good
Judgment, practical knowledge and
common sense, in which to start in her
self-sustaining career; who is armed
with the able weapon of a trade or pro-
fession with which she is familiar, and
whose conduct is governed by exacting
principles of natural integrity. Such a
girl possesses a fortune in her own
right which no fluctuations of business
circles can ~depreciate and who can
never become a drag upon opulent and
unwilling relatives. With health and
strength and a fair start in the race for
life she will reach every milestone of
success, nor e out nor grow dis
couraged by the way; and not infre-
quently she will outrun her Wanting
brother, and even stop to lend him a
helping hand.
The properly-balanced well-educated
girl is aware that she a do n thing
well, and she bends all her energies to-
ward its accomplishment. She concen-
trates her forces, instead of scattering
them. and has something to show for it.
She is the best accountant, or the clev-
crest writer, or the most successful
saleswoman, or the hardest worker in
the sciences-music, physic, law-what-
ever her talent destines for her. She
studies with an aim, and understands
what she learns. Her mind is a store
house, not a sieve, and she endeayors to
absorb quality rather than quantity, and
comprehend TO her own enlightenment
what she studies. The wretched sys-
tenn of forced culture, in which a girl
learned a little French ard Latin, a
smattering of mathematics, a little of
polite literature, and a great deal of
poor piano playing, has been abandoned
in favor of q more sensible curriculum
commensurate with her value as a CO.
worker with her brothers.
r Sensible German parents have always
brought up their daughters 10 be pro-
ducers Is well as consumers in the
domestic economy. 1t is only the
American parent who made the kitchen
unattractive to his daughter, and gave
her no possibility for employing her
talent except in the few lady-1ike de-
partments sanctioned by conservative
custom. The time is coming, nay, has
already come, when a sign reading
'Smith & Daughters" will merely in
dictate that all Mr.. Smiths boys were
| girls, and he had educated them as he
would have done if they had been
boys. And that Smith girls, instead of
dawdiing around the paternal mansion
until some young men could be found
for husbands, have wisely gone into
business with their father. and have
never found time to be discontinued
with themselves.
When Edison, genius and inventor as
he is, had given two weeks of his val
liable time to going up and down on
the New York Elevated Railroad trying
to discover what caused its noise and a
cure for it, he gave up the job. Then
a little woman took it. She rode on
the cars three days, was denied a place
to stand on the rear platform, laughed
at for her curiosity and politely snubbed
by conductors and passengers. But
she discovered what caused the noise,
invented a remedy, which was patented
and she was paid a sum of 3d. 600 and
a royalty forever. Her name is Mrs.
Mary Walton and she lives in New
York City. This is what she says of her
education:
my father had no sons and believed
in educating his daughters. He spared
no pains or expense to this end. My
fathers brother once said to him: why
do you waste so mnch money on youi
girlsP' To which my father replied:
my boys all turned out to be girls, and
I am going to give them as good an ed.
ucation that they may turn OF to be as
good as boys"
AS good as boys is here used in
general sense; as good as some boy:
would be a very poor recommendation,
Any girl who understands her own ca
liabilities will do her work rs well as i
is possible to be done. No boy can d.
better than that. Work is without sex
Certain departments of labor art
claimed exclusively for boys and mer
because they have a legendary right il
them. No competition has entered thu
lists against them. If a woman Cal
make a good horse shoe she can opel
a forge and make shoes. No one ha
the right to say she shall not. Their,
are men who are milliners. dress
makers, and who sell dry goods, an
they do these things so well no dis
putes their right to them.
The girl who has educated herself t.
fill some niche in the mercantile worl,
may marry and never carry her knowl
edge ANY further than her own nursery
What thenp She is well fitted to teacl
her own SOM and daughters the rudi
ments of commercial knowledge, t
counsel and advise with her husband
and, if left a widow, to taxi the care Q
her own estate. There is no waste
heritage of ignorance and uselessnes
than the array of thread-and-needl
accomplishments which for generation
has been considered the correct dove
for a lady-like young person. Cor
slider your girls as responsible fellow
Detroit Free Press.