The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1884-02-01
THE sELF-HELPrUL YOUNG WOMAN.

AhC oCAr -uE1TrCL ioCNS WOMAN.
There came down on Northern
train. the other day, girl whose case
has q good deal of interest to all of us,
because 1t is typical. Bright and pref
ty, well educated and well bred, she
came from Vermont village to work
in Massachusetts factory, and her
frank talk to travelling companion fur.
nished abundant food for reflection.
II have to take care of myself" she
said, land in the place 1 lived there
was absolutely nothing for girls like me
to do except teaching school and sew
ing. Circumstances prevented my
teaching, even if could get a school
at the small pay, and with the needle
can barely keep soul and body togeth-
er. So come here; what else can
do? If I go to large city and have
the good luck to find employment at
all, it must almost certainly be at very
low wages, and that would mean a
cheap boarding-hOusc. cheap society.
and life hardly worth having. | am
everywhere ut a disadvantage because
| am woman; it sometimes seems Ia
me that women are a superiluity in this
world altogether. Yes. I know that
women who take care of themselves are
not infrequently happier than those
who are married. but the taking care
is hard job and it ought to be easier
don't like to 60 into mill and do
little stupid work all day long, and
hope in time to find something better;
but if l were man could find some
thing now. There is great wrong; I
won't pretend to say what or where it
is, but it is somewhere. And so she
went on, not in lamentatiOn or despOnd-
ingly. but in deep indignation because
she was denied an equal chance in the
struggle for bread and butter.
1t was the old story. Every one with
an acquaintance among women of the
class indicated who earn their own living
and New England is full of them
has heard it in one shape or another
time and again; the supply of the better
class of female heads and hands i,
greatly in excess of any demand. and
SO the girl on the train was able to find
a factory employing dozens of others
like herself in simple manual labor,
and her case is not nn!:ae thousands OF
oihars. it is useless to say that these
women ought to become servants, for
they cannot and will not; they will not
because of the social aspect OF the case,
and cannot because they are Yankees -
there may be good ''hired men, and
hired girls" here, but no genuine New
Highlander ever made u good servant,
and it is the servant that is demanded.
The old hired help has disappeared.
OF course there are exceptions TO the
general rule; many women can be found
with practically the same work and pay
given TO men Of the same mental anil
physical capacity, and there are indi-
yidual women enough who succeed
better than individuals Of the other sex
who are their equals; but the rule re-
mains. The actual difference will be
realized by remembering that the edu-
Gated man without family who mere
ly gets a living is thought TO be doing
nothing. while the woman who gains
the same is reckoned doing we'll. The
causes of the trouble are complex
enough--cuStom, prejudice. social pro-
prieties and other good reasons, and
what not--and the remedy cannot be
named off-hand. nor will il come i'm Il
moment. The best that can be said is
that the improvement actually made in
the last generation promises well for
the future, and meantime it is pity
that those who are the real sufferers do
not oftener make their complaints
heard.--Springfeld Republican.