The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1885-06-26

A New Profession for Women.
To Young Women aOh0 are Ready
Work..

chimedes, "Grant me Il place to stand,'
and sought a lever by which | might
help to nov the world. If this de-
scribes your mental outlook, let us con-
fer together concerning your vocation.
There is none noblcr than that of a
teacher or a professor in All Institution
for the higher education. But these
ranks are overcrowded, and without
decided talent, some experience or rare
influence, you risk much in making
choice of teaching as your field of la
Dor.
Journalism is difficult and uncertain.
Literature, without the highest order
OF talent, is hopeless. Lyceum lectur-
ing has passed its prime and the most
gifted and famous alone can win in
that arduons field. Public reading, as
an avocat!on for women, is as much
overcrowded as the legal profession is
for men. In music, vocal and instru-
mental, there is an absolute glut of the
market, save for the highly endowed.
Moreover, in all these lines, the stand
ard is rising so steadily and to such a
height that mediocrity, once endurable,
is now hopelessly condemned. To be "a
fourth or even a third-rate musician is
to have failed outright. To paint daubs
and call them pictures, is a positive
sin. TO murder the modern languages
by false accent and atrocious grammar,
hath not forgiveness in this world. But
behold, all these things are done daily
by droves of young persons who are
blindly or ignorantly resolved upon the
unattainable.
The inventory | have outlined
includes most of the higher oc-
equations open to women, save one,
and that is the broad, nay, the we'll
nigh boundless field of practical phil
anthropy. Here, at last, the world is
all before you, where to choose. There
is a welcome from the best, Tor women.
on the moral battle-tields of this busy
age. Soldiers are needed new recruits
eagerly sought. No class of workers
here outrank women in opportunity,
dignity, or the rewards that a sincere
heart prizes most. TO be sure, wealth
cannot be won here, but a moderate
income, sufficient for current needs, is
certain to all faithful and efficient
workers. A noisy fame is not to be at
tanned, but a thousand homes will be
your own and ten thousand hearts will
bless and shelter you. Growth Of
brain, heart and conscience is nowhere
more certainly assured. There is no
one-sided development, as in purely in
tellectual work, but thought and SYM
pathy 90 hand in hand. 1t is a home
like place for a woman's soul to dwell
IN, this golden harvest field of Christian
work. The ltuths have been here long
as cleaners only. They have grown to
be reapers at last. | might enumerate
the societies for Home and Foreign
Missions, Indian Reform, Associated
Charities, and many other attractive
lines Of work, but my present object is
to win your attention to the Woman's
Temperance Union as the most promis-
ing field of labor and reward that can
be named for Christian women, young
or middle-aged or old. Let me tell
you something of its history and aims:
The National Woman's Christian
Temperance Union, with its thirty
eight auxiliary State and nine Territor-
ial Unions, besides that of the District
of Columbia, is the largest society ever
composed exclusively of women, and
conducted entirely by them. 1t is now
organized in every Stat. and Territory
of the nation, and locally in all impor-
tant towns and cities. Great Britain,
Canada and Australia are also organ
lied, and Mrs. Mary C. Leavitt of Mas
sachusetts is making a preliminary re-
connoissance for a Worlds W. G. IT,.
AS a general estimate (the returns be-
ing altogether %incomplete), we think
the number of local unions in the
United States about 10000 with a men,
bership of about 10000, besides num-
erous Juvenile organizations. This So
ciety is the lineal descendant of the
great temperance crusade of 1851,
and is a union of Christian women of all
churches, for the purpose of educating
the young forming a better public senti-
ment; reforming the drinking classes /;
transforming, by the power of divine
grace, those who are enslaved by alco-
hol and removing the dram.shop from
our streets by law,
In the order of evolution, the depart
ments of work are embraced under the
following general classification; /.
Organizing; ,. Preventive; 3. Educa-
%tional; 4. Evangelistic; 5. Social; G..
Legal.
Eleven years of constant study and
experience have enabled us to reduce
to II science the methods by which these
departments have been made successful
These can be learned by active coop
Grafton with the local society in your
own town; by reading our weekly pa.
per, The Union sigma, edited by Mrs.
Mary b. Willard, l6l La Sale St.,
Chicago; "The Pathfinder" (our hand
book by Mrs. T.. G.. Greene of st. AL
bans, VT, and by studying orr nation
: al minutes and other practical helps TO
be mad by addressing Mrs. g. b. Buell.
l6 Fast 14th ST., New York. For a
, history of the origin and growth of this
{ great movement, and some knowledge
of its leaders, | refer you to my own
book, entitled "Woman and Temper
. ance."
Hundreds of women have already be-
! come experts in this branch of social
e science and religious activity. AS or
ganizers, National, State, district and
. county, they are kept constantly busy,
and their income is provided by those
for whom thew labor Aa IOcal and