The Indianapolis journal., 1885-05-25

father tolls his life away for her support 1t is
a shame for a daughter to be idle while her
mother tolls at the wash-tub. 1t is as hon
orable to sweep house, make beds or trim
hats as it is to twist a watch-chain. AS far as
understand the line of respectability lies be-
tween that which is useful aud that which is
useless. If women do that which is of no value
their work is honorable. If they do practical
work. it is dshonorab.e. That our young women
may escape the censure of doing dishonorable
| work, shall particulariZe You may knit tidy
| for the back of an arm chair, but by no means
| make the money wherewith to buy the chair
| You may, with delicate brush, beautify mantel
| ornament but die rather than earn enough to
| buy marble mantel You may learn artistic
music until you can sGual Italian, but never
| sing "Ortonvler or 'tOld Hundred" Do moth
ing practical, if you would, in the eyes of refined
| society, preserve your respectability.
| / scout these finical notions. l tell you
| woman, no more than man, has right to oc-
| cupy place in this world unless she pays rent
| for it In the course of lifetime you consume
| whole harvests and droves of cattle, and every
| day you live breathe forty hogsheads of good,
| pure air. You must, by some kind OF useful
| ness. pay for all this Our race the last
| thing created-the birds and fishes on the fourth
day, The cattle and lizards on the fifth day, and
| man on the sixth day. If geologsts are right
the earth was million of years in the possession
of the insects, beasts and birds, before our race
came upon it, In one sense we were innovators.
| The cattle the lizards and the hawks had pre-
| emption right. The question is not what we are
| to do with the lizards and summer insects, but
what the lizards and summer insects are to DO
with US.
IF YOU WANT PLACE YOU MUST EARN 1T.
If we want place in this world we must earn
it. The partridge makes its own nest before it
occupies it. The lark, by its morning song
earns its breakfast before it eats it, and the
Bible gives an intimation that the first duty OF
an idler is to starve, when it says, if he will
| not work. neither shall he eat" Idleness ruins
the health; and very soon nature says 'This
man has refused to pay his rent, out with him!"
Society is to be reconstructed the subject of
| womans toll. A vast majority of those who
would have woman industrious shut her up to
| few kinds of work. My judgment In this matter
is that woman has right to do anything she
can do well. There should be no department. OF
| merchandise, mechanism, art or science barred
against her. If Miss Hosmer has genius for
| sculpture, give her chisel. If Rosa Bonheur
has fondness for deineating animals let her
make ''The Horse Fair" If Miss Mitchell will
der If Lydia will be merchant, let her sell pur
| pie. If Lucretia Mott will preach the gospel,
| let her thrill with her womany eloquence the
| Quaker meeting house.
| 1t is said if woman is given such opportunities
she will occupy places that might be taken by
men. / say if she have more skill and adapted
ness for any position that man has, let her
| have It'll She has as much right to her bread to
| her dppdrei ana TO nor nome as men nave. EuC
1t is said that her nature is delicate that she
is untitled for exhausting toll. l ask in the
| name OF all past history what toll on earth Is
more severe, exhausting and tremendous than
that toll of the needle, to which for ages she has
| been subjected! The battering ram, the sword,
the carbine, the battle-axe, have made no such
| havoc the needle would that these living
sepulchres, in which women have for ages been
buried, might be opened, and that some resur-
| rection trumpet might bring up these living
cOrDSeS to the fresh and sunlight. TO with
me and will show you woman who, by hard
est toll, supports her children, her drunken
| husband, her old father and mother, pays her
| house rent, always has wholesome food on her
table, and when she can get some neighbor on
| the Sabbath to come in and take care of her
| family. appears in church with hat and cloak
| that are far from indicating the toll to which
| she is subjected.
| Such woman as that has body and soul
enough to fit her for any position. She could
| stand beside the majority of your statesmen and
| dispose of more goods She could go into your
wheelwright shops and beat ons,half of your
workmen at making carriages We talk about
| woman as though we had resigned to her all the
| light work. and ourselves had shouldered the
| heavier. But the, day of Judgment, which will
reveal the sufferngs of the stake and inquistion
will marshal before the throne of God and the
hierarchs of heaven the martyrs of wash-tub
| and needle. Now say if there be any prefer
| ence of occupation, let women have it. God
knows her trials are the severest. By her acuter
I sensitiveness to misfortune by her hour of
| anguish, | demand that no one hedge up her
| pathway to livelihood. Oh, the meanness, the
| despicability of men who begrudge woman the
wight to work anywhere in any honorable calling.
60 still further, and say that women should
| have equal compensation with men. By what
| principle of justice is it that women in many of
our cities get only two-thirds as much pay as
men, and in many cases only halfl Here is the
| gigantic injustice-that for work equally we'll,
if not better done, woman receives far less com
pensation than Start with the national
government: women clerks in Washington get
| 5000 for doing that for which men receive
| 81, 800. The wheel of oppression is rolling over
the necks of thousands of women who are at
| this moment in despair about what they to
do Many of the largest mercantile establish
ments of our cities accessory to these
denominations and from these large establish
ments there are scores of souls being pitched off
unto death, and their employers know it. Is
there God! Will there be a judgments tell
| you if God rises up to redress woman's wrongs,
many of our large establishments will be swal-
lowed up quicker than South American earth
quake ever took down city God will catch
these oppressors between the two m.lstones Of
his wrath. and grind them to powder!
Why is it that female principal in school
gets only 1925 for doing work for which male
principal gets 81 ,6509 hear from all this land
| the wall of womanhood Man has nothing to
answer to that wall but fatteries. He says she
is angel She is not. She knows she is not
| She is a human being who gets
hungry when she has no food and cold
when she has no fire. Give her no more f1atter-
les; give her justice There are $4,000 sewing
| girls in New York and Brooklyn. Across the
sunlight comes their death groan. 1t is not
| such a cry as comes from those who are sudden
ly hurled out of life. buta slow, grinding horri
BILE wasting away. Gather them before you and
look into their faces pinched, CHASTITY, hunger
struck Look at their fingers, needle-picked
and blood tipped See that premature stoop in
the shoulders. Hear that dry, hacking, merci-
less cough!
THE NEEDLEwoMAN'S MARTYRDOM
At large meeting of these women, held in
hall in Philadelphia, grand speeches were de-
livered; but needle woman took the stand,
threw aside her faded shawl, and, with her
shriveled arm, hurled very thunderbolt of