Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-06-19
WOMAN'S WAGES.
mr.. Talmage on "The Despotism of
the Needle"
nne Blessing of Honorable Industry and
the Misery of Idleness-The Mistake OF
Pa~rents-Equal Pay for Equal
work-woman's 0ppressors.

ATChGS@ASAu"A " AoA Equal
work-Woman's Oppressors. ,
The subject of a recent sermon by DR..
Talmage was: ''The Despotism of the
Needle or a Discourse on Woman's Wages"
He took his text from Ecclesiastes iv., 1:
$50 returned and considered all the op.
nressions that are done under the sun, and
hehold the tears of such as were oppressed,
and they had no comforter; and on the
side of their oppressors there was power.n
Following is the Sermon:
woMAN's OIL.
Very long ago the needle was busy. 1t
was considered honorable for women to
toll in olden time. Alexander the Great
stood in his palace showing garments
made by his own mother. The finest
tapestries at Bayeux were made by the
Queen of William tho Conqueror. Au-
gustus, the Emperor. would not wear any
garments except those that were fashioned
by some member of his Royal family. So
let the toiler everywhere be respected!
The needle has slain more than the sword.
When the sewing-machine was invented
some thought chat invention would al
leviate woman's toll and put an end to the
Gespotism of the needle. But no! While
the sewing-machine has been a great bless
ing to well-to-do families in many cases,
it has added to the stab of the needle the
crush of the wheel, and multitudes of
women, Notwithstanding the reinforce
ment OF the sewing-machine, can only
make, work hard as they will, between
two dollars and three dollars per week.
NO HAPPINESS IN IDLENEss.
The most unhappy women in our COM
munities to-day are those who lave no en-
gagements to call them up in the morning:
who, once having risen and breakfasted,
lounge through the dull forenoon in Slip
pers down at the heel and with disheveled
hair, reading Ouida's last novel, and who,
havind dragged through q wretched fore
noon and taken their afternoon sleep, and
having passed an hour and a half at their
toilet, pick up their card-case and go out
to make calls, and who pass their evenings
waiting for somebody to come in and
break up the monotony. Arabella Stuart
never was imprisoned in SO dark q dun
geon as that.
There is no happiness in an idle woman.
1t may be with hand, it may be with brain,
it may be with foot; but work she must, or
be wretched for ever. The little girls of
our families must be started with that
idea. The curse of our American society
Is that our young women are taught that
the hrst, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth,
seventh, tenth, fftieth, thousandth thing
in their life is to get somebody to take care
of them. Instead of that the first lesson
should be how, under God, they may take
care of themselves. The simple fact is
that a majority of them do nave to take
care OF themselves, and that, too, after
having through the false notions of their
parents wasted the years in which thew
ought to have learned how successfully to
maintain themselves. We now and here
declare the i~nhumanity, cruelty n out
rage OF that father and mother who pass
their daughters into wo,nanhood, having
gwen them no facility for earning their
livelihood. Madame De StaeI said: at is
not these writings that l am proud of, hut
the fact that l rave facility in ten occupa-
tons, in any one of which I could make a
liyelihood."
You say you have a fortune to leave
them. o, man and woman, have YOU not
learned that, like vultures, like hawks, like
eagles, riches have wings and fly away?
Though you should be successful in leay-
las u competency behind you, the trickery
OF executors may swamp it in a night: or
some officials in our churches may get up
u INNING company and induce your
orphans to put their money into a hole in
Colorado, and if by the most skillful
machinery the sunken money can not be
brought up again, prove to them. that it
was eternally decreed that that was the
way they were to lose it, and that it went
IN the most orthodox and heavenly stvle.
on! the damnable schemes that professed
Christians will engage in until God puts
Ills fingers into the collar of the hvpo.
critics robe and rips it clear down to the
bottom!
THE CRIME OF
have you nothing better than money to
ieave your children? If you have not, but
seho your daughters into the world with
empty brain and unskilled hand, you are
suilty OF assassination, homicide, regicide,
ihlantlclde. There are women toiling in
our cities, toiling for two and three dollars
per week, who were the daughters of mer-
chant princes. These suffering ones now
would be glad to lave the crumbs that
ouci1 1uluefS UaD1e. 1llt
"ofn-out, broken shoe tina she wears is
'ne lineal descendant of the twelve dollar
s'l'ers in which her mother walked, and
'is'e Worn and faded calico had ancestry
magnificent brocade that swept Broad
way clean without any expense to the
o'fec' commissioners. Though you live
an elegant residence and fare sumptu-
o"s'y every day, let your daughters feel il
disgrace to them not to know how tt
WORK. | denounce the idea prevalent in
s'clety that though our young women may
.mofolder slippers md crochet, and make
Ai''s Tor lamps to stand in without dis.
niaSe, the idea of doing any thing for 8
"'el'hood is dishonorable.
1t Is a shame for a young woman belong.
~ 10 u large family to be ineffi .ient when
= 'atner tolls his life away for her sup.
iU'' 1t is a shame for a daughter to be
w. IVY while her mother tolls at the wash.
u IL Is as honorable to sweep houses
n''Ne beds or trim hats as it is to twist a
.n"ch-chaln. AS far as l can understand
a' "he OF responsibility lies between that
n"iehl IS useful and that which is useless
~ ana H. L1-x