Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-10-18

seems to me that one glance at the the
| girls standing behind the counters of our
great retail stores ought TO satisfy any
person that II Is the last ditch into which
| hey could get by any possible tumble
In these places the work has nothing
stimulating about II. II stirs no latent
energy, II acts In no sense as tonic 20
the brain. IL Is physique wearing
pauence-exhausung The average pay az
these poor girls Is IS per week. Out OF
that they must pay their board, uiotha
tnemselves-and clothe themselves re-
| specially, too-pay their car fare, the
DOCTORS bulls, and for what little pleasure
they get In the way Of amusement. Now,
/ 90 not intend to preach morality, but 1
simply open the door and ask You 10 look
10 yourself at the 10000 girls In this great
city, whose average Compensation Il
~ 90 per week, with an Ell forced vacation
Ia many OF the larger stores o from six TO
eight weeks duration, during which they
get no pay. whatever, and then tell me
whether this Is u school for virtue,
whether this Is promenade on which can
be safely placed the tender feet OF girls
TOO young to understand the meaning Of
the snares that encircle them, but old
enough 10 wish TO dress as well as their
companions, and weak enough TO follow
any example, however pernicious, that
they may get on
Now, all this leads up to the question
Where shall they 90? What shall they
do2 1t seems to me tn &, outside of The
factories, where children are little better
than slaves, there are fields OF labor in
which the unquestionable intellect and
marvellous adapliveness, physical, OF
woman might be utilized. l am not yery
familiar with spinning and the varied
cognate employments connected with II,
but believe there Is realm in which
women could do an immenee amount OF
work, aud ior which they would receive
pay (they would hate TO take "wages,n |
suppose,) commensurate with their
achievements. Household service, men.
ial service, OF necessity, occupy the time
anu attention OF thousands. So far as
cities are concerned that class of work is
monopolized almost entirely by for
eigners, but throughout the great coun-
| try, on New England farms, on Western
ranches, there are opportunities where
selt-respecting and self reliant girls could
find congenial employment. The or, at
picture dealers Of this city tell me that
tney sell with wonderful rapldity, and q.
most gratifying prices, crayon sketches
women,so long as the subjects are untuue
and sympathetic. Women's intuitions
are quicker, their sentiments are finer.
and so they ought to be better able to
select subjects which, being pleasant to
them, would be agreeable to purchasers.
portion of our city churches have
women organists. Some OF our largest
concerns have women accountants. The
oest proof-reader | ever knew was a
woman.
Women in newspaper office, as rule,
are nuisance. The reason OF this il
twotold; First, they insist in terms and
In manner upon being treated as women
They want their copy judged more len
| ienilyi they want their lutte episodes Of
forgetfulness passed over very lightly,
not because they were i'll, but because
they are women The ordinary woman
writer seizes almost intuiuvey upon
fashions as her topic, as though dress and
its ldiosyncrasits were the chief thought
Of their readers, and therefore OF them
selves. They are unwilling to be directed.
They are often petty and small In their
comprehensions Of affairs. They are, as
u matter Of course, obviously precluded
from certain phases of newspaper work,
| but IN the composing room | have always
found them as serviceable as a man, and
in the proof-room, as l say, the best
reader ever knew was woman.
Literature, the world around, seems to
be fair field for women II they would be
content to enter before the mast and
work their way up, irrespective of their
sex, or Of aBy special domestic trouble
that might be annoying to them. In ether
words, II they wish to stand shoulder to
shoulder with their brothers, receive a
mans pay for mans work, they should
be content ais o to take the risks and 10
expect the hazards, precisely as their
brothers are compelled to; so that, after
all, IL seems to me the first thing our
girls should be taught is the necessity of
self-reliance for their own support, the
necessity of training to some special
end, precisely rs a boy is trained for a
special end, and then go ahead with the
understanding that their work is llie's
work into which matrimony, IL it comes
at all, comes as diyertant, and an aid,