Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1886-08-23

ora - ~ Ia hAii ~ u " ~ ~ AISilA EOuI
'hildren all the time" l said.
"Mother lives with me and takes care Of
them while I'm at work" she answered. III
dom see much of them. I'm gone when they
get up in the morning, and In the winter
they're all in bed but the oldest one when
i get home"
| turned away musing on this womanis
humble life. She was passably good looking,
but had o self-assertion and lacked intelli.
gence. Some would say that she is in that
nenial position because she is fit for no
etttfsr; that she is to blame for it herself.
Perhaps SO. The subject is too vast for me.
/ only know that those who accept mental
work must dc it. Those who insist on having
something better Usually get something bet
ter. The theory of evolution is exemplified in
the scrub woman. She is In embryo, intellect
ually. She doesn't know that there are any
possibilities in her other than %scrubbing and
securing ones. She spends her lifo on her
knees, mold, stringy clothes, wet and sandy
around the ankles. Her feet are water
soaked, her hands are wrinkled like parch-
rlent by constant contact with hot suds.
There are men who dislike to hear any
thing in favor of women voting, because
they would then 'lese their softness." Women
are too fine for anything so coarse as poll
tics" they say but 1t never otfends them to
see women down on their hands and knees
%scrubbing out mems dirty offices. They are
not too fine for that. III the spool of politics.
be any dirtier than their floors, l for one am
not aware of it. Whenever i see the scrub
women toiling awayI think of these thought
full souls who want to protect women from
everything save work too mental for men to
perform.
The system of ~scrubbiHg pTact:aed here Is
an old country one. No modern Yankee In
%vention has lessened the New York scrub
%swoinan's work. The split broom and the mop
are not for her. Sho refuses to be enlight-
ened. The old way is tue only way she cares
TO know. In fact, she rcsents any sugges-
tions toward simplifying her toll. She Is In
the state of mental development which would
not ffs:.:..i. her to Isasnect herself Ii she did not
do everything the hardest way, wear herself
to the bone and draggle her clothing TO tne
knees.
Women clothing Is sadly against them In
performing such work For that reason, II
no other, men ought to do it. Think of a
woman living day after day with wet skirts
clinging round her ankles. Health and clean
illness are both outraged. Yet if she were to
put on clothing that would enable her to
scrub under fewer embarrassments, no end Of
a kubbub would be raised, and she might even
be arrested n called to account for outrag-
ing the proprieties. Sometimes I think this
world avery far astray. and III nothing is it
farther from the right road than in the mat
ter Of woman's attire.
1notice, too, that most women who do very
hard mental work wear the most inappro-
PIRATE garb, Instead of having a ;sovin OF
decent, serriceable material, made simply
and of a cut to give the wearer freedom of
movement, the scrub woman goes about in a
dress originally made for some richer
woman, 1t is dabbei over with trimming,
which Is falling to pieces here and there, and
gets frnged and dragged and u~nsightly and
contributes largely to the forlornness of her
appearance.
She goes nome in the evening laden with
packages bought here and there at cheap
groceries. These are eatables for the family
for whom she tolls, Including the husband
who fishes. But then, in her station of life il
Is highly respectable to have a husband, nc
matter of what brand. Her ~neighbors can't
accuse her of being wholly destitute of at
fractions. She has captured a man; that set
ties IL. No, they can't throw that insinl,eaior
n iher face. ELLIS CLARMEL