St. Paul daily globe., 1886-12-19
WOMEN WHO WORRY.
How Some of the Fair Sex Undertake
Too Much.

How Some of the Fair Sex Undertake
Foo Much.
''Work and worry" writes Emily S.
BOuton in the Toronto Blade, include what
are usually called social enJoyments, for
when these are crowded fast upon one
another without pause or cessation they
involve the hardest kind of labor. 1t is i'm
possible to keep mind and body constantly
keyed up to the pitch necessary to make
of these things pleasures, and yet those who
have been drawn into the current and on
into the whirlpool of social gayetieS find it
impossible to get outside the tumult and
reach the shore beyond. And this is in no
sense strange, for it is only the churl who
does not appreciate and desire to show an
appreciation of an attention that speaks of
kindly feeling. When it comes, however.
to two three or four social gatherings
within the twenty-four hours, no one can
endure the strain and have any physical or
mental power for anything else.
1t is not the society lady only who finds
her life one prolonged hurry. Those who
have other aims and purposes, who are in
terested in philanthrOpic undertakings. the
business woman, the writer, the artist, the
student. find the days too short to accom-
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to their hand. Even the few who hold
back out of the whirl find themselves peril
ously near its edges. and feel its influence
in spite of all efforts to the contrary.
1t would not matter so much if we could
always be sure. in the midst of this rush,
that we are doing the things that we ought
to do, and not leaving vital duties unful-
filled, the ghosts of which will one day rise
up and reproach us with bitterness for our
neglect. In our effort to accomplish SO
much it is inevitable that some things will
remain undone. and there is danger that
they will be the very ones that should be
the most sacred, whose demands should be
most vigorously regarded. Even when the
conscience is keenly alive to what is just
and right, it is often difficult to decide
whether the motive of action is the dictate
of duty, the prompting of ambition, or the
love of pleasure. How is one to know,
then, where to draw the line?
1t is hard to tell. One thing is always
certain. Just as soon as you find yourself
always weary, and yet with constant i'm
Fortunate feeling that you have mountain
of work before you, and that there are Alps
upon Alps beyond; when you discover that
you are, however unwittinglY, neglecting
those who have the strongest and most I'M
doubted right to your time and efforts;
when you perceive that you are growing
nervous and irritable at home and that you
can no longer enter sympathetically into
home pleaSantries and pleasures; then you
may be sure that you are undertaking too
much The woman never lived yet, or if
she did she is an anomaly among women,
who could fulfill her duties to her family.
enter largely into social life. be working
member of half dozen charitable and lit
erary organizations. besides. perhaps, doing
church work. help her poor neighbors, and
read and study enough to keep her intellec-
tual faculties bright, without breaking
down under the strain: and yet this is what
many are attempting to do.
The only way out of the whirl is to study
carefully and deliberately what duties you
cannot under any circumstances let go Of
Next see where your efforts are most needed
and where is the labor most adapted to you:
then retain active participation and interest
in what you can do without exhaustion. and
with some time left which you can call your
very own to use as you please.
I do not in the least counsel an idle or a
selfish life nor the narrowing of the sympa-
thies to the home circle and immediate
friends. The world is full of opportunities
to do good, to lift the fallen. to help the un-
fortunate. and that woman who never lets
her thoughts go out to struggling humanity
is to be pitied. 1t is true that there are those
who confine their thoughts and labors to
their own domestic circles, not through real
selfishness, but that they do not see their
way to other doing or have not been aroused
to a personal realization Of the necessities
of the outside world The oyerburdened
woman may look around her and find just
such persons who will be ready and willing
to assume some of her responsibilities, thus
bringing relief to her and broadening their
own mental and moral natures.