The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-05-09
Look Before You Leap.
BN GRNIE l.. BOYCE

Dear Sisters.-I have read so many
valuable suggestions in your columns
that | want to contribute my quota to
swell the amount. You may not con-
slider mine valuable; nevertheless,
" woman fashion," / must have my
say. The seasonable subject seems to
be TRADE on " our John" l can say
to Sister Jerusha that | can sympathize
with her, not from personal experience,
but from knowledge gained through
acquaintance and observation; and of
all deplorable things on earth the most
deplorable is discord and unharmony in
the family circle. A lawyer, for fee,
will plead case in law; physician,
for certain remuneration, will pre-
scribe for the sick; minister will ad-
wise with us in regard to our spiritual
welfare-but who on earth is there to
enter the family circle who will, or can,
prescribe an effectual remedy for in
congeniality and discord, too often eX-
listing between man and wife? / agree
with Miss North in her statement of
Sister Jerusha's case not being an eX-
ceptional one, as my life experience,
although not prolonged one, has led
me to believe there are one or more
wolves in sleeps clothing" in every
district. Our editors experience must
be very limited-undoubted owing to
secluded life and little travel. My
advice, however, will be given to the
girls when at liberty to pluck the flowers
instead of thorns. I would have every
young lady in the land, in whatever
station in life, engage in some occupa-
ton, whereby she may secure for her.
self an independent livelihood. To
have vocation makes a woman tenfold
stronger and happier in her happiest
days; and in time of disaster and desc
lation it is her safeguard and support.
What can we conceive of, what can
imagination picture more heart-rend-
ing, more pitiable than the case of one
who has always been "taken care of :"
when obliged to face for herself a
world that is so apt to deal cruelty
with weakness and inefliciency? Can
it be the assignment of nature that
we should be patronizers of idleness?
Certainly not. God did not make us
for mere butterflies. Yet it seems to
be the prevailing object of the general
ity of girls to engage in gossip, care
for nothing but show and admiration
and look upon marriage as the browning
object of life, and to feel every impru-
dence will be condOned by tour Johns. "
BY thus spending our girlhood days
we are laying the foundation for feeble
and dependent lives in future years.
What pursuits and occupations will we
engage in? That is a question we
must decide for ourselves, as "the
minds of no two individuals contain
the same combination of elements
None have the same tastes or desires,
therefore the conditions adapted for
the highest enjoyment of one would
not perfectly compass the same end fol-
any other. This being the case, tastes
and inclinations should be consulted
If our forte is music, encourage it
music hath charms IF an artist
like opportunity should be granted, OIL
public speaker, or other of the nu.
merous accomplishments of which time
and space will not permit to detail
each of which, if desire and nclina
ton are expressed, should be encour.
aged. But allow me to impress one
thing upon the minds of each ant
every one: whatever our vocation may
be, let us have a soul in the work We
are performing; if we have not, per-
sonal happiness is marred, and avail'
merely cipher to the one being in
structed, comparatively speaking, tt
what it might have been"