Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1888-01-21

since the war one million one hundred
and fifty thousand men slain, and decree
one million one hundred and fifty thou
sand women TO celibacy. Take then III
fact that SO man women are unhappy il
their marriage, and the fact that TIT
slaughter of two million one hundred anC
fifty thousand men by
WAR AND RUM
combined decide that at least that number
of women shall be unbalanced for life, my
text comes in with Il cheer and a potency
and appropriateness that | never saw il
it before when it says, Every wise
woman buildeth her house. that is, LEI
woman be her own architect, lay out hei
own plans, be her own supervisor, achieve
her own destiny.
In addressing these women who will
have to fight the battle of life alone ]
congratulate you on your happy escape.
Rejoice forever that you will not have to
navigate the faults of the other sex, when
you have faults enough of your own.
Think of the bereavements you avoid, of
the risk Of unassimi ated temper which
you will not have TO run, of the cares you
will never have to carry, and Of the OPP
portunity of outside usefulness from
which martial life would have partially
dcbarred you, and that you are free to go
and come as one who has the responsible
ties of a household can seldom be. God
has not given you a hard lot as compared
with your sisters. When young women
shall make up their minds at the start
that
MASCULINE COMPANIONSHIP
is not a necessity in order to happiness,
and that there is Il strong probability that
they will have to fight the battle Of life
alone, they will be getting the timber
ready for their own fortune, and their
saw and axe and plane sharpened for its
construction, since Every wise woman
buildeth her house"
AS no boy ought to be brought up with
out learning some business at which he
could earn a livelihood, SO no girl ought
TO be brought up without learning the
science of self support. The difficulty is
that many "A family go sailing Gu the high
tides of success, and the husband and
father depends on his own health and
acumen for the welfare Of his household,
but one day he gets his feet wet. and in
three days pneumonia has closed his life.
and the daughters are turned out on a
cold world TO earn bread, and there is
nothing practical that they can do. The
friends of the family come in and hold
consultation =.
Give music lessons" says an outsider.
Yes, that is a useful calling, and if you
have great genius for it go on in that
direction. But there are enough music
teachers now starving TO death in all our
towns and cities to occupy all the piano
stools and sofas and chairs and front
door steps of the city. Besides that, the
daughter has been playing only foramuse-
ment,, and is only at the foot of the
ladder, TO the top Of which a great multi
tude OF masters on piano and harp II
flute and organ have climbed.
THE FEMALE EMPLOYEES.
Put the bereft daughters as sales
ONE in stores says an adviser. But
there they must compete with statesmen
of long experience or with men who have
served al apprenticeship in commerce,
and who began as shop boys at ten years
Of age. Some kind hearted dry goods
man having known the father, now gone
says. I'VE are not in need of any more
help just now, but send your daughters to
my store, and | will do as well by them
as possible" Very o the question
comes up, Why do not the female en-
ployes of that establishment get as much
wages as the male employees? For the
simple reason in many cases the females
were suddenly flung by misfortune behind
that counter, while the males have from
the day they left the public school been
learning the business.
How is this evil to be cured? Start
clear back in the homestead and teach
your daughters that life is an earnest
thing. and that there is a possibility, if
not a strong probability, that they will
have to flint
THE BATTLE OF LIFE ALONE.
Let ever father and mother say to their
daughters, Now, what would you do
for a livelihood if what | now own were
swept away by financial disaster, or old
age or death should end my career?'
"Well, could paint on pottery and do
such decorative work" Yes, that is
beautiful, and if you have genius for it
60 on in that direction. But there are
enough busy at that o to make a line
of crockery from here to the East river
and across the bridge.
well, | could make recitatiOns in pub
lie and earn my living as a dramatist. !
could render King Lear or Macbeth till
your hair would rise on end, or give you
Sheridan's Ride or Dickens Pickwick."
Yes; that is a beautiful art, but ever and
anon, as now, there is an epidemic of
dramatiZation that makes hundreds of
households nervous with the cries and
shrieks and groans of young tragedians
dying in the fifth act, and the trouble is
that while your friends would like to
hear you, and really think that you
would surpass Ristori and Charlotte
Cushman and Fanny Kemble of the past,
to say nothing of the present. you could
not, in the way of living, in ten years
earn ten cents.
ADVICE TO WOMEN.
My advice to all girls and all unmarried
women, whether in aiiiuent homes or in
homes where most stringent economics
are grinding, to learn TO do some kline O.
work that the world must have Nhiie L
world stands. | am glad to Sc i mar
velous change for the better, nd that
women have found out that there aiu
hundreds of practical things that a wo-
man can do for a living if she begin soon
enough, and that men have been com
PEELED to admit it. You and ! can re
member when the majority of occupations
were thought inappropriate for women,
but our civil war came and the hosts of