St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-02-05
wosIAN'S WORK AND REST.
Her Domestic and Social Drudg-
cry Admits Of No Vacation.

Her Domestic and Social Drudg-
cry Admits Of No Vacation.
The fact is, says the Philadelphia
Record. that neither III civilized, semi
civilized. nor savage nations do women
get proper relaxation and rest. The
SavageS make their women creatures
only comparable to beasts of burden.
The Comanche warrior takes better care
of his horse than he does of his wife.
The Turk or the Arab either locks her
up as prisoner. or makes of her slave
to minister at once TO his appetiteS and
his wants. In many countries the wife
does all the drudgery of the household,
besides part of the drudgery of the
shop, the mine. or the field. There are
hold high heads, where the sturdy ye0-
man thinks it well enough to yoke his
wife and his cow to the plOw while he
trOtS contentedly behind the handles.
Even in enlightened and republican
France il Is 10 uncommon sight to see
the woman hauling unaided the heavy
huckster'S cart. from which the man
sells the fruits and vegetables and
accketS the proceeds.
In this g0odly land, indeed, it is some
Sbat III gerent; but even here the WOm-
ans work : ~ hard or harder than is the
mans. The man employed in the fac
tory when he quits work stops TO rest.
The woman drops her thread in the
mill to pick ii up again in the home.
The farmers wife gets up before day to
get the farmers breakfast and start him
afield. His work is done with the going
down of the sun. Her work lasts all
the day, and when the darkness comes
she sits down and plies her sewing. OF
her knitting. or her mending, poor,
weary soul. to rest herself, while
the good man smokes. This is
no fancy picture. 1t is every
day life in thousands of households.
And the women engaged in the higher
occupations, literature. the arts, etc,
are bound by no higher thralldOm, es-
pecially if they have homes, and huS-
bands and children. The man OF let
tiers shuts himself up in his office or his
den and gives his mind and his time
wholly to the work in hand. When it
is done he rests until another day brings
its work. The woman Of letters is lucky
indeed if she can concentrate her mind
for the time being upon her work. And
when it is done there are a thousand
and one demands upon her in her
WOman's position of hOuSekeeper, wife
and mother, and in fulfilling them the
IiOuIS li1dl SllOull NC SlNCn ~ ttSI are
occupied. There is no greater drudge
In the world than the woman who I'M
dertakeS to do mans work and woman'S
work too. She never rests.
But there are many homes where
women are not conscious drudgeS. They
90 and come among their friends and
associates without intolerance, have
money to spend. and are miStreSseS in
their own households. Yet many a
woman so situated leads a life as la
boriOuS as that of any farmers wife.
She does not toll so hard with her hands,
but society" as well as husbandry has
its victims. The riyalrieS that beSet
the girl OH the road to matrimony, the
trials that always follow, the demands
of fashion Oh one side and the husband
and baby on the other, the sad effort to
appear to live better than one can afford
to live. often wear out the nerves of
women before their bodies have become
fairly matured.
1t is no answer to the f0llies of highly
accomplished and tightly corSeted
women to say that such follieS are vol
nntary. The domestic drudgery in one
home and the society drudgery in an
other, which admit of no real vacation,
no absolute rest and chance for recuper-
alton, are cloth cut from the same piece
1t is the custom. There is no time of
rest for women, because there is no OPP
portunity for it. And this is the reason
why American women prematurely
Iade and fold themselves UP in wrinkles.