The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-01-09
WOMEN WHO
FEMININITY NOT MERELY AN
ADJUNCT TO MASCULINITY.

Have HuSband-All Girls Should be
Made Self-Supporting
BROOKLYN, Jan. S.-The Rev. r. De Witt
Talmage, D. D., preached at the Tabernacle
this morning the first of a series of sermons
TO the women of America with practical
hints for men. The subject of this discourse
was: "The Women Who Fight the Battle
of Life Alone, and the text was from Pro-
verbs xiv, /: Every wise woman buildeth
her house" DR.. Talmage said:
Woman, mere adjunct TO man, an ap-
pendix to the masculine volume-an ap-
pendage, a sort of afterthought, something
hearSay entertained and implied by some
men. This is evident to them; women's in
significance as compared to man is evident
to them because Adam was first created,
and then Eve They don't read the whole
story, or they would find that the porpoise
and the bear and the hawk were created
before Adam, so that this argument
drawn from priority of creation might
prove that the sheep and the dog were
greater than man. No, woman was an in
dependent creation, and was intended, if
she chose to live alone, to walk
alone, act alone, think alone, and
fight her battles alone. The Bible
says it is not good for man to be alone, but
never says it is not good for woman to be
alone, AID the simple fact is that many
women who are harnesSed for life IN the
marriage relation would be thousandfold
better off if they were alone. God makes
no mistake, and the fact that there is such
large ma ajOrity of women in this land proves
that he intended that multitudeS of them
should 60 alone.
Who are these men who year after year
hang around hotels and engine houses and
theatre doors and come in and out to bother
busy clerks and merchants and mechanics,
doing nothing even when there is plenty to
dos They are men supported by their wives
and mothers. If the statistics of any of our
cities could be taken on this subject you
would find that a vast multitude of women
not only support themselves, but maScu-
lines. A great legion of men amount to
nothing, and woman by marriage man
acled to one of these nonentities needs con-
dolence. A woman standing outside the
marriage relation is several hundred
| thousand times better off than woman
| badly married. Many bride instead of a
wreath of orange blossoms might more
| properly wear a bunch of nettles and night
| Shade, and instead of the Wedding March a
more appropriate tune would be the Dead
| March in Saul, and instead of a banquet of
confectionery and ices there might be more
appropriately spread table covered with
| apples Of Sodom, which are outside fair
and inside ashes.
Many an attractive woman of good
sound sense in other things has married one
of these men to reform him. What was
the results Like when q dove noticing that
| a vulture was rapacious and cruel set about
| to reform it and said, 81 have a mild dispo-
| sitiOn, and | like peace, and was brought up
| in the quiet of a dove-cote, and l will bring
| the vulture to the same liking by marrying
| him." So one day after the vulture had
declared he would give up his carnivorous
| habits and cease longing for the blood of
| flock and herd, at an altar of rock covered
with moss and lichen the twain were mar
ried, bald-headed eagle officiating, the
vulture saying, "With all my dominion of
earth aud sky thee endow, and promise to
love and cherish till death us do part" But
one day the dove i'll her flight
saw the vulture busy at a
carcass and cried, 'Stop that! did you not
promise me that you would quit your car
| nivorous and filthy habits if ! married
! you!" YES" said the vulture, "but if you
don't like my way you can leave" and with
one angry stroke of beak and another fierce
clutch of claw the vulture left the dove eye
less and wingless and lifeless And flock
| of robins fying past cried to each other and
said, "See therel that comes from a doves
| marrying vulture to reform him"
Many a woman who has had the hand of
young mebriase offered, but declined 1t,
or who was asked to chain her life TO a man
selfish or of bad temper and refused the
shackles. will bless God throughout all
eternity that she escaped that earthly pan
demOnium.
Besides all this, in our country about one
million men were sacrificet in our civil war,
and that decreed millionwOmen to celibacy.
Besides that, since the war, several armies
of men as large as the Federal and Confeder
ate armies put together have fallen under
malt liquors and distilled spirits so full of
poisoned ingredients that the work was done
n or rapidly, and the victims fell while yet
young. And if fifty thousand men are
destroyed every year by strong drink before
marriage that makes in The twenty three
years since the war one million one hun
| dred and fifty thousand men slain, and de-
| crees one million one hundred and fifty
| thousand women to ceibacy. Take then
| the fact that so many women are unhappy in
their marriage, and the fact that the slaugh-
ter of two million one hundred and fifty
| thousand men Dv wa" and rum combined
| decides that at least that number of women
shall be unbalanced for life, my text comes
| in with cheer and potency and appro-
priateness that l never saw i'll it before
when it says, every wise woman buildeth
| ner mousse, btlhb Is, lGL NOliiuu De Her
own architect, lay out her own plans, be
her own supervisor, achieve her own
destiny.
In addressing these women who will have
to fight the battle of life alone / congratu-
late you on your happy escape. Rejoice
forever that you will not have to navigate
| the faults of the other SEX whom you have
| faults enough of your own. Think Of the
bereavements you avoid, of the risk Of un-
assinilated temper which you will not have
| 10 rum of the cares you will never have to
carry, and Of the opportunity of outside
usefulness from which marital life would
have partially debarred you, and that you
| are free TO go and come as one who has the
responsibilities of household can seldom
| be- God has not given you hard lot as
compared with your sisters. When young
women shall mako up their minds at the
start that masculine companionship is not "a
necessity in order to happiness, aud tnat
| there is 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 AK and
plane sharpened for its construction, since
| Every wise woman buildeth her house"
AS no boy ought to be brought up without
| learning some business at which he could
earn a livelihood. SO no girl ought 10 be
| brought up witho { learning the science Of
self-support The difficulty is that many a
family 20 sailing on the high tides Of sue
cess, aud the husband and father depends on
his own health and acufnen for the welfare
| of his household. but one day he gets his