Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-06
LONE W0MAN'S WORK.
Shirley Dare Gives Practical Advice
to Widows and Single Girls
ON WAYS TO MAKE A LIVING.
Avenues of Employment in Country Towns
Pointed Out.
THE WOMAN WHO GOES OUT TO HELP
WRITTEN FOR THE D1spArcH.I

the first church of Jerusalem, when the ear
| liest election of officers was for elders to see
that the widows were not neglected. Widows
and lone women to-day do not seem to have
anybody to look after them in the church OF
out of it, or why should they write to a
stranger those homely letters one knows by
the envelope and writing from North Gar
diner beyond Troy, and Gardiner Falls, Ia,
Gardiner Canyon, COL, and GARDENERS
Bend, Miss, not to mention the New En-
gland GARDENERS, all bearing the same re-
quest. "Do tell us something woman can
do to make living"
One letter that came while lay helpless
| from an accident has haunted me days and
| nights, coming from woman no longer
young, saying in trusting confidence that
she has very little to live on, was "lying
awake nights contriving how she could pay
off the mortgage on her little home," and
begged to know how she might earn just
enough to keep roof over her head in old
age. There Is enough in that line about
"lying awake contriving" to fill an outline
of struggle, praying, toiling, trusting-the
history of humble lives that will be very
sweet reading in the leisure hereafter, when
even tired women's work will be done, and
sorelv tired women's troubles ended. Then
the memorials of life will be held precious
as the rust battle flags and army buttons
from jackets torn byishot on the field. You
would hardly take the price of your home
stead for that button and those few relics Of
the desperate fight which meant so much to
you and yours. The time will come when
we will not barter one of these bitter exper-
fences of earth for anything heaven has to
offer, but they will live with us, tender,
sacred memories, whose secret lies between
us and our Maker, and bows our hearts in
thanktulness to remember. But
WHAT THE WIDOWS WANT NOW
is practical help, in pointing out ways to
help themselves. The time will,come when
every parish will include with its church,
parsonage, schools and social clubs, its
church house, like those of the devout
Moravians in this country. when the single
women and widows and those left solitary
and destitute find home, out of their own
means if able, but all, provided or unpro-
vided, under the shelter and counsel of the
wise men of the society, who look after the
investments, collect debts and take thrifty
care of business interests in which women
go so helplessly astray. This by the way, as
the suggestion also whether it is not better
to take thought for the lonesome women be-
fore hand, so caring for their narrow in
comes may keep them in comfort through
age, rather than leave to the benevolent the
tardy. fruitless labor of picking up the
dropped stitches of purblind lite. Could
not the deacons of South Gardiner, in their
business thrift arrange things for that
widow so that she need not lie awake weary
nights over the mortgage? With money in
Governments" at 2L per cent, why not in
yes. little in preferred stock" lending
money to struggling women at the same
rate. Mortgages on real estate are good
security, and it will make life and death
difference whether people pay per cent or
per cent interest. This also, is BY the way.
Meanwhile, would be, not the dove of
promise, with the olive, but the raven to
bring bread to these solitary ones There
are not few homely helpful ways in which
women can make their services valuable in
any community beside the dressmaking,
nursing, or taking boarders, which are the
three standard vocations for women, and
which must be considered separately before
we are through talking. Take half the
towns and townships in the Union where
anybody who wants ribbon dyed must send
it to the city or do it herself, perhaps not to
her satisfaction in either case. Mems coats |!
need refreshing, and long'cloaks and good |
gowns rusty with q seasons wear would be |
useful years longer if the colors were re-
newed. Most women of mature age, in the |
country towns at least, kno W enough of dye- |
ing to turn out good black, nut brown, |
madder red, bottle green or indigo blue, the |
colors most in request.
AN EVERYDAY DEMAND.
for one would be grateful to-day to find
q clever woman who would take last years
and the old indestructible Ameri-
,an silk, and return them the same full |
black with honest logwood and vitriol
which Mistress Lucy Perham used to dye
in one of those thrifty Northwestern towns
where domestic arts are still held in honor
towns which have the reversion of all the
1own East virtues. 1 can dye things my
self, but had far rather pay some woman
who needs the So, than take my mind
'f other things, for with writing and
making pear syrup, drawing the plans for
he new seaside cottage and grounds, doing
lp the window curtains and composing tine
ode for the town centennial, besides getting
Up the women's petition to the State Legis.
ature, making new sheets and the fall
that small mind has enough
o do already. If I could only find
woman to come into the house, do up those
hades and put them up when done, it
would be Godsend to all l'the housekeepers
n the place, for shades and curtains are lust
he things which trouble and burden them
more than all the rest of their cares. Every
,ody knows 1T is nice piece of work to
lang white shades SO they will run true
Ind smoothly. Servant girls refuse utterly
o touch them, the laundries charge the
price OF new shades to iron them, and only
he high priced upholstery houses send out
men to hang them when laundried. The
I'D fashioned luxury of fresh shades every
pring and fall is forbidden to middle class
antilles, and with it, we lose dozen
liceties OF touch which gave a charm to
ZONES of old.
In my mothers time there used to be q
yery important woman in society, some far
IF cousin of the best families very possibly.
Who undertook the finer performances for
which good housekeepers always need help.
She could be had by the day or week to do
lp shades and embroidered pillow covers, to
etrim lounges and toilet tables, to clean
md press the dominie's coats, to make pre-
erves, mlnce pies and fruit cake, and Quilt
mfortables-homely duties, but no |.
rtst in the exhibition was ever held in
igher esteem than this artist of all work.
,alk of your women of to-day who 90 out to |
ust china, arrange flowers for dinner
arties or advise about furnishings Their
hief range is in the brains OF the vaporing
ewspaper women who invent them. What
ociety stands in suffering, perishing need
f are the clever, capable women of domestic
rts, who to some seryiceable strength add
he precision which comes of practice. There
sphere for such women in town or coun-
", or if they fail to find it in remote
illages where all housekeepers are clever
nd capable, let them send their address to
lie, and I will find them places enough in
OWNS. They used to be respected and