Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1889-03-10
TOoL~CnEST~ FOR GIRLN.
Let'Em ERvo an opportunity TO de-
veIop Mechanical Genius.
/ wide AWake.l

Parents do not object TO see-saw and
hammer, gimlet, and screw-drIver in
their sons hands at very tender age.
They look upon tools as boys birth
right But a little girl is hurriedly told
IN Mortified tone to "put them down, ="
"to not touch" that she will cut herself
or pound her fingers, and "get hunt
generally.
But the time is not far off when there
will be a room in the house set apart for
the workbench. and that bench and It's
tools will be as free TO the daughters as
the sons. In their fashionable brass
hammering and wood-carving the girls
have "got a taste Of it, We may ex-
poet TO yet SEQ the carpenter come to
give lessons as regularly as the music
teacher. Why not ? That eight children
out of ten wOulG like it better there IS
10 do1bt.
A dozen years hence certain branches
OF many trades will be largely occupied
by women We shall see yOnng women
ut study aud work IN architects Offices,
IN the wallpaper designing rooms, mix
lug paints and stains and finishes and
fresco washes. We shall see the student
at the Harvard Annex emerge from her
long companionship with the "higher
mathematics with the "plans and ele-
vations OF house in one hand and a
&" bill OF lumber in the other as zap
piled mathematics" At present the
training, IN geometry say, is so unap-
piled that the "swect girl graduate y
laws the tea-table with the cloth awry
and the platesat all angles and distances,
and is serenely unaware that she has
hung her water-color drawing crooked
until some distressed occupant OF the
room points 1t ont.
The modern female hand and eye are
so far unframed that not one young wO-
man in five can take shears and cut
across a breadth OF goods unless she fold
and crease the cloth or "slowly cuts by
a thread"
For myself, / have saved many dollar
first aud Inst by being handy with
tools.
When / was little girl and held a
mortal objection 20 allowing my older
brother any accomplishments which
had not [ conceived the brilliant idea,
one summers rainy day, of making my
self churn, which was TO be an exact
reproduction in miniature of an old.
fashioned instrument that my grand
mother used and called an "up-and-
down" churn.
A gentleman called at our house and
found me under the shed diligently
boring hole into round piece of wood.
Wishing to make himself agreeable
to me, l suppose, he inquired what | was
making. replied in the most matter
of-fact way, as if 1t were the most com
mon matter In the world for seven-year-
old girls TO manufacture household tools,
IA churn," and great Was my indigna
ton when he went away laughing a il
he had heard the greatest joke IN the
world. After that never met him, ever
after had grown to the dignity OF Young
ladyhood and trained gowns, but wha'
he inquired with a most nggravating III
terest if my chuyn was done.
1t never was. am bound TO say but
J learned my lesson Just the same, anc
whenever want a nail driven in, shell
put up. or a window-shade adjusted, | dc
not wait for carpenter. Instead,
thank my stars that l ever practiced OF
churns and wooden sewing machines
and if it were necessary think ! could
with all the confidence ! once began my
churn-build house-aiter fashion