Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1889-06-07
Women'S Nobel Work.

The amount of sage advice thst has
been wasted upon women probably rep
resents energy enough TO reform at least |
half of our social abuses. From the time
that they first began to demand a wider
sphere, fuller education, and "a chance"
IN the world, to recent periods that hsve |
brought cessation to sheer despair when |
not from sympathy, they have been del
uged with information about themselves.
their capacities, their duties, and their
spheres. 1t would probably be difficult
after the experience OF the last ten years
to find anybody who would so confidently
define these as nearly everybody did be-
fore that time. Then people knew ex-
actiy what women could do and what they
couldn't; now they are not so sure. Then
they knew that womsn's entrance into
public interests would make the world
less pure; now they are confronted with
an army of women demanding moral re,
forms.
The fesr that woman would forget or
neglect that domestic duties if interested
outside of home seemed genuine, too,
but 1t has not been realized. To most
women home still remains the dearest
place on earth, and there are few women
who, for peraonal pleasure would leave its
protection. The thousands that devote
their lives to other interests do so either
from sense of duty or because their nat
ural inclinations are denied. They do no5
rush into business or publicity because
they enjoy it.
But every home bears an intimate re
iation to the community. However
happy, however perfect 1T may be, it can
not secure entire protection of its in
mates. Not even the children can be
kept always within its walls. They must
go to school. play on the streets, meet
their dangers and their tenn ptations. The
mothers anxiety follows them. Rer p
piness depends upon the family welfare.
Everything that threatens to destroy it,
whether it is the saloon that wrecks her
husband, the policy that allows her chill
dren to grow up in ignorance; or the i'm
morality that uudermines aii, becomes to
her decidedly personal matter that obtrud
es itself in the home inv ltsbly. She cannot
ignore it if she will. 1t pursues her day
and night, gives her no peace, and proves
| to the most unwilling learner that the
home is in great measure dependent on
| the community for It's success.
UNsELFIsH WORK FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD.
In this fact we will probably find the
| reason for most Of women's public work
| to day. That it has grown to truly enor,
nous proportions shows how grea ly it is
| needed, how many are the dangers that
| menace our homes. Ask what are the OBJ
| jects of these clubs and other organi-
| cations of women that are so rapidly null
| tiplying all over :his country and you will
| find that nearly all are devoted to the pub
| lie veal. They are either benevolent or
| educational, and they seek reform or pro
| lection for those who are helpless. They
| are grandly unseltish in se!f-seeking
| age. How much they accom- plish has
| never been told, but enough is known of
| their work to show that it has already
done much to aid in producing e better
| public sentiment well as to secure many
| practical advantages to the poor and the
weak. 1t has educated thousands of
| children not provided for by the public,
| and it has in other cases supplemented
| public education. 1t has attacked abuses
| everywhere, with what result is we'll
| known. 1t has agita5 led for reforms, es-
peuially those needed 10y women and
childten. The little ones are never for
! gotten. They are always woman's first
care, and it is to protect them that she
| is most eager to leave the ease and com
| fort she might enjoy in her leisure hours
| at home.
Inc disposition on the part OF women
| to engage in public affairs has been SINH,
| larly shown in other troubled periods.
| Not only our forefatbers but our fore
| mothers of revolutionary times Joined
| hands to do necessary work. We read
that during those early days the women
| of various colonies-VirRinia, New York,
| Rhode Island, Recommendation
anti-tea leagues. In Providence, r T.,
| young ladies took the initiative; twenty
nine daughters of prominent families
meeting under the shade of the sy camore
trees at Roger Williams's spring, there
resolved to drink no more tea until the
duty upon it was repealed. The name of
one of these young ladies, Miss Codding
ton, has been preserved; to her house
they all adjourned to partake of frugal
repast, hyperion taking the place of the
hated "bOhea.' The chosen drink was
made of the dried leaves of the ras pberry,
which shared Sudden favor with cage
and birch.