Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-02-04
TOOL CHESTS FOR GIRLS,
Let Them Have an Opportunity to De.
velOp Mechanical Genius.
From Wide Awake.

from Wlde awake.
Parents do not object to see saw and ham,
mer, gimlet and screw-driver in their sons
hands at a very tender age. They look upon
tools as boys birthright. But 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 hurt generally.
But the time is not far off when there will be
a room in the house set apart for the work
bench, and that bench and its tools will be as
free to the daughters as to the sons. In their
fashionable brass-hammering and wood-carv-
ing the girls have got taste" Of il. We may
expect to yet see the carpenter come to give
lessons as regularly as the music teacher. Why
not? That eight children out of ten would
like it better there is no doubt.
A dozen years hence certain branches of
many trades will be largely occupied by women.
We shall see young women at study and work
in architects Offices, in the wallpaper design
ing rooms, mixing 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 elevations"
of house in one hand and bill of lumber"
present the training. in geometry say, is 90 un-
applied that the sweet girl-graduate" lays the
tea-table with the cloth awry, and the plates at
all angles and distances: and is serenely una
ware that she has hung her water-color draw
ing crooked until some distressed occupant Of
the room points it out.
The modern female hand and eye are % far
unframed that not one young woman in 1--WE
can take shears and cut straight across q
breadth Of goods unless she fold and crease the
cloth, or SLOWLY cuts by a thread"
For myself have saved many q dollar first
and last by being handy with tools"
When was little girl and held mortal OBJ
lection to allowing my older brother any ac-
complishments which had not, conceived
the brilliant idea, one summers rainy day, of
making myself q churn, which was TO be an
exact reproduction in miniature of an old
fashioned instrument my grandmother used
and called ian up-and-down churnw
A gentleman called at our house and found
me under the shed diligently boring hole into
o round piece Of wood. Wishing to make him
self agreeable to me, / suppose. he inquired
what was making. / replied in the most mat
ter-of-fact way, as II it were the most common
matter in the world for seven-yearsold girls 70
manufacture household tools, "A churn;" and
great was nay indignation when he went away
laughing q. II be had heard the greatest joke
in the world. After that Inever met him, even
after had grown TO the dignity Of young lady
hood and trained gowns, but what he inquired
With most aggravating interest II my ohurn
Il never was, am bound 10 say; but I
learned my lesson, Just the same, and when
ever want nail driven in, shelly put mp, or
wind0w-shade adjusted, do not wait Tor Q
carpenter. Instead / thank my stars that
ever practiced ON churns and wooden sewing
machines; and IL IL were necessary, I think I
could-with al the confidence once began my
churn-build house-after . fashionl