Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-06-15

The majority OF young men in San Francisco are
growing up in immortality. with no thought of
dives and disreputable resorts the money that
would make homes, and these dives and other
resorts employ the girls that should be queens
OF homes. 1t is gay but short dance of death.
The remedy lies in the abolition o. the dives.
1t is unnecessary to suggest a remedy for
the i'll complained Of, since it is patent and
is clearly indicated in the reason given for
the decline of child-bearing. The reason
the Visitor gives, however, for the nom
marrying ill is begging of the question.
1t Is true that there are fewer marriages
because fewer proposals. logical though
not profound proposition. But there are
fewer proposals because, as the RECORD
UNION has repeatedly shown, the young
women are rushing hot haste into business
and uniting themselves for domesticity.
Of this fact the young men are fully
aware, and they decline to make such
women wives, for that very reason. II
young men prefer, apparently, gilded
halls and coarse resorts to the quiet and
pleasure and content of homes, it is largely
because the women of their acquaintance
are by shortsighted parents put into voca-
tions that are antagonistic to domesticity
Housewifery is an art-a high art il
demands a service of years; it calls fol
training that is an apprenticeship. Now
the girl who from 7 or in the morning te
s or in the evening is involved in the
busy whirl of life behind the counter, the
desk, or in the factory, shop or street, ha.
neither the time nor the inclination fol
housewifely arts, True, we are told thai
very largely such employment is necessary
that hundreds of young girls thus contrib
ute to the support of dependent relatives
and all that. But it is to be replied tha
this condition has largely resulted from
the fact that men, by reason of the EN-
pioyment of women, have been driver
from occupation by the competition of tn,
lower wage paid to the women. AS a con
sequence there are fewer home builders
because the capacity to that end is mar
rowed and crippled.
There are many vocations, however, il
which women may engage that are twin will
domesticity, and that do not compete will
male labor, and these have been seyera
times enumerated in these columns. An,
change now that would drive women gu
of purely commercial employment woul,
work hardships; that is not for a momen
denied. But there never was revolution
of advancement that did not work hard
ships, and there never will be- In al
these questions we must broaden the hori
zon of our view to take in wide area O
years, perhaps of decades.
The suggestion the Visitor makes tina
the way to drive young men to the task o
home building is to close up the dives. i
amusing, we prefer not to say silly. B,
all means close the dives, but that sucl
action will augment matrimony is simpl,
absurd. In the first place not even tn,
| majority of young men resort to dives fo
their entertainment In the second plac
if there were no dives, no resorts of vice
no gilded halls, the fact would not con
tribute to the desirableness of the undo
nestle woman for wife, nor restore thu
BODYBUILDING wage the competition O
women has stripped from these very men
The young man must be convinced, if b,
is at all sensible-and most young men O
the day have fair share of worldly wis
dom-that the woman he would make hi
wife will make good housekeeper. HI
does not care rush how rapid she may
be as typewriter, what her accomplish
ments in ribbon-selling, how highly skilled
in stenography, how valuable to the business
man as clerk, book-keeper, cash girl
collector, reporter, or globe-trotter; but hi
does care concerning her accomplishment
In housewifely arts; he does care to hav,
the bloom of modest young womanhoot
remain and not be brushed off by contac
with the roughness of penny-change alley
or grimed by the smoke and SCOT of gas
heated atmospheres in rear counting
rooms; nor to have her sensibilities hard
ened by the callousing effects of the lost
ling of the exchange and the make
place. He does want to be chivaIrous to
ward the female sex, at least, but he can
not fail to see that business activity 70
| women is accompanied by loss of re
spect for her by men-and from anon
such women he hesitates to choose a wifi
to be the mother of his children. TIL
Visitor says:
Women are rising in influence as RAPIDLY a
| their sphere of work is widen n.y. In SAINT
Cruz they organized an improvement societ
which has secured the identifying of man
streets, the planting of shade trees. the trim
ming up of grounds, etc. In San Diego the
have similar organization which they cal
| the ''ladies' annex to the Board of Trade, an
many are the public works accomplishe
through their influence.
Very true-and the single comment W
have to make upon its truth is also verify
that invariably the women so nobly AM
congenially engaged are the housewife:
the homekeepers, not the women VIII
have been trained to the shop, or who ar
engaged in business pursuits.
NOTE AND COMMENT
The Cou,bar, nal;to-,;. D..