The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1890-11-19
IN WOMAN'S BEHALF.
WOMAN AND THE HOME.

Some Tendencies of Higher Education
It Improves Instead Of Lowers the
Status of Domestic Life.
1.-THE better trained women Of the fu-
ture will have their sorrows, but half
the misery Of our generation goes
through lack of pursuit, unftness for
sny because Of the defective mental
training we have had. -. There is a |
better time coming-I shall not see 1t, |
but am glad to have seen its dawn
So wrote Mrs. William Smith, more
than twenty years ago, from her own
standpoint of loving, helpful wifehood
and self-supporting, reliant womanhood.
Since these words were penned, so
many college doors have been opened
to woman in both England and Amer
lea, and so many industrial avenues are
being opened out upon their paths that
men, especially those Of the Mr.. Grant
Allen order of mind, fearing that their
untried eyes may be dazzled by the sud
den flash of light, are crying out in dis
may that this brilliant vista may unfit
women for domestic life with its hum
bier cares and joys.
1t does not seem to have been admit
ted in any court of justice that man is
q better husband, father or citizen be-
cause he is ignorant, yet this theory
with regard to woman seems to lie at
the base of most arguments against her
superior education. One person states
that the cultivated woman has less
heart than the uncultivated, as If heart
were quality to be trained out of peo-
pie as the green color is bleached out of
head lettuce; another claims that she
| has lost her taste for domestic pursuits,
while a third urges that she is less like
ly to marry And this, while educated
women all over the land are entering
heart and soul into schemes for the i'm
provement of the race, are reducing
housekeeping to something approaching
q fine art, while those interested in col
leges for women are deploring the fact
that useful women presidents and pro-
fessors will allow themselves to be
drawn into matrimony to the manifest
detriment Of the institutions over which
they preside. Rather should we find
cause for rejoicing in this fact that
higher education is not opposing itself
to nature but joining hands with it in
its nobler demands, proving that it
means not simply preparation for col
lege or school teaching, but training for
life with all its varied duties and inter-
ests. Doubtless such education, by rem
| 40 ~, II uo1f eo1f
porting, prevents their marrying for a
home or living, which ignoble motive
has been more or less potent factor in
promoting marriage; but while thus in
terfering with some marriages, does II
not immeasurably raise the plane OF
married life?
An age that demands something more
of its male geniuses than that they shall
60 through life with their eyes on the
stars, or on q folio, while their feet tread
ruthlessly upon the conventionalities o.
life, or upon the sensibilities Of theil
fellow travellers, should grasp the equal
ly pertinent truth that any one-sidqd ed
ucation Of women, whether purely in
tellectual or solely domestic, or exclu
sively ethical is unsatisfactory and in
complete. Men should be quito as in
tolerant of winsome Doras and Nora
: who serve badly cooked dinners to thei
households and forge checks, as the.
are of feminine philanthropists an
blues who dine upon Africa, with tel
envelopes in the gravy, and sup upo
l. sonnets to the moon, while neglecte
husbands and children browse at large
The principal reason why men are NOR
% lenient toward the former class tina
. the latter, is that they are conscious c
D being, to certain extent, responsible
l; for the fact that Dora and Nora are Is
u norant play-things, the outcome of
l. time-worn masculine theory that prett
l. ness is all, while with regard to the eve
&c luton of the female philanthropist an
's blue, men have had nothing whateve
le to do, never having in their wildes
N dreams of progress wished them to b.
They know that they have, like Davi
Copperfeld, kissed away the tears {
their doll wives when the account
10 would not come out right and that the
have sneered and quizzed when the
u have seen women trying to learn no
the accounts could be made to come OF
10 right
While / write, the picture rises befol
" me Of a home whose mistress reacht
10 out helping hand toward man
III schemes Of philanthropy, guilds f'
working-women, neighborbood guild
- and clubs for the enlightenment
j, woman in her own sphere Of life, "
- who finds the highest work for han
and brain in the sweet Enclosure of hi
.. own walls, where character and healt
~ are being built up for future usefulne'
"a and enjoyment. A woman who is cap
BILE of solving abstruse mathematic
,e problems, or of grasping still more Il
II volved questions of social reform, "
if who brings her trained mind to bear u
ID on small and great questions OF hons
Of hold economy, who studies the hygien
properties of food and insists that h
children shall have no pudding unit
they have eaten certain amount
u meat, who reads political economy b
IL cause her daughter is studying 1T at &C
lege, who teaches her children mob
~ lessons by means of notices painted u
on the walls by her own hands, al
a whose playful fancy decorates the was
stand of her little girls with grewson
10 dragon whose mission is to remind the
~ of their morning and evening duty
. their teeth, surely combines the ide
~ and the practical in her daily life in
,e manner that would be quite impossih
- to woman of less breadth and cultur
Much of woman's service is severe