The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1890-05-15
THE WOMAN'S COLUMN
PREPARING FOR ACTION.

'aSsCsSbuhy SOhpcte with Wen In lt0Sl
ness.
! Tho remarkable thing in the rccen
rapid transit OF young lady round tn,
globe is not so much that she accom-
plislcd tho feat in q week less than thu
famous hero Of jules Verne, bnt tina
she came hack, according to the news
papers. in the same dark blue cloth sui,
in which she set forth, and with hand
bag no larger. These appointments
says writer in IIarpcr's Eazar, were in
fact tho key note 10 her success; il hel
love OF dress had been stronger, he,
story had been longer. Madame Ida
PfeifFcr, the eminent woman tr;..t Ter oil
forty years ago, used TO say that any
other woman might travel as widely and
persistently as she did, by simply max
ing Up her mind 10 20 without band.
box. Rnt the journey Of life is q much
more serious thing than trip round the
planet; il takes seyenty-two years in
stead Of se,enty-two days: and it de-
mands. equally with the bricfer Jour-
ncy, that one should travel but little
with baggage. If ono would travel in
earnest. And nnw especially. when
Ht'rcn arc resolved To &, nc face To face
with practical outside life III a great
many ways. they must act accordingly.
Like vessels going into action, they
must shorten sail.
OF course the item OF dress affords the
readiest illustration. Every teacher in
mixed school must sec the advantage
enjoyed by his boys over bis girls in the
greater convenience OF their costume
for studio or laboratory purposes. Ev-
cry father knows that his young son
viii run to tho post-ofiice and back in
the 'iHst five minutes" demanded by his
sister 10 put on properstreet dress and
button Ecr gloves. knew Of an instance
the other day where {. young lady who
had charmed all eyes in the costume of
medieval princess in a tahleau yivant,
confessed to an admirer that her first
duty the next morning would be 10 pre-
side at the dissection of cat in the lab
oratory, where she was stuying anato-
my. Instead OF being, like the princess
in the fable, Transformed into cat
again, she was to undergo the change,
almost equally difficult, into the anat-
oysizer of a cat. No doubt young man
would have some similar change of ward
robe to make in passing from evening
dress to surgery dress and back again;
but for him it would usually involve
only the flinging Of garment or two on
one chair and picking up other garments
from another; whereas with her the in
terchangc would involve prolonged
session, with unboundcd aid from sis
tiers. dressing-maids, mirrors, and PIN
cushion. 1t needs no argument to show
how women are embarrassed as COM
pared with men by the memorable de-
mands Of costume; but the remedy is not
easy, at least for one Of the other sex to
prescribe.
But, in shortening sail for action,
other things beside dress need to be re-
trenchcd. Mult!tudes Of women are
gradually sliding into nervous prostra-
ton, not SO much through the work they
with that network OF social obligations
from which men in similar case would
detach themselves. As rule. in our
colleges. and even in business. the hard
working men are not the society men,"
they make their choice, and do not ex-
pect to study hard for half the night and
then dance equally hard for the rest: it
Is the effort OF their sisters to do this
which wears them out. 1t was said of a
brilliant Bostonian lately dead, that he
was suddenly transformed from leader
Of 1.-THE german" to handwriting law
ger by the sententious remark of an
elder sister-"It is better TO be man of
books than man of toes;" but it is a
hard doctrine to impose upon sex SO
born for airy motion that. as Jean
Paul says. it would be easy for them to
make a forced march of fifty miles il it
could be done by dancing. And SO Of
the whole routine OF society; while the
author or artist or philanthropist, if
man. knows that he must simply forego
nine-tcnths of it, and that he will be
pardoned for SO doing, woman in the
same position finds it infinitely harder
to make the sacrifice, and is not, like
him, excused for doing SO. One of the
most eminent women physicians in
could possibly combine her profession
with her duties to her young children,
proved to me that her professional calls
and Office hours didohot, all told, take SO
much Of her time from these little ones
as was given by other ladies' similarly
placed to chat they consider their social
duties. But" she said. in order that
] may do this. those social duties must
be absolutely ignored. ! do ignore
them; but give great deal OF offense
by SO doing. Were | man, should
not be asked to combine them.
In the same way a remarkable woman
carried on a large factory in . new Eng
land town with the greatest success
told me that the strain On her was much
greater than If she had been man, be-
cause. although She had no children,
she was expected to keep house, to tend
sick ncighbors, even to watch with them
at night. as If she had no other duty.
see no relief for women who feel them
selves bound to some work incompatible
with their usual feminine occupations
except to make their choice 'twixt this
and that" as Emerson says, and forego
the one or the other. Nor is this the
end Of their needed abnegations. No
one can employ women in any industry
of high grade without seeing that they
arc still embarrassed by what in their
former moro sheltered life were their
virtues-the shrinking from initiative,
the habit Of minute economies, of self
sbncga,ion in little things. 1t is my
experience, for instance, that in sending
. young man to do days literary work
in another town, when his expenses are
paid, ne needs no instruction as to hav-
Ing a comfortable lunch, giving the nec-
cssary time TO it, and taking cab or
o carriage to save time or avoid wet
ting; whereas such duties have to be
laboroiusly impressed upon woman;
and, after all, she usually goes whole
day on q cup Of tea, and gets her feet
wet by walking where she should ride.
She is also less ready to meet an emer-
gcncy by independent action, not for
want Of readiness, but from long habits
Of SCif-disJrust All these are draw