The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-09-29
THE WOMEN Of SCOTLAND
John Swinton Discourses on Their
Traits of Character and
Their Habits.
They Hold Their Ground by Right
of Sex, but With De-
cOrum.
No Calling Is Closed to Them, and They
Can Vote In Certain
Elections

During the three months of my recent
peregriuations in Scotland, from Hadding-
ton to Iona, writes John Swinton in the
New York Sun, l found abundant oppor-
tunity of noticing and studying the traits,
the ways, and the life of Scottish women
from those who toll on the farm to others
who wait in the shop, from those employed
in domestic service to others engaged in the
public service, from those who manage ho-
tells to others toiling in factories, from
those who carry the creel as fishwives to
others pursuing scholarships in the univer-
stiles, from those who win their livelihood
by art or skill to others earning salaries as
teachers in schools, from those who perish
in squalor to those enjoying lives of luxury.
Wherever l went in Scotland, mingling
with people of "all sorts and conditions"
took an especial interest in the life and
lot of the feminine half of creation. had
previously. during my stay in France and
Italy, been studious in the same line of re-
search.
The thing that struck me most, while OBJ
serving the traits and ways of the women
of Scotland, or holding CONTEMPLATION with
them on their native heath. was the spirit
of independence that is dominant among
them. l found this spirit everywhere,
among the workers as we'll as the wealthy.
among the rustics not less than the denizens
of towns. found it in their language and
their action in their households, and in the
business of their lives. l found nothing
like subsection in their demeanor or subser-
yiency i'll their discourse. They hold opin-
ions with knowledge and are not afraid to
set them forth. They hold their grounds
=, losr r,rh{ 81
assumption or pretence, but with decorum
and decision.
Again. it seemed to me that the women of
Scotland possess the aptitude of self-help
III fuller measures than the women of some
other countries have recently visited. I
found many of them who are gifted with
rare business sagacity. / took notice of
this, for the first time, last summer, when
travelling from the Lowlands to the High
lands, staying at hotels on the way. It
happened that nearly every hotel in which
we found quarters was kept by woman
who signed her name to our bills as PRO
prietrix.' Further inquiry that ] made
afterward gave me evidence that Scottish
women were in many other vocations that
require training and Judgment. 1t seems
that very many of them are taking part in
business of nearly all kinds. I found
them engaged in artistic work and sundry
varieties of technical work. I found
them employed as government officials
in the postofices and the telegraph
offices. I found them on duty in man,
mercantile and other establishments. II
short, found that they have made thei
way into large proportion of the myriad
avocations of this resurgent nineteenth cen
fury, from which they were excluded in tn
times of their grandams. ! also saw, il
some of the rural regions which explored
women working in the felas beside thei
fathers, brothers or sons: land why shout
not do son said one maiden. sWhen
needs all our folks to look after the cropa7