Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-14
CHAUTAUQUA WISDOM.
MRS. EWING TELLS WOMEN SOME
PLAIN TRUTHS ABOUT WORK.


PLAIN TRUTHS ABOUT WORK.
They Must Be Experts in Cooking, Dress
making, Washing and Other Lines to
Compete With Men-A Romantic Rum
away Match.
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DfsPATcH.1
CHAUrAUQUA. July 13.-Many Chautauauans
got up at 4 o'clock this morning to catch the
early train for Toronto, where the National
Teachers Association convenes this week.
The normal school here will suspend opera
tions until the big meeting is over in order
to give every Chautauqua teacher chance
to go on the trip. The weather to-day was
warm and even trifie oppressive, but all
the public lectures we're crowded and the
ladies We'd with each other in the display of
artistic white dresses, gay fiannels and be-
witchfng blazers. Here and there an earnest
student would be overcome by the heat or
by the speaker and drop off into nap ut the
meeting. The appetite of the average
Chautauquan is something refreshing to
contempla The days programme opened
up with lecture by Prof. Frederick Starr,
of the New York Natural History Museum,
on the Natives Of the Northwest Coast"
This was talk on the red men OF the United
states and was attentively listened to in the
hall of philosophy by a large audience. At
o'clock Prof. John Bachmaster, the we'll
known historian, began his course of
lectures on American history, his subject
being the early struggles of the colonies in
acquiring public domain. The speaker first
located the three powers in America prior
to 1173, which were France, England and
Spain, and showed how one after another of
them were driven from the continent by
diplomacy, by war and by bargain and sale.
He was exceedingly entertaining and
awakened desires among Chautauquans for
greater knowledge of the earlier colonial
history.
Mrs. Ewing for Woman's Work.
At 8 o'clock the piece de resistance of the
day, the lecture by Mrs. Ewing, the great
authority on cooking, came off in the hall Of
philosophy, and created quite sensation
among the ladies by reason of the vigorous
and original ideas presented. Mrs. Ewing is
never dull, and generally sets people to
thinking with good results. Her subj ect was
"Work for Women" and this is what she
SAID: Letters come to me from all sections
or the country written by women inqufring
what kind Of work there is for women to do
and what kind of positions 1 can suggest for
them. My invariable reply is that while
years ago only seven Industrial occupations
were open to woman statistics show that
there are now nearly 400 open to them. In
my own special field of labor opportunities
are opening every day for women TO find
employment, as teachers of household SCI
ence as matrons and managers, as caterers
and cooks, but women are unwilling to
qualify themselves for these positions. I
hear not infrequently that Mrs. So-and-So,
or Miss Somebody, after attending few
lectures and lessons, has started out as a
full-hedged teacher of household science.
In q short time hear again that these peo-
pie have proved failures, and have gone to
elerking in a store, or, worse still, gone home
to paint china or pray to the Lord to send
them husbands.
Cooks Are Wanted Everywhere.
Ia uiI in,
where competent woman could not earn
big wages in giving cooking lessons. Half
dozen churches in Kansas City each paid me
for course Of lectures q sum larger tnan
the average school teacher can earn in q
year, and they themselves make big profits
out of the course. This shows that good
cooks are wanted everywhere. There are
at least loo, 900 bakery shops in this country
carried ON by men, in which the poorest
kind Of bread is baked by men. Why,
women, instead of men, should make all the
pies and cake for our cities and towns and
villages. What this country needs is better
pumpkin pies and less politics. But the
women say 1t Is too hard work kneading the
bread. This is one of the biggest lies that
was ever inflicted upon credulous public.
1 have again and again tested the matter,
and one Saturday on the Chautauqua
grounds mixed, kneaded and got ready for
the oven over so loaves Of bread, and then
attended the afternoon and evening amuse-
L
feltas fresh as if had spent the morning
playing croQuet or lawn tennis. This ex-
perience confirmed my belief that women
should control the bakeries of the country.
teenth century. If women dressmakers and
women tailors in New York can earn 5000 !
a year, why cannot women cooks? The rea- |
son why SO SO many many idle. hungry, gaunt-eyed
to 1nefficiency. Not only do thousands of |
so-called dressmakers botch and spoil
but tens Of Of wash
the garment is worse than the first.
Things for Fair Hands to Do.
"Sone oneought to write book on how to
wash linen clothes. Many woman could
raise bees and honey; here is great field
for women. They could raise poultry; en-
gage in fruit culture; become pharmacists
and drug clerks" The speaker referred to |
Mrs. G. w. King, of Warren, Pa, rs notable !
example of woman. left early poor widow, |
who had become a rich hotel proprietor by |
All avocations are open to women. |
There are now no barriers to separate the |
OF the sexes. A true woman |
never gets out of her sphere, nor forgets she |
IS a gentlewoman whatever her employment. |
Any useful work woman can do creditably |
present time is not the work for women, but |
women for the work. A big concert closed |
the day. Miss Maud Murray, of Boston, as
sisted with dramatic readings.
"A Romantic Match.
Cupid has invaded Chautauqua, and ro- |
mantle elopement and marriage are the re- |
suit. The affair was not down on the regu- /
ar programme, but it was as interesting as
my entertainment, nevertheless Charles
came from Huntingdon, Pa d |
short time since to spend the summer here. |
He had buried his young wife about six
months ago, and intended so far as possible, |
20 forget grief in the various lines Of study |
md recreation that ChautauQua offers. |
Nellie Parker, a somewhat pretty brunette,
llso came here from Cattaraugus county, New
York, about the 1st of July to study. She
was not very well Off in this worlds goods,
)ut WAS thoroughly independent, and hence
proposed to work her way through the sum
ner school by serving in a dining room here,
Is many other bright girls do. Wadsworth
,ame to the same house to board, met the
,irl, and was completely captivated with
Ter. Last Sunday morning Wadsw orth and
Miss Nellie were missing. Later 1t was
earned that they had crossed the lake in a
owboat, and elOped to jamestown, where
hey were subsequen tly married. OF course
wishes them well, for it is q good
,men to be the first married at Chautauqut
IN the opening of the assembly. Several
,ther prospective married couples feel very
blue over the fact that they are mot in it''
his year.