Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-12
Shirley Dare Contrasts the Women OF
the Past With Those of To-Day.
THE .SEX'S SPHERE Is CHANGING.
SANITY Devotion of Long Ago and the Pres
ent Selfish Trend.
SOR0STS AND THE COMPILATIONS
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH ]

prove shrinking fortunes, universities Il
train women to ask ten prices for theI
services, stepladders of every sort for get
ting on other peoples shoulders; but th'
| question forces itself on us older folk, WHIT
can remember lives of another motive ant
enterprise, do modern women really i'm
prove on the older model?
Compare the types of faces-the long
oval, fine, thoughtful, sympathetic in ex
pression-which mark the portraits OF thu
memorable women of 40 years ago TAXI
them together, from Frances Sargent Os
| good, type of all that was fairest in mlnc
and feeling, to Henrietta Hamlin, the mis-
sionary; Mrs. Opie and the Gurney sisters
They show the same elevation of look
the blending of brain and devotion, which
we call sentiment, and agree to drop over
board with much else that is priceless.
The Unselfsh Face Lasts.
Compare these faces with the celebritie'
of to-day, in which the self-indulgent GreeE
type is developing-faces pretty, bewitch
ing, but whose charms begin and end il
self. With all their piquancy they are cal
culating, and when you would penetrate
beyond their self-interest, brain and nature
are void. "Why should I take trouble tol
people who are nothing to me, who do not
interest me?" is the invariable response tc
any impulse for others which does not some
where touch their selflove. In such ma
lures there is always a foundation of va
cancy or coarseness. They are not sensitive
enough to avoid absolute stupidity.
One returns to the sweet, unselfish faces
xrh civ 1nr
The refinement of these women was not
more marked than their endurance. Who
does not recall the type in some dead and
gone dear woman, delicate in figure and
complexion, with fine hair and sparkling
eyes, who yet worked and denied herself
and won through more than our over
cultivated woman would even look at
They kept house and taught school, or kept
house and wrote, or cared for parishes and
missions in thorough-going ways, or were
silent partners in their husbands business,
which meant doing the work of a confden-
tial clerk, secretary and foreman.
Instance of Real Helpmate.
Iknew one woman, the wife of village
doctor, who used to study up his cases for
him, put up medicines and care for patients
in an unobtrusive way, while playing her
own housekeeper and maid of all work,
and never failed to be ready with lantern
and shawl to put up his horse for him when
he returned chilled and weary from his
rounds late at night. The. hot supper and
bright fire waited him indoors, while she
embarrassed and fed the faithful horse. No
wonder they made fortune of 5000, 900 be-
tween them. and saw her over 20, hale,
sociable and witty enough to be delightful
company for old and young. I knew an
IL et,a ID rrl
first remember her, and her children were
my earliest playmates Proud, self de-
pendent, with good blood in her veins, she
supported and educated her children by her
own work in days when women's chances
were few and pay scantier than now. She
carried the bitter care of an Incorporate
husband, of when no one ever heard her
say one word
Silence costs something In such stress
But she brought up her children with the
best, and then one by one, as they reached
maturity, she nursed them through con-
sumption, and saw them all five die before
her. The final cross was to be obliged to
leave her home that she had loved and toiled
for, and trained roses above its porch 1t
was beautiful in this woman of so years that
her last direction was when she would be
taken honey for burial beside her own that
in the sitting room, where she had lived
and wrought, with those she loved about
her. On her way homeward she would hold
vigil in her shroud with those unspeakabfe
memories of toll and love and loss.
Something, Above Sentimentalism.
That is what to-day you call sentimental,
and profess not to understand, but there is
the touch of stfong soul in such undying
"a OF e L
woman, kindred spirit, of most delicate and
enduring New England mold, went through
30 years of such toll and suffering as seems
too sacred to speak Of Finely educated in
the best schools, lovely and gifted, in the
true sense of the word, she gave her life to
the hardest toll as pioneer teacher and pas
tors wife. She, too, gould take the horse
when the rider came home from his preach
ing rides too stiff with cold to dismount un-
aided, could do her house usekeeping for the
family and hurry off I'd her little school,
and after long days work, sit up all night
in close cabin with Dutch settlers sick
baby, and comfort its hearttwrung mother
1 remember her left alone in the family
on the lonely farm, when the boys had for
gotten to water COW who distressed low
ings sounded after midnight. The hard
worked mother would not waken the
sleepy children or the hired man, but
dressed and carried water down in the
dark field an eighth of mile for the
creature. Such kindness was the law of
her life, and her tenderness to her own
knew no end In her last days, worn with
suffering, she could comfort and sympathize
with poor Danish seamstress on shop
work, distracted with poverty and wild
children. And when she was buried away
from friends that held the dust above her
priceless, her daughter sending to have
roses planted there found this poor seam
stress had walked the two miles to the ceme-
terry and kept the grave each summer sown
with flowers. True and faithful, the two
well-brsd [ student and
hard working Morse motherAwere alike in
soul.
Culture That Is Self-Gelebrating.
To have known such womenL as these, to
have come within their gracious influence,
is far more than a liberal education. They
have their touch upon all within their reach.
True to the inmost fiber, they were tender
and faithful to the meanest creature in their
household or neighborhood, ash fine women
today scarcely know how to be to their
OWN friends. The woman of yesterday
needed no silver cross or purple ribbon to
remind them of duty, or to signal others of
/ charity which could not be hid. 1 am sick
IF the women of to-day with their calculat-
ng charities and self-celebrating culture.
It is something to have known the old sweet
'aints. The traces of their feet alone make
he world tolerable. am nightly relieved
20 learn that women decide they have had
enough of woman's topics. No more crullers
,r crewels, no more cosmetics or costumes,
hat is to say. So seven wise women of
Sorosis decide. Well I knew the world
would come to it.
Now we are to have new menu, elemen-
AIRY politics it seams, "Cushing's Manual"