The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1891-08-05
In WOMAN'S BEHALF.
The NEW WOMAN.
Clrcumstances That Have Developed Her
and Made Her What She Is.

HE NEW WOMAN.
circumstances That Have Developed Her
and Made Her What She Ii.
The new woman, like most new
things, is a product of circum stances.
She has been evolved from what was
formerly known in economical science
IS the superiuous female.
Undoubtedly the woman who had no
helpful relation to the bread-winning
man of the day, who was neither wife
of the producer nor mother or care
taker of the future man, was super
duty in the economy Of nations Wom-
en- have always been painfully con-
xcious of the statistics, which are gath
cred with such painstaking industry,
showing how many more girls than
boys are born into the pre-empted
earth, and how many women there are
in excess of men in certain towns,
states and countries, and of how in
evitably this fact, in the minds of sta
-tisticians and political economists,
points to polygamy.
Women can hardly fail to be guiltily
conscious of their superiority. The one
girl in the family who failed, through
some lack of personal attraction, or
fastidiousness of taste, to find her mate
in the other sex, was source of anxi-
ETY. and reproach even to the mother
who bore her. To be an old maid was
next in disagreeableness to being
mother-in-law, and, unfortunately, no
woman but childless wife could es-
cape the fate Of being one or the other.
1t is one of the curious reversals Of to-
day that the old maid may stand beside
the mother of boys and not be ashamed;
no consciousness of foiled destiny OPP
presses her; her work speaks for her in
the world. and she does not fear to be
weighed by it and found wanting.
The work which the new woman is
doing is as valuable and necessary as
the work of men. and is indeed part
of it. We find her everywhere. No
office could dispense with the inevitable
woman, who performs some part of its
work with peculiar skill and fitness
There is no center of intellectual labor
or skilled manipulation where the
woman does not find her work waiting
for her The editor sees that she sp-
peals to an audience which is interested
in the chicanery Of politics or the sta
tistics of crime The architect knows
that there are details of interior con-
Struction, dear to his clientele, of which
no man could possibly be aware, and
the lawyer and merchant find their
stenographers, and the doctor his most
earnest students and faithful nurses,
among them.
The women who fill these new fields
1of labor come into them from widely
different motives. Those who opened,
and many Of those who are now sue
cessfully occupying them, are women
whose lives began quite differently.
They are of . class with whom the
wealthy women Of New York should
be in ardentsympathy. because in many
cases they were closely associated in
childhood. They grew up together in
-neighboring and wealthy homes, studied
together in fashionable schools, some
of them were married in fashionable
churches; all their associations, before
they were overtaken by poverty, were
with the fortunate and wealthy class
When, bv some of the strange chances
and changes of life, the means of lux
ury failed, and they ended the short
and Intellectual struggle which they
hoped might enable them to continue
among their old friends and associa-
lions, they crossed the gulf which lies
between the ease of idleness and earn
est, exhaustive and continual effort,
and stood alone, without friends or
homes or money, except that which un-
accustomed hands could earn. These
are the women who have won place
for other educated women in the active
industries of the world, and have made
a field for the activity of thousands Of
young, ambitious and able minds
The girls who have grown up into
these fields of labor have had the ad.
vantage of special education, as well as
) natural aptitude. They are wide-eyed,
earnest women, who note the changes
which have been and are taking place
in the customs and needs of the world
who recognize new conditions, and
have determinedly fitted themselves for
them. They have made themselves
ready to step in wherever a woman's
column or page devoted to ''things
Interesting" is wanted, and there are
enough of them and they are well
enough trained to edit daily paper
which shall be as unobjectionable as i.
the religious weekly newspaper, ant
which shall answer a daily family
want. There are enough of them to d.
far more than this, and they are doing
more and doing it well.-Candac,
Wheeler, in Christian Union.
DOMESTIC SCIENCE.