Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1892-07-14
IN WOMAN'S BEHALF.
sELF-suPPoRTINe WOMEN.

They Are Free From a Condition Of
society That Has Lasted for Centuries
One Of the most interesting figures in
New York life Of to-day is the self-sup-
porting woman-a figure To be found
from the highest to the humblest
society; a figure which is worthy Of the
deepest study OF metropolitan life and
manners.
A little while ago, the self-supporting
woman was a wonder and a novelty.
She was at once a heroine and in
anomaly. For the poor girl Of one CT
two generations back there were only
two acknowledgement and helpless
poverty or marriage. She had to marry
the first man who asked her, or consent
to a life Of starved parsimony or be-
grudged help If she became that desc
late OF all human creatures-an old
maid. dependent upon the charity of
her relatives-she was made TO regret
the pride or delicacy that had induced
her to refuse her sutton, and had signed
and sealed her to the bleak, grim life of
poor relative.
The penniless girl of to-day, with the
experience of her limp and brow-beaten
maiden aunts before her, has realized
the cruelty of her position and has
taken bold step for life and liberty.
The modern unmarried woman of FIVE
and-twenty, with a clear mind. an
independent spirit, a refined tempera-
ment, and the experience of nineteen
centuries behind her, would rather
scrub floors or sweep crossings for q
living than consent to the degradation
of what is commonly called marrying
COR home" She has seen her weaker
sisters, too feeble to struggle hand to
hand with life, resign themselves to
loveless marriage with spiritless acqui-
essence or sick dependency. She has
no wish to follow in their footsteps.
She will marry, as she herself says. IF
the right man comes" But to marry
for roof over her head and butter to
her bread-perish the thought. A great
deal better take her chop and cup of
coffee cooked over an oil stove in a
freezing hall-bedroom. Here she is her
own mistress, and no one can growl if
the coffee is thick and the chop tastes
of kerosene.
So, year by year, the army of self-sup-
porting women grows apace. They are
courageous, shrewd and Independent,
neither hard nor aggressive. They are
as far removed from that unattractive
class of women who do not wash their
hands, cut their hair off short, and wear
mems hats, as they are from the class
who spend their days reading French
translations, changing their dresses and
L. a. A
self-supporting for the sake of being
talked about, and do not crave to see
their beauty and their courage sung in
the Sunday papers They have taken up
their roles not as women seeking notori-
ETY. and advertisement, but as women
seeking freedom from condition of So
ciety that for centuries has crushed
their pride and wounded their delicacy.
Some of these women ave a more or
less easy time of it That is to say,
their talents or abilities, in whatever
art or profession they direct them, re-
ceive quick recognition, and the woman,
be she artist, writer, dressmaker, book
keeper or siclznurse, finds herself in re-
ceipt of an income on which she can
live comfortably and maybe put away
something substantial against the al
ways-to-be-looked-for rainy day AL
most all the great dailies in New York
employ women at good salaries From
them is expected the methodical regu-
larity, the mechanical precision in their
work that man would give. But they
serious women. earnestly trying to
support themselves, not working mere
" until some man will be so kind as to
marry them, not on chase for roman
tic adventures, or dime-novel love af-
fairs. They work conscientiously and
carefully, not often discouraged and al
ways painstaking and sincere.
These successful ones, comfortable
and hopeful, are among the happiest of
women. They have their lives laid out
before them, busy with pleasant toll
in which their hopes and energies are
conferred. They are free and independ-
ent. The carping cares of the house
keeper are not theirs If the domestic
joys of the woman who marries happily
are not for them, at least they have
none of her intolerable anxieties and
unceasing, petty trials-anxieties and
trials that would be almost unbearable
to their more daring and independent
natures. Their work is a joy to them,
their freedom perpetual source of self
government. 1t must be- indeed a
grande passion which will induce a
woman so placed deliberately to take
upon herself the responsibilities and
cares of marriage.-San Francisco Ar
gonaut.