The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-07-13
IN W0MAN'S BEHALF.
OUR COMING WOMEN.
What They VIII BE Like and How We
Should Accept Them.

Wits Hlgner schooI, the senior prlncl-
pal, Miss Rebecca S. Rice, A. NJ, says
the Chicago Herald, took rather new
and more practical view of the new
woman's duties with her new oppor.
tunities. Miss Rice said in part:
On occasions like these it used to be
the custom to talk of the school days as
being over. Happily for the world,
happily for women as women, happily
for You and for those to whom you will
give, and from whom you will receive
loving service in the years yet distant,
this is no longer the case. To-day is,
indeed, only commencement day for
you. for believe everyone of you in
tends to go on with some regular study,
and some of you are well on your way
toward that study. -Four of you have
borne college examinations and favor
able reports are coming in from those
examinations. In the cases of three of
you these examinations have been as
severe as any given in the country. In
entering upon your college work you
will know that you have right,
sturdily won, to the best instruc-
ton the country affords. You are
ready for it. hope more of your class
mates and many more of our school
mates will follow your example. Seek
the highest opportunity, and then do
not be satisfied without the most per-
feet attainment.
Within the last short generation a
great advance has come in the oppor-
tunitics given to woman, and the de-
mandS made of her in duties have kept
pace with her opportunities. Those
who looked to see her fail in meeting
the expectation of her advocates are
surprised to see the buoyant energy
with which she rises to every emer-
gency. 1t is as though new flood of
vitality had been poured into her heart
and life. Business men recognize with
surprise the business capacity of the
woman who, u little while ago, seemed
only the petted idol of society. "She
considcreth a field and buyeth it; with
the fruit of her hands she plantcth a
vineyard. She pcrceiveth that her
m crchandise is good"
Here and there she is finding her way
into chair in some high institution of
learning. "She openeth her mouth with
wisdom" She not only ''stretcheth
out her hand to feed the poor" but men
are learning everywhere that she is a
safe counsellor and fruitful origina
tor in the broad philanthropies that
never so much occupied the world be-
fore, ''In her tongue is the law of
kindness
Win the women of the coming gen.
Grafton be like the women of a genera
ton ago? Fathers and mothers, send
ing away their daughters for Il long
course of university study, ask this
question anXiously, for there has been
a great deal that was lovablc and beau
tiful in the old-fashioncd American
women. We shall not want to miss n
virtue nor grace in the new
generation. We shall not want
the eyes dim and absent from por-
ing over books that should be bright
with home-love; nor the mind on a visit
to the stars when it should be shedding
its own light upon household. But,
friends, the coming woman, if you send
her to college and do all you can to let
her find out what she was made for,
will not be quite what the passing wom-
an is do not think you will like her
less She will be freer. You may have
to adjust yourselves a little to accom-
modate her. | do not think it would
be quite fair of you to expect, when she
comes from college with honors equaI
to those of your sons, and, besides
these with new ideas to which you
have not CHANGED to give attention, al
the adjustment to come from her side.
If she is true she will come back to you
worthier than when she went away
but YOU will find it wise to give tho
newly awakened abilities room to grow
and bloom. You may find her moro
worthy. even in the old way of love
than ever before
She will want 'to do something.
AS said before, she will feel it duty
TO do something, | hope. Make room
for her and welcome her efforts. She
will not do her work like Il man, She
will arrive at her ends in differen
way, which will probably be quite a
good. Expect it, and she will add new
elements to thought, new meanings tC
research, new powers to the expression
of art as she has already added new
wisdom to the administration of the
large philanthropics to which you have
so fully admitted her.
Do not be afraid of the future of on
wcmcn if you educate them. A woman
cra mined with knowledge only is a
much monster as man under tn
same circumstances. Such monster
are made easily; it does not take mucl
knowledge. Education presuppose
digestion of knowledge wisdom mad
from it-a growth and eNaltation of tn
best powers by it. As, all other thing
being equal. the educated man is NOR
nan than the uneducated, his natura
abilities having been thereby deve
oped. so, by parity of reasoning, tn
educated woman, all other things bt
iny equal, ought to be more of woma
than the uneducatcd, her natural abb
tiles being thereby developed So ia
tn experiment of wider SCHOLARSHIP
fo. men and women has seemed only
d,htrchtiate them the more and
make each more truly and nobly attra,
tive to the other.
Women will leave much of their ma
rcy rcss and prejudice behind them
TIE higher halls of learning; and TIN
if YOU have been observing the gres