Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-06

TO marry, but whereas women are honorably
anxious to fulfill this mission, yet men are
more disposed to shirk it, and-according
to the long held notions-to his chief con-
troll is its furtherance entrusted. In short,
he plainly makes out that husband
hunting" however outrageously i'm
modest it may be considered, is the
right explanation of how marriage is to be
carried on. He puts together, as he says,
the three facts of nineteenth century civill-
zation, viz: Men are becoming averse to
marriage; it gives no object in life but mar
riage to women. and vet the fashion con-
demns the latter to remain in the back
ground and wait until some eheaven-appoint-
ed man comes along and proposes. Illus
band-hunting'' and 'tmatch-making" have
been held under condemnation by all of the
drawing room dowagers and porch chair
cats and sewing society gossips, but they
are quite common, notwithstanding, under
the rose The British matron has hitherto
been considered the greatest adept in the
business, but American fashionable mothers
and daughters could now give them pointers
IN these arts
The Old Ideal for . Wife.
The old-t1me ideal wife is certainly going
out of style In the days of the grand
mothers she was pictured in most mems
minds as little tender ignorant mortal who
would cling to him as the ivy to the oak,
and worship him as a sort of god, whose
words were her laws. She was to be patient
under every provocation, sacrifice her every
wish to his, and look up to him as her mas
ter. She was not to banker after book
learning, nor read the newspapers. Her pleas
ure was to be found in cooking and darning
and drudging. To come up to the standard
of good wife she was to be willing to be
her husbands door mat, to exist in bondage,
and to live under burden of domestic care.
Even in those early days of bigotry and
narrowneSs and superst1tion-when blue
laws were in fuller force than now-good
old grandmothers had to work on Sunday
and on holidays, and the girls were not al.
lowed to go to school.
But with the advance of civilization men
have changed as well as women. The men
of to-day, in the main, do not set up as des-
pots in the family. They do not demand
cringing obedience from their wives. They
would not get it if they did. Whether it
is called evolution or revolution women are
everywhere demanding fair play in the
world, and are everywhere upsetting old
ideas and knocking out the old ideals They
have do desire to usurp mans place, but
they want to hold their own.
Signs of Good Times to Come.
1t is cheerful sign that women are dis
contented with the old ways, and reaching
out for knowledge, culture and training for
something better. 1t is rich promise of
good DAYS to come when men are growing
alive to the meanness of unjust laws as re-
CARDS women and children. As writer
happily puts it:
One of the pest results of the work now
being done everywhere by women is that it
the new womanhood. The old chfvalry was
inspired by their helplessness, ignorance.
quite as much as innocence, timidity and
trail physique. Now, within memory al
most of the youngest, women have taught
men to honor them not only for their
purity but for their philanthropy, their
high ambitions for their work in rescuing
the poor. The fippant woman is out of
date. So is the woman whose charity begins
and ends at home.
Few men there are now who are worth
talking about, who will DENY that women
as doctors in the women's insane depart
ments of hospitals are as much in proper |
place as in the domestic swim" Few men |
will question the propriety of matrons in
prisons where women are confined. Few |
men will now say that women as teachers, |
IS doctors, as nurses, as preachers, as OPEN |
ing colleges for girls, as establishing homes |
for the poor, are out of their sphere, or will |
leny that they are doing work as noble, rs
heroic, as productive of good to the world as
hey could do in a kitchen.
BESSIE BRAMBLE.