The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1893-07-11
PEcuNIARY CONDITION or WOMEN.


Only Two small Glasses Who Are Real.
Independent.
| There are no more marked inequalities
in social conditions than are to be seer
IN the circumstances of women in Thu
country. The thoughtful must be con
stantly impressed with sense of inius
ttce in the striking contrasts which arr
everywhere observed.
| To one woman life is one long gall
| day. Her home is the abode of magnifi
cence, beside which the splendor of 4
| foreign court is less luxurious. For hel
are the richest silks, the finest laces, the
| rarest jewels. The most delicate anG
costly viands tempt her tickle appetite
horses and equipages await her bidding
| and entertainment succeeds entertain
ment in fashionable places i'll their re.
spective seasons.
To another, who may be her superior
and of n more delicate organization, life
may be one long working day, from the
'fell clutch of circumstance" for which
she is in no way responsible.
a large number of women are brought
up to look to matrimony as their sole
pecuniary resource. They speak of "mak-
ing their market and getting well set
tied" in life, and they sell themselves, or
are sold, as truly as ever were the south
ern slaves. If they secure for them
selves permanently every comfort and
luxury, many of them are quite content,
SO lacking are they in the finer qualities
of womanhood.
There are but two classes of women
who are completely independent. The
first consists of those to whom money
has been bequcathed. So long as this
lasts its possessor may be her own mis-
tress. So many losses occur from I'M
fortunate investments and fluctuations
of valuation that even this may not al
ways be certainty
The second class is made up of those
women who possess enough physical
vigor, literary, artistic, business or other
training to enable them to earn money
for themselves. These women, so long
as health is vouchsafed them, are more
absolutely independent than any other
class, since they have the power to help
themselves under nearly all circum-
stances. There are, it is true, many who
are so happily situated in their family
relations with father or husband, so Sc
cure in their knowledge of the estima-
ton in which they are held and the af-
lection which is superior as possession,
to average women than the most COM
plete state of independence in which
they could possibly be placed, that, to
them, any question of what women
should have, more than is at present
their portion, seems but the work of SUI
pererogation.
in
country whose lines have not fallen in
such pleasant places, whose constant
and careful service in the home meets
with no appreciation, either pecuniarily
or in any other way, and who are obliged
to ''beg and wheedle for their share of
the products of this world, which men
have seized for themselves" 1t has been
well said by some writer that charity
does harm in two ways-intiating the
giver with Importance and humiliating
its recipient. In this manner, too, are
affected some of the lords of creation,
who are the donors, and in the latter
way the women who are their benefi-
Charles.
A woman bringing up children, if she
be faithful to Der high and noble calling,
is engaged IL work which transcends
all others in importance and dignity,
and in doing which she should be shield
ed if possible from pecuniary anxiety.
The woman, too, whose mind and heart
transform the dwelling into the home is
doing a work the benefit of which cannot
be overestimated.
1t is well known that many women are
never trusted by their parents or hus-
bands with money. They may have ev-
cry necessity purchased for them and
the costliest gifts presented to them, but
every child knows the pleasure of little
income which is its own, to do with alb
solutely as he or she pleases-the salts
faction of doing without some one thing
for the qualification of a taste oy the Civ
ing pleasure to some one else.
The practice of holding fairs has been
advocated on the ground that many
women who have no money to give may
send turkeys and other articles of food,
which they can have charged to their
husbands monthly accounts with the
butcher 1t is known that some women
obtain money by requesting their dress
makers to enlarge their bills and give to
them the difference between the proper
amount and the sum charged in cash.
The remedy for the future has already
begun. but is not yet systematized or
sufficiently general, Every girl, no mat
ter in what affluent circumstances she
may be born. should have some training
by which she can support herself if neces-
sary. She will be none the less, but the
better, fitted for a happy married life
should congenial opportunity come to
her. Nor would she regret under any
the knowledge of a power
which, If not needed for herself, might
be used for the advantage of others
Said lovely woman recently who has
exceptionally happily situated herself,
ooh, | have often wished that | had
some way TO earn money, If it were only
so cents" so many came to her for help
whose needs she was powerless to relieve.
ANNA OLCoTT CoMMELIN
Hard on Johnny.