Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1894-06-09

disgrace, the idea Of doing anything for
a livelihood is dishonorable. 1t is @
shame for young woman, belonging to
"a large family, to be inefficient when
the father tolls his life away for her
support. It is shame for daughter to
be idle while her mother tolls at tho
washtub. 1t is as honorable to sweep
house, make beds or trim hats as it is
to twist O watch chain.
FinicaI Notions.
AS far as I can understand, tho line
of responsibility lies between that
which is useful and that which is use
less. If women do that which is of no
value, their work is honorable. If they
do practical work, it is dishonorable.
That our young women may escape the
censure of doing dishonorable work I
shall particularize You may knit q tidy
for the back of an armchair, but by no
means make the money wherewith to
buy the chair. You may, with delicate
brush, sbeautify mantel ornament, but
die rather than earn enough to buy q
marble mantel. You may learn artistic
music until you can ssquall Italian, but
meyer sing Ortonyill g. OF Old Hun
Tired. " Do nothing practical ;if you
would in the eyes Of refined society pre-
sserye your responsibility. scout these
fnioal notions I tell you no woman,
any more than man, has right to &C.
cupy place In this world unless she
pays rent for it.
In the course Of lifetime you con-
sumo whole harvosts and droves of cat
tie, and every day you live breathe 40
hogsheads of good pure air. You must
by some kind of usefulness pay for all
this. Our race was the last thing Great
ed-the birds and fishes on the fourth
day, the cattle and lizards on the fifth
day and man on the sixth day. If geol-
ogists are right, the earth was million
of years in the possession of the insects,
beasts and birds before our race came
upon it. In one sense we were 1nno-
vators. Tho cattle, the lizards and the
hawks had presumption right. The
question is not what we are to do with
the lizards and summer insects, but
what tho lizards and summer insects
arc to do with u.s.
If we want place In this world, we
must earn it. The partridge makes its
own nest before it occupies 1t. The
lark by its morning song earns its break
fast before it eats it. The Bible gives
an intimation that tho first duty Of an
idler is to starve when it says if he
will not work neither shall he eat. F"
Idleness ruins tho health, and very soon
nature says: "This man has refused to
pay his rent Out with himP'
The Toll of tho Needle.
Society is to be reconstructed on the
subject of woman's toll. A vast majority
of those who would have woman indus
trious shut her up to few kinds Of
work. My judgment in this matter is
that woman has right to do anything
she can do we'll. There should be no de-
partment of merchandise, mechanism,
art or science barred against her. II
Miss Hosmer has genius for sculpture,
give her chisel. If Rosa Bonheur has
a fondness for delineating animals, let
her make ''The Horse Fair. - If Miss
Mitchell will study astronomy, let her
mount the starry ladder. If Lydia will
be merchant, let her sell purple. If
Iucretia Mott will preach the gospel, let
her thrill with her womanly eloquence
the Quaker meeting house
It is said if woman is given such
opportunities she will occupy places
that might be taken by men. 1 say if
she have more skill and adaptedness for
any position than man has let her have
it. She has as much right to her bread,
to her apparel and to her home as men
have.
But it is said that her nature is so deli
cate that she is untitled for exhausting
toll. l ask in the name of all past his
tory what toll on earth Is more severe,
exhausting and tremendous than that
toll of the needle to which for ages
she has been subjected? The battering
ram, the sword, the carbine, the battle
AK, have made no such havoc as the
needle. Iwould that these living sepul-
cheers in which women have for ages
been buried might be opened, and that
some resurrection trumpet might bring
up these living corpses to the fresh air
and sunlight.
Go with me, and will show you a
woman who by hardest toll supports her
children, her drunken husband, her old
father and mother, pays her house rent,
always has wholesome food on the table,
and when she can get some neighbor on
the Sabbath to come in and take care Of
her family appears in church with hat
and cloak that are far from indicating
the toll to which she is subjected.
Trials of Women.
Such woman as that has body and
soul enough to fit her for any position.
She could stand beside the majority of
your statesmen and dispose Of moro
goods. She could go into your wheel
wright shops and beat one-half OF your
/ workmen at making carriages. We talk
about woman as though we had resigned
to her all the light work, and ourselves
had shouldered the heavier. But the day
of Judgment. which will reveal the suf-
ferings of the stake and inquisition, will
marshal before the throne of God and
the hierarchs Of heaven the martyrs of
washtub and needle.
Now, 1 say, if there be any prefer
ence in occupation, let woman have it
God knows her trials are the severest
By her acuter sensitiveness to misfor-
tune, by her hour of anguish, 1 demand
| that no one hedge up her pathway to a
livelihood. Oh, the meanness, the de-
spicability of men who begrudge wom-
an the right to work anywhere in any
honorable callingl
7 90 still further and say that women