Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1894-06-21
MARTYRS OF THE NEEDLE
Subject of Discourse by Rev. T
Dewitt Talmage.
The Battering-Ram. the Sword. the Car
hine. tre BattIe-Ax Have Made No
such Havoc as the Needle-women
should Have Equal Compen-
sation with Men.

tyrs of the Needle" the text being
Matthew xix, "a: 1T is easier for a
camel to go through the eye of q
needle.
Whether this ''eye of the needle be
the small gate at the side of the big
gate at the entrance of the wall of the
ancient city. as is generally interpreted.
or the eye of needle such as is now
handled in sewing garment, do not
say. In either case it would be tight
thing for a camel to go through the eve
of a needle. But there are whole cava-
rams of fatigues and hardships going
through the eye of the sewing woman's
needle.
Very long ago the needle was busy.
IT was considered honorable for women
10 toll in olden time. Alexander the
Great stood in his palace showing gar
ments made by his own mother The
finest tapestries at Bayex were made by
the Queen of William the Conquerer.
Augustus, the emperor. would not wear
any garments except those that were
fashioned by some member Of his royal
family So let the toiler everywhere
be respected!
'lhe greatest blessing that could have
happened To our first parents was being
turned out of Eden after they had done
wrong. Adam and Eve, in their per-
feet state. might have got along with
out work, or only such slight employ
ment as a perfect garden, with no
weeds in it, demanded. But, as soon
as they had sinned. the best thing for
them was to be turned out where they
would have to work, We know what
whitening thing it is for a man to have
nothing to do. Good old Ashbel Green,
at four-score years, when asked why he
kept on working, said, II do SO to keep
out of mischief" We see that man
who has large amount of money to
start with has no chance OF tse
thousand prosperous and honorable
men that you know, nine hundred and
ninety-nine had to work vigorously at
the beginning.
But | am now TO tell you that indus
try is just as important for woman's
safety and happiness. The most I'M
happy women in our communities to-
day are those who have no engagements
to call them up in the morning: who,
once having risen and breakfasted,
lounge through the dull forenoon in
slippers down at the heel and with di-
sheveled hair, residing the last novel:
and who, having dragged through a
wretehed forenoon and taken their
afternoon sleep, and having spent an
hour and half at their toilet, pick up
their card-case and go out to make
calls; and who pass their evenings
waiting for somebody to come in and
break up the monotony. Arabella
Stuart was never imprisoned in so dark
a dungeon as that.
There is no happiness in an idle wo-
man. II may be with hand, it may be |
with brain. it may be with foot; but |
work she must. or be wretched forever. |
The little girls of our families must be |
started with that idea. The curse of our
American society is that our young
women are taught that our first. |
second, third. fourth fifth, sixth.
seventh, tenth, fiftieth. thousandth
thing in their life, is to get somebody |
TO take care of them. Instead of that.
the first lesson should be. how, under
God, they may take care of themselves.
The simple fact is that majority of
them do have to take care of them
selves, and that, too, after having,
parents, wasted the years in which
they ought to have learned how sue
cessfully to maintain themselves We
now and here declare the inhumanity,
cruelty, and outrage of that father and
mother, who pass their daughters into
womanhood, having given them no
facility for earning their livelihood.
Madame de Stael said: ''It is not these
writings that / am proud of but the
fact that | have facility in ten occu'
pations, in any one of which | could
make a livelihood.
You say you have fortune to leave
them. O man and woman! have you
not learned that, like vultures, like
hawks, like eagles, riches have wings
and fly away? Though you should be
successful in leaving a competency be-
hind you, the trickery of executors may
swamp it in a night; or some elders or
deacons of our churches may get up a
fictitious company, and induce your or
phans to put their money into it, and II
it be lost, prove to them that it WA
eternally decreed that that was the way
they We're to lose it, and that it went
in the most orthodox and heavenly
style. o. the damnable schemes that
protested Christians will engage in
until God puts His fingeS into the col
lar Of the hypocrite's robe and rips il
clear down to the bottoml You have
no right, because you are well off, tc
that your children are going
10 be as well off. A man died leaving
! large fortune His son fell dead in
Philadelphia grog-shop, His old com
,ades came in and said, as they bent
over his corpse, ''What is the matter
With you, Boggsey?" The surgeon
standing over him said: "Hush up he
5 dead!' ''Ah, he is dead.' they
aid Come, boys, let us go and take
j