The Bossier banner., 1894-07-19


lineal descendant of the twelve dollar
CATERS in which her mother walked;
and that torn and faded calico had
ancestry of magnificent brocade that
swept Broadway clean without any
expense to the street commits
sioners. Though you live in an
elegant residence, and fare sump-
tuously every day, let your daughters
feel it is disgrace to them not to know
how to work. I denounce the idea,
prevalent in society, that though our
young women may embroider slippers,
and crockett, and make mats for lamps
to stand on, without disgrace, the idea
of doing anything for a livelihood is
dishOnorable. 1t is a shame for
young woman belonging to large
| family to be inefficient when the father
tolls his life away for her support. 1t
is shame for daughter to be idle
while her mother tolls at the washtub.
! It is as honorable to sweep house,
make beds, or trim hats, as it is to
| twist a watch chain.
| As far as | can understand, the line
of respectability 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 dishonor-
able. That our young women may es-
| cape the censure of doing dishonorable
work, L shall partlcularize. You may
knit a tidy for the back of armchair,
| but by no means make the money
L IL. H.
with delicate brush, beautify mantel
ornament, but die rather than earn
enough to buy mable mantel. You
may learn artistic music until you can
squan italian, but never sing 'Orton-
vile or "Old Hundred" Do nothing
practical, if you would, in the eyes of
refined society, preserve your respec-
| liability. l scout these finical notions.
L tell you no woman, any more than
man, has a right to occupy place in
this world unless she pays rent for it.
In the course of lifetime you con-
sumo whole harvests, and droves of
cattle, and every day you live breathe
forty hogsheads of good pure air.
You must, by some kind of usefulness
pay for all this. Our race was the last
thing created-the birds and fishes on
| the fourth day, the cattle and lizards
on the fifth day, and man on the sixth
day. If geologists are right, the earth
was a million of years in the possession
of the insects, beasts and birds, before
our race came upon it. Ir one sense,
we were innovators. The cattle, the
| li2""ds and the hawks had pre-emption
right. The question is not what we
are to do with the lizards and summer
insects, but what the lizards and sum-
mer insects are to do with us.
If we want place in this world we
must earn it. The partridge makes its
own nest before it occupies it. The
lark, by its morning song, earns its
breakfast before it eats it; the Bible
gives an intimation that the first duty
of an idler is to starve, when it says if
he will not work, neither shall he
eat" IdleneSs ruins lie health, and
very soon nature says: This man has
refused to pay his rent; out with linn
Society is to be reconstructed on the
subject OF woman's toll. A vast ma
jority of those who would have woman
|
of work. My judgment in this matter
is this, that woman has a right to do
anything she can do well. There should
be no department of merchandise,
mechanism, art Or sc;2nce barred against
her. If Miss Hosmer has genius for
sculpture, give her chisel. If Rosa
BOnheur has fOndneSS for delineatino
animals, let her make The Horse Fair .
If Miss Mitchell will study astrono-
my, let her mount the starry ladder
If Lydia will be merchant, let her
sell purple. If Lucretia Mott will
preach the Gospel, let her thrill with
her womanly eloquence the Quaker
meeting house.
1t is said if woman is given such op-
portHnity she will occupy places that
might be taken by men. l say, if she
have more skill and adaptness for any
position than a man has, let her have
it. She has as much light to her bread
to her apparel and to her home as men
have.
But it is said that her nature is sc
delicate that she is untitled for ex.
haustilg toll. / ask in the name of all
} past history, 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-aX have made no such havoc
as the needle. l would that these liv.
ing sepulchers in which women have
for ages been buried might be opened
, and that some resurrection trumpet
5 might bring up these living corpses tt
, the fresh air and sunlight.
Go with me and l will show YOU &
: woman who, by hardest toll, supports
: her children, her drunken husband
her cid father and mother, pays hel
house rent, always has wholesome foo6
| on the tabSh, and, when she can get
some neighbor on the Sabbath to come
: in and take care of her family, appear.
t in church, with hat and cloak that are
| far from indicating the toll to which
: she is subjected.
Such woman as that has body anC
5 soul enough to fit her for any position
2 She could stand beside the majority O