Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1894-06-13

honorable to sweep house. make beds
or trim hats, a. IL il 10 twist 4 watch
chain.
! As FAR as can understand the line of
responsibility lies between that which
Is useful and that which is useless. Il
women do that which is Of no value
their work is honorable. II they do
practical work il l. lishOnorable. That
our young women may escape the cen
sure OF doing dishonorablew work. shall
particularize. You may knit tidy for
the back Of an armchair, but by no
. means make the money wherewith to
buy the chair. You may, with delicate
brush beautify "a mantel ornament. but
die rather than earn enough 10 buy
marble mantel. You may learn artistic
music until YOU can squall Italian. but
never sing "Ortonville'' or old Hum
dred. DO nothing practical, IL YOU
would, IN the eyes of refined society.
preserve your responsibility. | scout
these tnical notions. / tell YOU no
woman, any more than a man. has n
right TO occupy "A place in this world
without paying rent for it.
In the course of n lifetime you con-
sumo whole harvests. and droves of
cattle, and every day you live breathe
40 hogsheads of good pure air. You
must, by some kind of usefulness, nav
for all this. Our race was the last
thing crcated-the birds and fishes on
the fourth day. the cattle and lizards
on the fifth day. and man on the sixth
day. If biologists are right, the earth
was million of years in the possession
of the insects. beasts and birds. before
ON a
were innovators. The 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 the lizards and summer in
sects are 10 do with Us.
If we want a place in this world we
must earn IL. The partridge makes its
own nest before IL occupies it. The lark.
by its morning song, earns its breakfast
before il eats il; the Bible gives an init
nation that the first duty of an idler is
to starve. when it says if he will not
work. neither shall he eat" Idleness
ruins the health; ard very soon nature
says; This man has refused to pay his
rent; out with him"
Society viii be reconstructed on the
subject of a woman's toll. A vast
majority of those who would have wom-
en- industrious shut her up to a few
kinds of work. My judgment in this
matter Is that a woman has "A right to
do anything She can do well. There
should be no department of merchan-
disc, mechanism. art, or science barred
again her. If Miss Homer has genius
Tor sculpture, give her a chiSel. If Rosa
Bonheur has 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 a 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 on
portunities, she will occupy places that
might he taken by men. | say. if she |
have more skill and adaptedness for anv
position than a 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 |
delicate that she is untitled for ex-
hausting toll. Task, in the name of all |
past history, what toll on earth is more !
severe, exhaustive and tremendous than |
that toll of the needle to which for
ages she has been subjected? The bat !
tering ram, the sword. the carbine. the |
battle AK have made no such havoc as /
the needle. | would that these living I
sepulcherS in which women have for 4
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 Won a |
woman who by hardest toll. supports
her children, her drunken husband.
her old father and mother. paws 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
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 more
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 shouldcred the heavier. But
the day of judgment, which will reveal
the sufferings of the stake and induisi-
ton will marshal before the throne of
God and the hierarchs of Heaven the
martyrs of washtub and needle.
Now, | say. If there be any prefer
ence in occupations let women have IL.
God knows that her trials are the
severest BY her acutcr sensitiveness
to misfortune by her hour of anguish.
| demand that no one hedge M her
pathway To livelihood. O. the mean
ness. the despicabilitv Of men who be-
grudge a woman the right to work any
where. in any honorable calling,
go still further. and say that WON
en- should have equal compensation
with men. By what principle of JUS
ticc is IL that women in many Of ON.
cities get only two-thirds as much paw
as men and in many cases only half?
Here is the gigantic injustice that for
work equally well. if not better done
woman receives far less compensation
than man. start with the national
government For long while women
clerks in Washington got $500 for do
ing that for which men received sl.SCO
TO thousand Of young women i'm oar
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