The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1894-06-06
Concerning the Value of a Dinner.
iHarper's BaZar.

up for angels, he thought, let them
live accordingly. He agreed in this re-
spect with many less noted men, who
would blush to be called poetical; but
their objections would be more on the
practical side. They would object, at
any rate, to women's providing their
own dinners. A woman, they urge, IS
not intended by nature to earn her own
bread; but the farther question how she
is to live without bread, and, who is to
earn it for her if she herself does not
this is left in rather vague uncertainty.
Surely, if nature intended that wo-
I man should not earn her dinner, nature
should also either have decreed that
she should live without it, or that some
one should al ways stand ready to pro-
vide it for her. If this is the theory, it
is evident that society is grossly one
sided. All the ordinary expenses of
life are plainly assigned to men and
women with severe impartiality. Wo-
men can no more be transported from
place to place for nothing than if they
were Coxey's Industrial Army; the
conductor of the electric car holds out
his merciless palm for their five cent
piece as persistently as if they were
men; and no bake shop announces over
its doors, "Wemen half-price." The'r
tea, their beefsteak, their potatoes,
know no Salique Law; women must
eat, and they must therefore pay; they
must pay, and therefore must common
ly earn. They may be very elevated !
beings, full of aspiration and imagina-
ton, but faith asks her daily bread
and fancy must be fed"
Accordingly, as matter of fact, they
are permitted, all the world over, to
work hard for food and shelter, SO long
as they are willing to work at disad-
vantage and are not paid too well.
Even where their faces are veiled they
may still grind at the mill, but at low
prices. .same distinction prevails
in Christian lands; witness that school
committee report which said, "Slnce
this office involves neither honor nor
profit, we see no reason why it should
not be held by woman" Its the low
places that excite no jealousy; a man
is willing to be displaced by woman
when it is a question of scrubbing
floors; nobody complains Of it then. 1t
is when she undertakes some higher
position, st competent salary, that
she is censured. She may prove her.
self incompetent in q dozen directions
and not bring down on her head so
much censure as by succeeding in one.
But it certainly is not her fault when
she attempts to earn an honest living,
and still less her fault when she OBJ
tains good one. "If a man lor wo-
mani will not work, how shall he Tor
she] eat?' After all, it is the bread and
shelter which are at stake. Women are
not so wholly unlike men that they
generally work ten hours for the fun of Y
it. The inducement is that they may
earn living for themselves, and per- S
haps for many others. In a town where
I once inquired into the matter with s
reference to the pay of teachers, it
turned out that almost every woman {
had some one depending upon her,
while some of the young men had
absolutely no one to care for except s
themselves. Nay, have again and
again known women to work inces- 8
sanity to maintain stupid brother in c
college or to keep a worthless one out
Of Jail. -,
In view of such facts, how idle is the c
complaint that every woman Industrial )
ly employed takes the place of some
man! In poor family it is the bright a
est and ablest who must maintain the
fortunes of the household. and sex has Z
nothing to do with it. Even on the
farm the wife's butter and cheese and
he1 summer boarders often bring larger
cash returns than the husbands crops. .
But where young woman is launched
in the world with only herself to sup ,
port, she has precisely as many mouths +
10 feed as the average young man, =
namely, one. She no more displaces :
MIN than be displaces her. She needs :
her dinner, and so does he. The days =
earnings must supply it, no matter y
who eats it. If she displace him in the o
highest business pursuits, is there any o
reason why she should not? !,
The answer commonly is that if she =
stays at home and earns nothing, some
body will marry her. But if her dinner
s not provided in the mean time, it is
very Certain that nobody will marry
1er, because she will starve while wait "
ng. Who will provide for the COM n
nissary department in the mean while? a
Are the young men of the age so uni Il
orrnly self-sacri6cing that they will
,uarantee in advance the dinners of
whole woman's college, or factory :,
ull Of young woman, simply on the =
.hance of marrying some oHe of them -
hereafter. If not, who is to give the y
,uarantee? We cannot we'll set up every
young woman in the pub
ic park, with the label appended:
Marry me! I am starving"
The more we think of it, the more
,lain it becomes that, except for the
Capitalists" and the
avored pets Of fortune, the direct way :
o get dinner is to earn it. Sex makes
10 difference in this respect. Napoleon
aid that there should be free field for
alents; and so long as the world is
arried on by competition each must be
eft free to compete. Wherever wo-
nan can do anything for an honest
.o,,.t ~ot M bct