The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1894-06-06

Il
street commissioners. Though you live
in an elegant residence, and fare sump-
tuously every day, let your daughters
feel 1t Is disgrace to them not to know
how to work. l denounce the idea,
prevalent in society, that though our
| young women may embroider slippers,
and crochet, and make mats for lamps
to stand on, without disgrace, the idea
OF doing anything for livelihood Is
dishonorable. It is a shame for young
woman, belonging to a 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 wash-tub. It Is as
honorable to sweep house, make beds,
or trim hats as it is to twist watch
chain.
AS far as can understand, the line OF
respectability lies between that which
is useful and that which is useless. II
women do that which is Of no value,
their work is honorable. II they do
practical work, it is dishonorable.
That our young women may escape the
censure Of doing dishonorable 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 deli
cate brush, beautify mantel ornament,
but die rather than earn enough to buy
n marble mantel. You may learn ar
tistic music until you can squall Ital-
ian, but never sing 'Ortonville' or
"0ld Hundred" DO nothing practical,
IL You would, in the eyes of refined So
cicty, preserve your rcspectability. l
scout these flnical notions. l tell you
no woman, any more than man, has q
right to occupy u place in this world
unless she pays rent for it.
In the course of lifetime you con-
sumo whole harvcsts, and droves of cat
tie, 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
creatcd-the birds and fishes on the
fourth day, the cattle and lizards on
the Afth Gay, and the man on the sixth
day. If gcologists 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 invaders. The cattle, the liz
ards 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.
II we want place in this world we
must earn it. The partridge makes its
own nest before it occupies it. The
lark, by its mournful song, earns its
breakfast before 1t 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 the health; and very soon
nature says, This man has refused to
pay his rent; out with him."
Society is to be reconstructed on the
subject Of woman's toll. A vast major
ity of those who would have woman in
dustrious shut her up to few kinds OF
work. My judgment in this matter is,
that woman has right to do any.
thing she can do well. There should
be no department of merchandise,
mechanism, art or science barred against
her. IL Miss Hosmer has genius for
sculpture, give her chisel. II Rosa
Bonheur has fondness for delineating
animals, let her make "The Horse
Fair" II Miss Mitchell will study as
tronomy, let her mount the starry lad
der. II Lydia will be n merchant, let
her sell purple. II Lucretia Mott will
preach the gospel, let her thrill with
her womanly eloquence the Quaker
meeting house.
1t is said, II woman is given such
opportunities, she will occupy places
that might be taken by men. say, il
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 delicate that she is un-
fitted for exhausting 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 sub
jected? The battering- the sword,
the carbine, the battle-ax have made no
such havoc as the needle. would that
these living sepulchres 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.
Such a 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 had shouldered the heavier.
But the day Of judgment, which will
reveal the sufferings of the stake and
inquisition, will marshal before the
throne Of God and the hierarchs Of
Heaven the martyrs Of washtub and
needle.
Now, say, II there be any prefer.