Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1894-06-08

marble mantol. on may learn artistic
music until You can squall Italian, but
never sing "Ortonville" or "Old Hun
dred." Do nothing practical if you
would in the eyes Of refined society pre-
serve your respectability. I scout these
fnical notions. I tell Won no woman,
any more than man, has a right to &C.
cupy a place in this world unless she
pays q rent for it.
In the course Of a lifetime you con-
sumo whole harvests and droves Of cat
tie. and every day you live breathe 40
hogsheads Of good pure air. You must
by some kind Of usefulness pay for all
this. Our race was the last thing Great
od-the birds and fishes on the fourth
day. the cattle and lizards on the fifth
dav and man on the sixth day. If geol-
ogists are right. the earth was a million
of years in the possession OF the insects,
beasts and birds before our race came
upon it. In one sense we were inno-
vators. 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 insects
are to do with Us.
If we want a place in this world, we
must earn it, Tho partridge makes its
own nest before it occupies it. The
lark by its morning song earns its break
fast 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. "
Idlcness ruins the health and very soon
nature says: This man has refused to
pay his rent Out with him!"
Tho Toll of the Needle.
Society is to be reconstructed on the
subject Of woman's toll. Avast majority
Of those who would have woman indus
trious shut her up to a few kinds Of
work Ny Judgment i'll this matter is
that a woman has right to do anything
she can do well. There should be no de-
partment Of merchandise, mechanism,
art or science barred against her If
Miss Hosmcr has genius for sculpture,
give her a chisel. If Rosa Bonheur has
a fondnoss for dclincating 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
Lucrotia Mottw preach the gospel, let
her thrill with her womanly cloquence
the Quaker meeting house.
It is said if a woman is given such
opportunities she will occupy places
that might be taken by men. l say if
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 deli
cate that she is untitled for exhausting
toll ask in the name Of all past his
tory what toll on earth is more severe,
cxhausting 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
AK, have made no such havoc as the
needle. Iwould that these living sepul-
chors in which women have for ages
been buried might be opened, and that
some resurrection trumpet might bring
up these living corpscs to the fresh air
and sunlight.
Go with INC, and I Will show you
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.
Trials Of Women.
Such q 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 moro
goods. She could go into your wheel
wright shops and beat one-half Of your
workmcn at making carriages. We talk
about woman as though we had resigned
to her all the light work, and ourselves
had shouldcrcd the heavier. But the day
of Judgment which will reveal the suf-
fcrines Of the stake and inquisition, will
marshal before the throne Of God and
the hiorarchs of heaven the martyrs Of
washtub and needle.
Now, I say, if there be any prefer
ncc in occupation, let woman have it.
God knows her trials are the sevcrest
BY her acutcr scnsitiveness to misfor-
tune, by her hour Of anguish, l demand
that no one hedge up her pathway to
livelihood. On, the meanness, the de-
spicability of men who begrudge a wom-
an the right to work anywhere in any
honorable calling!
60 still further and say that women
sl,ould have equal compensation with
men. By what principle of justice is it
that women in many Of our cities get
only two-thirds as much pay 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 a long while women clerks in Wash
ington got $500 for doing that for which
men received 81, 800
To thousands Of young women in our
cities today there is only this alternative
starvation or dishonor. Many of the
largest mercantile establishments of our
cities arc accessory to these abomina-
lions, and from their large establish
monts there are scores Of souls being
pitched off into death, and their en-
ployers know It'll
The Wall of Womanhood.
Is there God? VIII there DO a judg-
ment? tell You, if God rises up to re-
dress woman's wrongs. many Of our
large establishments will be swallowed
up quicker than a South American
earthquake ever took down city. God
viii catch these oppressors between the
two millstonos of his wrath and grind
them to POWDER
] hear from all this land the wall of
womanhood. Man has nothing to an
cyvo7 70 fb0t vail INIT batteries He saws