Middletown transcript., 1895-05-25
Our WOnan'S
.....Colunn
Revolt of the Mothers,

Nk2VlEk onnp~s'Gn common branches; nc Sas
after that she very likely went to a
boarding school and was taught some
of the accomplishments. When she
came home her wise mother inducted
her into the mysteries of home max
ing in all its departments. She must
know how to cook and mend, she
must be able to show an ignorant SER
want how to do her work, and when,
as is often the case, there is no servant
at hand, she must do the work her
self. A girl with such training is a
host in her self. No domestic cyclone
can disturb herserenity. knowledge
is power. She feels that home is her
sphere, and wields her sceptre with
dignity.
There is another picture at hand.
1t is of the girl of the period. She is
not content with such an education
as her mother received. A college
training is the fad now, and go to
college she must. With & three years
preparatory course and four years in
college, she comes out thoroughly
educated girl, as far as books go.
Sometimes her knowledge SO sets
her above her mother and the home
that she is utterly dissatisfied with
the old surroundings. She must
make a way for herself. Various
avenues are open to her, but she has
to push and jostle her way to success,
for it means competition with men as
well as with women.
This develops an aggressive and
self-assertive spirit in which the
womanly qualities are lost, or, if not
lost, SO buried as to need q resurrec-
tion trump to bring them to life
again. Many avenues whereby wo-
man may support themselves are
open to the sex now, but, as said be-
fore, success in those lines means
and struggle develops aggres-
sive Qualities.
1t cannot be otherwise. And that
aggressiveness asserts itself in the
home. The mother is old-fashioned
in her ideas. The daughter has the
tresher, newer knowledge, and is apt
o think she knows more than her
mother.
l do not wish to be understood as
lepreciating college training; but
should not end there. re-
member hearing a lady in a noted
college town say that she thought the |
college course should be supple |
nented by two years course in do
nestle training, and that by another
wo years in a school for manners; for
he average college girl had no home
raining and very bad manners.
Jpon that remark set myself to
Tatch the college girls, and l must
ay her last remark at any rate was
rue.
1t may be that the intense aggres-
iveness and the free and easy man
ers of the girl of to-day are only a
wing of the pendulum from the kept
t-home and mothered girl of the
ormer period. And perhaps the ex-
reme to which the pendulum swings
ill be its own corrective, but the
lothers cannot afford to ignore the
resent tendency.
1t may not be time for revolt, but \
certainly is time to look carefully
+ the tendency, and see if a wise de-
lining hand and little careful di-
'ction cannot supplement- the college
aiming and turn the restless, ag-
ressive energy into the legitimate
nes of home-making and keeping.
A friend has said, college training
yes women broader views and takes
lem outside the petty cares and {
lotions of life" But the petty cares 7
life are the lot of many women. If
'llege training will help them in Il e ,
scharge of their duties and make =
em better equal to the emergencies
life then let us encourage it. But t
the same time, the old-fashioned r
others must assert their old. fashion.
ideas and insist upon home training
ID home culture to be as necessary I
the college curriculum. r
If mothers will take that position Y
ID maintain it there will be no need u
revolt. Mothers still have power :
ough if they will use it, and larger.
der culture, embracing the intellect
d the heart, the head and the a
.nds, will be the result. a
NELLIE B. PARKHURsT. c
#*x
The coming woman won't thrash
r children; she won't have any. IL
~ "
An exchange suggest that pneu- /
ltic sleeves would be timely and F
invention that every woman would &,
vest in.
- {"
The ladies used to wear "leg of s.
ltton" sleeves. Nothing less than
lind quarter of beef would des- il
be the one now in vogue. p
knights of the Maccabees. ~
he State Commander writes us from
coln, Neb., as follows: After trying Z