The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1895-08-14
Wednesday, Aug. II, 1895.
Concentrations of Being Woman.
py REV. WALTER RAUSCHENBUSCH.

Compensations of Being II Woman.
Ry REV. WALTER RAUSCHENBUSCII.
No bov ever wants to be 4 girl !;
most girls at times wish they were
b0ys. No man wishes he were a
woman many women at times Wish
they were men. The instructive
Judgment of both sexes seems to be
that women have the heavier end OF
the rail to carry. And this fact men
will do well to lay at heart. accept
ing this judgment on the Whole,
should like to point out some compen-
sations In the lot of women, Whlch
may modify it little, and gain 1or us
men some of the pity which is handed
over to women in a lump. :.
First is the fact that women live
longer than men. The general I'M
nression is that women start with a
Trailer constitution, are beset with
greater perils, and are earlier drained
of their vitality than men. The TACT
is, however, that men are ground up
in the mill Of life faster than women
Imagine thousand boy babies anu a
thousand girl babies starting out 10
life on the same day; follow theIn
through life as their number graoually
thins out, till the last one has Vanlsheo
beneath his little hill Of dust, ana
YOU will find-so statistics assure us
that from beginning to end there are
more of the girls alive than OF the
boys. A.
Whate yer the complex causes of the
sustained vitality of women may be,
the fact seems to remain that, in its
grand total, life deals more gently
Withthem than with their brothers.
A second compensation, is that
women have more chances to enter a
congenial profession than men. This
flies in the face of current opinion,
for are not all professions open to men,
and have not women still to fight their
way into the limited number of call
ings open tothem Very true, ifyou
confine your attention to the gifted
few among men, and to the small
minority among women who feel called
by nature to labor side by side with
men. But with the great majority OF
men and women the case stands dlf-
ferently. The number of men who
can pick their calling and do a work
in life which they love for its own
sake, apart from the pecuniary reward
it brings them, is very small. Most
boys, when they leaveSschool, are put
into a trade or business in which
there happens to be good opening
for them, and are left to acquire such
colorless love for their work as habit
brings. On the other hand, most
women are able, sooner or later, to
enter the profession which, to the
immense majority of women, is i'm
measurably more congenial than any
other work they are able to do. |
mean the care of family and house
hold of their own. There are few
women who will not gladly leave
typewriting, clerking, school teaching,
bookkeeping, or anything that men
are content to do their life long, and
enter the ancient and honorable pro-
fession of wifehood. Even women
with exceptional artistic gifts are con-
stantly disgusting their teachers by
breaking off at the beginning of a
promising career and getting married.
"Oh, that is because love enters in. J"
Exactly. Every woman who marries
man she loves has the privilege grant
ed only to the favored few among men.
of putting her hearts deepest love
into her work in life. The working
man handles machinery that rumbles
and thumps; his wife handles her
children that smile and crow. The
business man watches over the stream
of money that runs in and out of his
till {; his wife watches over the risings
and falling of the current of life in a
beloved little soul and body. He
arranges his store to please his Gus
toners, whom he does not love; she
arranges her home to please her family
and friends, whom she does love.
What joys does mans life hold to
equal q Woman's? Does even an
authors first book, or an inventors
final model, give such thrill of salts
faction as first baby putting its lips
to the mothers breast? The applause
of an audience grows stale to q popu-
lar orator does the welcoming shout
of her children grow stale to popular
mother?
It is not sufficient answer to say
that father shares in the home joys.
He does share, but it is not by far an
equal share. He shares a mothers
JOY as he shares her pangs he stands
outside Of the curtain of the Most
Holy of life, whittier she enters alone
as high priestess of humanity. Though
child loves its father dearly, in all
real trouble it will run from him to its
mother; he can never feel to the full
that exquisite sense of it's trust and
dependence, which constitute a moth
er's daily bread. He is on the circum-
ference of the child's life; she is its
centre.
AS our industrial life now goes, it is
hard for most men to see anything eX-
alted in their work, or to realize that
they are engaged in the service of
humanity, and not merely making
money. Business life is in its SUBJ
stance selfish and sordid, though it
may have fringe of nobility, if con-
Quoted by noble man. On the other
home, and is giving the substance of
her strength to mature young lives
can at any moment realize that she is
engaged in a service to God and hu-
manity, in work second to none Oh
earth, a work royal in its dignity,
sacrificial in It's ministry and eternal
in it's effects.
Another compensation is that wom-
en- enjoy a degree of liberty enjoyed
only by the favored among men. The
men who are their own masters are
getting scarce we are all becoming
employees. Time was when all artisan
was master of craft and lord in his
own shop. Now he is one "hand"
among a thousand. obeying the rules