Kansas City daily journal., 1896-11-22
THE WOMAN WHO WORKS.
An Extreme Which Is to Be Avoided
Quite as Much as Her Sis
ter.s IndoIeuce

ter's Incidence
1t IS really quite wonderful how women
Is almost as bad as the woman who does
nothing at ALL
You know her. She works early and late,
in season and out of season and she can't
be persuaded to Go anything else. Il is a
blessing that now and then she breaks
down; 1t is the kindest thing nature
can do!
Perhaps You have visited the woman who
works. She never has time to entertain
you. You must just watch her work ard
work and work. And when you think she
over the whole thing again!
Now there is q right and proper doing
ana there is wrong and sinful OVERRIDING.
For while il is the bounden duty of every
woman to look well TO the ways OF her
household, no woman has a right to set
aside the other duties that shr. owes 10
herself, her fellow creatures and her God
The work required in the making of a
home is only a part of these duties-a great
and important part, but still only a part.
IT. many instances the woman who works
loses sight of this. She becomes d machine
The beauty of life is lost to her. The best
part of her being is gone. She is deaf and
blind because she misses the music and
beauty of living. There is no new and
beautiful thought added to her mental
store, no healthy, upward growing, no ad-
vancement-
This s:ate of affairs may have come about
80 gradually that she does not realize into
what a sad plight she has fallen. She has
no time to go anywhere, and, indeed. no
body seems TO expect her to go out. There
Is always something to do; and she Is
never quite ready.
The woman who works should remember
that her children need her first of all
need her more than anything else In all the
VIDE world, and she has no right to put
anything between herself and them, wheth-
er It be a mountain Of work, an ocean oc
selnshness ora grave.
Give the children bread and butter to
ear, pIain clothes to wear, a simple homo
to live in. but let them have their mother.
Do you know any of the children who
run about the neighborhood because mother
is too busy to notice? The clothes and the
table and the house are above reproach,
Yes. know you have to work: so do 7.
/ fail, too, in my duty, many and many
time, so do yNE. But all the same my sis
ter. you can go with less work
The house ought to be cosy, pleasant ard
clean, the food wholesome and the family
garments comfortable but the trouble is
that you aim farther than Just that You
attempt to go beyond what is necessary,
and so in many instances. nothing IS ac-
your labor and-who shall say what be-
side?
Common sense, next to Christian love,
Is what We want. my sisters. in this wrold
IS what We want. my sisters, in this world
to think of It. we have precious little OF
this commodity.
that God permits US to use, for awhile.
Why, they belong to him. And there ara
the little bodies that are placed in our
special care What of these?
And If our bodies belong to God. what
OF the intellect-the soul? All, tell you,
these are questions that We must look
sQrarely in the face. We are not beasts
of burden-not dumb driven cattle. but we
are actually and truly the children OF the
King. No task that He has set us can
be unworthy. but in the task we must
not forget the taskmaster.
In this matter of work each woman must
make her own laws. She must be wise in
choosing the real duties and in setting
aside such things as ha.s by practice and
custom come to he accounted necessary.
One mode may suit you. quite a different
one your neighbo-
Make your own individual life. There IS
no good reason for its being a bad copy
of your grandmother's, is there?
And you know the woman who works is
sometimes, often. woman who is not
rich. Is 1t not a want of simple common
sense that leads to so much suffering?
Is 1t not a million times better to be
your own simple. wholesome, genuine self
thar a miserable caricature of the woman
who can afford to live and dress differ
emily? When this foolish struggle, this
everlasting effort to keep up is added
to the burden of the woman who works,
the case Is well nigh hopeless.
The woman who works is prone to ruts.
OH ways. It is worse when She becomes
a domestic weather cock, changing with
every breezy magazine article that han
pens to come under her eye. II happens
that sometimes old ways are good al nj new
ways bad Time and money and labor and
a lot of other things are wasted expert
menting. Still one does not want to ba
We nee6.-Ellen Frizell Wycoff, in wom-
ankinA