The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-01-19

ta.Sy would go through an apprentice
ship as men do, and how many, accord
ing to the account of the authoress, do
you suppose applied to become skilled
in the druggist business and printing
business? Not one
''But," you ask, "what would my
father and mother say if they saw /
was doing such questionable work."
Throw the whole responsibility upon
us, the pastors, who are constantly
hearing of young women in all these
cities, who, unqualified by their pre-
vious luxurious surroundings for the
awful struggle of life into which they
have been suddenly hurled, seemed to
have nothing left them but choice
between starvation and damnation.
There they go along the street Z
o'clock in the wintry mornings, through
the slush and storm, to the place where
they shall earn only half enough for
subsistence, the daughters of once pros
porous merchants, lawyers, clergymen,
artists, bankers and capitalists. who
brought up their children under the
internal delusion that it was not high
toned for women to learn a profitable
calling. Young women! take this affair
in your own hand, and let there be an
insurrection in all prosperous families
on the part of daughters of this day,
demanding knowledge in occupations
and styles of business by which they
may be their own defense and their
own support if all fatherly and hus-
bandly and brotherly hands forever
fail them.
| have seen two sad sights, the one
woman in all the glory of her young
life stricken by disease, and in week
lifeless in home of which she had
been the pride. AS her hands were
folded over the still heart ard her eyes
closed for the last slumber, and she
was taken out amid the lamentations of
kindred and friends, thought that was
sadness immeasurable. But l have
seen something compared with which
that scene was bright and songful. 1t
was young woman who had been all
her days amid wealthy surroundings
by the visit of death and bankruptcy
to the household turned out on cold
world without one lesson about how to
get food or shelter, and into the awful
whirlpool of city life, where strong
ships have gone down, and for 20 years
not one word has been heard from her.
Vessels went out on the Atlantic ocean
looking for shipwrccked craft that
was left alone and forsaken on the sea
few weeks before, with the idea of
bringing it into port. But who shall ever
bring again into the harbor of peace
and hope and Heaven that lost woman
ly immortal, driven in what tempest,
afame in what confagration, sinking
into what abyss? o God, help! o
Christ, rescue! My sisters, give not
your time to learning fancy work
which the world may dispense with in
hard times, but connect your skill with
the indispensables of life.
Let me say to all women who have
already entered upon the battle of life,
that the time is coming when women
shall not only get as much salary and
wages as men but for certain styles of
employment women will have higher
salary and more wages, for the reason
that for some styles of work they have
more adaptation. But this justice will
come to woman not through any senti-
ment of gallantry, not because woman
is physically weaker than man, and,
therefore, ought to have more consider
alton shown her, but because through
her finer. natural taste and more grace
of manner, and quicker perception, and
more delicate touch, and more educated
adroitness, she will, in certain callings,
be to her employer worth 10 per cent.
more, or 20 per cent. more, than the
other sex. She will not get it by ask
ing for it, but by earning it, and it shall
be hers by lawful conquest.
Now, men of America, be fair, and
give the women chance. Are you
afraid that they will do some of your
work, and hence harm your prosperi-
ties? Remember that there are scores
OF thousands of men doing women's
work. Do not be afraid. God knows the
end from the beginning, and He knows
how many people this world can feed
and shelter, and when it gets too full
He will end the world, and, if need be,
start another. God will halt the inven-
tive faculty which, by producing ma
chine that will do the work of ten or 90
or 100 men and women, will leave that
number of people without work. l hope
that there will not be invented another
sewing machine, or reaping machine,
for the next 500 years. We want no
more wooden hands and iron hands and
steel hands and electric hands substi-
tuted for men and women, who would
otherwise do the work and get the
pay and earn the livelihood.
Let me also say, for the encourage
ment of all women fighting the battle
of life alone, that their conflict will
soon end. There is one word written
over the faces of many of them, and
that word is Despair. My sister, you
need appeal to Christ, who comforted
the sisters of Bethany in their
domestic trouble, and who in His
last hours forgot all the pangs
of His own hands and feet and
heart, as He looked into the face of ma
ternal anguish and called friends
attention to it, in substance saying:
John, | cannot take care of her any
longer Do for her as l would have
done, If | had lived. Behold my
mother" If, under the pressure of un-
rewarded and unappreciated work,
your hair is whitening and the wrinkles
come, rejoice that you are nearing the
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