The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1898-01-28
WARNINGS FOR WOMEN.
Words Of Wisdom From the Lips
Of Rev. DR.. Talmage.
Girls should be Taught, as Boys Are, the
Science of SeIf-Support-EncOura
ment for Women Fighting
the Battle OF Life.

VIII 1almage SHOWS what women can
do in the way of pursuing an independ-
ent life. The text is:
Every wise woman bulldeth her house.
Proverbs xiv, I.
Woman, mere adjunct to man, an
appendix to the masculine volume, an
appendage, a sort of after-thought,
something thrown into make things
even-that is the heresy entertained
and implied by some men. This is evil
dent to them, because Adam was first
created, and then Eve. They don't
read the whole story, or they would
find that the porpOise and the bear
and the hawk were created before
Adam, SO that this argument, drawn
from priority of creation, might prove
that the sheep and the dog were
greater than man. No. Woman was
an independent creation, and was in
tended, if she chose, to live alone, to
work alone, act alone, think alone,
and fight her battles alone. The Bible
says it is not good for man to be alone,
but never saysit is not good for woman
to be alone; and the simple fact is that
many women who are harnesssd for
life in the marriage relation would be
a thousandfold better off if they were
alone.
Who are these men who, year after
year, hang around hotels and engine
houses and theater doors, and come in
and out to bother busy clerks and
merchants and mechanics, doing moth
ing, where there is plenty to do? They
are men supported by their wives and
mothers. If the statistics of any of
our cities could be taken on the sub
Jet, you would find that vast multi
tude of women not only support them
selves, but masculines. A great legion
of men amount to nothing, and a wom-
an by marriage, manacled to one of
these nonentities, needs coincidence.
A woman standing outside the mar
riage relation is several hundred
thousand times better off than a wom-
an badly married. Many a bride, in
stead of a wreath of orange blossoms,
might more properly wear a bunch of
nettles and nightshade, and, instead of
the Wedding March," more appro-
pirate tune would be the Dead March"
in Saul, and, instead of a banquet of
confectionery and ices, there might be
more appropriately spread a table
covered with apples of Sodom.
Many an attractive woman, of good
sound sense in other things, has mar
ried one Of these men to reform him.
What was the result? Like when
dove, noticing that a vuIture was ra-
pacious and cruel, Set about to reform
it, and said: Il have a mild DISPOSE
ton, and like peace, and was brought
IN, h f.nN ~NF 4 70 nd I
will bring the vulture 10 the same lik-
ing by marrying him." SO, one day,
after the vulture declared he would
give up his carnivorous habits and
cease longing for blood of flock and
herd, at an a tar of rock covered with
moss and lichen, the twain were mar
ried, a baid-headed eagle officiating,
the vulture saying: with all my
dominion of earth and sky, thee en-
dow, and promis to love and cherish
till death do US part" But one day
the dove, in her fright, saw the vul-
ture busy at a carcass, and cried:
stop that! did you not promise me
that you would quit your carnivorous
and filthy habits if 1 married you?"
Yes" said the vulture, "but if you
don't like my way, you can leave" and
with one angry stroke of the beak and
another fierce clutch of the claw, the
vulture left the dove eyeless and wing
less and lifeless. Aud flock of robins
flying past, cried to each other and
said: See therel that comes from u
dove marrying a vulture to reform
him"
Many a woman who has had the hand
OF young inebriate offered, but de-
clined it, or who was asked to chain
her life to a man selfish, or of bad tenn
per, and refsed the shackle5, will bless
God throughout all eternity that she
escaped that earthly pandemonium.
Besides all this, IN our country about
1000, 600 men were sacrificed In our
civil war, and that decreed 1000, 900
women TO celibacy. Besides that, since
the war, several armies of men as
large as the federal and confederate
armies put together, have fallen under
malt liquors and distilled spirits, so
full of poisoned ingredients that the
work was done more rapidly, and the
victims died while yet young. And if
so, COO men are destroyed every year by
strong drink before marriage, that
makes in the SO years since the war
L. $50, 600 men slain, and DEGREES 1861
coo women to celibacy. Take, then,
the fact that so many women are un-
happy in their marriage, and the fact
that the slaughter of $500, 600 men,
by war and rum combined, decides that
at least that number of women shall be
for life, my text comes in
with cheer and a potency and appro-
priateness that you may never have
seen in it before when it says: Every
wise woman buildeth her house," that
is, let woman be her own architect, lay
out her own plans, be her own super
visor, achieve her own destiny.
In addressing those women who |
have to fight the battle alone, l con-
graduate you on your happy escape. |
Rejoice forever that you will not have
to navigate the faults of the other sex, !
when you have faults enough of your
own. Think of the bereavements you
avoid of the risks of assimilated tenn
per which you will not have to run, of |
the cares you will never have to carry, |
and of the opportunity of outside use
fulness from which marital life would |
have partially debarred you, and that |
you are free to go and come as one who |
has the responsibilities of a household |
can seldom be. God has not given |
you a hard lot, as compared with your |
sisters. When young women shall |
make up their minds at the start that
masculine companionship is not a ne
cessity in order to happiness, and that
there is a strong probability that they
will have to fight the battle of life
alone, they will be getting the timber
ready for their own fortune, and their
saw and ak and plane sharpened for
ITS construction, since Every wise
woman buildeth her home"