The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-01-17
STRUGGLES OF THE FAIR SEX.
TALMAGE TALKS TO WOMEN WHO
HAVE TO WORK.

c0peu Marriage " TN AulesH anu
Drunkards OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
Branches of Work for Which Wo-
man Is Particularly Adapted
Enumerated.
Washington. Jan. 16.-This sermon
of DR. Talmage is a great encouragement
TO women who have to earn their own liv-
ing, as well as to all toilers with hand or
brain. Text Prov 14:i: Every wise wo-
man buildeth her house.
Woman a mere adjunct to man. an ap-
pendix to the masculine volume, an appen-
dage, a sort Of after-thought. something
thrown in to make things eventual is
the heresy entertained and implied by
some men. This is evident to them. re
cause Adam was the first created, and
then Eve. They don't read the whole
story. or they would find that the porpose
and the bear and the hawk We're 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 intended, 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 says it is not
good for woman to be alone; and the
simple fact is that many women who are
harnessed for life in the marriage religion
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 mer-
chants and mechanics. doing nothing,
when. there is plenty to do? They are
men supported by their wives and moth
ers. If the statistics of any of our cities
could be taken on this subject, you would
find that a vast multitude of women not
only support themselves but masculines,
A great legion of men amount to nothing,
and a woman by marriage, manacled to
one of these nonentities, needs condo
lence. A woman standing outside the
marriage relation is several hundred thou
sand times better off than a woman badly
married Many a bride. instead of a
wreath of orange blossoms, might more
properly wear a bunch Of nettles and
nightshade, and, instead of the Wedding
March, a more appropriate tune would be
the Dead March in Saul, and, instead of
banquet of confectionery and ices, there
might be more appropriately spread ia
bic covered with apples of Sodom.
Many an attractive woman of good
sound sense in other things. has married
one of these men to reform him. what
was the result? Like when a dove, no
ticing that a Vulture was rapacious and
cruel, set about to reform it, and said, Il
have a mild disposition, and L like peace
and was brought up in the quiet of a
dove-cote and / will bring the vulture to
the same liking by marrying him, 50,
one day, after the vulture declared he
would give up his carniVorous habits and
cease longing for blood of flock and herd,
at an altar of rock covered with moss and
lichen the twain were married a bald
headed eagle officiating, the vulture say
ing, with all my dominion of earth and
sky thee endow, and promise to love
and cherish till death do us part" But
one day, the dove, in her fright saw the
vulture busy at a carcass, and cried,
stop that did you not promise me that
YOU would quit your carnivorous and
filthy habits if l married your 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 wingless and lifeless.
And a flock of robins flying past, cried TO
each other and said See there! that
comes from a dove marrying vulture to
reform him"
of a young inebriate offered, but declined
IT, or who was asked to chain her life to a
man selfish, or of bad temper, and refused
the shackles, will bless God throughout all
eternity that she escaped that earthly
pandemonium.
Besides all this, in our country about
one million men were sacrificed in our
Civil War, and that decreed a million
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 in
gradients that the work was done more
rapidly and the victims fell while yet
Young And If fifty thousand men are de-
stroyed every year by strong drink before
marriage, that makes in the thirty-three
wears since the war one million six hum
bred and fifty thousand men slain, and de-
crees one million six hundred and fifty
thousand women to celibacy. Take. then,
the fact that so many women are unhappy
in their marriage, and the fact that the
slaughter of two million five hundred and
fifty thousand men, by war and rum com
bined decide that at least that number
of women shall be unbalanced for life,
tency and appropriateness that you may
never have seen in il 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 congratulate
you on your happy escape. Rejoice for
ever 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
unassimilated temper which you will not
have to run, of the cares you will never
have to carry, and of the opportunity of
outside usefulness from which marital
lie 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 neces-
sity In order to happiness, aud 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
siIarpened for its construction, since
Every wise woman buildeth her house. "
A. Hrsr 80