The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-01-25
THE BATTLE OF LIFE
WORDS OF CHEER FOR WOMEN
WHO WORK.
DIR. Tain age breaches from the Text
every Wise Woman Buildeth Her
~House"-Honest Independence Better
Than Uncongenial Matrimonial Bonds

..Every Wise Woman Buildeth Her
House"-Honest Independence Better
Than U~ncongenial Matrimonial Bonds
This sermon Of DIR. Talmage Is a
great encouragement to women who
have to earn their own living, as well
as to all toilers with hand orbrain;
text, Proverbs xiv, /, Every wise
woman buildeth her house."
Woman a mere adjunct to man, an
appendix to the masculine volume. an
a~ppendage, q sort Of a~fterthought,
something thrown in to make things
even-that Is the heresy EN- aimed
and implied by some men. This Is
evident to them because Adam was
first lated 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 be-
fore Adam, so that his 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 intend
ed, if she choose, to live alone, to work
alone, TO act alone, think alone n
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 Tor
life in tba marriage relation would De
a old better off if they were
alone.
UNFORTUNATE WIVES.
Who are these men who year after
wear hang around hotels and engine
houses and heater doors, and come In
and out to bother busy clerks and
merchants and mechanics, doing moth
ing, when there is plenty to do? They
ore men supported by their wives and
mothers. If the statistics OF any OF
our cities could be taken on this sub
ject, you would find that a asst null
titude Of women not only support them
selves, but masculines. A great legion
of men amount to nothing, and a
woman by marriage menacled to n
of these n%onentities needs coincidence.
A woman standing outside the mar
riage citation is several hundred thou
sand times better off than a woman
badly married. Many a bride instead
of q 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 a banquet OF
confectionery and ices there might be
more appropriately spread a tabl COW
cred 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 a
dove, noticing that a Vulture was ra-
pacious and cruel, set about to reform
it, and said, IT have a mild disposition
and / like peace n was brought up
in the quiet of a dove-cot, and 1 will
bring the vulture to the same liking
by marrying him" SO n day, after
the vulture declared he would give up
his ~carnivorous habits n cease long
ing for blood of flock and herd, at an
altar covered with moss and lichen,
the twain were married, a bald headed
eagle officiating, the vulture saying,
with all my dominion OF earth n
sky I thee endow and promise to love
and cherish till death do us part" But
one day the love in her fright saw the
vulture busy at a carcass and CRIED:
"Stop that! Did vol not promise me
that you would quit your c~arn1vorous
and filthy habits ~ l married you!'
Y GS, Sdlu lHe NulluIe, po( IL 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. And a flock Of robins
flying past cried to ach other and
said: See there! That comes from a
dove n-4rrying a vulture to reform
him!"
Many a woman who has had the
hand of q. young inebriate offered, but
declined it, or who has 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 pandemo-
mum.
DECREED TO CELIBACY.
Besides all his, in our country about
1000, 900 men were sacrificed in our
civil war, and that decreed 1000, OO0
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 fell
while yet ing And if so 1000 men are
destroyed every year by strong drink
before marriage that makes in the 33
years since the war 1850, 600 men slain
and DEGREES 1850, 900 women to celibacy.
Take, then, the fact that so many
women are unhappy in their marriage,
and the fact that the slaughter of q
$50, 900 men by war and rum combined
decides that at least that number of
women shall be unbalanced for life,
my text comes in with a cheer n a
potency and appropriateness 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 supervisor, achieve her own
destiny.
In addressing those women who have
to fight the battle alone, I congratulate
you on your happy scape Rejoice
forever that you will not have to navi-
gate the faults of the other sex when
you have fauls 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 and of the opportunities of out