Connecticut western news., 1898-01-20
WOMEN ENCOURAGED
DR. TAlMAGe's WORDS OF CHEER TO
 THE GENTLE SEX.


 GirIs should lie Taught to Take Care of
 Themselves.
 lcopyrlght 1898 by American Press Asso
 ciation
 WASHINGTON, Jan. 16-This sermon If Dr. Talmaee is great encourage inent to women who have to earn tf.ir owu living, as well as 10 all toilers with hand or brain; text Proverbs xiv, l, Every wise woman buildeth her house. y
 Woman q mere adjunct to man, an appendix 10 the masculine volume, an appendage, a sort of afterthought, some- thing thrown ill 10 make things even that is the heresy entertained and i'm. piled by some men. Tla is evident to them, because Adam was first created. and then Eve. They don't read ths 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 crea- ten. might prove that the sheep and ;ie 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 relation would be . thousapdfold better off if they were alone. ....
 Who arc 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- FITS. If the statistics of any of our cities could be taken on this subject, you gould find that a vast multitude of wo- men not only support themselves, but masculines. A great legion of men amount to nothing. and woman by marriage manacled to one of these non- entities needs condolence. A woman standing outside the marriage relation is several hundred thousand times bet ter of than 8 woman badly married. Many a bride, instead of 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 tSaul," and instead of banquet of confectionery and ices lhere might be more appropriately spread table covered with apples of sodom.
 Mistakes of Marriage.
 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 dove, no- ticing that vulture was rapacious and cruel, set about to reform it and said, II have mild disposition, and I like peace and was brought mp in the quiet of dovecot, and will bring the vul ture to the same liking by marrying him." so one day, after the vulture de- clared he would give up his carnivorous habits and cease longing for blood of flock and herd, at an altar of rock GOV cred with moss and lichen the twain were married, baldheaded eagle off, 4iating, the ynlture saying. 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 carcass and cried "Stop thati Did you not promise me that you would quit your carnivorous and filthy habits if I married you?'' "Yes, I" 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 eye flock of robins flying past cried to each other and said: "See there! That comes from a dove marrying vnlture to re- form 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 man selfish or of bad tenn Ter and refused the shackles, will bless God throughout all eternity that she es- capped that earthly pandemonium.
 Husbands Not Necessary.
 Besides all this. in our country about l, GOO, 900 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 rione more rapidly, and the victims fell while yet young. And if 50, 900 men are destroyed every year by strong drink tefore marriage that makes in the 88 years since the war l ,650, 900 men slain and decrees 1850, 900 women to celib- acy. Take, then, the fact that so many women are unhappy in their marriage a,ld the fact that the slaughter of 2, 550, 900 men by war and rum oom- ined decides that at least that number If women shall be unaffiancd for life, my text comes in with a cheer and a po- iency 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 des- tiny.
 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 life would have partially debarred you, and that you are free to go and come as one who has the respon- abilities of a household can seldom be. God has not given you hard lot as compared with your sisters. When young women shall make up their minds at the start that masculine con- paniOnship Is not necessity in order to happiness aud that there is strong probability that they will have to fight the battle of life alone they will be get