The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-01-25

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husband and father depends on his
own health and acumen for the welfare
OF his household. But one day he gets
his feet wet, and in three days pneu-
monia has closed his life, and the
daughters are turned out on a old
world to earn bread, n there IS moth
ing practical that they can do. The
friends come in an6 hold consultation.
Give music lessons" says an outsider.
Yes, that is a useful calling, and If you
have great genius for 1T go on in that
direction. But there are enough mu-
sic teachers now starving to death in
all our towns n cities 10 occupy all
the piano stools and sofas and chairs
and front door steps of the city. Be
sides that, the daughter has beer play
ing only for amusement and is only at
the foot Of the ladder, to the top of
which a great multitude of masters on
piano and harp and fue and organ
have climbed.
Put the bereft daughters as sales
women in the stores says another ad-
wiser. But there they must compete
with statesmen Of long experience or
with men who have served an appren-
ticeship in commerce and who began
as shopboys at 10 years Of age. Some
kind hearted dry goods man, having
Known the father, now gone, says,
I'VE are not in need of any more help
just now, but send your daughters to
my store and I win do as we'll by them
as possible" Very soon the question
comes up, Why do not the female en-
ployees of that establishment get as
much wages as the male employees?
For the simple reason in many cases
the females were suddenly flung by
misfortune behind hat counter, while
the males have from the day the left
the public school been Tearing the
business.
How is this evil to be cured? Start
clear back in the homestead and teach
your daughters that life is an earnest
thing, and that there is a possibility,
if not a strong probability, that they
will have to fight the battle of life
alone. Let every father and mother
say to their daughters, NOW, what
would you do for alivelihood if what I
now own were swept away by financial
disaster or old age or death should end
my career?"
"Well, 1 could paint on pottery and
do sue decorative work.",Yes, that is
beautiful, and if you have genius for
it go on in that direction. But there
are enough busy at that now to make
a line of hardware as long as Penn
slyvania VENUE.
We'll, Icould make ecita tons in pub
lie and earn my living as a ~dramatist;
I could render King Lear or Macbeth
till your hair would rise on end, or give
you 'Sheridan's Ride or Dickens Pick
wick" Yes, that is q, beautiful art,
but ever and anon, as now, there is an
epidemic of dramatiZation that makes
hundreds of households with. the cries
and shrieks and groans Of young ira
gedienness dying in the fifth act, and
the trouble is hat while your friends
would like to hear you and really think
that you could surpass Ristori and
Charlotte Cushman and Fanny Kemble
of the past, to say nothing of the pres
emit, you could not, in the way of liv-
ing, in ten years earn 10 cents.
My advice to all young girls and all
unmarried women, whether in affuent
homes or in homes where most strin-
gent economies are grinding, is to
learn to do some kind Of the work that
the world must have while the world
stands. I am glad to see a marvellous
change for the better and hat women
have found out there are hundreds of
practical things that a woman can do
for a living if she begins soon enough
and that men have been compelled TO
admit it. You and I can remember
when the majority Of occupations were
lIiOuSlll lldppIOpIIdle LUZ WOlllSI, DuL
our civil war came, and the hosts Of
men went forth from north and south
and to conduct the business Of our Cit
les during the patriotic absence women
were demanded by the ten of thousands
to take the vacant places, the multi
tudes of women, who had been hither-
to supported by fathers and brothers
and sons, were compelled from the
time to take care of themselves. From
that time a mighty change took place
favorabl" to female employment.
APPROPRIATE OCCUPATIONS.
Among the occupations appropriate
for woman I place the following, into
many Of which she has already enter
ed n all the others she will enter:
Stenography, and you may find her at
nearly all the reportorial stands in our
educational, political and religious
meetings. Savings banks, the work
clean and honorable, and who so great
a right to toll there, for a woman
founded the first savings bank-Mrs.
Priscilli Wakefield? Copyists, and
there is hardly a professional man that
does not need the service of her pen
nanship, and as amanuensis many of
the greatest books of our day have
been dictated for her writing. There
are as florists and confectioners, and
music teachers and bookkeepers, for
which they are specially qualified by
patience and accuracy, and wood en-
craving, in which the Cooper institute
has turned out so many qualified, and
t~elegraphy, for which she is specially
prepared, as thousands of the telegra-
phic offices will testify. Photography,
and in nearly all our establishments
they may be found there at cheerful
work AS workers in ivory and tOrtiSe
shell and gliding, and in chemicals, in
porcelain, in terra Gotta. AS postmist-
: resses, and presidents have given them
appointments all over the land.
AS p~roofreaders, as translators. as
modelers, as designers, as drafts
women, as photographers, as teachers
in schools and s~eminaries, for which
they are especially endowed, the first
teacher of every child by divine ar
r~angement being q M AS ply
4 s~icians, having graduated after a regu-
lar curse of study from the female
colleges of our large cities, where they
get as scientific and thorough