The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1899-03-31
Give Them Now.


If you have gentle words and looks, my
To spare for me: If you have tears to shed
That have suffered, keep them not, pray
Until hear not, see not, being dead.
II You have flowers to glve--fair lily buds.
White roses. daisies Qneadow stars thai
Mine own dear namesakcs>--lct them smile
The air, while yet breathe it, sweet fol-
me.
For loving looks. thought fraught with ten
And kindly tears, though they fall thick
And words Of praise, alas: cunnot avail
And rarest blossoms, what can they suffice
offered to one who can no longer gaze
Upon their beauty? Flowers In collins laid
lmpart no sweetness to departed days.
Strong Womanhood.
1t does seem as if by this time woman
hood should be synonym 70" some
thing higher than weakness and inabili-
ty--I had almost said, imbecility. Even
at tho beginning Of the Twentieth cen
fury women appear afraid to be thought
mind, says Harper's Bazaar.
Pick up any one of a half-dozen recent
novels lmany of them by women, bythc
by), and you will find that ut critical
point in the heroine's career she sud
denly discovers she is only woman,
after ALI. G., eXcuSable for weakness
when she most needs mental and spiritu.
al strength.
One loses patience with men and wom-
Ell who whine that they are "only wom-
en-" or only men," This always means
that they prefer to yield to weakness or
to license rather than to take firmer
stand on right principle or stronger
grin on the reins which hold in their
passions. II we can be strong, right
minded women and men, it IS glorious
to be such. But if at supreme moments
we are conscious of nothing but the
higher than men and women
as fast as possible
"A bflght, modern young woman WIS
getting numerically chaffed by her
young cousin about some timidity she
had shown.
Well she retorted, pettishly, "it is
natural for you to be strong, and nat
1t is to be hoped she will be ashamed
Women have been called "weak" for
ages,-weak-spirited, weak-souled, weak
minded, "weak-kneed" So much senti-
mental rot has been talked to them
about the might of their weakness" and
their "amiable weaknesses'' that thew
have grown to think weakness woman
~ attribute to be priced and cultivated,
ana strength and courage, mental or spit
ltual. coarse and unwomanly.
IA 4
of the might of their wonlanhood? A
strong-souled, broad-minded, frank, 10y
al, determined woman-what more noble
and beautiful virtues pertain to woman
hood than these. which so many women
are afraid or ashamed to claim?
Conduct Her House..
Its good enough" 1T will d." or, ut
looks all right" was the rejoinder with
which most women of the past viewed a
completed piece of her handiwork, says a
writer in the Brooklyn Eagle. Modern
education teaches us differently. The
pinch of salt OF the suspicion of nut
meg no longer Havors dish for the
cOnnOisseur.
II one thinks to contemplate the mate
rial world about him, he sees not the re-
suit of guesses and happenings, but those
of accurate calculation and perfect ad-
justment. The carpenter has served
years of apprenticeship to learn his trade,
and the mason, too, has spent time
learning to make the stone or brick wall
which stands for ages. What, therefore,
has made each laborer worthy of his
hire in a particular line, is being instilled
by the early education of children today,
giving to them a scientific accuracy and
deft manipulation for everything they at
tempt.
Children are in a great measure the
teachers of their parents. Through the
kindergarten or the schoolroon, mothers
are led to think of commonplace duties
point, and they feel the need Of training
in great degree.
Of all the questions and problems moth.
ers consider at their clubs and elsewhere,
the one most seriously in need of theil
attention, the servant problem, seems t.,
be the farthest from solution. Should
you ask why. the answer is three or
four sided. AS to one reply. the writer is
reminded of 4 friend who pays high
demonstrated with for not engaging her
successor, she replied: Il wouldn't
know what to tell her to do meaning
that her own total lack of knowledge OF
culinary management makes it impossible
for her to teach another, to correct errors
in the servant who would profit by i'll
struction.
Not very many women are so ignorant
of kitchen conduct as not to be able tn
cook a simple meal, yet, after all, that is
not the case wherein the average house
hold servant fails, but it is in other points
of service which the mistress either does
not know how to demand or puts up with,
thinking that certain good qualities make
up for the bad.
Should women take one example from
their husbands as to business conduct,
the domestic evil might in a measure be
alleviated. A man engages only the EN-
to be accomplished. His business is not
allowed to suffer through the tolerated
errors of the incompetent. Why should
your domestic felicity be disturbed indei-
nitcly by half-trained servants, or those
without any preparation for the duties
expected Of them?
When woman shall have acquired
Il knowledge Of domestic science which
is prc-eninently the sine qua non of the
mother and the housewife, then she can
demand like knowledge on the pa TT
Of servants, and they in turn will be ex-
pected to show a certificate of the train
ing, as we'll as reference.
The movement is under way to estab-
lish schools for the training of house
servants, but it needs the earnest and
speedy support of every woman who APP
preciates the crying need for better do
nestle service.
The following from the New England
Kitchen Magazine is apropos of the sci
entltlc training of women:
women have lacked respect for ma
ture and her laws. They have feared
the thunder and ignored the microbe.
They have the habit of shrinking at the
sight of a toad, and they get off a street
car facing backward. Women cannot
see why water will not run up hill, and
they expect hot, foul air to come down
from the top of the room and obediently
60 out Of the window. They poke the
hre on top and wonder why it does not
burn. They have allowed the sink-drain
to feed the well, and the dark, damp Gel
lar to furnish air to the house. In other
words they have too often assumed that
what is is right. They need the influ-
ence Of the scientific spirit, which tests
all things and suspends judgment.
1T IS often too truly said that women
Jump at conclusions and cannot be rea-
soned out Of the wrong assumption. The
sclentitic spirit is a remedy for this habit,
reach all children alike the great facts
OF nature-amOup which is tho oorto;nt =,