The Frankfort roundabout. [volume] (Frankfort, Ky.) 1882-1908, 1899-08-19
might be cited of women left in this
helpless condition.


helpless condition.
Now when we say that girls should
be able to support Il emseIves, we do
not imply that they should not allow
some one else TO do this for them
provided some one else Is willing to
do 80. But we do hope, dear girls,
that none of you anticipate imposing
yours lives on soineinnOcent man, Just
for support! Be assured that If you
are helpless and do not know the
value Of a dol "a, from never having
worked to e,irti one in Jour lie and
are the cause of your husband rum
ming i'm debt and he'll e worried
almost out of his existence, he will
very soon care little fer you, and
though his m raj obligations may
compel him to live with you, never
theless neither you nor he will be
very happy.
Some of you may say 81 can not
learn the languages nor mathematics,
consequently there is no use in my
attempting to do so. Now are you
sure that you have made an honest
trial at these subjects? Have you
worked diligently nine months in
the year for five years at Latin and
mathematics? Three years at French
and German? Or, have you given
about five minutes day for
three months to each of these and
thrown your books aside, with the
conclusion that you are incapable of
learning them? Remember that an
education does not come by inspira-
ton to any one. 1t comes to the
brightest intellects only as the result
of continuous application and untir-
ing labor. 1t is true that there are
many girls who are incapable of
learning profession which involves
literary taste and talent, still there
are Just as many who possess these
gifts who do not attempt these pro-
fossions, such as teaching, writing,
etc., because they are lacking in
energy and aspiration. We would
advise those who are prevented,
either by mental incapacity or pecu-
mary embarrassment, from taking a
thorough course at school, to take
one of the professions which does not
require so much time and capital to
be mastered, such as biography,
stenOgraphy and photography. But
whatever you undertake make of
yourself specialist in that one pro-
fession, remembering that skilled
labor in every department is always
in demand, and that if you fit your
self for d position you will have no
difficulty i'm obtaining it.
There is another class of girls to
frtx oil
advice-those of uneducated parents
who have come suddenly into pos
session of large fortunes and who
have not the faintest idea of what
education means. We generally find
prevailing among this class the idea
that all that is necessary to their sue
cess in life is that they be fitted for
good society and that to accomplish
this end they must 20 off a tong dis
lance from home to school for about
one year, and then spend a year or
two in travelling abroad. Now girls,
we hope none of yOu'will make such
Il mistake as this. Nothing will ever
take the place of good, well grounded
instruction in the elementary
branches. 1t is the sine qua non of
an education.
If you do not take classical course
of study try to obtain at least some
knowledge of grammar, history and
literature. When you associate with
the educated your deficiencies will
often he detected in II three minutes
conversation-always in the course
Of an hours intercourse. Some such
as "she gave 1t to him
and l." or "what made you act like
that?" will betray your ignorance of
the elementary rules of grammar.
while you are totally unconscious OF
the bad impression you are making.
Or perhaps your ignorance OF history
might subject you to the ridicule we
once saw melted out to an American
girl who had made just the mistake
against which we are warning you. !
in the Pantheon in Rome,
in which are entombed the remains Of
Victor Emmanuel, she turned to one
Df her friends and asked If he was
poet and what he wrote. Now you
may very easily remedy this shame
'ul ignorance by two or three years.
study at some good school.
Some of you may live to the good
Did age of seventy or eighty, and IL
will seem a long time to endure the
and deprivations to
which your lack of an education Will
subject you.
Mrs. GEORGE f. WINSTON.
Frankfort, KY, August, 1899.