The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-05-10


to offer for money only what one is
certain one can do well, whether or not
it at first hurts one pride to do so.
When woman learns, what man
knows so we'll, that Indifferent work
or service brings but indiferea:. pay,
then there will be less Of nursing to
heart that feeling that the world is
cruel and unfeeling when it does not
pamper her by lavishing large reward
upon her for very Indifferent efforts.
No one can lay down just the lines
along which woman should work.
OF course, the home is not here being.
taken into consideration. It is whel
woman must leave her home aud
meet the problems of the outside
world that supplies the topic for much
discussion at this end-of-the-century
time. AS practically all lines are
open to her, it is left only then for her
to decide which she is best suited to
or capable Of following.
It's hard, very hard, indeed, for a
woman to realize the dignity Of
labor With few exceptions, she by
instinct feels that she is viewed as
something awry with the rulings Of
society when she is paidsa salary for
hard and honestlabor, be it with head
5 or hand, and her pride suffers. Why
has Fate been so unkind to her and
denied her so much? Why must she
sacrifice comfort and pleasure and go
through the daily grind Of working
and sewing when there are other wo-
men who have so much? Is she not
AN object Of pity to these same other
women?
When you, who condemn the inde-
pendent woman, are tempted to criti-
else her remember that these are
questions that daily vex her, and that
if they do not now they once did, and
it is only because she has learned to
be so much Of philosopher that she
afancies herself Indifferent to them,
that she does not recognize them now.
sEa
But again, it's not natural fo1 wo-
man to be successfully philosopher.
By successfully I mean that when a
woman must be philosophical to be
moderately contented or happy that
sthensa part Of her charm vanishes,
that little part, that little something
that stands forth as careless indiffer-
ence which s.not Indifference at all
but springs from the knowledge that
she can be irresponsible if she wants
to, that she is so sheltered by love
that she need not fear criticism too
much.
[ am sorry for the woman4who must
coax herself into believing that she
does not care for what the world says
about her and her position, and must
steel her heart against those natural
and bothersome questions / have noted.
Snowy accomplishments alone fit a
woman neither for the position of wife
and mother or to take her place among
the useful ones in the business world.
This knowledge has dawned upon
|femininity slowly, but very surely.
A peep into the schools will prove
this. A particular talent or an apti-
tude for certain work is not overlook
ed nowadays, and the meani1g Of the
"dignity Of labor is being taught
girl students as we'll as boy students.
We cannot talk Of the things that
have been until they have come and
gone, and then it's too late to recall
them, you know. A man has GER
tain pride about admitting that he was
once up in the world, butts now down.
A woman, unfortunately, too often
finds delight in dwelling upon such
thing.
Here is fact, and though it may
seem hard and most unkind, it is,
nevertheless, fact, that an employer
is not inclined to overlook the fault in
woman, whom he has employed,
coming down to his Office at 10 o clock
instead Of because she sighs and
tells him that there was once a time
when she did not have her breakfast
until 10 o'clock and could then have
it in her room if she did not feel like
going downstairs. He may be sorry
for her, but that does not deter him
from looking for woman less inclln-
ed to live in the past and more inter
ested in the present and future, to
assist him through the busy affairs OF
his Office.
There are signs by which true
gentlewoman may be told, and never
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