The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1900-03-16
The WORKING WOMAN
w. Ialmage Speaks Words of En-.
couragement to Her.
RAIN and Trust In God Anord cou-
fort for Those Who Are On.
pressed and Struggling
for "a Livelihood,
lCopyFight, 1909, by Louis klopsch.l
Washington.

W~omanhood, and offers encouragement
to those struggling for a livelihood;
text, EccIesiastes w., !: Behold the
tears OF such as were oppressed, and
they had no comforter"
Very long ago the needle was busy.
1t was considered honorable for WON
en- to toll in clden times. Alexander
the Great stood in his place showing
garments made by his own mother.
The finest tapestries al BayeuX We're
made by the queen of William the Con-
queror. Augustus, the emperor. would
not wear any garments except those
that were fashioned by some member
OF his royal family. So let the toiler
everywhere be respected.
The needle has slain more than the
sword. When the sewing machine was
invented. some thought that invention
would alleviate woman's toll and put
an end 10 the despotism of the needle.
But no while the sewing machine
has been a great blessing to welI-to-do
families in many eases. it has added to
the stab of the needle the crush of the
wheel, and multitudes of women not
withstandin2 the reinforcement of the
sewing machine, can only make. work
hard as they will. between two and
three dollars a week.
The greatest blessing that could have
happened to our first parents was be.
ing turned out of Eden after they had
done wrong. Adam and Eve in their
perfect state might have got along
without work or only such slight emf
pIoyment as a perfect garden with no
weeds in it demanded, but as soon as
they had sinned the best thing for
them was to be turned out where they
would have to work. We know what
a whitening thing it is for man to have
nothing to do. Of the 1000 prosperous
and honorable men that you know $50
had to work vigorously at the begin
ming. But ! SIN now to tell YOU that
industry is just as important for a
woman's safety and happiness. The
most unhappy women in our communi-
ties to-day are those who have no en-
gagements to call them up in thG
morning, who INK having risen and
breakfasted lounge through the duh
forenoon in slippers down at the heel
and with disheveled hair, reading the
last novel, and who. having dragged
through a Wrotched forenoon and
taken their afternoon sleep and having
passed an hOu" and a half at their tot
let, pick up their cardcase and go out
to make calls. and who pass their even
ings waiting for somebody to come in
and break up the mOnotony. Arabella
Stuart never was imprisoned in So
dark a dungeon as that.
There is no happiness in an idle wom-
an. 1t may be with hand. it may be
with brain, it may be with foot. but
work she must or be wretched forever.
The little girls of our families must be
started with that idea. The curse or
american society is that our young
women are taught that the first, sec
ond. third, fourth. fifth. sixth, seventh.
tenth, tiftieth, thouSundth thing in
their life is TO get somebody to take |
care of them. Instead of that the first
lesson should be how under God they
mar take care of themselves. The sim
pie fact is that a majority Of them d"
have to take care of themselves and
that, too. after having through the
false notions of their parents wasted
be years in which they ought to hay"
learned how successfully to maintain
themselves. We now and here declare
the iuhumanity, cruelty and outrage
Of that father and mother who pass
their daughters into womanhoOd hav-
ing given 1hem no facility for earning
tL.cir livelihood.
Nine. de Stael said: at is not these
writings that ! am proud of, but the
fact that have facility III ten occu-
in any one of which ] could
make q livelihood" You say you have
A fortune to leave them. o man and
wo nan! Have you not learned that,
like vultures. like hawks, like eagles.
have wings and fly away?
Though you should be successful in
a competency behind you. the
lrickery OF executors may swamp it in
1 night. or some officials in our
.hurches may get up a mining com
pany and induce your orphans to put
their money into u hole in Colorado
md if by the most skillfu! machinery
he gunkru money cannot be brought
Up again prove to them that it ,
vas etcrnally decrced that that was
t went in the most orthodox and heav-
MY style. Oh. the damnable schemes
hat prOfEssed Christians will engage
II until God puts His fingers into the
'ollar of the hypocrite's robe and strips
clear down to the bottom. You have {
o right because you are well of to I
onclude that your children are going {
0 re we'll off. A man died leaving a l
fortune. His son fell dead in a :
Philadelphia grogshop. His old COM G
AIDES came in and said as they bent c
yer his corpse: "What is the matter
With you, BoGgsey?" The surgeon S
over him said: Flush, yc, q
lie is d1ad!' 'Oh, he is dead" they a
aid. Come. boys, let us go and take L
drink in memory of poor Boggsey." |
lave YOU nothing better than money e
o leave your children? If you have not, d
ut send your daughters into the world Z
Nth empty brain and unskilled hand, y
OH are guilty of assassination, homi- u
idc. infan'icide. 0
There are women toiling in our cities !,
Or two or three dollars a week who Il
ere the daughters Of merchant I
slese suffering ones now P
ould be 4 a to have the crumbs that !
nee fell f(m their fathers table. o
hat worndt. broken shoe that she "