The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-03-23
WOMEN WHO WORK.
DR.. TAlMAGE SPEAKS ENCOURAGING
WORDS TO THEM.
Faith and Trust I'm God Afford Comfort
for Those who r Oppressed and
Struggle for a Livelihood.

copyright, 1900, by Louis Klopsch.)
This discourse of DR.. Talmage Is an
appeal for mercy in behalf OF oppress-
ed womanhood, and offers encourage
ment to those struggling for a liveli-
the tears of such as were oppressed,
and they had no comforter"
Very long ago the needle was busy.
1t was considered honorable for women
to toll in olden times. Alexander the
Great stood in his palace showing gar
ments made by his own mother. The
finest tapestries at Bayeux were 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
would alleviate woman'S toll n put
an end to the despotism of the needle
But no; while the sewing machine has
been a great blessing to well 10 do fam
lilies in many cases, it has added to
the stab of the needle the crush OF the
wheel, and multitudeS of women, not
w~ithstanding the reinforcement of
the sewing machine, "a only make
work hard as they will, between 81
and 50 per 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, after
they had lone wrong. Adam and Eve
in their perfect state might have got
along without work or only such slight
anarlnUTannr ac a narfnaf Or rdRn 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 a man to
have nothing to do. OF the LOCO pros
porous and honorable men that you
know s99 had to work vigorously at
the beginning. But l am now to tell
you that industry is just as important
for q woman'S safety n happiness.
The most unhappy women in our COM
munities today are those who have no
engagements to call them up in the
morning, who once having risen and
breakfasted lounge through the dull
forenoon in slippers DOWN at the heels
and with disheveled hair, reading the
last novel, and who, having dragged
through a wretched forenoon and Ike
their afternoon sleep and having pass
ed an hour and a a at their toilet,
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.
NO HAPPINESS IN IDLENESS.
THERE'S 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 for
1xv0- T1,4 Isftl0 Dirlo of NY f0noiio0
must be started with hat idea The
curse of American society is hat our
young women are taught that the first,
second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, sew
enth, tenth, fiftieth, t~housandth 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
may take care of themselves. The
simple fact is that a majority of them
do have to take are of themselves
and that, too, after having through
the false notions of their parents vast
ed the years in which they ought to
nave learned o successfully to main
tain themselves. We now and here
declare the inhumanity, cruelty and
outrage of that father and mother who
pass their daughters into womanhood
having given them nc facility for earn
ing their livelihood.
Mime. de Stael said, TT is not these
writings that / am proud OF, but the
fact that I have facility in ten occu-
pations in any one of which / could
make a livelihood" You say you nave
a fortune to leave them. o man and
woman! Have you not learned that,
like vultures, like hawks, like eagles,
riches have wings and fly away?
Though you should be successful in
leaving a competency behind o the
trickery Of executors may swamp it in
a night, or some officials in u
churches may get up a mining COM
pany and induce your orphans to put
their money into a hole in Colorado
and IL by the most skillful machinery
the sunken money cannot be brought
UP again prove to them that it was
eternally decreed that that was the
way they were to lose it and that 1t
went in the most orthodox and
emily style. Oh, the damnable schemes
that professed Christians will engage
in until God puts His fingers into the
collar of h hypocrite's robe and
strips Ii clear down to the bottom!
You have NJ right because you are
well Off to conclude that your children
are going to be well off. A man died
leaving a large fortune. His son fell
ead In a Philadelphia g~rogshop. His
old comrades came in n said as they
bent over his corpse, What is the
matter with you, Boggsey?" The sur
seoh standing over him said: Hush,
vel He is deadi" "Oh, he is dead!"
they said. Come, boys, let us go n
take a drink in memory Of poor Bogg-
seyi' Have you nothing better than
money to "a you children? If you
have not, but send you daughters into
the world with empty brain and I'M
skilled hand. you are guilty of assassi-
nation, homicide, infantcide.
There are women toiling in u cit
les for 50 or So a week who were the
daughters of merchant princes. These
suffering ones now would be glad to
have the crumbs hat once fell from
their fathers table. That WORKOUT,
broken shoe that she ear is the line
al descendant Of the 's12 gaiter in
which her mother walked, and that
torn and faded calico had ancestry Of
magnificent brocade that swept Penn
syfvania avenue and Broadway clean
without any expense to the street COM
missioners.
NO DISGRACE TO WORK.
Though you live in an elegant resi-
dence and fare sumptously every day,
let your daughters feel 1t is a dis