The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-05-06
WAS WOMAN MADE TOWORK?
BY PRUDENCE wINrERoREtN.


OH event or great moment ham
pened in Chicago the other day.
Perhaps you wouldn't expect
- anything happening in Chicago TO
settle such a universal question
Is the Position OF Women in
the Cosmos" but IL you think Chi
cago would mind deciding offhand a few
little things like that 1t simply shows that
YOU don't know the town on the lake. II
was genial Johns Hopkins professor who
eaid that III Chicago ever got hold OF cul-
ture It would make culture hum''-a
prophecy which has since been justified
They get hold Of everything in Chicago
ana they seem TO make everything hum
except, perhaps. grand opera. But II
begin to talk about that / shall forget 10
tell you the monumental event that hap-
pened In Justice Martins court last week
II was a case where woman was ar
rested for vagrancy. Now, the statute de-
Anes a vsgrant as "a person who Is idle
remains Idle and refuses to work" The
counsel for the defense took his stand
upon the broad. general proposition that
II was impossible for woman 10 be a
vAsrant, because she was not made to
work The jury. after remaining out the
fewest possible number OF minutes, re-
turned a verdict supporting the theory Of
the defense.
like that counsel and I approve of that
fury. Would you like to know why?
OF course, We all know that woman has
stwsys worked and always VIII work, and
a. for the extent Of her labors. there's the
old rhyme TO prove that
Mans work Is done from sun to sun,
But woman's work is never done"
(which I believe to be an accurate state
msnt of fact
Moreover. IL she didn't work she would
be no earthly good, and she knows It, az
her invention OF fancy work. TO be per-
formed by the idle demonstrates. But she
never was designed to work all day and
elk days In the week, and she never, never
was meant TO work for hire instead of for
approval. The bedrock fact Is that a
woman's work must be done like an
artists. rather than like an artisans. An
artist. you know, can work day and night
for . week. perhaps. and then he simply
has 10 take a week of and lie about ad-
mring what he has done. His ability to
york comes In rhythmic pulsations. Ii II
not a constant quantity and II cannot be
made 50. although II he is a conscientious
person his output in the course of a year
win be as large. perhaps. and certainly as
important. as If he had iabored steadily
20 many hours OF each day. In the long
run he is not beaten In the race. but he
must be allowed to do his work In his
own way II is folly to demand OF a gey-
ser that It pump water with the regularity
Of Q windmill.
In the course of some Thousands of years
Of labor woman has done something to-
ward acquiring the artisans virtues. but
they are no.. and never will be, natural
% her constitution The course OF evolu-
ton and the pressure OF civilization have
done very little for her in this respect.
and they have done nothing at all toward
reaching her that a days wage Is an ade-
ouate return for days labor. And, as a
matter Of fact. II isn't.
The instructive feminine demand thai
she be paid for her work In praise was
probably an arrangement OF a considerable
Providence at the beginning of things.
Recognizing that she had, on the whole.
the hardest tasks TO perform tthis is sup
posing that she does them all. and does
them Weld. she provided the sweetest re-