Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1900-03-16
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
TIKI EMINENT DlVINE'S SUNDAY
DISCOURSE.

For Mercy For Oppressed Womanhood
Let Her Have an Equal Chance With
Man in the Struggle OF Life.
copyright 1901
WASHINGTON, D. C.-This discourse OF
DR.. Talmage is an appeal for mercy In be-
half of oppressed womanhood and offers
encouragement to those struggling for q
livelihood; text, EccIesiastes, w., 1, "Be-
hold 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 garments made
bv his own mother. The finest tapestries
mt Bayeux was made by the queen OF Will
lam the Conqueror. Augustus, the en-
peror, would not wear any garments ex-
cept 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 In.
vented, some thought that invention would
alleviate woman's toll AMI put an end t0
the despotism OF the needle. But no:
While the sewing machine has been grcat
blessing to well-to-do families in many
cases It has added to the stab OF the needs
the crush of the wheel, and multitudes OF
women. Notwithstanding the REINFORCE
ment Of the sewing machine, can only
make, work hard as they will, between W
and % q week.
The greatest blessing that coDld- have
happened to our first parents was being
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 employment as per.
10 In
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
q whitening thing 1t Is for man to have
nothing to do. OF the thousand prosper.
GUS and honorable men that you know 99e
had to work vigorously at the beginning.
But am now to tell you that industry Is
Just as important for a woman's safety and
happiness. The most unhappy women In
our communities to-day are those who have
no engagements to call them up In the
breakfasted, lounge through the dull fore.
noon In slippers down at the heel and with
dlsheveed hair, reading the last novel,
and vino, having dragged through
wretched forenoon and taken their after.
noon sleep and having passed al hour and
a half at their toilet, pick up their card
case and go out to make calls, and who
pass their evenings waiting for somebody
to come In and break up the monotoDy.
Arabella Stuart never was imprisoned IN
so dark a dungeon as that.
There Is no happiness In an idle woman.
1t may be with hand, 1t may be with brain,
It NAV be with foot, bu. work she must or
be wretched forever. The little girls OIL
our families must be started with that
idea. The curse OF American society is
that our young women are taught that the
first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth.
seventh, tenth, fiftietb, thousandth thing
In their life is to get somebody to take care
OF them. Instead OF that the first lesson
should he how under God they may take
care Of themselves. The simple fact Is
that majority OF them do have to take
care OF themselves and that, too, after hav.
ing through the false notions OF their par
ents wasted the years In which they ought
to have learned how successfully to main.
tain themselves. Wesnow and here declare
the inbumanity, cruelty and outrage oil
that father and mother who pass theii
daughters into womanhood, having given
them no faculty for earning their liveli.
hood.
Nine. de Stael said, at Is not these
writings that am proud OF, but the. fact
that have facility In ten occupations, IN
any one OF which I could make q liveli-
leave them. Oh, man and woman, have
YOU not learned that, like vultures, like
hawks, like eagles, riches have wings and
| fly away? Though you should be success
| full in leaving a competency behind you,
| the trickery OF executors may swamp 1t In
a night or some official in our churches
may get up q mining company and induce
your orphans to put their money into
| hole In Colorado and II by the most sklllful
| machinery the sunken money cannot be
| brought up again prove to them that 1t
was eternally decreed that that was
the way they were to lose 1t aud that
1t went In the most orthodox and heav.
emily style. Oh, the damnable schemes that
professed Christians will engage in until
God puts His fingers into the collar OF the
bypocrite's robe and strips 1t clear down
to the bottoml You have no right, because
you are we'll off, to conclude that your chill
| dren are going to be we'll off. A man died
| leaving large fortune. His son fell dead
in Philadelphia grogshop. His old CON-
rades came In and said as they bent over
bis corpse, "Wbat Is the matter with you,
Boggsy?" The surgeon standing over him
said "Hush vel He is deadp' "Oh, he is
deadi" they said. "Come, boys; let US GO
Boggsy'' Have you nothing better than
money to leave your children2 II you have
not, but send your daughters into the
world with empty brain and unskilled
hand, you are guilty OF assassination,
homicide, infanticide.
There are women toiling In our cities for
| 90 or 50 a week who were the daughters oil
merchant princes. These suffering ones
now would be glad to have the crumbs
that once fell from their fathers table,
| That worn out broken shoe that she wears
Is the lineal descendant Of the $l2 gaiter In
which her mother walked and that torn
aud faded calico had ancestery OF magnih-
cent brocade that swept Pennsylvania av.
enue and Broadway clean without any ex-
pepse to the street commissioners. Though
| YOU live in an elegant residence and fare
sumptuously every day. let your daughters
| feel 1t is a disgrace for them not to know
how to work. denounce the idea prev
aent in society that, though our young
women may embroider slippers and crochet
and make mats for lamps to stand on with
out disgrace, the idea OF doing anything
for livelihood Is dishonorable. 1t Is
shame for young woman belonging to
large family to be inefficient when bel
father tolls his life away for her support
It is n shame for q daughter to be idle
while her mother tolls at the washtub. 1t IL
| as honorable to sweep house, make beds OF
trim hats as 1t Is to twist watch chain.
So far as can understand the line OF re-
spectabIlity lies between that which Ia use
full and that which is useless. IL women
| do that which Is Of no value, their work is
honorable. II they do practical work, 1t is
dishonorable. That our young women
may escape the censure Of doing dishonor'
able work shall particularize. You may
knit tidy for the back OF an armchair
but. by no means make the money where.
with to buy the chair. You may with
delicate brush beautiiy mantel orna'
ment, but die rather than earn enough te
buy a marble mantel. You may Learn
artistic music until you can squat Italian
but never sing "Ortonville" or "Old Hun