The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1900-03-16

port: "a fortnight had passed, when
| she modestly limited a desire to know
how much her services were worth.
oh, my dear he replied. you are get
ting to be one of the most valuG BILE
hands in the trade. You will always
get the very best price. Ten dollars
week you will be able to earn very
easily And the girls fingers flew on
| with her work at a marvellous rate.
| The picture of ten dollars a week had
almost turned her head. A few nights
later, while crossing the ferry, she
| overheard the name of her employer
in the conversation of girls who stood
near: What, John Snipes? Why, he
don't pay! Look out for him every
time. He'll keep you on trial, as he
calls it, for weeks, and then he'll let
you go, and get some other fool!' And
thus Jane Smith gained her warning
against the swindler. But the union
held him in the tolls of the law until
he paid the worth of each of those
! days of trial"
! another paragraph: Her mortifica-
! tion may be imagined when told that
! one of the two five-dollar bills which
! she had Just received for her work was
counterfeit. But her modification
was swallowed up with Indignation
! when her employer denied having paid
her the money and insultingly asked
! her to prove it. When the Protective
\ union had placed this matter in the
courts, the judge said: You will pay
| Eleanor the amount of her claim, $3.50,
| o1e FL
How are these evils to be eradicated?
/ Some say: "Give woman the ballot"
! What effect such ballot might have on
| other questions l am not here to dis
/ cuss, but what would be the effect of
| female suffrage on wOmen's wages?
! do not believe that woman will ever get
! Justice by woman's ballot. Indeed
women oppress women as much as
men do. Do not women, as much as
men, beat down to the lowest figure
the woman who sews for them? Are
| not women as sharp as men on washer
women and miIliners and mantua
makers. If Il woman Gsks one dollar
for her work, docs not her female en-
ploycr ask her if she Will not take 90
cents? You say: "Only ten cents diff
ference" But that is sometimes the
difference between Heaven and hell.
Women often have less commiseratiOn
for women than men. If a woman
steps aside from the path of rectitude,
man may forgive; woman never.
Woman viii never get justice done her
from wOman's ballot. Neither will she
get it from mans ballot. How then?
God will rise up for her. God has more
resources than we know of.
But there is something for women to
do. Let young people prepare to excel
in spheres of work, and they will be
able after awhile to get larger wages.
Unskilled and incompetent labor must
take what is given; skilled and COM
petent labor will eventually make its
own standard. Admitting that the law
of supply and demand regulates these
things, | contend that the demand for
skilled labor is very great and the sup
ply very small. Start with the idea
that work is honorable and that you
can do some one thing better than any
body else. Resolve that, God helping,
you will take care of yourself. If you
are after awhile called into another
tCIation. you will be all the better
qualified for it by your spirit of self
reliance, or if YOU are called to stay as
you are you can be happy and self
supporting.
Poets are fond of talking about man
as an oak and woman the vine that
climbs it, but / have seen many q tree
fall that not only went down itself, but
Io I co,, +o1f
you of something stronger than an oak
for an ivy to climb on, and that is the
throne of the great Jehovah. Single or
affianced. that woman is strong who
leans on God and does her best. Many
of you viii go single-handed through
life, and you will have to choose be
tween two characters. Young woman,
| am sure you Will turn your back upon
the useless, giggling, irresponsible
nonentity which society ANONYMOUSLY
acknowledges to be a woman and ask
God to make you a humble, active,
earnest Christian. What will become
of that womanly disciple of the world?
She is more thoughtful of the attitude
she strikes upon the carpet than how
she will look in the Judgment; more
worried about her freclles than her
sins; moro interested in her apparel
than in her redemption. The dying |
actress whose life had been vicious
said: "The scene closes. Draw the cur |
tain" Generally the tragedy comes |
first and the farce afterward, but in |
her life it was first the farce of a use
less life and then the tragedy of 2 |
wTetched eternity.
Compare the life and death of such |
a one with that of some Christian aunt |
that was once blessing to your house
hold. / do not know that she was ever |
asked to give her hand in marriage. |
She lived single. that. untrammeled. |
she might be everybody's blessing.
Whenever the sick were to be visited or
the poor to be provided with bread she
went with a blessing. She could pray
or sing: Rock of Ages" for any sick
pauper who asked her. As she got old
er there were days when she was liz
tie sharp, but for the most part auntie
was a sunbeam, just the one for Christ
mas eve. She knew better han anyone
else how to fix things. Her every prayer,
as God heard it, was full of everybody
who had trouble. Tho brightest things
in all the house dropped from her
fingers. She had peculiar notions, but
he grandest notion she ever had was
to make you happy. She dressed we'll
but her highest adornment was that of
4 meek and quiet spirit. which, in the
sight of God. is of great price. When
,he died, you all gathered lovingly
L 4 L. 1