The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1900-03-17

] efficient when her father tolls his life
away for her support.
So far as l can understand, the line
of respectehility lies between tina.
which is useful and that which is use
less. If women do that which is of
no value. their work is honorable. II
they do practical work, it is dishonor-
able. That our young women may es-
cape the censlre of doing dishonora-
bic work, l shall particularize. You
may knit tidy for the back of an arm
chair, but by no means make the money
wherewith to buy the chair. You may
with a delicate brush beautify man
tel ornament, but die rather than earn
enough to buy marble mantel. You
may learn artistic music until you can
squall Italian, but never sing "Orton-
vile" or "Old Hundredth." Do moth
ing practical if you would, in the eyes
of refined society, preserve your re-
spectability. ] scout these finical no
tons. l tell you a woman, no more
than man, has a right to occupy a
place in this world unless she pays a
rent for it.
In the course of lifetime you con-
sumo whole harvests and droves of cat
tie and every day you live and breathe
40 hogsheads of good, pure air. You
must by some kind of usefulness pay
| for all this. Our race was the last thing
created-the birds and fishes on the
| fourth day, the cattle and lizards on
the fifth day and man on the sixth day.
If biologists are right, the earth was
| 1,000,OC0 of years in the possession OF
the insects, beasts and birds before our
race came upon it. In one sense we
were invaders. The cattle, the lizards
and the hawks had preemption right,
| The question is not what we are to do
| with lizards and summer insects, but
what the lizards and summer insects
are to do with us. If we want place
in this world, we must earn it. The
| partridge makes it's own nest before it
occupies it. The lark by it's morning
song earns its breakfast before it eats
| it, and the Bible gives an intimation
that the first duty of an idler is to
starve when it says: "If he will not
work, neither shall he eat" Idleness
ruins the health, and very soon nature
| says: This man has refused to pay his
rent. Out with him!" Society is to be
reconstructed on the subject of wom-
ans toll. A vast majority of those who
would have woman Industrious shut
her up to a few kinds of work. My
Judgment in this matter is that wom-
an has right to do anything she can
do well. There should be no depart
ment of merchandise, mechanism, art
or science barred against her. If Miss
Hosmer has genius for sculpture, give
her chisel. If Rosa Bonheur has a
fondness for delineating animals, let
her make THE Horse Fair" If Miss
Mitchell will study astronomy, let her
mount the starry ladder. IfLydia will
be a merchant, let her sell purple. If
Lucretia Mott will preach the Gospel,
let her thrill with her womanly elo-
quence the Quaker meeting house.
1t is said if woman is given such op-
portunities she will occupy places that
might be taken by men. l say if she
have more skill and adaptedness for
any position than a man has, let her
have it! She has as much right to her
bread, to her apparel and to her home
as men have. But it is said that her
nature is so delicate that she is untitled
for exhausting toll. ask in the name
of all past history what toll on earth
is more severe, eXhausting and ire
mendous than that toll of the needle to
which for ages she has been subjected?
The battering ram, the sword, the car
bine, the battleax, have made no such
havoc as the needle. l would that
these living sepulchers in which women
have for ages been buried might be
opened aud that some resurrection
trumpet might bring up these living
corpses to the fresh air and sunlight.
Go with me and will show you
woman who by hardest toll supports
her children, her drunken husband, her
old father and mother, pays her house
rent, always has wholesome food on
her table, and when she can get some
neighbor on the Sabbath to come in
and take care of her family appears in
church with hat and cloak that are far
from indicating the toll to which she
is subjected. Such a woman as that
has body and soul enough to fit her for
any position. She could stand beside
the majority of your statesmen and dis
pose of more goods. She could go into
your wheelwright shops and beat one
half of your workmen at making car
riages. We talk about women as
though we had resigned to her all the
light work and ourselves had Shout
dered the heavier. But the day of judg-
ment, which will reveal the sufferings
of the stake and inquisition, will mar
shall before the throne of God and the
hierarchs of Heaven the martyrs of
washtub and needle.
Years ago, one Sabbath night in the
vestibule of our church, after service,
q woman fell in commissions. The doc
tor said she needed medicine not 20
much as something to eat. AS she be-
gan to revive in her delirium she said,
gaspingly: Eight cents Eight
cents! 1 wish 1 could get it done. I
am SO tired. 1 wish could get some
sleep, but 1 must get it done. Eight
cents Eight cents!" We found aft
erward that she was making gar
ments for eight cents apiece and that
she could make but three of them in
day. Hear it! Three times eight
are "a. Hear it, men and women who
have comfortable homes! Some of
the worst villains of our cities are the
employers of these women. They
beat them down to the last penny and
try to cheat them out of that. The
woman must deposit dollar or two
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