The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1900-03-14
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young woman belonging to large ram
lily to be inefficient when her father tolls
his life away for her support. 1t IS a
shame for daughter to be idle while her
mother tolls at the Washtub. 1t is as
honorable to sweep house, make Deds or
trim hats as it is to twist watch chain.
So far as | can understand, the line Of
Responsibility lies between that which is
useful and that which is useless. Ii
women do that which is of no value, their
work is honorable If they do practical
work. it is dishonorabe. That our young
women may escape the censure of doing
dshonorable work, | shall particularize.
You may knit a tidy for the back Of an
armchair. but by no means make the
money wherewith to buy the chair. You
may with a delicate brush beautifyl q
mantel ornament, but die rather than
earn enough to buy a marble mantel. You
may learn artistic music until you can
squall Italian, but never sing "Orton-
Vile or "Old Hundredth." Do nothing
practical if you would, in the eyes of re-
fined society, preserve your responsibility.
[ scout these tinical notions. | tell you a
woman, no more than man, has right
pays rent for it.
In the course Of lifetime you consume
whole harvests and droves Of cattle and
every day you live and breathe forty
hogsheads of good, pure air. lou must
by some kind of usefulness pay for all
this. Our race was the last thing Great
ed--the birds and fishes on the fourth
day, the cattle and lizards on the fifth
day and man on the sixth day. If geolo-
eists are right, the earth was 1,OOO,0OO
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 pre-emption right. The question is
not what we are to do with the lizards
and summer insects, but what the lizards
and summer insects are to do with us. If
we want a 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 be-
fore it eats it, and the Bible gives an in
timation 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 woman,s
toll. A vast majority of those who would
have woman Industrious shut her up to
few kinds of work. My judgment in this
matter is that woman has right to do
anything she can do WELL There should
be no department of merchandise, mech
anism art or science barred against her.
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give her chisel. If Rosa Bonheur has a
fondness for delineating animals, let her
make The Horse Fair" If Miss Mitch
ell will study astronomy, let her mount
the starry ladder. If Lydia will be a
merchant, let her sell purple. If Lucretia
Mott will preach the gospel, let her thrill
with her womanly eloQuence the Quaker
meeting house.
The Rights of Woman.
1t is said if woman is given such oppOr-
tunities she will occupy places that might
be taken by men. I say if she have more
skill and adaptedness for any position
than man has, let her have it! She has
as much right to her bread, to her appar-
ell and to her home as men have. But 1T
! is said that her nature is so delicate
that she is united for eXhausting toll. l
ask in the name of all past history what
toll on earth is more severe, eXhauSting
and tremendous than that toll of the nee
die to which for ages she has been sub
jected? The battering ram, the sword,
the carbine, the battleaX, have made no
such havoc as the needle. | would that
these living sepulchers in which women
have for ages been buried might be open
ed and that some resurrection trumpet
might bring up these living cOrpses to the
fresh air and sunlight.
| Go with me and l will show you a
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 dispose of more goods. She
could go into your wheelwright shops and
beat one-half of your wOrkmen at MAX
ing carriages. We talk about women as
| though we had resigned to her all the
light work and ourselves had shouldered
the heavier. But the day of judgment,
which will reveal the sufferings of the
stake and inquisition, will marshal be-
fore the throne of God and the hierarchs
of heaven the martyrs Of washtub and
needle. Now, | say if there be any pref
erence in occupation, let woman have it.
| God knows her trials are the severest.
BY her acuter sensitiveness to misfor-
tune, by her hour of anguish, [ demand
that no one hedge up her pathway to a
| livelihood. Oh, the meanness, the de-
spicability of men who begrudge wom-
an the right to work anywhere in any
honorable calling!
Equal Wages with Men.
/ I go still further and say that woman
| should have equal compensation with
man. By what principle of justice is it
that women in many of our cities get
only two-thirds as much pay as men and
in many cases only half? Here is gil
gantic injustice-that for work equally
we'll if not better done woman receives
! far less compensation than man. Start
with the national government. Women
| clerks in Washington got 5000 for doing