Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1900-04-12
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.

OttINEs
Subject: The Needles Havoc-An Appeal
For Mercy For Oppressed Wonanhood
Let Her Have an Equal Chance With
Man Ia the Struggle OF Life.
tCopyr,ght lsuu.l
WASHINGTON, d. C.-This discourse OF
| DR.. Tnlmage is an appeal for mercy In be-
half OF oppressed womanhood and offers
announcement to those struggling for II
| livelihood; text, Ecclesiastes, fv., l, "Be-
hold the tears OF such as we're 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
+, by his own mother. The finest tapestries
| at Bayeux was made by the queen OF Will
| lam the Conqueror. Augustus, the en-
| peror, would not wear any garments ex-
| cept those that wers 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 and put an end to
the despotism OF the needle. But no.
While the sewing machine has been great
blessing to well-to-do families in many
cases 1t has added to the stab OF the needle
the crush Of the wheel and multitudes Of
women, Notwithstanding the re-enforce-
ment OF the sewing machine, can only
make. work hard as they will, between 50
and So week.
Tho greatest blessing that could have
happened to our first parents was being
turned out of Eden after they had done
wrong. Adam and Eve, in their perfect
stnte, might have got along without work
or only such slight employment as per-
feet garden with no weeds In 1t demanded.
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
withering thing 1t is for q man to have
nothing to do. or the thousand prosper.
GUS and honorable men that you know 999
had to work vigorously ut the beginning.
But am now to tell you that industry Is
just rs 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
morning; who, once having risen and
breakfasted, lounge through the dull FORE
noon In slippers down at the heel and with
disheveled hair, reading the last novel,
and VINO, having dragged through II
wretched forenoon and taken their after
noon sleep and having passed al hour and
II 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 monotony.
Arabella Stuart never was imprisoned in
so dark u dungeon as that.
There is no happiness in an idle woman.
1t may be with hand, 1t may be with brain,
1t may be with foot, bu. work she must or
be wretched forever. The little girls of
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, fiftieth, thousandth thing
in their life Is to get somebody to take care
of them. Instead of that the first lesson
should be how under God they may take
cnre 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. We now and here declare
| the inhuman!ty, cruelty and outrage OF
that father and mother who pass their
daughters into womanhood, having given
them no faculty for earning their liveli-
hood.
Nine. de Stael said, "It Is not these
writings that am proud of, but the TACT
that have facility in ten occupations, in
any one OF which I could make n livell-
hood" You say you have fortune to
you not learned that, like vultures, like
hawks, like eagles, riches have wings and
dy away? Though YOU should be success
ful in leaving competency behind you.
the trickery OF executors may swamp 1t In
n night or some Official In our church hes
may get up mining company and induce
your orphans to put their money into u
hole in Colorado and II by the most sklllful
machinery the sunken money cannot be
Drought up again prove to them that 1t
was eternally decreed that that was
he way they were to lose 1t and 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 bottom! You have no right because
you are we'll or, 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 COM
rades came In and said rs they bent over
his corpse, what is the matter with you
Boggsy2" The surgeon standing over him
said: "Hush ye! He is deadp' "Oh, he is
and take drink In memory OF poor
Boggsy!" Have you nothing better than
money to leave your children? II you have
not, but send your daughters into the
world with empty brain and unskiled
hand, you are guilty of assassination,
homicide, infanticide.
There are women toiling In our cities for
81 or 50 week who were the daughters OF
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
| and faded calico had ancestery OF magnifi-
sent brocade that swept Pennsylvania av-
enue and Broadway clean without nny eX-
pense 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 iden prev
alent 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 n livelihood Is dishonorable. 1t Is u
shame for young woman belonging to a
large family to be inefficient when her
father tolls his life away for her support.
It ia a shame for daughter to be idle
while her mother tolls at the washtub. 1t IL
as honorable to sweep house, make beds o.:
| trim hats as It Is to twist a watch chain.
So fur as I can understand the line OF re-
spectability lies between that which Is use-
full and that which is useless. II women
do that which is Of no value, their work is
honorable. II they do practical work, 1t Is
iishonorable. That our young women
i tho - ACf dtoI