Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1888-1932, 1901-08-26

ginning 10 make us way III JQt CITY OIL
New York and soon to spread, we hope,
TO other cities. l refer to the care of
crippled children, beginning with one
woman. whose heart went out in sym
pathy to these little unfortunates,
larousing the interest of a few men,
until a little home by the seaside re-
lceived few of them in the Summer.
ut hasnow developed into a system that
SHOULD ultimately include an auxiliary
in every part of the city. The very
sort OF investigation that we are rec
lommending showed thatGreater New
York alone has about 1000 crippled
children. Manhattan about 5000. the
great majority Of these living in tene-
ment houses with insufficient medical
care.
To send the wagonette and gather up
groups Of these children; to take them
to the school where the kindergarten
and the manual training and the COM
Portable luncheon in the middle of the
day are supplied, and the heart life
and the brain life of the child are de-
veloped to put them in charge of
nurses; to give them proper medical
care; to become a renovating and re-
generating influence in the homes of
these children-this is only one of the
little things being done in the great
city of New York. l mention it because
in many other ways similar needs may
be studied, plans devised for the amel-
ioration of conditions. and direct an
appeal to those who can control it for
the use of wealth, and to the proper
civic authorities to aid in beneficent
work. In this way women can help.
and also in the question of amusement.
Fairgrounds, provision for country
Outings, for nature studies and a thou
sand ways of which the limits of this
space do not permit even the faintest
outline.
1t is not a question Of what woman
can do. There are a hundred things
waiting at her hand, and each woman
must herself decide what under her
own system and conditions she
can do. That the obligation is upon
her to do whatever she can, that the
best epitaph she can have is "She did
what she could" needs no emphasis.
Leaving the moral and the philan-
thropic and educational side.
and turning for moment to
the question of what woman
can do for others through what
she can do for herself. we strike that
great line of industries by which good
can be done to others through her Sc
curing support for herself We can
say nothing of the noblest profession
of all, that of wifehood and mother
hood. UnquestiOnably women can do
most and best in this line. Next. the
teaching of childhood, and we add to
that the use of the pen in literary and
journalistic fields. and of the two say
there is no lack of opportunity in these
lines, provided the woman has the nee
essary power and will take the neces-
sary trouble to prove her right to
something higher than a mediocre
Place. In handicrafts rinnumerable the
same rule holds true.
The woman who can do any one
thing well enough so that other people
are willing to pay to have it done can
ordinarily find that something to do.
Some indoor and sedentary Occupa-
tions are becoming overcrowded, but,
while that is true, a new line of out
door business is pressing itself upon
the attention of women. Every day
is brought to our notice the experience
of women who are successful cultiva-
tors of the soil. Small fruit growing
in fully twenty States of the Union is
prosecuted by women. There are in
stances Of women who have supported
their families by the raising of bees.
If rightly developed there are fortunes
in poultry. There are women doing a
prosperous business on sheep farms.
Intensive agriculture, that takes a very
small number of acres and cultivates it
scientifically, until every inch is made
to yield its proper product, is getting
the attention of experimenters. More
than that, schools are being establish
ed where young people can be trained
to the practical prosecution of all such
outdoor farm work
l recommend unhesitatingly to
women who have failed to secure prop
er indoor work for their own support,
that they turn their attention to what
can be done with little patch of land.
am not unmindful Of the question
that naturally arises as to where shall
we get the land and how shall we live
until we have succeeded in getting re-
suits therefrom. That is another prob
lem which cannot be included in the
limits of this paper.