The Washington times., 1901-09-22
THE COLLEGE WOMAN.
Mrs. SanKrter Declares She Makes
an Ideal Wife.

an Ideal Wife.
| Margaret Sangster makes rdhe follow
ing vindication IF the college-hred wom-
| an in the capacity of wife and mother:
| The college woman is not an overedu-
| Gated being whose mind has been cram
| med at the expense OF her body: she is
| an all-round person whose Development
! has enabled her to grasp opportunities, TO
| fill responsible situations. and to do her
| duty in society and at home. One can
nowhere else find such specimens of girl
! hood at its beautiful best in our col
| leges. The graduates of this summer are
! neither deficient in physical training nor
| Indifferent to domesticity. They are a
| splendidly vital set of young women, ath-
| letic vigorous, and blooming; they have
| good appetites. good digestion. and firm
muscles; they know how to stand, to sit,
| to walk and to breathe, as well as to
study They are women who have been
| finely equipped by exercise in the gymna-
siums and in the open air, and are quite
ready for the next step in life, what
ever ii may be.
Their work in mathematics and Ian
guage in history, and bellies lettres, has
not disqualified them for presiding in
good mans home as his wife and the
mother of children, while 1t has, by its
thorough mental discipline, fitted them to
be his equal comrade on the road and his
helper in sunshine and shadow alike A
great deal of nonsense is always afioat
about the difficulty of understanding and
performing housework, cooking, laundry
work, and the rest of the details which
belong to the administration of the home.
AS rule there is nothing occult about
domestic work. not a thing which any
II rfxy IL
she gives her mind to it. and a we'll
trained college girl has bright mind to
give.
All intellectual training-and the more
profound and thorough it is the better-is
valuable, chiefly in that it helps in little
daily duties. the trivial round, the COM
mon task. And If this is true the argu-
ment holds in the larger thing. A woman
VIII be a better mother for being an all
around. well-taught, well-trained woman,
physically, spiritually, and intellectually
The least successful mothers are the
mothers doubly handicapped by poverty
and ignorance. They not only do not
know hygienic laws. but scorn the very
mention of them in connection with the |
care of infants. while those of their child
rem who survive infantile perils scramble
into adolescence as best they may. and
owe their escapement from illness, sin,
and stain less to their mothers than to
society and God. College training, in its
symmetry, its thoroughness and its fidel- |
ity to the highest standards, is directly |
and indirectly the best training woman |
can receive for wifehood and motherhood |
But 1t also fits her to adorn any place in |
life to which God calls her and prepares |
her to be happy and useful spinster, If /
that is his appointment
Fathers and mothers are equally re- /
sponsible for the bringing up of their /
children and should equally share in the |
carrying out of the home. A child is best |
educated who is subject to the moding
influence of both parents working to-
gether in the harmony of love to each
other and to their offspring. in the ideal |
there are many such-the |
husband and wife have Thousand bless |
ed things in common, and there is not |
drawn a hard-and-fast line. on one side of |
which the man stands entrenched in rea- |
son. and on the other of which the wo- |
man kneels pleading for affection. Ten
nyson summed up the matter in the clos |
ing scene of THE Princess" when he |
said:
Loves dearest bond is this
Not like 10 like, but like in difference;
Yet in the long years liker must grow,
The man be Of woman. shn of man,
Like perfect music unto noble words.
There is certain chivaIrous intention
in the desire to save women from the
must be borne They are her share and
she does not shrink from them. She is
with the daily bread when it is |
n dry crust, If her good man can give no
more; and she prefers her bread as her
children do, spread with butter and sugar |
If she can honestly get it: and so, for that
matter. does the husband. The sugar is
sifted impartially for both when they pick
up their load and carry it bravely, not
the man alone. woman alone but hus- |
band and wife poyously caring for the
children whom God has given them.
MARGARET SANGSTER. |