The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1904-11-02
Women Must Learn Something Useful.

Women Must Learn Something Useful.
There is on my mind a matter |
cannot get rid Of till write it off. A
newspaper item mentions that two
women, sisters Of one Of the most sue
cessful comedians ever on the Ameri-
can stage, are in dire destitution.
Their brother, man who has made
half the people Of this country laugh
till their laughing muscles ached, is
dead. He helped his sisters during
their lifetime, the item says, but now
they arc beggared. They have tried
to get employment, and one had
place till she was displaced because
she was "old," she having reached
the venerable aud hoary age of fifty
four. The other sister is "old" too,
the newspaper young man adds, being
forty y-cight.
These two ladies are indeed old,
typical specimens Of the old woman
who never learned to do any money
earning work, but was content to drift
through life hanging to the neck of
some man, husband, son or brother,
just 80 she could be supported" No
trade or useful occupation did that
old woman learn. It was man place
to support woman, and woman 8
place TO be supported. That settled
it. This old woman had horror of
the new woman who learned trades
and professions and took "men's
work away from them. None Of this
new woman business would she have
for herself or her daughters. They
must retain their sweet. womanly de-
pendenoe on man, must marry and
have homes and men to foot their bills,
more or less grudgingly, as the case
might be.
Verify the old woman is reaping her
rewardl
In poorhouses, in charity homes,
eating the salt and bitter bread Of de-
pendence among relatives who will re-
joioe whenEshe is dead, as burden
they are rid of-thus the old woman
is reapiug the fruit of her own wilful
stupidity and blindness. She would
not see that social and industrial con.
ditions haveo changed through all the
world. Now she is taking the conse-
quences.
Apparently it is considered by the
writer Of the newspaper item cruel
wrong to the two women that nobody
put his .hand in his or her pocket and
forked''forth the money to feed and
olothe them the rest of their lives.
Now, will anybody tell us what they
or any other women like them have
done that they should be taken care
Of? What good is their continued
existence to the race that the race
shouldS make pocket sacrifice to pro-
long it?6Does even woman deserve
anything she does not earn?
lnese are nome thrustlng questions
that women must answer.
The parents, rich or poor, who do
not train their daughters for practical
life are criminals. II they arc rich,
let them give each girl certain
amount Of property to manage for
herself; let them make her thoroughly
learn every detail Of its care, not
trusting to anybody. The world 10
full Of human shsrks gho will devour
woman even more quickly than q
man because che ;s usually e.sie.
prey. If the parents are poor or in
moderate circumstances the daughter
must acquire o trade or profession
where by to earn her bread. 1t is
written by the pen Of human destiny
that woman can no longer be Q butter.
Ay.
Neither let there be any "tissus pa.
per" foolery about the trade the girl
learns. Let it be something solid and
useful. Tolstoi says every human be-
ing owes st to the race to do oertain
amount of work with his hands.
Work NOS wrongly looked on as druid
CORY reacts in an ennobiing, heaithful
way on her who performs it. The
trained woman grows strong 40 che
unrko Gho xpit1 ho - <ho c.sxno ot