The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1905-06-10
likelihood Of Sudden Leaving to
Marry Discounts Value of Girls
Labor in Business Positons-Physl-
cal Disadvantages Due to Corsets,
High Hee.s, Etc.-Home Manage
ment Incsmparably Superior TO
Any Business Position-Pecuiiar
Temptations of Ill-Paid Shop GIFTS.

Nobody can fall 10 TeJoice sn"' i'~A
rage is popular in the community, ana
it is a sign of wholesome public morals
and of growing prosperity, when young
men WOO young maidens, and new house.
holds are established. But the embar-
rassment and responsibility OF school
boards are doubled. when they must be
always on the lookout for those VINO are
to take the places of the marrying con-
tingent.
Equally in other lines than the one al
luded to, this liability to change on the
part of young women is factor in the
bargain A firm in New York congrat-
ulated itself on having in its employ
ment a young woman of very marked
ability, an ability that was almost
genius, and of a trained technical
knowledge surprising that of most men
in the niche she occupied, that of buy
ing goods of certain kind. In Europe
or America this girl was valuable to
them, and they raised her salary over
and over. But one day she handed in
her resignation. She was engaged to a
man in Arizona, and he carried her of,
as was perfectly right, the only shadow
being that after the firm had given their
late employee beautiful wedding pres
ent they found themselves compelled to
hire two men to do what one woman
had done.
Business ability is not confined to one
sex But man is very apt to remain in
good place, and when married, he is not
removed from the sphere of daily labor,
but has every added incentive to work
hard and faithfully to support those de-
pendent upon him.
Women complain, often bitterly, that
there is unfair discrimination against
They work as many hours as men, and
they do their work as well, they af-
firm, and why should they be paid less
than men in the same berths? Why, in
deed? Candor obliges us to admit that
this why is very squarely met by little
not judging from the exceptions, were as
responsible, as steady. as certain to rem
der smooth, equable and efficient serv-
ice as men are, they would not long have
SO much for complaint.
Women cannot free themselves from
limitations that are in measure the
hampering conditions of their physical
life. They cannot have, or at least they
do not often have, the immunity from
nerves and headaches and backaches
that men enjoy.
Their dress is against them. The cor
set, that need not be an unhygienic part
o. dress. alas. too often squeezes in
girls waist and diminishes her breath
ing capacity. A silly notion that high
heels and pointed toes belong to an ele-
CANT feminine shoe, leads too many of
our girls to endure agonizing fortunes
when standing for hours on their poor
deformed feet They sacrifice health and
comfort to a false ideal; and in our
stormy winters, a multitude of women
workers are not warm enough, nor ade-
quately protected by useful wraps from
wild wind and frigid weather.
Hence, their days off are taken into
account. They cannot be treated pre-
cisely as men are. Sex and Nature are
against it. and theories go down before
natural law.
And 1t is in the order of Nature too,
that the sweetest girls, the most win
ming, the most capable, shall be sought
in marriage. While there are thou
sands and tens of thousands to be fed,
the stress of the labor market will con-
tinue to force women into the ranks that
toll. Strenuous commercial competi-
tion has forced young girls into fac
tories and mills and Offices and shops
the wide world round But not yet has
il become general that the wages of
girl are as the wages of man. When
they are, it is because in a particular
girl a marked and peculiar faculty, facil-
ity of high order, and rare fidelity
have been discovered.
Nevertheless, l, for one. rejoice when
/ hear that in one small borough six
young women teachers are at the same
time engaged to be married, and that in
larger one, 16 young men have court
ed as many girls and persuaded them to
name the happy day. For home, and NOT
business, is woman's true sphere
Let nobody induce you. dear girl to
think that any work on earth can for an
instant compare in worth with the task
of managing home. or that any honor
is so great as that of presiding at ones
own hearth. Other issues dwindle in i'm
portance before this.
Our girls do not marry at so early an
age as their mothers and their grand
mothers did They are not too easily
pleased, and are sometimes repealed by
suitors who would make them excellent
husbands, because of some lack of polish
or of veneer in the men.
A man leaves school early and is at
once Obliged to begin the task Of self
support. He is rebuffed, snubbed,
knocked about more or less among
rough men. He does not receive the
gentle consideration accorded TO girls.
AND so he loses some of the surface re-
finement, or he never acquires the So
ciety manner that a fastidious girl
prizes. But he makes un for this By
earning. il he have average qualities, o
rQod daaI moro fnan che oap ond NV al