The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1905-05-26

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
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
them in the matter OF remuneration.
They work as many hours as men, and
they do their work as we'll, they at
firm, and why should they he paid less
than men in the same berths? Why, in
deed: Candor obliges us to admit that
this why is very sq'arely met by little
If. Ii women. taking them as they come.
not Judging from the exceptions, were as
responsible as steady. as certain to rem
der smooth: equable and efficient sery-
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
nerves and headaches and backaches
that men enjoy.
Their dress is against them. The cor
set. that need not be an unhygienic part
of dress, alas! too often squeezes in a
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 tortures
when standing for hours on their poor
deformed feet. They sacrifice health and
comfort to 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 it 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-
ton has forced young girls into fac
tories and mills and Offices and shops
the wide world round. But not yet has
it become general that the wages of a
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 a 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, Nc 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 a 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 hv
| 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
onoe obliged to begin the task Of self