The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1906-10-06
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1905.
THE WIDOWS BuRDEN.

AIRS Amelia Tenney who is heading
movement to establish home in
Chicago for unprovided widows and
their children. has struck an idea
that cannot be too highly commended.
1t is Mrs Tenneys purpose to raise
money TO erect a building where such
unfortunately situated women may go
to live and educate their sons aud
daughters in good environment. The
home. says the Chicago Tribune, is TO
he made self-supporting in time and
will have as features sewing rooms,
baking kitchens and other feminine
workshops where women may earn
livelihood aud be Independent the same
as if outside the circle of the society.
a most important feature viii be the
nursery where children will be cared
for while their mothers are at work.
Necessity is the mother of invention
and Mrs. Tenney having been left a
widow with three young children whom
she has struggled for eight years to
support, has had personally brought
to her attention the crying need of
such an institution as the one she adj
vocates.
When a woman with a child is left
penniless she is confronted by a situa-
ton that is little short of appalling
Many avenues of employment are alb
solutely closed to her because of the
pitiful ineumbrance the helpless little
one represents and where there are
several children the situation is COM
& picated and all but quite hopeless.
This In the majority of Instances.
There are of course, some scattering
cases where women are quite as cap
able and well-equipped TO battle with
the world We're the husbands whose
loss they mourn, and whose labors
are sufficiently wei renumerated to
make possible the employment OF a
housekeeper. who at least can give
the children the same physical comforts
they would receive were their mother
with them in the home. But these are
exceptions.
In he FIRST place the majority of
mothers have never had business train
ing. In the second place, those who
have worked before marriage
have held positions which paid them
perhaps sic or $12 a week. Perhaps
less, The chances are that they have
not received more. How far would
the piuful pittance so toward paying
house rent, employing a servant to
care for the children and feed and
clothe the little brood. to say nothing
Of the mother herself?
In many places in which women
find employment it IS essential that
they wear reasonably good clothes. In
places where this is not the case, the
remuneration is likely to be most
meagre. Employers who pay what is
generally considered fair wage to
their stenographers. bookkeepers or
clerks do not like to have them shah
by and starved looking 1t reflects
on the office and on the employer.
Saleswomen are equally obliged to
make neat appearance NJ their work.
one cannot he both neat and shabby.
Not as the employer and the public
look at it.
1t is quite out of the question for
women with children to seek work i'm
the vast held Of domestic service AS
much diiileultyias experienced by FAM
lies 10 secure competent servants. or
indeed. Incompetent ones. There Is no
position open to the woman who is
encnmbered with a child. The want
al columns in the daily papers prove
this For tire majority of women seek
ing domestic employment through the
great advertising mediums are women
thus eueumhered. 1t IS indeed pititul
that what should be the crowning 10Y
of woman-tke possession of lit
tie life tha, owes It's being TO her
should be Il r1ilfSfDne abntft ra~ NOT
and the gall and NORWOOD that nav
ors the cur of bitterness adveIsity
holds under the lips Of the unprovided
widow
A case in point is emphasize the
needs OF Widows home Avas that
which this mornings papers ehronicled
of Mrs Margaret Hickey widow of
Col Michael Hickey of Kentucky. who
served through The civil war IN the
Confederate army Mrs Hickey, in
her search for employment, refused 10
be separated from her deaf ana dumb
daughter. With the result that now at
the age OF IS years she in company
with the afflicted daughter. aged so. is
being cared for 81 the Harrison street
police station in Chicago
den children whom their mother
is obliged to abandon 10 the streets
while the latter is away from home
striving to earn enough 10 keep body
and soul together, grow up and become
criminals because of their lack OF home
training ana because of the influence
OF evil eompanionship, the state begins
10 she1e tie burden. society by it's
indifference. has imposed upon the
widowed mother,