Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-08

Of sweet womanboti OF wife or daughter
or mother. A man 5las more variety In his
Iaae and less Interruption than falls 10 the
lot of a woman who Is 3 busy housekeeper.
From Monday morning until Saturday night
she Is continually engaged in doing a mum.
Der of tTifling things that make no show
and seem to her to amount to little In the
end. She IS making the home a shelter and
refuge for the men who abide within It
"A woman Is often busy during the most
beautiful years OF her life In the tasks of
maternity. .'ro bear. 10 nurse. to rear,
epitouizes the mothers profession. and
when the babies are coming and the boys
and girls are growing up--growinR so fast
that their progress IS like n uiTacle--w
mig out shoes. wearing out stockings. wear
rig out frocks and trousers. going to school,
taking hold of life in It's initiative. the
woman who mothered them is surely sufi~
ciently busy.
Lear. patient woman, DER your children
bending
To leave a goodnight kiss on rosy lips.
or list the simple prayers TO God ascending.
Ere siumber veil them In It's soft eclipse;
/ wonder, do you dream that seraphs love
And sometimes smooth the pathway for
ycur feet;
That oft their silvery pinions float above
When life Is tangled and its crossroads
meet?
So wan and tired, the whole long day SO
busy:
To laugh or weep. at times. you hardly
know;
s., many trifies make the poor brain dizzy.
So many errands call you TO ana ire,
Small garments stitching, weaving ialry
stories,
And binding wounds and bearing little
Your hours pass; UNDECIDED all the glories
OF that great world beyond your nursery
stairs.
Many women are intensely busy in vari-
Gus phases of aItruistic effort. How UNI
selfish and heroic are the women who nave
taken the vows of some gentle Sisterhood
and consecrated themselves to works OK
Christian charity We never see woman
In the uniform and garb of deacones5 or
a nun without understanding that she mas
renowned the greater part OF all that
makes woman's hopes and ambitions that
she may devote herself 10 the reiet or
suffering and the consolation of grief.
There are women who minister 10 tnosS
incurably Ill of cancer and consumption TO
which are added the sttngs and pangs or
want There are busy women not few who
give constant donations of tire and labor
To church work, to hospitals, guilds ana as
sociations of every degree. What woud the
world do without them?
Nothing has here been said of the vase
realm appropriated to itself by that modern
force, the wonan's club. Here women are,
! if not precisely rushed, yet so breathiessy
| busy that some OF them nave nervous eN-
haustion and require periodical trips to Eu-
| rope to freshen them for another campaign
| The woman's club is the sphere not SO
much of girhood of maturity, and IL
has aptly been styled the postgraduate
school of the midde-aged.'
In all this no alluson has been made TO
the million women who are busy in this land
precisely as men are In earning their daily
bread.
They accept the hours, the conditions. mo
environments of men III arduous and pro-
fessional life, but 1t cannot be said thslc
they receive the same emoluments. The av-
| erage pay of the woman toiler is less than
the average pay of the man toiler. Notwlth-
standing this. her work compares favorably
| with his she has much conscience, as
| much diligence and as much dettness as he.
| and she begins as early and stays as late
! at her place of toll. Then, when she goes
| home, she cooks she sews. she scrubs. She
| mends. she washes and irons, she plays tho
| piano. she entertains her friends and she
| does any one OF dozen things that fall to
| her lot because she is woman She is tho
| busiest woman of all and not the least to be
! envied, for she is commonly independent
| and happy.