The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1907-05-31
to keep herself alive. She sings such

God in His wisdom may have denied
her that highest and best work. but
whatever else she may do she knows
in her heart that 1t is the highest and
the best.
A southern woman the other day
rated her sisters of the south sharply
because they took it for granted that
nc woman is a w~age-earner except
from necessity and that when h ne
cessity is removed she would gladly
return to her old vocation-that OF
the lily of the field
And why not?
The vocation Of the lily Of the field
Is to be fair and sweet. to make one
little place on Gods earth brighter
and filter for His sight and to repro
duce its kind to do the same work
when it is dead.
The woman who makes her home a
center of help and intelligence and
high endeavor, who brings forth chill
dren and fits them In that home for
their future life, has done enough.
She does not need to earn a single
dollar in any way to justify her right
to live.
AS for the woman who voluntarily
gives up her birthright-"to keep
house ana be a joyful mother Of chill
ren'-in order that she may busy her
self with public work, she is precisely
in the position of that mad English
peer OF whom we all read a few years
ago, who turned his back on his birth
ri~ght-castles. title and revenues-in
order that he might tramp on the
high road grinding a hand-organ for
a dancing monkey.
She is choosing the meaney part In
her ambition to exploit herself be-
fore the public. No club work is al
honorable or helpful as a gentlewom'
ans management of her home and fam
lily; nothing that her talents enable
her to give to the world-whether
book or statue or lecture-will ever
be as important or powerful an infu-
ence in 1t as a living child.
This is not a pleasant subject. blu
when we read that the births Of chill
dren of native American parents have
fallen OF one-half in certain northern
states in the last two decades, 1t sure
ly is worth our consideration. As men
go. the native American is a whole
some good bit Of that human stud
which makes up humanity. The world
seems to need him just now. II hs
is not to be born into 1t, l doub
whether the books or charitable wort
given to 1t by childless American WON
en- will fill his place.
There is one pleasant fact, however
which cheers and comforts us in al
these doubts and dangers. That is
that the large majority Of American
women have kept their footing dur
ing all the struggles Of their sex sine
the close of the civil war. They hav'
earned money when it was ~necessar.
to do it, but they have not RAISED
money-earning to the highest plac'
among the achievements Of life. The.
have been shrewd, amused listeners t
the feminine wrangles in clubs an'
newspapers. but are themselves usual
ly silent and unpublished. Occasion
ally they have exerted the power o
dumb resistance with most salutar!
effect. as when for several decade
they have silently refused to claim tn
right Of suffrage.
They are best known by what the.
do not do. They prefer to live II
homes. not in boarding houses and no
tells. They are not childless mother
nor divorced wives. They ind n
higher code of truth to teach their lit
tie ones than that which Jesus brough
to the world. They do not replace 1
by the sharp worldly wisdom Of Con
fucius or the vague warnings o
Buddhism. They answer all argu
ments by the question: "Who has le'
man so far upward as Christi" and g
on quietly teaching their children tn
Sermon on the Mount.
You call them o~ld-fashioned an
commonplace. perhaps. But they ar
eminently sane. One Of the stronges
-oofs Of their sanity Is that they ar
content to be women and not iml
tators Of men and that they still kee
In their lives that charm Of modest
and ~aloofness which the noisy minor
ity Of our women have 50 .fooltshl
thrown aside.