Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-01-05
Woman as a Helpmeet.
By Mary E. Cardwill,
"a perfect woman nobly planned
To lodrn, to comfort and command"

family circle seems never to have received the
serious consideration it deserves. Advice so COM
monty given to women in regard to the physical
comforts of their households is, for the most part,
unnecessary. true womanly instinct prevents
the majority from neglecting these minor matters.
1t is their higher duties which they often fail
to appreciate and for which they commonly too
lily prepared. ITO warn" to keep bright the
moral armor of husband, son, father or brother, is
a work worthy of the noblest women. 1t is
work the influence of which is wide and ever in
creasng, and which is seen in its funess when
some great social reform is accomplished. And
this grand work is the special duty and privilege
of women whose interests are confned chiefly to
their own homes. Working women, so called like
all other bread-winners compelled to think
much about sordid things and are themselves con-
stantly exposed to multifarious and subtle tempta
lions. The fact that frequent contact with evil
tends to blunt human sensibilites makes strong
counteracting influence necessity. This only
be provided in the pure and noble atmosphere of
true home So trite statement would hardly
bear repeating, were there not many family
circles in which the moral influence is by
means the strongest Few women doubt their
capacity for home-making and housekeeping. They
learn how to and to cook. They prepare
themselves carefully for teaching and other occu-
pations, and they seek to become accomplished,
cultured and refined, that they may shine in
society. But God and Nature seem to be expected
to prepare woman, without her knowledge in
preference, for the most important duties of home
life. The truth is, this field of labor, than
all others, requires skilfully trained laborers To
really succeed here women must know how to OBJ
serve, to consider and to act. They must not only
have their own moral sense thoroughly aroused,
but must keep it in constant cultivation And
if they are in the highest sense progressive, if
they seek the Unreasonable assistance of intel
lectual culture and refinement, they may lead the
van of reform movements without stepping from
the modest retirement of their own homes 1t is
their separation, in sense, from the world that
gives to domestic women a peculiarly favorable
opportunity for moral culture. They alone,
personally dsinterested observers, are able to
weigh the worlds many temptations and note the
terrible results of it's small and great immorali-
ties. They alone comparatively free from the
binding influence of the glitter and false colors
of evil, can, if properly enlightened, look upon sin
with the horror it merits.
Such never connive at, or condone,
wrong, though the guilty person be their dearest
friend For loves sake they are unsparing in
their condemnation of all immoral dongs and
shrink almost with terror from the blood-guilti-
ness found in the pseudo charity which makes too
light of sin because of morbidly sentimental
feeling for the sinner Moreover, it is morally
enlightened women who the most readily and
anXiously seek to lift up the fallen, and whose
sympathy and mercy are most unselfshly offered.
Strong moral support is absolute necessity
for the success of any good cause. Every
with an earnest purpose look almost with GER
tainy for the attainment of his object if he has
some one to hold up his hands. So fully is this
realized that no one is surprised to learn how this
that great reformer received his strongest in
spiration from a good wife or mother of whom the
world knows nothing further.
Indeed, there seems to be reasonable doubt
that the greater part of the purifying influences
exerted upon the world springs from compare
lively obscure wives mothers and sisters who
have learned the noble duties of their positions
And their vocation cannot be too highly exalted;
it demands the exercise of heart and brain, it asks
for the highest qualities woman can possess, but
success in it the greatest reward obtain
nurn homo 01adn hott