Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1910-11-16
HOUSEHOLD
WOMEN'S WORK.

Men are discussing Un0 suHfa S6CUP
as an abnormality and some portion
of them even find cause for anxiety
in the growth of the woman's rights
movement, but the danger we face to-
day is not that women shAll demand
equality with men at the polls but
that women will not interest them
! selves in those activities whose good
or i'll success make for the advance
ment or retrogression of mankind. just
as the refusal of clean minded men
go mix up in dirty politics." leaves
politics in an apparently hopeless
state of uncleanliness, SO the refusal
! of women to enter into consideration
| of problems which interest mankind
leaves unpleasant conditions unim-
proved and Unidentified.
! The moral force of pure woman
hood is, of course, something but ex-
erted as an active element and not as
sumed passively it's influence should
be greater by five or six times what it
is today. Women would serve the
home nest more efficiently and intel
ligently if they looked upon the prob
lens of the outer world not as ou3s-
tions which they need not bother
themselves with butas pr oblems which
worked tor or against the prOtec, ion
Of the four walls and a ceiling which
they call home. For the working OUT CT
nine tenths of the problems of man
kind have vital effect upon the integ-
rity of the home and the happiness of
its inmates.
The little state OF Rhode Island boasts
79 per cent of trained teachers to our
paltry II per cent. That is unpleasant
but its very bitterness may prove a
tonic. Trey tell us that the rural
population is below par in the isolated
districts because of the lack Of educa-
tionaI interests, that girls are being
sent forth year after year from the
! high schools without knowledge of
the prime pies of COG kerry and house
wifery with which the majority of the N
must battle, that tuberculosis is max
ing a stubborn fight against all the eff
forts OF society, that divorce statistics
have reached alarming recC rds, that
our prisons and industrial schools are
filled with the products of unhappy
homes where peace and self cOntroI
and love and sacrifice were not, that
the high cost OF living or the cost OF
high living, as you please, is wrecking
many matrimonial barks on otherwise
calm seas. Do these not concern wo-
men and the home nest vitality? Are
they not more important than studies
of Canada, New South Wales, analysis
of Browning and discussion of Shake
speare, interesting and instructive as
these studies are?
What women need is practical edu-
cation, practical viewpoint, healthy
activity in matters which affect every
day happiness and comfort. 1t is not
educational yearning that prompts a
woman to prepare papers on dead is
sues when the poor are at her door
and the uneducated at her feet. 1t j.
selishness, no more or less, and the
sooner women recognize this fact anC
Devote more considerable portion Of
their time to consideration OF the real.
ly vital things of TO-DAY the sooner vii
some of the unpieasantness disappear
and the standard of education cannot
out be raised. 1t is time active, intel.
igent Jealous women recognize the
tie which binds the home to the WOrlC
and acQuaint themselves with thei
duties Of this larger sphere which are
alsJ, in sense, the duties OF the nome
itself.
Fine feathers and pink teas, elabor
ate headdress ana bridge should be the
legitimate diversion OF those who may
choose such diversions in spare mo
ments, but they should not be allow eC
TO become the purpose and ambition
of wOmanhood, which am bitionsatis
Fl d, nothing is hacking.
SeIfshness has no part in mother
b Dod nor in the great probe ms Of mel
which demand solution. Women cal
help, can support, can sustain these
probe ms until girls are approaching
marriage with confident aud capable
step, when standards of health are 81
universally recognized that tubercu
losis becomes thing of the past, wheI
parents Understand each other anC
bear vii b one another for the chill
dren's sake and when men and womeI
live simply within their income anC
happily within the home nest. Thes'
ar5 not impractical visions. They
are vital issues on which mans happ
ness rests.
Let US be sensible and purposefuI
unseiish with an ambi ion to do on
good thing, at least, before we hav,
spent our DAYS of grace.-Exchange.