Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1924-03-05
The Present Day
"VirtuOus Women

(By Mrs. c. w. Belville, Tracy, Minn.)
We are told every day that the
world needs as never before the splr-
itual power Of organized womanhood.
Hence it behooyes the woman of to-
day to go back through the ages to
a picture drawn for us by one who
has been called the WiseSt of human
beings and to CLEAN from the picture
he painted for us in the Book of
Books picture of liberated woman
hood in an Oriental civilization, and
compare it with the women of the Oc
cident at a period removed three
thousand years from the time of Solo
mon AS we gaze upon the "Virtuous
Woman" and analyze her traits in that
unforgetable picture which he painted
and sent down through the ages, of an
ideal being who was to be a model for
Womanhood in every cline and in
every age, we are struck with the
analogy which exists between her and
the educated, enlightened woman of
today-may [ not say the modern
club woman, as we know her at her
best throughout our State and Nation?
Not until the present day and in our
own America can there be found
women who so nearly realize the ideal
set for us by the Wise Man of Old.
Let us see what he says in that last
chapter of Proverbs toward which
my own attention was directed in my
very early childhood by Bible-read-
ing and God-fearing Grandmother, one
who epitomized within herself these
very virtues.
"Who can find a virtuous woman for
her price is far above rubies?" Alas
for the translator that he could not
give us better word than this: "Vir-
| tuous'' in it's use here does not mean
chastity alone; there were many such
! in those days and are now. Virtue
| here means force or power, social, po-
| litical, economic, benevolent and re-
| ligious excellence. Many a pure Wo-
man has not all these attributes. Such
woman is indeed far above rubies.
"The heart of her husband can safe
ly trust in her so that he hath no need
of spoil" She is a person of bodily
vigor and of mental strength, of fidel-
| ity also and truth to the best things in
life, no vampire woman seeking whom
she may devour; she not only takes
| care of what he brings home, but she
gathers with him. The magic of her
hand multiplies and preserves the
fruits of his toll. "She will do him
good and not evil all the days of his
life"
"She seeketh wool and fax and
worketh willingly with her hands.
| She is a business woman and work
er; she not only works herself but she
understands how to direct her ser
wants; she understands food values.
Today the housewife takes her toll
from the four quarters of the globe to
feed her family. 92 percent of the
women of America do their housework
unaided by servants. Mrs. Winter
says in an article in recent magazine
that the housewife and mother enters
into more than fifty callings and pro-
fessions.
"She is like the merchants ships
she bringeth her food from afar. .
"She ariseth while it is yet night and
giveth meat to her household and a
portion to her maidens" This woman
is at the head of her industrial army.
"She perceiveth that her merchan-
disc is good; her candle goeth not out
| by night. She layeth her hands to the
spindle and her hands hold the
distaff." She is business woman and
can both earn and save; she has a
sense of values and wants the light
shed upon everything. She lets the
sunshine in by day and her light burns
at night. There is no darkness, no
need of stumbling in that household.
But this rare woman is not shut up
within the walls of her own home.
We read: "She stretcheth forth her