Year: 1870

GEES.

 BY AN AMERICAN WOMAN.

 What shall woman do for living, who lacks strength to become domestic, health to become a seamstress, and inclination to be 8 teacher? The conservative shakes his head, and says: ''What, indeed?' She has exhausted the whole list of femenine occ equations, and there Is nothing left for her to do but to get married. This is, in deed, the sovereign remedy suggested by those who are opposed to any widening of woman's sphere af labor. Only, alas! if this advice is followed, the poor girl is too likely to find that she is expected to be servant, seamstress, and teacher all at once, and nurse and waitress as we'll. And then if she becomes worn out, or dissatisfied with these multifarious cares, she is coolly asked why she got married if she was not prepared to discharge all the duties direct and incidental, of married life.

 'I don't like strong-minded women, /" said spirited young girl ''but I do wish when we leave school we could have some object in life besides dressing for parties and angling for husband" And I know this is the sentiment-though perhaps un spoken-of myriads of young girls. And the most inconsistent part of it all is, that while they are shut off from all other occu- pations and ambitions, and husband-hunt- ing is made the one object of their lives, propriety forbids them making the least effort, or showing the least anxiety to ac- complish their destiny.

 When the millennium shall come it is possible that every woman may find her. self provided for by father or husband, who will not only be willing, but abundant ly able to take care of her; and when sick ness, misfortune, or death intervene, there will be some other male relative ready to step in and take his place, and thus the original intention of creation be carried out that men shall do, while women suffer.

 But now things are sadly mismanaged, and in fact, if not in theory, we find it necessary to lose sight of the original plan, while we consider things as they are. There is vast army of spinsters, who must ne- cessarily remain spinsters, because in this longitude the women so far outnumber the men, and we are not yet quite prepared to accept Mormonism as gateway through which to pass out of our difficulties. Then there is an array, scarcely less numerous, of widows, and another of those who are worse than widows, with invalid, shiftless, drunken, or profigate husbands, who make their wives burdens doubly heavy. The State does not seem to feel itself called up. on to provide for the wants of these various classes, so they must do it for themselves and those dependant on them, just as sure- ly as though they were men. They must be fed and they must be clothed; and though, thank heaven, they are not, as Q class, addicted to the expensive vices oi the sterner sex, they have certain feminine tastes for refinement or finery, as the case may be, the qualification of which is just as harmless, to say the least, as is the indul- gence in the aforesaid vices. If mans wages are to be regulated with view to brandy, cigars, and billiards, so should g woman's with view to ribbons, faces, and jewelry? So that a woman requires no less than a man to support her; and as her right to live is equal to his, her right to work should also be equal.

 To forbid woman to do that which she has no desire or capacity for doing, is ab. surd; to compel her to abstain from that which she feels well qualified and anxious to do, is cruel and unjust. It is placing a board over the rose-tree to compel it to keep to the low stature of the mignonette Fifteen or twenty years ago. when the subject was preached of women entering the occupations and professions of men, incompetency, physical weakness, and mental incapacity were urged if not with a show of reason, at least with no apparent unreasonableness, because then the trial had not been made. To-day there are few occupations into which the strong, brave, and resolute ones among our sex have not forced their way. They have proved them selves possessed of courage and enduranc ) far beyond the ordinary, not only by mas- tering the details of their trade or pro- fession. but also by overcoming the extra ordinary difficulties with which they have had to contend.

 We are told with all the earnestness of conviction that women have not powers of endurance equal to men. But never was there greater fallacy. In the adjustment of gifts, men were endowed with strength, women with endurance. Endurance is wo- mans portion from the cradle to the grave She can bear greater extremes of heat and cold than man, as anyone will discover, who will thoughtfully observe the dress of the two sexes at the various seasons of the year. She will endure sickness and pain silently and almost uncomplainingly; and will still keep on her feet and at her work in suffering that would drive man to bed and surround him with doctor and nurses She will endure close and steady confiue- ment at work, and only ask for her cup of tea to revive her; while a man in the same case, unless his principles are of the best, will immagine that something stronger is needed. Whoever heard of literary lady requiring brandy or cigars to help her in her labor with her pen, or to recruit her after it was over? Whoever, I was about to ask. heard of a literary man who did not? Let any. one enter the studios of our artists judge for himself whether tobbacco, ale or whiskey. might not almost be con- sidered as the necessary belongings to their business. But the studios of our lady artists tell no such tales. It is our male travellers, and not our female, who find it necessary to recruit their systems at way stations from the exhausting effects of travelling. This much for endurance. As for efficiency, when women once learn that they nsust be efficient and reliable, they sOi0 be; and the only way they will ever learn this is by bringing them in contact with men, and letting them learn, by expe- rience, that if they wish to compete with men on equal terms, they must be ready to accept all the requirements and responsi. bilities of the situation.