Year: 1873

In England there are now nearly g.


600, 900 women dependent on their own


exertions. To tell such as these that


woman's proper sphere is home is mock


ery, for they are forced from their


homes to get bread. Though many a


barrier to womans earning q livelihood


has been broken down, there are still


terrible difficulties in finding employ


ment for women. Specially onerous is


the effort in the case of those of fallen


fortunes, members of the genteel class


es. True it is that young men now find


it hard to get suitable work they often


have TO 60 West. But there is no ana


logy among them 10 the wholesale year


ly destruction of consciences, bodies


and souls among women-destructio


too often brought about by destitution.


How can tender-hearted people fold
their hands while so many of their sis


ters are driven to the gates of hell by


want of bread? Statements are pub


lished that capable women, willing 10


work, can get employment al good


wages. Good, steady, skilled labor in


wanted in Just those departments where


women have gained position. The un-


remitting, earnest application required


to acquire skill in these departments, is


hard for women to go through. In


them love of work, for its own sake, is


no more inherent than in men. More


over, women are always looking for the


appearance of the possible emancipator.


Men have nothing but their work to
look to for dependence The greatest
evil of all is the lack of the right early
training, and for this the family, the
parents, society in general, must be inn
peached. Society casts a stigma on
women who earn their own livelihood,
and parents pay that their daughters
may never be brought so low. As 10
education, a girls training stops Just
where the man part of boys begins.
Men are allowed full opportunity 70 de-
vote themselves TO their chosen work,
and are not diverted by my sociAl de-
mands. Women are are at the beck and
call of everybody, as it were, and have
80 many society duties, so many dis
tracing little trihes to attend TO, that
the wonder is not that there has not
been female Shakespeare, Raphael,
Newton, but that women have done so
much. The problem, what we shall do
with our redundant women in England,
is answered by some philosophers by
emigration and marriage.
But emigration has been largely tried,
and Scotch, English and Irish women
have been sent to Australia and Amer
lea in great numbers without much di-
the gravity Of the problem:
while as for marriage, there is yet 10 be
found the woman 10 say "no" when the
right man appears. As long as the
number of women in Great Britian ex-
ceeds that of the men by per cent
will not wholly do away with
the difficulty unless Mormonism is tried.
True marriage is the crown and glory
Of a woman's life; but IL must be
founded on love, and not on the desire
Of home or of support, while nothing
can be more deplorable, debasing and
than the loveless marriages
brought about in our upper society by
a craving ambition and n longing for q
good settlement. Loveless marriages
and different standard of morality for
men and women are the curses Of mod
ern society. The dignity of labor is
not yet properly Appreciated. We agree
hat work is honorable in a man, but
ire not vet convinced that idleness IL
in q woman. A contempt
'or work is at the bottom of the mind
lf fashionable young lady. Frivolity
is so general that il is surprising that
so much good survives in spite of neg
Iect. SO long as we frown down and
5neer at the efforts TO enlarge woman's
phere, we are encouraging frivolity and
Idleness in women. We hear the inter
ests and rights of woman spoken of as
if these could be separated from those
Of man, as if men and women were
creatures of different kind. A most
common and mischievous error il that
which would make woman the mere
shadow and attendant of her lord, as II
a shadow could be a true helpmeet.
We have long heard that mans sphere
is the world woman's is home. But
have a part in the world, too,
while men are net ciphers in the home
circle. The speaker protested against
setting up an ideal standard and recog-
nizing no wOmanliness but such as con-
formed TO that standard. The material
need of opening fresh avenues TO wo-
man is obvious the moral necessity is
also of the utmost importance. Women
must have such occupations as will give
them true and genuine sympathies with
their fathers and husbands, who are
toiling day by day for their support,
while the women dependent upon them
ire wearying out the hours, trying TO
1ill time. In this way a wide gulf,
expanding, is opened be
,ween men and women.-Miss Faith
'uES FdreUeU Lecture.