Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 January 1888 — LONE, LORN WOMAN. [ARTICLE]

LONE, LORN WOMAN.

The True Sphere of Her Usefulness , (1 rowing Wider.

H«vjT*lar Will Mom Sa Bettor Understood —Site Will Soon k* Freer Than NowHow ana Con Beet Hueceod.

Rev. Dr. Talmage preached at the Brooklyn Tabernacle last Sunday the first of a series of sermons on the women of America, with practical hints to men. The subject of this discourse was, “The Women Wko Fight the Battle of Life Alone,” and the text was from Proverbs xiv., 1. Dr. Talmage said; Who are these men who year after year bang around hotels and engine houses and theater doors and come in and out to bother busy clerks and merchants and mechanics, doing nothing even when there is plenty to ao? They are men supported by their wives and mothers. It the statistics of any of oar great cities coaid be taken on this subject, you would find that a large number of women not only support themselves, bnt masculines. A great legion of men •mount to nothing, and a woman by marriage manacled to one of these nonentities needs condolence. A woman ’ standing ontside the marriage relation is several hundred thousand times better off than a woman who is badly married. Many a bride instead of a wreath of orange bios sc ms might more properly wear a hunch of nettles and nightshade, and instead of the Wedding March, a more appropriate time wonld be the Dead March in Saul, and instead of a banquet of confectionery and ices there might more properly be spread a table covered with apples of Sodom, which are outside fair and inside ashes.

Many an attractive woman of good sonnd sense in other things has married one of these men to reform him. What was the resnlt? Like when a dove noticing that a vulture was rapacious and cruel set about to reform it, and said, “I have a mild disposition,and I like peace, and was brought up in the quiet of a dove cote, ana I will bring the vulture to the same liking by marrying him.” So one day, after the vulture had declared that he would give up his carnivorous habits and cease longing for blood of flock and herd, at an aitar of rock, covered with moss and lichen, the twain were married, a bald headed eagle officiating, the vulture saving, “With all mv dominion of earth and sky I thee endow, and promise to love and cherish till death do us part.” f But one day the dove in her flight Baw the vulture busy at a carcass, and cried, “Stop thatl did you not promise me that vou would quit your carnivorous and filthy habits if I married you?” “ fes,” said the vulture, “but if you don’t like my way you can leave.” and with one angry stroke of beak, and another fierce clutch of claw the vulture left the dove eyeless and wingless and lifeless. And the flock of robins flying past cried-to each other and said: “See there! that comes from a dove’s marrying a vulture to reform him.” Many a woman who has had the hand of a young inebriate offered but declined it, or who was asked to chain her life to a man selfish or of bad temper and refused the shackles, will bless God throughout all eternity that she escaped that earthly pandemonium. Besides all this, in our country about one million men were sacrificed in our civil war, and that decreed a million women to celibacy. Besides that, since the war, several armies of men as large as the Federal and Confederate armies put together have fallen under malt liquors and distilled spirits, so full of poisoned ingredients that the work was done more rapidly, and the victims fell while yet young. And if fifty thousand men are destroyed every year by strong drink before marriage, that makes iu the twenty-three years since ths war one million, one hundred jc.id fifty thoussqd men slain, and decrees one million, one hundred and fifty thousand women to celibacy. Take, then, the fact that so many women are unappy in their marriage, and the fact that the slaughter of two million one hundred and fifty thousand men by war and ram combined decides that at least that num-. her of women shall be unaffianced for life, my text comes in with a cheer,' and a potency and appropriateness that I never saw in it before when it says.

“Every wise woman buildeth her house” —that is, let woman be her own architect, lay out her own plans, be her own supervisor, achieve her own destiny. In addressing these women who will have to fight the battle of life alone I congratulate you on your happy escape. Rejoice forever that you will not have to navigate the faults of the ot her sex when yon have faults enough of your own. Think of the bereavement, you avoid, of the risk of unassimilated temper which you will not have to run, of the cares yon will never have to carry, and of the opportunity of outside usefulness from which marital life would have partially debarred you, and that you are free to go artd come as one who has the responsibilities of a household can seldom be. God has not given you a hard lot as compared with your Bisters. When young women shall make np their minds at the start that masculine companionship is not a necessity in order to happiness, and that there is a stiong probability that they will have to fight the battle of life alone, they will be getting the timber ready for their own fortune, and their saw and ax and plane sharpened for its construction, since “every wise woman bmldeth her house.” - ———-r—; -

As no boy ought to be brought up without learning some business at which he could earn a livlihood, so no girl ought to be brought up’without learning the science of self - support. The difficul : tv is that many a family go sailing on the high tides of success, and the husband and father depends upon iiis own health and acumen for the welfare of his household; but one day he gets his feet wet, ahd m three days pneumonia has dosed his life, and the daughters are turned out on a cold world to earn bread, and their is nothing practical they can do. The friends of the family come ra and hold consultation. “Give music leesons,” savs an outsider. Yes. that is a useful calling, and, if you have great genius for it, go on in that direction. But.there are enough music teachers now starving to death in all oar towns and cities to occupy all the pianoHtiotß fiTfd sofas and chairs and front steps of the city. Reside that, the daughter has been playing only for amusement, and is only at the foot of the ladder, to the top of which a great

multitude of masters on piano and harp and flute and organ have climbed, “Put the bereft daughters as saleswomen in stores," says another adviser. Bnt there they must compete with salesmen of long experience or .with men who have served an apprenticeship in commerce, and who began ae shop-boys at ten years of age. Some kind-hearted dry goods man having known the father, now gone, says: “We are not in nerd of any more help just now, but send your daughters to my store, and I will do as well by them as possible.” Very soon the question comes up, Why do not the female employes of that establishment get as much wages as the male employes? For the simple "reason in many cases the females were suddenly flung by misfortune behind that counter, while the males have from the day they left the Public School been learn-< ing the business. •

How is this evil to be cured? Start clear back in the homestead and teach your daughters that li%' Is an earnest thing, and that there is'a possibility, if not a strong probability, that they will have to fight the battle of life alone Let every father and' mother say to thei? daughters: “Now, what would yon do for a livelihood if what 1 now own Were swept away by financial disaster, or old age or death shonld end my carreer?”

“Well, I could paint on pottery and do snch decorative work.” Yes, tnat is beautiful, and if you have genius for it go on in that direction. But there are enough busy at that now to make a line of hardware from here to the East River and across the bridge. “Well, I could make recitations in public and earn my living as a dramatist. I could render King Lear or Macbeth till yonr hair w„uld rise on end, or give you Sheridan’s Ride or Dickens’ Pickwick.” Yes, that is a beautiful art, but ever and anon, as now, there is an epidemic of dramatization that makes hundreds ol households nervous with theories and shriekß and groans of young tradgedians dying in the fifth act, and the trouble is that while your friends would like to hear you, and really think that you could surpass Ristori and Charlotte Cushman and Fanny Kemble, of the past, to say nothing of the present, you could not, in the way of living, in ten years earn ten cents. My advice to all girls and all unmarried women, whether in affluent homes or m homes where the most stringent economies are grinding, to learn to do some kind of work that the world must have while the world stands. lam glad to see a marvelous change for the better, and t at women have found out that

-there are hundreds of practical things that a woman can do for a living if she begins soon enough, and that men have been compelled to admit it. You and 1 can remember when the majority of occupations were thought inappropriate forwomen.but ourcivil war came and the hosts of men went forth from North and South, and to conduct the business of our cities during the patriotic absence women were demanded by the tens of thousands to take the vacant places, and multitudes of women who had hitherto been supported by fathers and brothers and sons were compelled from that.time to take care of themselves. From that time a mighty change took place, favorable to female employment. Among the occupations appropriate for woman I- place the following, into many of which she has already entered, and all the others she will enter: Stenography, and you may find her at nearly all the reportorial stands in our educational, political and religious meetings. Saving banks, the work clean and honorable, and who so great a right to toil,there, fora woman founded the first savings bank, Mrs. Priscilla Wakefield? Copyists, and there is hardly a professional man that does HOF service of he/ penmanship, and, amanuensis many of the greatest books of our day have been dictated by her writing. There they are as florists and confectioners, and music teachers and stationers and book-keepers, for which they are specially qualified by practice and accuracy; ana wood-engraving, in which the Cooper Institute has turned out. so many qualified. Telegraphy,for whicn she is especially prepared, as thousands of the telegraphic offices would testify. Photography, and in nearly all our establishments Jȣey may be found there at cheerful work. As workers m ivory and gutta purcha and gum elastic and tortois shell and gilding end chemicals, in porcelain, in terre cotta, in embroidery. As Postmistresses, ana the President is giving them appointments all over the land..

As keepers of lighthouses, many of them if they had the chance, ready to do as brave a thing with oar and boat as did Ida Lewis and Grace Darling. As proof-readers, as 'translators, as modelers, as designers, as draught women, as lithographers, as teachers in seminaries, for which they are especially endowed. The first teacher of every child, by Divine arrangement, being a woman. As physicians, having graduated after a regular coarse of study from the female colleges of our large cities,where they get as scientific and thorough preparation as any doctors ever had, and go forth to a work which no one but women could so appropriately or delicately do. On the lecturing platform, for you know the brilliant success of Mrs. Livermore and Mrs. Hollowell and Mrs. Willard and Mrs. Lathrop. As phyßioligicai lecturers to their own. sex, for which service there is a demand appalling and terrific. As preachers of the Gospel, and all the protests of Ecclesiastical Courts can not hinder them, for they have a pathos and a power in their religions utterances that men can never reach. Witness all those who have heard their mother pray. 0, y Dung women of America! as many of you will have to fight your own battles alone,-do not wait until yon are flung of disaster and your father is dead and all the resources of your family havte been scattered; but now, while in a good house and enviioned by all prosperities, Team how to do some kind-of work that the world must have as long as the world stands. Turn your attention from the embroidery of fine slippers, of which there is a surplus, and make a useful shoe. Expend the time in which -yotr-adorn a cigar case -in-learning fadw to make a good, honest loaf of bread. Turn your attention from the making of flimsy nothings to the manufacturing of important somethings.

Much of the time spent in young ladies’seminaries in studying what are called the “higher branches,’* might better be expended in teaching them something by which they could support themselves. If you are going to be teachers, or if you have so.much assured wealth that you can always dwell 'jj those high regions, trigonometry course, metaphysics of course, Greek, and German and and Italian of course, and a bunded other th’ngs, c-f course; but if you we not expecting to teach, and your, wealth is not established beyond irjafortnne, after yon have learned the ordinary branches, take hold of that kind of study that will pay in dollars and cents in case you are thrown on your nwn resources. Learn to do something better than any body else. Bay Virginia Penny’s book entlted “The Employments of Women,” and learn there are five hundred ways in which a woman may earn a living. I have seen two sad sights; the one a woman in all the glory of her young life stricken by disease, and in a week lifeless in a home of which she had been ♦he pride. As her hands Were folded over the still heart, and her eyes closed for the last slumber, and she was taken ont amid the lamentations of kindred and friends, I thought that was a sadness immeasurable. But l have seen something compared with which that

scene was bright and songful. It was a young woman who had been all her days amid wealthy surroundings, by the visit of death and bankruptcy to the household, turned out on a cold world without one lesson about how to get food or shelter, and into the awful whirlpool of city life, where strong ships have gone down, and for twenty years not one word has been heard from her. Ves-. eels last week went out on the Atlantic Ocean looking : for a Bhip-wrecked craft that was lbft alone and forsaken on the sea a few weeks ago, with the idea of bringing it into port. Bnt who shall ever bring again into the harbor of peace and hope and heaven that lost womanly immortal,driven in what tempest,aflame in what conflagration, sinking into what abyss? Oh, God, help! Oh, Christ rescue! My sisters,give not your time to learning fancy work, which the world may dispense with when hard times come, but connect your skill with the indispensables of life. The world will always want something to wear and something to eat,and shelter and fuel for the body, and knowledge for the mind, and religion for the soul. And all these things will continue to oe the necessaries, and if you fasten your energies U"on occupations and professions thus related the

world will be unable to do without you. Remember that in proportion as you are skillful in any thing your rivalries become less. For unskilled toil, women by the million. But you may rise to where there are only a and still higher till there are only a hundred; and still higher till there are only ten; and stili higher in some particular department till there is only a unit, and that yourself. For a while you may keep wages and a place through the kindly sympathies of an employer, but you will eventually get no more compensation than you can make yourself worth. Let me say to all women whobave already entered upon the battle oFlife that the time is coming when women shall not only get as much salary and wages as men get, but for certain styles of employment women will have bigner salary and more wages for the reason that for some styles of work they have more adaptation. But this justice will come to woman not through any sentiment of gallantry, not because, woman is. physically weaker than man and therefore ought to have more consideration shown her, but because through her finer natural taste and more grace of perception »3?dj morovfeilcate touch and more educated adroitness Bhe will in certain callings be to her employer worth 10 per cent, more, or 20 per cent, more than the other Bex. She will not get it by asking for it, but by earning it, and it shall be ber« by lawful conquest. Now,men of America.be fair and give the women a chance! Are you afraid that they will do some of your work and hence harm your prosperities? Remember that there are scores of thousands of men doing women’s work. Do not be afraid! God knows the end from the beginning, and He knows bow many people this world can feed and shelter, and when it gets too full He will end the world, and if need be start another. God will halt the inventive faculty, which by producing a machine that will do the work of ten orjwenty or a hundred men and women, will leave that number of people without work. I hope that there will not be invented another sewing machine, or reapingmachine, or corn thresher, or "any other new machine for the next five hundred years. We wantr no more wooden hands, and iron hands, and steel hands and electric hands substituted for men and women, who would otherwise do the work and get the pay and earn the livelihood But God will arrange all, and all we have to do is to do our best and trust Him for the rest. Let me cheer all women fighting the battle of life alone with the fact that thousands of women have in that way won the day. Let me also say for the encouragement of all women fighting the battle of life alone, that their conflict will soon end. There is one word written over the faces of many of them, and that word is despair. My sister, you need appeal to that Christ who comforted the sisters of Bethaiiy in their domestic trouble, and who in His last hours forgot all the pangs of Hiß own Hands, and feet and neau as he looked into the face of maternal anguish and called a friend’s attention to it, in substance saying, “John, I cannot take care of her any longer. Do for her as I would have done if I* had lived. Behold my mother!” If under the pressure of unrewarded and unappreciated work your hair is whitening and the wrinkles come, rejoice that yon are

nearing the hour of escape from your very last fatigue, and may your departure he as pleasant as that of Isabella Graham, who closed her life with a smile and the “Peace.” The daughter of a regiment in any army is all surrounded by bayonets of defense, and in the battle, whoever falls, she is kept safe. And you are the daughter of the regiment commanded by the Lord of Hosts. After ali, yon'are not fighting, the battle of life alone. - All heaven is on your side. Dock hunters in Georgia report an nnnsuai supply of thbse birds this fall. Ward Allen killed over seven hundred in eight days, and one day shot shot 160 by daylight and 40 by mooiJight