LIGHTS OUT!
Very long ago the needle was busy. It was considered
honorable for women to toil in olden time. Alexander
the Great stood in his palace showing garments made
by his own mother. The finest tapestries at Bayeux
were made by the Queen of William the Conqueror.
Augustus the Emperor would not wear any garments except
those that were fashioned by some member of his royal
family. So let the toiler everywhere be respected!
The greatest blessing that could have happened to
our first parents was being turned out of Eden after
they had done wrong. Adam and Eve, in their perfect
state, might have got along without work, or only
such slight employment as a perfect garden, with no
weeds in it, demanded. But, as soon as they had
sinned, the best thing for them was to be turned out
where they would have to work. We know what a
withering thing it is for a man to have nothing to
do. Old Ashbel Green, at fourscore years, when
asked why he kept on working, said, “I do so
to keep out of mischief.” We see that a
man who has a large amount of money to start with
has no chance. Of the thousand prosperous and
honorable men that you know, nine hundred and ninety-nine
had to work vigorously at the beginning.
But I am now to tell you that industry is just as
important for a woman’s safety and happiness.
The most unhappy women in our communities to-day are
those who have no engagements to call them up in the
morning; who, once having risen and breakfasted, lounge
through the dull forenoon in slippers down at the
heel and with dishevelled hair, reading George Sand’s
last novel; and who, having dragged through a wretched
forenoon and taken their afternoon sleep, and having
spent an hour and a half at their toilet, pick up their
card-case and go out to make calls; and who pass their
evenings waiting for somebody to come in and break
up the monotony. Arabella Stuart never was imprisoned
in so dark a dungeon as that.
There is no happiness in an idle woman. It may
be with hand, it may be with brain, it may be with
foot; but work she must, or be wretched forever.
The little girls of our families must be started with
that idea. The curse of our American society
is that our young women are taught that the first,
second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, tenth,
fiftieth, thousandth thing in their life is to get
somebody to take care of them. Instead of that,
the first lesson should be, how, under God, they may
take care of themselves. The simple fact is that
a majority of them do have to take care of themselves,
and that, too, after having, through the false notions
of their parents, wasted the years in which they ought
to have learned how successfully to maintain themselves.
We now and here declare the inhumanity, cruelty, and
outrage of that father and mother, who pass their daughters
into womanhood, having given them no facility for
earning their livelihood. Madame de Stael said:
“It is not these writings that I am proud of,
but the fact that I have facility in ten occupations,
in any one of which I could make a livelihood.”
