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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Domestic Problem, by Abby Morton Diaz
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+Title: A Domestic Problem
+
+Author: Abby Morton Diaz
+
+Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6704]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on January 17, 2003]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DOMESTIC PROBLEM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steve Schulze, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+This file was produced from images generously made available
+by the CWRU Preservation Department Digital Library
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+
+A DOMESTIC PROBLEM
+
+
+
+_Work and Culture in the Household_
+
+
+by
+
+MRS. A. M. DIAZ
+
+AUTHOR OF "THE SCHOOLMASTER'S TRUNK," ETC.
+
+1895
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+TAKING A VIEW OF THE SITUATION.
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+ONE CAUSE OF THE SITUATION.--A PART OF "WOMAN'S MISSION" CONSIDERED.
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+CULTURE PROVED TO BE A NEED OF THE CHILD-TRAINER.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE OTHER PART OF "WOMAN'S MISSION."
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+OTHER CAUSES CONSIDERED.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+REASONS FOR A CHANGE.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+A WAY OUT.
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+SUGGESTIONS FOR LECTURE TOPICS
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+WAYS OF IMMEDIATE ESCAPE
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+MEANS OF ESCAPE ALREADY IN OPERATION
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+SUPPLEMENTARY
+
+
+
+
+A DOMESTIC PROBLEM
+
+_WORK AND CULTURE IN THE HOUSEHOLD_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+TAKING A VIEW OF THE SITUATION.
+
+
+Our problem is this: How may woman enjoy the delights of culture, and
+at the same time fulfil her duties to family and household? Perhaps it
+is not assuming too much to say, that, in making known the existence
+of such a problem, we have already taken the first step toward its
+solution, just as a ship's crew in distress take the first step toward
+relief by making a signal which calls attention to their needs.
+
+The next step--after having, as we may say, set our flag at
+half-mast--is one which, if all we hear be true, should come easily to
+women in council, namely, talking. And talking we must have, even if,
+as in the social game called "Throwing Light," much of it is done at a
+venture. In that interesting little game, after a few hints have been
+given concerning "the word," different members of the company begin at
+once to talk about it, and think about it, and suggest and hazard
+descriptive remarks, according to the idea each has formed of it; that
+is, they try, though in the dark, to "throw light." As the interest
+increases, the excitement becomes intense. Many of the ideas expressed
+are absurdly wide of the mark, yet even these help to show what the
+answer is not; and often, by their coming in contact, a light is
+struck which helps amazingly. And so, in regard to our problem, we
+have the hints; then why not begin at once to think about it, and talk
+about it, and suggest, and guess, and throw light with all our might?
+No matter if we even get excited, say absurd things, say utterly
+preposterous things, make blunders. Blunders are to be expected. Let
+them fly right and left; by hitting together right smartly they may
+strike out sparks which shall help us find our way.
+
+We all have heard of the frank country girl who said to her bashful
+lover, "Do say something, if it isn't quite so bright!" This,
+doubtless, is what every thoughtful woman, if she expressed the
+sincere desire of her heart regarding our perplexing question, would
+say to all other women; and it is to comply with that wish, partly
+expressed to me, that I have gathered up from chance observation,
+chance reading, and hearsay, some ideas bearing on the subject.
+Suppose we begin by looking about us, and making clear to our minds
+just what this state of things is, which, because it hinders culture,
+many deem so unsatisfactory. After that, we will consider its causes,
+reasons for changing it, and the way or ways out of it.
+
+A few, a very few, of our women are able to live and move and have
+their being literally regardless of expense. These can buy of skilled
+assistants and competent supervisors, whole lifetimes of leisure; with
+these, therefore, our problem has no concern. The larger class, the
+immense majority, either do their work themselves, or attend
+personally to its being done by others; "others" signifying that
+inefficient, untrustworthy, unstable horde who come fresh from their
+training in peat-bog and meadow, to cook our dinners, take care of our
+china dishes, and adjust the nice little internal arrangements of our
+dwellings.
+
+Observing closely the lives of the immense majority, I think we shall
+see, that, in conducting their household affairs, the object they have
+in view is one and the same. I think we shall see that they all
+strive, some by their own labors wholly, the rest by covering over and
+piecing out the shortcomings of "help," to present a smooth, agreeable
+surface to husbands and company. This smooth, agreeable surface may be
+compared to a piece of mosaic work composed of many parts. Of the
+almost infinite number of those parts, and of the time, skill, and
+labor required to adjust them, it hath not entered, it cannot enter,
+into the heart of man to conceive.
+
+I wonder how long it would take to name, just merely to name, all the
+duties which fall upon the woman who, to use a common phrase, and a
+true one, carries on the family. Suppose we try to count them, one by
+one. Doing this will help to give us that clear view of the present
+state of things which it is our present object to obtain; though the
+idea reminds me of what the children used to say when I was a child,
+"If you count the stars you'll drop down dead,"--a saying founded,
+probably, on the vastness of the undertaking compared with human
+endurance. It certainly cannot be called trivial to enumerate the
+duties to which woman consecrates so large a portion of her life,
+especially when we remember that into each and all of these duties she
+has to carry her mind. Where woman's mind must go, woman's mind or
+man's mind, should not scorn to follow. So let us make the attempt;
+and we need not stand upon the order of our counting, but begin
+anywhere.
+
+Setting tables; clearing them off; keeping lamps or gas-fixtures in
+order; polishing stoves, knives, silverware, tinware, faucets, knobs,
+&c.; washing and wiping dishes; taking care of food left at meals;
+sweeping, including the grand Friday sweep, the limited daily sweep,
+and the oft-recurring dustpan sweep; cleaning paint; washing
+looking-glasses, windows, window-curtains; canning and preserving
+fruit; making sauces and jellies, and "catchups" and pickles; making
+and baking bread, cake, pies, puddings; cooking meats and vegetables;
+keeping in nice order beds, bedding, and bedchambers; arranging
+furniture, dusting, and "picking up;" setting forth, at their due
+times and in due order, the three meals; washing the clothes; ironing,
+including doing up shirts and other "starched things;" taking care of
+the baby, night and day; washing and dressing children, and regulating
+their behavior, and making or getting made, their clothing, and seeing
+that the same is in good repair, in good taste, spotless from dirt,
+and suited both to the weather and the occasion; doing for herself
+what her own personal needs require; arranging flowers; entertaining
+company; nursing the sick; "letting down" and "letting out" to suit
+the growing ones; patching, darning, knitting, crocheting, braiding,
+quilting,--but let us remember the warning of the old saying, and
+forbear in time.
+
+This, however, is only a general enumeration. This is counting the
+stars by constellations. Examining closely these items: we shall find
+them made up each of a number of smaller items, and each of these
+again of items still smaller. What seem homogeneous are heterogeneous;
+what seem simple are complex. Make a loaf of bread. That has a simple
+sound, yet the process is complex. First, hops, potatoes, flour,
+sugar, water, salt, in right proportions for the yeast. The yeast for
+raising the yeast must be in just the right condition, and added when
+the mixture is of just the right temperature. In "mixing up" bread,
+the temperature of the atmosphere must be considered, the temperature
+of the water, the situation of the dough. The dough must rise quickly,
+must rise just enough and no more, must be baked in an oven just hot
+enough and no hotter, and must be "tended" while baking.
+
+Try clearing off tables. Remove food from platters, care for the
+remnants, see that nothing is wasted, scrape well every plate, arrange
+in piles, carry out, wash in soap and water, rinse in clear water,
+polish with dry cloth, set away in their places,--three times a day.
+
+Taking care of the baby frequently implies carrying the child on one
+arm while working with the other, and this often after nights made
+sleepless by its "worrying." "I've done many a baking with a child on
+my hip," said a farmer's wife in my hearing.
+
+But try now the humblest of household duties, one that passes for just
+nothing at all; try dusting. "Take a cloth, and brush the dust
+off,"--stated in this general way, how easy a process it seems! The
+particular interpretation, is that you move, wipe, and replace every
+article in the room, from the piano down to the tiniest ornament; that
+you "take a cloth," and go over every inch of accessible surface,
+including panelling, mop-boards, window frames and sashes,
+looking-glass-frames, picture-frames and cords, gas or lamp fixtures;
+reaching up, tiptoeing, climbing, stooping, kneeling, taking care that
+not even in the remotest corner shall appear one inch of undusted
+surface which any slippered individual, leaning back in his arm-chair,
+can spy out.
+
+These are only a few examples; but a little observation and an
+exceedingly little experience will show the curious inquirer that
+there is scarcely one of the apparently simple household operations
+which cannot be resolved and re-resolved into minute component parts.
+Thus dusting, which seems at first to consist of simply a few brushes
+with a cloth or bunch of feathers, when analyzed once, is found to
+imply the careful wiping of every article in the room, and of all the
+woodwork; analyzed again, it implies following the marks of the
+cabinet-maker's tools in every bit of carving and grooving; analyzed
+again, introducing a pointed stick under the cloth in turning corners.
+In fact, the investigator of household duties must do as does a
+distinguished scientist in analyzing matter,--"continue the process of
+dividing as long as the parts can be discerned," and then "prolong the
+vision backward across the boundary of experimental evidence." And, if
+brave enough to attempt to count them, he must bear in mind that what
+appear to be blank intervals, or blurred, nebulous spaces, are, in
+reality, filled in with innumerable little duties which, through the
+glass of observation, may be discerned quite plainly. Let him also
+bear in mind, that these household duties must be done over and over,
+and over and over, and as well, each time, as if done to last forever;
+and, above all, that they every one require mind.
+
+Many a common saying proves this last point. "Put your mind on your
+work." "Your mind must be where your work is." "She's a good hand to
+take hold, but she hasn't any calculation." "She doesn't know how to
+forecast her work." "She doesn't know how to forelay." "Nancy's
+gittin' past carryin' her mind inter her work. Wal, I remember when I
+begun to git past carryin' my mind inter my work," said an old woman
+of ninety, speaking of her sixty-years-old daughter. The old couplet,
+
+   "Man works from rise till set of sun,
+   But woman's work is never done,"--
+
+tells the truth. "Woman's work," as now arranged, is so varied, so
+all-embracing, that it cannot be "done." For every odd moment some
+duty lies in wait. And it is generally the case, that these multi-form
+duties press for performance, crowds of them at once. "So many things
+to be done right off, that I don't know which to take hold of first."
+"'Tis just as much as I can do to keep my head above water." "Oh,
+dear! I can't see through!" "My work drives me." "I never know what
+'tis not to feel hurried." "The things I can't get done tire me more
+than the things I do." Such remarks have a meaning.
+
+And those who keep "a girl" have almost equal difficulty in always
+presenting the smooth, agreeable surface just now spoken of. With the
+greater ability to hire help comes usually the desire to live in more
+expensive houses, and to furnish the same with more costly furniture.
+Every article added is a care added, and the nicer the article the
+nicer the care required. More, also, is demanded of these in the way
+of appearance, style, and social civilities; and the wear and tear of
+superintending "a girl" should by no means be forgotten. At any rate,
+the complaint, "no time to read," is frequent among women, and is not
+confined to any one class.
+
+We see, then, that in the present state of things it is impossible for
+woman--that is, the family woman, the house-mother--to enjoy the
+delights of culture. External activities, especially the two
+insatiable, all-devouring ones which know neither end nor
+beginning,--housework and sewing-work,--these demand her time, her
+energies, in short, demand herself,--the whole of her. Yes, the whole,
+and more too; there is not enough of her to go round. There might
+possibly be enough, and even something left to spend on culture, were
+she in sound physical condition; but, alas! a healthy woman is
+scarcely to be found. This point, namely, the prevailing invalidism of
+woman, will come up for consideration by and by, when we inquire into
+the causes of the present state of things. It is none too early,
+however, to make a note of what some physicians say in regard to it.
+"Half of all who are born," says one medical writer, "die under twenty
+years of age; while four-fifths of all who reach that age, and die
+before another score, owe their death to causes which were originated
+in their teens. This is a fact of startling import to fathers and
+mothers, and shows a fearful responsibility." Another medical writer
+says, "Beside the loss of so many children (nearly twenty-five per
+cent), society suffers seriously from those who survive, their health
+being irremediably injured while they are still infants.... Ignorance
+and injudicious nursery management lie at the root of this evil."
+
+We must be sure not to forget that this prevailing invalidism of
+women, which is one hinderance to their obtaining culture, can be
+traced directly back to the ignorance of mothers, for this point has
+an important bearing on the solution of our problem.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+ONE CAUSE OF THE SITUATION.--A PART OF "WOMAN'S MISSION" CONSIDERED.
+
+
+The question, How may work and culture be combined? was recently
+submitted, in my hearing, to a highly intelligent lady. She answered
+with a sigh, "It can't be done. I've tried it; but, as things are now,
+it can't be done." By "as things are now" she meant, with the
+established ideas regarding dress, food, appearance, style, and the
+objects for which woman should spend her time and herself. Suppose we
+investigate the causes of the present state of things, which, as being
+a hinderance to culture, is to us so unsatisfactory. A little
+reflection will enable us to discover several. Chief among them all, I
+think, is one which may require close inspection before it is
+recognized to be such. It seems to me that the great underlying
+cause--the cause of all the other causes--is the want of insight, the
+unenlightemnent, which prevails concerning, not what woman's mission
+is, but the ways and means by which she is to accomplish it. Let us
+consider this.
+
+Those who claim the right of defining it never can say often enough
+that the true, mission of woman is to train up her children rightly,
+and to make home happy; and no doubt we all agree with them. But have
+we, or have they, a full sense of what woman requires to fit her even
+for the first of these duties? Suppose a philosopher in disguise on a
+tour of observation from some distant isle or planet should favor us
+with a visit. He finds himself, we will say, on a spot not a hundred
+miles from New York or Boston or Chicago. Among the objects which
+attract his attention are the little children drawn along in their
+little chaises.
+
+"Are these beautiful creatures of any value?" he asks of a bystander.
+
+"Certainly. They are the hope of the country. They will grow up into
+men and women who will take our places."
+
+"I suppose there is no danger of their growing up any other than the
+right kind of men and women, such as your country needs?"
+
+"On the contrary, there is every danger. Evil influences surround them
+from their birth. These beautiful creatures have in them the
+possibilities of becoming mean, base, corrupt, treacherous, deceitful,
+cruel, false, revengeful; of becoming, in fact, unworthy and repulsive
+in many ways. Why, all our criminals, our drunkards, liars, thieves,
+burglars, murderers, were once innocent little children like these!"
+
+"And whether these will become like those, or not, depends on chance?"
+
+"Oh, no! It depends largely on training, especially on early training.
+Children are like wax to receive impressions, like marble to retain
+them."
+
+"Are they constituted pretty nearly alike, so that the treatment which
+is best for one is best for all?"
+
+"By no means. Even those in the same family are often extremely
+unlike. They have different temperaments, dispositions, propensities.
+Some require urging, others checking. Some do better with praise,
+others without; the same of blame. It requires thought and discernment
+to know what words to speak, how many to speak, and when to speak
+them. In fact, a child's nature is a piece of delicate, complex
+machinery, and each one requires a separate study; for, as its springs
+of action are concealed, the operator is liable at any time to touch
+the wrong one."
+
+"And mistakes here will affect a child through its whole lifetime?"
+
+"They will affect it through all eternity." "But who among you dare
+make these early impressions which are to be so enduring? Who are the
+operators on these delicate and complex pieces of mental machinery?"
+
+"Oh! the mothers always have the care of the children. This is their
+mission,--the chief duty of their lives."
+
+"But how judicious, how comprehensive, must be the course of education
+which will fit a person for such an office!"
+
+"Do you think so? Hem! Well, it is not generally considered that a
+woman who is going to marry and settle down to family life needs much
+education."
+
+"You mean, doubtless, that she only receives the special instruction
+which her vocation requires."
+
+"Special instruction?"
+
+"Yes. If woman's special vocation is the training of children, of
+course she is educated specially with a view to that vocation."
+
+"Well, I never heard of such a kind of education. But here is one of
+our young mothers: she can tell you all about it."
+
+We will suppose, now, that our philosopher is left with the young
+mother, who names over what she learned at the "institute."
+
+"And the training of children--moral, intellectual, and physical--was
+no doubt made a prominent subject of consideration."
+
+"Training of children? Oh, no! That would have been a curious kind of
+study."
+
+"Where, then, were you prepared for the duties of your mission?"
+
+"What mission do you mean?"
+
+"Your mission of child-training."
+
+"I had no preparation."
+
+"No preparation? But are you acquainted with the different
+temperaments a child may have, and the different combinations of them?
+Are you competent to the direction and culture of the intellectual and
+moral nature? Have you skill to touch the hidden springs of action?
+Have you, thus uninstructed, the power, the knowledge, the wisdom,
+requisite for guiding that mighty force, a child's soul?"
+
+"Alas! there is hardly a day that I do not feel my ignorance on all
+these points."
+
+"Are there no sources from which knowledge may be obtained? There must
+be books written on these subjects."
+
+"Possibly; but I have no time to read them."
+
+"No time?--no time to prepare for your chief mission?"
+
+"It is our mission only in print. In real life it plays an extremely
+subordinate part."
+
+"What, then, in real life, is your mission?"
+
+"Chiefly cooking and sewing."
+
+"Your husband, then, does not share the common belief in regard to
+woman's chief duty."
+
+"Oh, yes! I have heard him express it many a time; though I don't
+think he comprehends what a woman needs in order to do her duty by her
+children. But he loves them dearly. If one should die he would be
+heart-broken."
+
+"Is it a common thing here for children to die?"
+
+"I am grieved to say that nearly one-fourth die in infancy."
+
+"And those who live,--do they grow up in full health and vigor?"
+
+"Oh, indeed they do not! Why, look at our crowded hospitals! Look at
+the apothecaries' shops at almost, every corner. Look at the
+advertisements of medicines. Don't you think there's meaning in these,
+and a meaning in the long rows of five-story swell-front houses
+occupied by physicians, and a meaning in the people themselves?
+There's scarcely one of them but has some ailment."
+
+"But is this matter of health subject to no laws?"
+
+"The phrase, 'laws of health,' is a familiar one, but I don't know
+what those laws are." "Mothers, then, are not in the habit of teaching
+them to their children?"
+
+"They are not themselves acquainted with them."
+
+"Perhaps this astonishing ignorance has something to do with the
+fearful mortality among infants. Do not husbands provide their wives
+with books and other means of information on this subject?"
+
+"Generally speaking, they do nothing of the kind."
+
+"And does not the subject of hygienic laws, as applied to the rearing
+of children, come into the courses of study laid out for young women!"
+
+"No, indeed. Oh, how I wish it had!--and those other matters you
+mentioned. I would give up every thing else I ever learned for the
+sake of knowing how to bring up my children, and how to keep them in
+health."
+
+"The presidents and professors of your educational institutions,--do
+they share the common belief as to woman's mission?"
+
+"Oh, yes! They all say that the chief business of woman is to train up
+her children."
+
+(_Philosopher's solo_.)
+
+"There seems to be blindness and stupidity somewhere among these
+people. From what they say of the difficulty of bringing up their
+children, it must take an archangel to do it rightly; still they do
+not think a woman who is married and settles down to family life needs
+much education! Moreover, in educating young women, that which is
+universally acknowledged to be the chief business of their lives
+receives not the least attention."
+
+If our philosopher continued his inquiries into the manners and
+customs of our country, he must have felt greatly encouraged; for he
+would have found that it is only in this one direction that we show
+such blindness and stupidity. He would have found that in every other
+occupation we demand preparation. The individual who builds our ships,
+cuts our coats, manufactures our watches, superintends our machinery,
+takes charge of our cattle, our trees, our flowers, must know how,
+must have been especially prepared for his calling. It is only
+character-moulding, only shaping the destinies of immortal beings, for
+which we demand neither preparation nor a knowledge of the business.
+It is only of our children that we are resigned to lose nearly
+one-fourth by death, "owing to ignorance and injudicious nursery
+management." Were this rate of mortality declared to exist among our
+domestic animals, the community would be aroused at once.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+CULTURE PROVED TO BE A NEED OF THE CHILD-TRAINER.
+
+
+Perhaps some day the community may come to perceive that woman
+requires for her vocation what the teacher, the preacher, the lawyer,
+and the physician, require for theirs; namely, special preparation and
+general culture. The first, because every vocation demands special
+preparation; and the second, because, to satisfy the requirements of
+young minds, she will need to draw from almost every kind of
+knowledge. And we must remember here, that the advantages derived from
+culture are not wholly an intellectual gain. We get from hooks and
+other sources of culture not merely what informs the mind, but that
+which warms the heart, quickens the sympathies, strengthens the
+understanding; get clearness and breadth of vision, get refining and
+ennobling influences, get wisdom in its truest and most comprehensive
+sense; and all of these, the last more than all, a mother needs for
+her high calling. That it is a high calling, we have high authority to
+show. Dr. Channing says, "No office can compare in importance with
+that of training a child." Yet the office is assumed without
+preparation.
+
+Herbert Spencer asks, in view of this omission, "What is to be
+expected when one of the most intricate of problems is undertaken by
+those who have given scarcely a thought as to the principles on which
+its solution depends? Is the unfolding of a human being so simple a
+process that any one may superintend and regulate it with no
+preparation whatever?... Is it not madness to make no provision for
+such a task?"
+
+Horace Mann speaks out plainly, and straight to the point. "If she is
+to prepare a refection of cakes, she fails not to examine some
+cookery-book or some manuscript receipt, lest she should convert her
+rich ingredients into unpalatable compounds; but without ever having
+read one book upon the subject of education, without ever having
+sought one conversation with an intelligent person upon it, she
+undertakes so to mingle the earthly and celestial elements of
+instruction for that child's soul that he shall be fitted to discharge
+all duties below, and to enjoy all blessings above." And again,
+"Influences imperceptible in childhood, work out more and more broadly
+into beauty or deformity in after life. No unskilful hand should ever
+play upon a harp where the tones are left forever in the strings."
+
+In a newspaper I find this amusingly significant sentence:
+"Truthfully, indeed, do the Papists boast that the Episcopal Church is
+training-ground for Rome. The female mind is frequently enticed by
+display of vestments and music; and, if the Ritualists can pervert the
+mothers, they know that the next generation is theirs." This is
+significant, because it signifies that, however weak and easy of
+enticement the "female mind" may be, it has a mighty power to
+influence the young.
+
+But we can show not only opinions and prophecies, but the results of
+actual scientific experiments. A recent number of "The Popular Science
+Monthly" contains an account of experiments made in Jamaica upon the
+mental capacity for learning of the different races there existing.
+The experimenter found, he says, "unequal speed," but saw "nothing
+which can be unmistakably referred to difference of race. The rate of
+improvement is due almost entirely to the relative elevation of the
+home circle in which the children live. Those who are restricted to
+the narrowest gauge of intellectual exercise live in such a material
+and coarse medium that their mental faculties remain slumbering; while
+those who hear at home of many things, and are brought up to
+intellectual employments, show a corresponding proficiency in
+learning."
+
+This, and the editor's comments, bear directly on our side, that is to
+say, the culture side. The editor says it is inevitable "that the
+medium in which the child is habitually immersed, and by which it is
+continually and unconsciously impressed, should have much greater
+value in the formation of mental character than the mere lesson
+experiences of school. Home education is, after all, the great fact;
+and it is domestic influences by which the characters of children are
+formed. Where men are exhausted by business, and women are exhausted
+by society (or other means), we may be pretty sure that but little can
+be done to shape and conduct the home with a reference to the higher
+mental needs of the children who live in it."
+
+Now, who, more than any one, "shapes and conducts the home"? Who
+creates these "domestic influences," this "medium in which the child
+is habitually immersed"? Woman. In the name of common sense, then,
+throw open to woman every avenue of knowledge. Surround her with all
+that will elevate and refine. Give her the highest, broadest, truest
+culture. Give her chances to draw inspiration from the beautiful in
+nature and in art. And, above all, insure her some respite from labor,
+and some tranquillity. Unless these conditions are observed, "but
+little can be done to shape and conduct the home with reference to the
+higher mental needs of the children who live in it."
+
+I once heard "Grace Greenwood" tell a little story which ought to come
+in here, for our own object is to make out as strong a case as we
+possibly can. We want to prove that mothers must have culture because
+they are mothers. We want to show it to be absolutely necessary for
+woman, in the accomplishment of her acknowledged mission. When this
+fact is recognized, then culture will take rank with essentials, and
+receive attention as such.
+
+"Grace Greenwood" said that a friend of hers, a teacher "out West,"
+had in her school four or five children from one family. The parents
+were poor, ignorant, and of the kind commonly called low, coarse sort
+of people. The children, with one exception, were stupid,
+rough-mannered, and depraved. The one exception, a little girl, showed
+such refinement, appreciation, and quickness of apprehension, that the
+teacher at last asked the mother if she could account for the striking
+difference between this child and its brothers and sisters. The mother
+could not. The children had been brought up together there in that
+lonely place, had been treated alike, and had never been separated.
+She knew the little girl was very different from her brothers and
+sisters, but knew not the reason why. The teacher then asked, "Was
+there any thing in your mode of life for the months preceding her
+birth, that there was not in the corresponding time before the births
+of the others?" The mother at first answered decidedly that there was
+nothing; but after thinking a few moments said, "Well, there was one,
+a very small thing, but that couldn't have had any thing to do with
+the matter. One day a peddler came along; and among his books was a
+pretty, red-covered poetry book, and I wanted it bad. But my husband
+said he couldn't afford it, and the peddler went off. I couldn't get
+that book out of my mind; and in the night I took some of my own
+money, and travelled on foot to the next town, found the peddler,
+bought the book, and got back before morning, and was never missed
+from the house. That book was the greatest comfort to me that ever
+was. I read it over and over, up to the day my child was born."
+
+Also would come in well here that oft-told story of a pauper named
+"Margaret," who was once "set adrift in a village of the county ...
+and left to grow up as best she could, and from whom have descended
+two hundred criminals. The, whole number of this girl's descendants,
+through six generations, is nine hundred; and besides the 'two
+hundred' a large number have been idiots, imbeciles, drunkards,
+lunatics, and paupers."
+
+Friends, to say nothing of higher motives, would it not be good policy
+to educate wisely every girl in the country? Are not mothers, as
+child-trainers, in absolute need of true culture? In cases where
+families depend on the labor of their girls, perhaps the State would
+make a saving even by compensating these families for the loss of such
+labor. Perhaps it would be cheaper, even in a pecuniary sense, for the
+State to do this, than to support reformatory establishments, prisons,
+almshouses, and insane-asylums, with their necessary retinues of
+officials. Institutions in which these girls were educated might be
+made self-supporting, and the course of instruction might include
+different kinds of handicraft.
+
+It was poor economy for the State to let that pauper "grow up as best
+she could." It would probably have been money in the State's pocket
+had it surrounded "Margaret" in her early childhood with the choicest
+productions of art, engaged competent teachers to instruct her in the
+solid branches, in the accomplishments, in hygiene, in the principles
+and practice of integrity, and then have given her particular
+instruction in all matters connected with the training of children.
+And had she developed a remarkable taste for painting, for modelling,
+or for music, the State could better have afforded even sending her to
+Italy, than to have taken care of those "two hundred criminals,"
+besides "a large number" of "idiots, imbeciles, drunkards, lunatics,
+and paupers."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE OTHER PART OF "WOMAN'S MISSION."--RUFFLES VERSUS READING.--THE
+CULTIVATION OF THE FINGERS.
+
+
+Let us leave for a while this matter of child-training, and consider
+the other part of woman's mission,--namely, "making home happy." It
+would seem that even for this the wife should be at least the equal of
+her husband in culture, in order that the two may be in sympathy. When
+a loving couple marry, they unite their interests, and it is in this
+union of interests that they find happiness. We often hear from a wife
+or a husband remarks like these: "I only half enjoyed it, because he
+(or she) wasn't there;" "It will be no pleasure to me unless he (or
+she) is there too;" "The company were charming, but still I felt
+lonesome there without him (or her)." The phrase "half enjoy" gives
+the idea; for a sympathetic couple are to such a degree one that a
+pleasure which comes to either singly can only be half enjoyed, and
+even this half-joy is lessened by the consciousness of what the other
+is losing. In a rather sarcastic article, taken from an English
+magazine, occur a few sentences which illustrate this point very well.
+The writer is describing a honeymoon:--
+
+"The real difficulty is to be entertaining. The one thirst of the
+young bride is for amusement, and she has no idea of amusing herself.
+It is diverting to see the spouse of this ideal creature wend his way
+to the lending library, after a week of idealism, and the relief with
+which he carries home a novel. How often, in expectation, has he
+framed to himself imaginary talks,--talk brighter and wittier than
+that of the friends he forsakes! But conversation is difficult in the
+case of a refined creature who is as ignorant as a Hottentot. He
+begins with the new Miltonic poem, and finds she has never looked into
+'Paradise Lost.' He plunges into the Reform Bill; but she knows
+nothing of politics, and has never read a leading article in her life.
+Then she tries him, in her turn, and floods him with the dead chat of
+the town and an ocean of family tattle. He finds himself shut up for
+weeks with a creature who takes an interest in nothing but Uncle
+Crosspatch's temper and the scandal about Lady X. Little by little the
+absolute pettiness, the dense dulness, of woman's life, breaks on the
+disenchanted devotee. His deity is without occupation, without
+thought, without resources. He has a faint faith in her finer
+sensibility, in her poetic nature: he fetches his Tennyson from his
+carpet-bag, and wastes 'In Memoriam' on a critic who pronounces it
+pretty!"
+
+In cases of this kind, the half-joy is strikingly apparent. We see
+that a husband possessing culture is likely to be lonesome among his
+poets and his poetry, his works of reform, and his lofty ideas,
+unless--she is there too.
+
+If it be said that learned women are prone to think lightly of home
+comforts and home duties, to despise physical labor, to look down on
+the ignorant, let us hasten to reply that learning is not culture, and
+that we want not learned mothers, but enlightened mothers, wisely
+educated mothers. And let us steadfastly and perseveringly assert that
+enlightenment and a wise education are essential to the accomplishment
+of the mother's mission. When the housefather feels the truth of this,
+then shall we see him bringing home every publication he can lay his
+hands on which treats intelligently of mental, moral, or physical
+training. Then shall we hear him saying to the house-mother, "Cease, I
+pray you, this ever-lasting toil. Read, study, rest. With your solemn
+responsibilities, it is madness thus to spend yourself, thus to waste
+yourself." In his home shall the true essentials assume that position
+which is theirs by right, and certain occupations connected with that
+clamorous square inch of surface in the upper part of the mouth shall
+receive only their due share of attention. For in one way or another,
+either by lessening the work or by hiring workers, the mother shall
+have her leisure.
+
+And what will women, what will the house-mothers, do when they feel
+this truth? Certainly not as they now do. Now it is their custom to
+fill in every chink and crevice of leisure time with sewing. "Look,"
+said a young mother to me: "I made all these myself, when holding the
+baby, or by sitting up nights." They were children's clothes,
+beautifully made, and literally covered with ruffles and embroidery.
+Oh the thousands of stitches! The ruffles ran up and down, and over
+and across, and three times round. Being white, the garments were of
+course changed daily. In the intervals of baby-tending, the mother
+snatched a few minutes here and a few minutes there to starch, iron,
+flute, or crimp a ruffle, or to finish off a dress of her own. This
+"finishing off" was carried on for weeks. When her baby was asleep, or
+was good, or had its little ruffles all fluted, and its little
+sister's little ruffles were all fluted, then would she seize the
+opportunity to stitch, to plait, to flounce, to pucker, and to braid.
+Wherever a hand's breadth of the original material was left visible,
+some bow, or band, or queer device, was fashioned and sewed on. This
+zealous individual, by improving every moment, by sitting up nights,
+by working with the baby across her lap, accomplished her task. The
+dress was finished, and worn with unutterable complacency. It is this
+last part which is the worst part. They have no misgivings, these
+mothers. They expect your warm approval. "I can't get a minute's time
+to read," said this industrious person; and, on another occasion,
+"I'll own up, I don't know any thing about taking care of children."
+Swift, speaking of women, said that they "employ more thought, memory,
+and application to become fools than would serve to make them wise and
+useful;" and perhaps he spoke truly. For suppose this young mother had
+been as eager to gain ideas as she was to accomplish a bias band, a
+French fold, or a flounce. Suppose that, in the intervals of
+baby-tending, instead of fluting her little girls' ruffles and
+embroidering their garments, she had tried to snatch some information
+which would help her in the bringing up of those little girls. The
+truth is, mothers take their leisure time for what seems to them to be
+first in importance. It is easy to see what they consider essentials,
+and what, from them, children are learning to consider essentials. The
+"knowingness" of some of our children on subjects connected with dress
+is simply appalling. A girl of eight or ten summers will take you in
+at a glance, from topmost plume to boot-tap, by items and
+collectively, analytically and synthetically. She discourses, in
+technical terms, of the fall of your drapery,--the propriety of your
+trimmings, and the effect of this, that, or the other. She has a
+proper appreciation of what is French in your attire, and a proper
+scorn of what is not. She recognizes "real lace" in a twinkle of her
+eye, and "all wool" with a touch of her finger-tips. Plainly clad
+school-children are often made to suffer keenly by the cutting remarks
+of other school-children sumptuously arrayed. A little girl aged six,
+returning from a child's party, exclaimed, "O mamma! What do you
+think? Bessie had her dress trimmed with lace, and it wasn't real!"
+
+The law, "No child shall walk the street in a plain dress," is just as
+practically a law as if it had been enacted by the legal authorities.
+Mothers obey its high behests, and dare not rebel against it. Look at
+our little girls going to school, each with her tucks and ruffles. Who
+"gets time" to do all that sewing? where do they get it, and at what
+sacrifices? A goodly number of stitches and moments go to the making
+and putting on of even one ruffle on one skirt. Think of all the
+stitches and moments necessary for the making and putting of all the
+ruffles on all the skirts of the several little girls often belonging
+to one family! What a prospect before her has a mother of little
+girls! And there is no escape, not even in common sense. A woman
+considered sensible in the very highest degree will dress her little
+girl like other little girls, or perish in the attempt. How many do
+thus perish, or are helped to perish, we shall never know. A frail,
+delicate woman said to me one day, "Oh, I do hope the fashions will
+change before Sissy grows up, for I don't see how it will be possible
+for me to make her clothes." You observe her submissive, law-abiding
+spirit. The possibility of evading the law never even suggests itself.
+There is many a feeble mother of grown and growing "Sissys" to whom
+the spring or fall dressmaking appears like an avalanche coming to
+overwhelm her, or a Juggernaut coming to roll over her. She asks not,
+"How shall I escape?" but, "How shall I endure?" Let her console
+herself. These semi-annual experiences are all "mission." All sewing is
+"mission;" all cooking is "mission." It matters not what she cooks,
+nor what she sews. "Domestic," and worthy all praise, does the
+community consider that woman who keeps her hands employed, and is
+bodily present with her children inside the house.
+
+But her bodily presence, even with mother love and longing to do her
+best, is not enough. There should be added two things,--knowledge and
+wisdom. These, however, she does not have, because to obtain them are
+needed what she does not get,--leisure, tranquillity, and the various
+resources and appliances of culture; also because their importance is
+not felt even by herself; also because the community does not yet see
+that she has need of them. And this brings us round to the point we
+started from,--namely, that the present unsatisfactory state of things
+is owing largely to the want of insight, or _unenlightenment_,
+which prevails concerning what woman needs and must have in order
+rightly to fulfil her mission.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+OTHER CAUSES CONSIDERED.--MASCULINE IDEA OF WOMAN'S WORK.
+
+
+Another supporting cause, as we may call it, of the existing state of
+things is the ignorance of mankind concerning the cost of carrying on
+the family,--not the cost to themselves in money, but the cost to
+woman in endurance. Of its power to exhaust her vital forces they have
+not the remotest idea. Each of its little ten-minute duties seems so
+trifling that to call it work appears absurd. They do not reflect that
+often a dozen of these ten-minute duties must be crowded into an hour
+which holds but just six ten-minutes; that her day is crowded with
+these crowded hours; that consequently she can never be free from
+hurry, and that constant hurry is a constant strain upon her in every
+way. They themselves, they think, could do up the work in half the
+time, and not feel it a bit. Scarcely a man of them but thinks the
+dishes might be just rinsed off under the faucet, and stood up to dry.
+Scarcely a man of them who, if this were tried, would not cast more
+than inquiring glances at his trencher; for it is always what is not
+done that a man sees. If one chair-round escapes dusting, it is that
+chair-round which he particularly notices. In his mind then are two
+ideas: one is of the whole long day, the other of that infinitesimal
+undone duty. The remark visible on his countenance is this: "The whole
+day, and no time to dust a chair-round!"
+
+  "The painful warrior famoused for fight,
+     After a thousand victories, once foiled,
+   Is from the book of honor razed quite,
+     And all the rest forgot for which _she_ toiled."
+
+Many a toiling housewife, warring against untidiness, has felt the
+truth of these lines, though she may not have known that the great
+poet embodied it in words.
+
+One mistake of man's is, that he does not look upon the tidy state of
+a room as a result, but as one into which, if left to itself, it would
+naturally fall and remain. We know, alas! too well, that every room
+not only has within itself possibilities of untidiness, but that its
+constant tendency is in that direction, which tendency can only be
+checked by as constant a vigilance. Again, husbands do not always seem
+to understand plain English. There are certain expressions in common
+use among women, which, if husbands did understand plain English,
+would make them sadder and wiser men. "I'm completely used up;" "I
+never know what 'tis to feel rested;" "I'm too tired to sleep;" "I'm
+as tired in the morning as when I go to bed;" "Every nerve in me
+throbs so that I can't go to sleep;" "The life has all gone out of
+me;" "I am crazed with cares;" "The care is worse than the work;"
+"Nothing keeps that woman about the house but her ambition;" "It is
+the excitement of work that keeps her up." Now, how is it that a woman
+works on after she is completely used up? What is the substance, the
+capacity of this "ambition" on which alone she lives? A friend of
+mine, in answer to a suggestion that she should stop and take a few
+days' rest, said, "I don't dare to stop. If I let down, if I give way
+for ever so little while, I never could go on again." Think of living
+always in this state of tension! The dictionary definition of
+"tension" is "a peculiar, abnormal, constrained condition of the
+parts, arising from the action of antagonistic forces, in which they
+endeavor to return to their natural state." Exactly. There are
+thousands of women in just this condition, sustained there by the
+daily pressure and excitement of hurry, and by a stern, unyielding
+"must." In the treadmill of their household labor, breakfast, dinner,
+and supper revolve in ceaseless course, and they _must_ step
+forward to meet them. And, when more of her vitality is expended daily
+than is daily renewed by food and rest, woman does, actually and
+without any figure of speech, use herself up. Yes, she burns herself
+for fuel, and goes down a wreck,--not always to death; often it is to
+a condition made wretched by suffering, sometimes to insanity.
+
+I would not have believed this last had I not found it in print. In an
+English magazine occurs the following passage: "Some whose eyes follow
+these lines will recollect disagreeable seasons when their attention
+was distracted by conflicting cures and claims; when no one thing,
+however urgent, could be finished, owing to the intrusion of one or
+more inevitable distractions. A continued course of such inroads on
+the mind's serenity could be supported but by few intellects. Most
+pitiable is the mind's state after some hours of such distracting
+occupation, in which every business interferes with every other, and
+none is satisfactorily accomplished. Where there is a tendency to
+insanity it is sure to be developed by such an undesirable state of
+things." This is fitly supplemented by a statement made in an American
+magazine: "We are told that the woman's wards in the New England
+insane asylums are filled with middle-aged wives--mothers--driven
+there by overwork and anxiety."
+
+Not long since, I heard Mr. Whittier tell the story of a woman who
+attempted suicide by throwing herself into the water. "Discouragement"
+was the reason she assigned for committing so dreadful a
+deed,--discouragement at the never-ending routine of household labor,
+and from feeling herself utterly unable to go on with it. This, with
+care, want of recreation, and long confinement in-doors, had probably
+caused temporary insanity.
+
+The "never-endingness" of woman's work is something to be considered.
+A wide-awake writer, speaking of husbands and wives, says, "The
+out-door air, the stir, the change of ideas, the passing word for this
+man or that, unconsciously refresh, and lift him from the cankering
+care of work.... His work may be heavier, but it wears him on one side
+only. He has his hours sacred to business to give to his brief, his
+sermon, his shop. There is no drain on the rest of his faculties. She
+has not a power of mind, a skill of body, which her daily life does
+not draw upon. She asks nothing better of fate than that whatever
+strength she has of body and mind shall be drained for her husband and
+children. Now, this spirit of martyrdom is a very good thing when it
+is necessary. For our part, we see no occasion for it here." This is
+the point exactly. The "martyrdom," too often, is for objects not of
+the highest importance. The lack of appreciation of woman's work, as
+shown by man-kind in the newspapers, would be amusing, were it not
+saddening. Articles, dictating with solemn pomposity "what every
+married woman should be able to do," often appear in print, and these
+embodiments of (masculine) wisdom editors are eager to copy. "Every
+married woman should be able to cut and make her own, her husband's,
+and her children's clothes." The husband reads,--aloud of course, this
+time,--and nods approval. "To be sure, that would make a saving." The
+wife hears, and sighs, and perhaps blames herself that on account of
+her incapacity money is wasted. What the newspaper says must be true.
+Perhaps by sitting up later, by getting up earlier, by hurrying more,
+and by never setting her foot outside the door, she might follow this
+suggestion. "Every married woman" whose boys take to reading should
+snip such newspaper articles into shreds, burn them up, and bury the
+ashes.
+
+Another cause of the present state of things is the lowness of the
+standard which has been set up for woman to attain. We have glanced at
+some of the things which are expected of the woman who carries on the
+family. What is not expected is a point of no less significance.
+Neither husbands nor company claim the right to expect, in that
+smooth, agreeable surface mentioned at the beginning, the results of
+mental culture. They may be gratified at finding them; but so long as
+the woman is amiable, thrifty, efficient, and provides three good
+meals every day, they feel bound not to complain. Here are the ten
+"Attributes of a Wife," as grouped by one of the world's famous
+writers: note what he allots to education: "Four to good temper, two
+to good sense, one to wit, one to beauty; the remaining two to be
+divided among other qualities, as fortune, connection, education or
+accomplishments, family, and so on. Divide these two parts as you
+please, these minor proportions must all be expressed by fractions.
+Not one among them is entitled to the dignity of an integer."
+
+The prevalent belief that woman is in some degree subordinate to man,
+is rather taken for granted than expressly taught, as witness a
+certain kind of legend often told to young girls: "Once upon a time a
+young man, visiting a strange house, saw a damsel putting dough into
+pans, and saw that the dough which stuck to the platter was left
+sticking there; whereupon the young man said, 'This is not the wife
+for me.'" In another house he sees a damsel who leaves not the dough
+which sticks to the platter; and he says, "This is the wife for me."
+Another young man offers to successive maidens a skein of tangled silk
+to wind. The first says, "I can't;" the second tries, and gives up;
+the third makes a quick job of it with her scissors; the fourth spends
+hours in patiently, untangling, and is chosen. Now, what shows the
+state of public sentiment is the fact that in none of these legends is
+it intimated that the young man was fortunate in securing a thrifty or
+a patient wife. It was the thrifty or patient young woman who was
+fortunate in being selected by a young man,--by any young man; for the
+character of the youth is never stated. There is an inference, also,
+in the second one given, that the "hours" of a young woman can be
+employed to no better purpose than that of untangling a skein of silk.
+All this is throwing light on our problem, for so long as so much is
+expected of woman physically, and so little in the way of mental
+acquirements; so long as it is taken for granted that she is a
+subordinate being, that to contribute to the physical comfort and
+pleasure of man, and gain his approval, are the highest purposes of
+her existence,--it will not be considered essential that she should
+acquire culture. These aims are by no means unimportant ones, or
+unworthy ones; but are they in all cases the highest a woman should
+possess?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+REASONS FOR A CHANGE.--THE EARLY TRAINING OP WOMEN.--COMMON
+FALLACIES.--THE EDUCATION OF MOTHERS.
+
+
+Having glanced at the present state of things, and at some of its
+causes, let us show reasons why it should be changed.
+
+A sufficient reason is, because it dwarfs the intellect, ruins the
+health, and shortens the lives, of so many women. Another reason is,
+that whereas the husband may keep himself informed on matters of
+general interest in literature, art, science, and progress, while the
+wife must give her mind to domestic activities, there is danger of the
+two growing apart, which growing apart is destructive of that perfect
+sympathy so essential to the happiness of married life. A certain
+librarian remarked. "If a man wants a book for himself, I pick out a
+solid work; if for his wife, a somewhat light and trifling one."
+Third, because human beings have so much in common, are so closely
+connected, that the good of all requires the good of each, and each of
+all. And here is where the shortsightedness of the aristocracy of
+wealth and the aristocracy of sex are strikingly apparent. They fail
+to see that the very inferiority of what are called the inferior
+classes re-acts on the superior classes. We all know how it is in the
+human body. An injury to one small bone in the foot may cause distress
+which shall be felt "all over," and shall disturb the operations of
+the lordly brain itself. So in the body social. The wealthy and
+refined, into whose luxurious dwellings enters no unsightly, no
+uncleanly object, may say to themselves, "Never mind those poor
+wretches down at the other end, huddled together in their filthy
+tenements. They are ignorant, they don't know how to get along; but
+their condition doesn't concern us, so long as our houses are light,
+clean, and airy."
+
+Those poor wretches, however, because they are ignorant, because they
+don't know how "to get along," because they live huddled together in
+filthy tenements, breathing foul air, starving on bad food, become a
+ready prey to infectious diseases. The infectious diseases spread. Men
+of wealth, from the refined and cleanly quarters, encounter in their
+business walks representatives from the degraded and disgusting
+quarter, and take from them the seeds of those diseases; or, on some
+fatal day, a miasma from the corruption of the degraded quarter is
+wafted in at the windows of the luxurious dwellings, and the idols of
+those dwellings are stricken down. So in the body politic. The wise
+and well-to-do enact laws, obedience to which is for the general good.
+The ignorant and poverty-stricken, because of their unenlightened
+condition, cannot see that obedience is for the good of all, and break
+those laws. Hence crimes, the effects of which the wise and well-to-do
+are made to feel, and for the punishment of which they are made to
+pay. It is the same with man and woman. Man says, "Let woman manage
+her domestic concerns, attend to her children, and gain the
+approbation of her husband. These are her chief duties, and for these
+little culture is needed." But woman becomes the mother of sons who
+become men; and the character, condition, and destiny of those sons
+who become men are, as we have seen, determined largely by the
+condition, pre-natal and post-natal, of the mothers. So that the
+ignorance in which woman is kept by man re-acts on man.
+
+A fourth reason for a change is, that we live in a republic. In a
+republic every man has a voice in public affairs. Every man is first a
+child; and children, commonly speaking, are what the mother's
+influence helps to make them. Therefore, if you would have the country
+wisely, honestly, and decently governed, give the children the right
+kind of mothers. If the community knew its own interests, it would not
+merely permit women all possible means of culture, but would force all
+possible means of culture upon them. It would say, "We can't afford
+that you exhaust yourselves by labor, that you fritter yourselves away
+in vanities; for by your deficiencies we all suffer, by your losses we
+all lose."
+
+But mark how stupid the community is. It desires that all its members
+shall possess wisdom and integrity; it declares that, in regard to
+character, a great deal depends on early training; it declares that
+this early training is the duty of mothers; and yet it does not take
+the next step, and say, _Therefore_ mothers should be qualified
+for their duty, and have every facility for performing it
+satisfactorily. It asserts with great solemnity, "Just as the twig is
+bent the tree's inclined," then gives all its twigs into the hands of
+mothers, saying, "Here, bend these: it makes a terrible difference how
+they are bent, but then it is not important that you have given any
+attention to the process." Or, to vary the statement, the community
+virtually addresses woman in this way: "A fearful responsibility rests
+upon you. It is the responsibility of training these young, immortal
+souls. This is your mission, your high and holy calling. You will,
+however, get little time to attend to it; and, as for any special
+preparation or knowledge of the subject, none is required. There's a
+great deal of delicate and complex machinery to superintend, and a
+mistake will tell fearfully in the result; but, never mind, we'll
+trust luck." "Do we not," as Horace Mann once asked, "do we not need
+some single word where we can condense into one monosyllable the
+meaning of ten thousand fools?" Some deny the power of early training.
+"Look!" they say, "there is a family of children brought up just
+alike, and see how differently they all turn out." But a family of
+children should not be brought up just alike. Different temperaments
+require different treatment. And this is exactly the point where
+knowledge is necessary, and a wisdom almost superhuman. That character
+is the result of "inherited traits," as well as of education, does not
+affect the case, since children "inherit" from mothers and the sons of
+mothers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+A WAY OUT.
+
+
+But suppose we leave this part of our subject, and endeavor now to
+find a way out of this present state of things. Let us keep the
+situation clearly before us. As things are, woman cannot obtain
+culture because of being overburdened with work and care, and also
+because of her enfeebled condition physically. To what is this present
+state of things owing? Largely to the unworthy views of both men and
+women concerning the essentials of life, and concerning the
+requirements of woman's vocation. And these unworthy views of men and
+women, to what are they owing? In a very great measure to early
+impressions. Who, chiefly, are responsible for these? Mothers. They
+are also, as has been shown, responsible for the larger part of the
+prevailing invalidism of woman. Let us be sure to bear in mind that
+these evils, these hinderances to culture, can be traced directly back
+to the influence and the ignorance of mothers; for here is where the
+whole thing hinges. Here is a basis to build upon. Child-training is
+at the beginning. Child-training is woman's work. Everybody says so.
+The wise say so. The foolish say so. The "oak and vine" man says so.
+The "private way, dangerous passing" man says so. Very good. If this
+is woman's work, _educate her for her work_. If "educate" isn't
+the right word, instruct her, inform her, teach her, prepare her; name
+the process as you choose, so that it enables her to comprehend the
+nature of her business, and qualifies her to perform its duties. She
+requires not only general culture, but special preparation, a
+technical preparation if you will. Let this come in as the
+supplementary part of what is called her education. Many will
+pronounce this absurd; but why is it absurd? Say we have in our young
+woman's class at the "Institute," thirty or forty or fifty young
+women. Now, we know that almost every one of these, either as a mother
+or in some other capacity, will have the care of children. The
+"Institute" assumes to give these young women such knowledge as shall
+be useful to them in after life. If "Institutes" are not for this
+purpose, what are they for? One might naturally suppose, then, that
+the kind of knowledge which its pupils need for their special vocation
+would rank first in importance. And what kind will they need? Step
+into the house round the corner, or down the street, and ask that
+young mother, looking with unutterable tenderness upon the little
+group around her, what knowledge she would most value. She will say,
+"I long more than words can express to know how to keep these children
+well. I want to make them good children, to so train them that they
+will be comforts to themselves and useful to others. But I am ignorant
+on every point. I don't know how to keep them well, and I don't know
+how to control them, how to guide them."
+
+"It is said," you reply, "that every child brings love with it. Is not
+love all-powerful and all-sufficient?"
+
+"Love does come with every child; but, alas! knowledge does not come
+with the love. My love is so strong, and yet so blind, that it even
+does harm. I would almost give up a little of my love if knowledge
+could be got in exchange."
+
+Here, perhaps, you inquire, somewhat sarcastically, if no instruction
+on these subjects was given at the "Institute." She opens wide her
+astonished eyes. "Oh, no! No, indeed,--surely not."
+
+"What, then, were you taught there?"
+
+"Well, many things,--Roman history for one. We learned all about the
+Punic Wars, their causes, results, and the names of the famous
+generals on both sides."
+
+Now, if a Bostonian were going to Europe, it would do him no harm to
+be told the names of all the streets in Chicago, the names of the
+inhabitants of each street, with the stories of their lives, their
+quarrels, reconciliations, and how each one rose or fell to his
+position. Acquiring these facts would be good mental exercise, and
+from a part of them he would learn something of human nature. But what
+that man wants to know more than any thing is, on what day the steamer
+sails for Europe: is she seaworthy? what are her accommodations? is
+she well provisioned, well manned, well commanded? are her
+life-preservers stuffed with cork or shavings? So, if a man is going
+to build a boat, you might show him a collection of fossils, and
+discourse to him of the gneiss system, the mica-schist system, or talk
+of the atomic theory and protoplasms. Such knowledge would help to
+enlarge his views, extend his range of vision, and strengthen his
+memory, but would not help the man to build his boat. He wants to know
+how to lay her keel straight, how to hit the right proportions, how to
+make her mind her helm, how to make her go; and he has been taught
+that the great pachyderms are divided into paleotheria and
+anoplotheria. The same of our young mother: she wants to know how to
+bring up her child, and she has been taught "how many Punic wars there
+were, their causes, results, and the names of the famous generals on
+both sides."
+
+It may be asked here, in what way, or by what studies, shall the young
+woman's class at the "Institute" be taught the necessary knowledge? It
+would be presumption in one like me to attempt a complete answer to
+that question. But the professors, presidents, and stockholders of our
+"Institutes" are learned and wise. If these will let their light shine
+in this direction as they have let it shine in other directions, a way
+will be revealed. But, while learning and wisdom are getting ready to
+do this, mere common sense may offer a few suggestions. Suppose the
+young woman's class were addressed somewhat in this way: "It is
+probable that all of you, in one capacity or another, will have the
+care of young children, and that for the majority it will be the chief
+duty of your lives. There is, then, nothing in the whole vast range of
+learning so important to you as knowledge on this subject." This for a
+general statement to begin with. As for the particular subjects and
+their order, common sense would ask, first, What does a young mother
+want to know first? First, she wants to know how to keep her child
+alive, how to make it strong to endure or defy disease. She needs to
+be taught, for instance, why a child should breathe pure air, and why
+it should not get its pure air in the form of draughts. She needs to
+know if it makes any difference what a child eats, or how often, and
+that a monotonous diet is injurious. She needs to know something of
+the nutritive qualities of different kinds of food, and why some are
+easy of digestion and others not, and in what way each kind builds up
+the system. She needs to understand the chemistry of cookery, in order
+to judge what kinds of food are calculated to make the best blood,
+bones, and muscles. She needs to have some general ideas in regard to
+ways of bringing back the system from an abnormal to a healthy state;
+as, for instance, equalizing the circulations. Learned professors,
+women physicians, will know how to deliver courses of lectures on all
+such subjects, and to tell what books have been written on them, and
+where these books may be found. And, as for the absurdity of teaching
+these things beforehand, compare that with the absurdity of rearing a
+race to hand over to physicians and undertakers, and choose between.
+And even apart from their practical bearing, why are not such items of
+knowledge as well worth learning, as simply items of knowledge, as the
+hundreds of others which, at present, no young woman's course can be
+without? There is no doubt that if mothers were given a knowledge of
+these matters beforehand, instead of being left to acquire it
+experimentally, the present frightful rate of infant mortality (nearly
+twenty-five per cent) would be reduced. Plenty of light has been
+thrown on this subject, but the community does not receive it. Here is
+some which was contributed to one of the Board of Health reports by a
+physician.
+
+"The mother," he says, "requires something more than her loving
+instincts, her ready sympathies. With all her good-will and
+conscientiousness, mistakes are made. The records of infant mortality
+offer a melancholy illustration of the necessity of the mother's
+previous preparation for the care of her children. The first-born die
+in infancy in much larger proportion than their successors in the
+family. The mother learns at the cost of her first child, and is
+better prepared for the care of the second, and still better for the
+third and fourth, whose chances of development into full life and
+strength are much greater than those of the oldest brothers and
+sisters."
+
+Think of the mother learning "at the cost of her first child," and of
+the absurd young woman learning beforehand; and choose between. Also
+please compare the "previous preparation" here recommended with the
+mere bureau-drawer preparation, which is the only one at present
+deemed necessary. Another writer, an Englishman, speaking of the high
+rate of infant mortality, says, "It arises from ignorance of the
+proper means to be employed in rearing children," which certainly is
+plain language. Such facts and opinions as these would make an
+excellent basis for a course of lectures at the "Institute," to be
+given by competent women physicians. The advertisements of "Mrs.
+Winslow's Soothing Syrup" would be remarkably suggestive in this
+connection. A mother of three little children said to me, "I give the
+baby her dose right after breakfast; and she goes to sleep, and sleeps
+all the forenoon. That's the way I get my work done." We all know why
+the baby sleeps after taking its dose. We do not know how many mothers
+adopt this means of getting their work done; but the fact that the
+proprietor of this narcotic gained his immense wealth by the sale of
+it enables us to form some idea.
+
+The importance of educating nursery-girls for their calling, and the
+physical evils which may arise from leaving young children entirely to
+the care of nursery-girls, would be exceedingly suggestive as lecture
+subjects. Mr. Kingsley asks, "Is it too much to ask of mothers,
+sisters, aunts, nurses, and governesses, that they should study thrift
+of human health and human life by studying somewhat the laws of life
+and health? There are books--I may say a whole literature of
+books--written by scientific doctors on these matters, which are, to
+my mind, far more important to the schoolroom than half the trashy
+accomplishments, so called, which are expected to be known by our
+governesses."
+
+But, supposing a mother succeeds in keeping her child alive and well,
+what knowledge does she desire next? She desires to know next how to
+guide it, influence it, mould its character. She does all these,
+whether she tries to or not, whether she knows it or not, whether she
+wishes to or not. Says Horace Mann, "It ought to be understood and
+felt, that in regard to children all precept and example, all kindness
+and harshness, all rebuke and commendation, all forms, indeed, of
+direct or indirect education, affect mental growth, just as dew, and
+sun, and shower, or untimely frost, affect vegetable growth. Their
+influences are integrated and made one with the soul. They enter into
+spiritual combination with it, never afterward to be wholly
+decompounded. They are like the daily food eaten by wild game, so
+pungent in its nature that it flavors every fibre of their flesh, and
+colors every bone in their bodies. Indeed, so pervading and enduring
+is the effect of education upon the youthful soul, that it may well be
+compared to a certain species of writing ink, whose color at first is
+scarcely perceptible, but which penetrates deeper and grows blacker by
+age, until, if you consume the scroll over a coal-fire, the character
+will still be legible in the cinders."
+
+In regard to inherited bad traits, the question arises, if even these
+may not be changed for the better by skilful treatment given at a
+sufficiently early period. Children inheriting diseased bodies are
+sometimes so reared as to become healthy men and women. To do this
+requires watchfulness and wise management. How do we know that by
+watchfulness and wise management children born with inherited bad
+traits may not be trained to become good men and women? But the
+majority of mothers do not watch for such traits. It seldom occurs to
+them that they should thus watch. Why not bring the subject to the
+consideration of young women "beforehand," when, being assembled in
+companies, they are easy of access? It is too late when they are
+scattered abroad, and burdened each with her pressing family duties.
+"Forewarned is forearmed."
+
+Some are of the opinion that the badness which comes by inheritance
+cannot be changed. This is equivalent to believing that there is no
+help for the evil in the world. Unworthy and vicious parents are
+continually transmitting objectionable traits to their children, who
+in turn will transmit them to theirs, and so on to the end of time.
+Shall we fold our hands, and resign ourselves to the prospect, while
+our educators go on ignoring the whole matter, and leaving those who
+might affect a change ignorant that it is in their power to do so?
+
+"But," says one, "the children of those people who thought so much
+about education, and who started with model theories, behave no better
+than other people's children." This may be true, and still prove
+nothing. "Those people" might not have thought wisely about education.
+Their model theories might not have been adapted to the various
+temperaments often found in one family. Their children might have been
+exceptionally faulty by nature; unsuspected inherited traits may have
+developed themselves, and interfered with the workings of the model
+theories. The failure of "those people" shows all the more the need of
+preparation given "beforehand," and given by those who make the
+subject a special study, just as the professor of history, or
+mathematics, or natural philosophy, makes his department a special
+study.
+
+When we consider how much is at stake, it really seems as if learned
+and wise professors could not employ their learning and wisdom to
+better purpose than in devising ways of enlightening the "young
+woman's class" upon any and every point which has a bearing on the
+intellectual and moral training of children.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+SUGGESTIONS FOR LECTURE TOPICS.
+
+
+It is not to be supposed that enlightenment on subjects pertaining to
+the intellectual and moral training of children can be given to a
+young woman in text-book fashion, cut and dried, put up in packages,
+and labelled ready for use. But it will be something gained to set her
+thinking on these subjects, to make her feel their importance, and to
+inform her in what books and by what writers they have been
+considered. All this, and more to the same purpose, could be done by
+lectures and discussions, for which lectures and discussions even
+humble common sense need be at no loss to suggest topics. There are,
+for instance, the different methods of governing, of reproving, of
+punishing, and of securing obedience; the evils of corporal
+punishment, of governing by ridicule, of showing temper while
+punishing. Then there are questions like these: How far should love of
+approbation be encouraged? What prominence shall be given to
+externals, as personal appearance, the minutia of behavior, politeness
+of speech? How may perfect politeness be combined with perfect
+sincerity? Ways of inculcating integrity. How to teach self-reliance,
+without fostering self-conceit. How to encourage prudence and economy,
+and at the same time discourage parsimony. How to combine firmness
+with kindness. Implicit obedience a good basis to work on. How to
+enter into a child's life, and make it a happy one. How not to become
+a slave to a child's whims. The different amounts of indulgence and of
+assistance which different temperaments will bear. How shall
+liberality be inculcated, and extravagance denounced? On deceitfulness
+as taught by parents. On lying as taught by parents. On the
+impossibility of making one theory work in a whole family of children,
+or always on a single child. Shall obedience be implicit, and how
+early in the child's life shall it be exacted? On marriages. On the
+true issues of life. When shall ambition and the spirit of emulation
+be encouraged, and when repressed? The possibility of too much
+fault-finding making a child callous. If mere common sense discovers
+so many subjects, what number may not learning and wisdom discover
+when their attention shall be turned in this direction?
+
+The "nursery-girl" topic might come up again, and be considered in its
+moral and intellectual aspects. Some mothers see their small children
+only once or twice a day, while the nurse is with them constantly.
+This fact might be made strikingly significant by placing it side by
+side with Horace Mann's words: "In regard to children, all precept and
+example, all kindness and harshness, all rebuke and commendation, all
+forms, indeed, of direct or indirect education, affect mental growth,
+just as dew and sun and shower, or untimely frost, affect vegetable
+growth. Their influences are integrated and made one with the soul.
+They enter into spiritual combination with it, never afterward to be
+wholly decompounded,"--also with a previously quoted assertion,
+founded on actual experiments, that "it is the medium in which a child
+is habitually immersed" which helps most in forming the child's
+character. The kind of reading which falls into the hands of the young
+would be found to be a lecture topic of appalling interest. Striking
+illustrations for such lectures could be taken from the advertisements
+and statistics of story-paper and dime-novel publishers. The
+illustrated papers which can be bought and are bought by youth are
+crammed to overflowing with details of vice and barbarity. They have
+columns headed "A Melange of Murder," "Fillicide, or a Son killing a
+Father," "Lust and Blood," "Fiendish Assassination," "Particulars of
+the Hanging of John C. Kelly," "Carving a Darky," "An Interesting
+Divorce Case in Boston," "A Band of Juvenile Jack Sheppards." And the
+pictures match the reading,--a jealous lover shooting a half-naked
+girl; a father murdering his family; an inquisitive youth peering into
+a ladies' dressing-room. If the contents of these papers are bad for
+us to hear of, what must they be to the youth who read them? Dime
+novels are advertised in these same papers as being issued once a
+month, and supplied by all the news companies, "Sensational stories
+from the pens of gifted American novelists!" "The Sharpers' League,"
+"Lyte, or the Suspected One," "The Pirate's Isle," "Darrell, the
+Outlaw," "The Night Hawks, containing Midnight Robbery, Plots dark and
+deep," "The Female Poisoner," "Etne of the Angel Face and Demon
+Heart," "The Cannibal Kidnappers, a Sequel to the Boy Mutineers,"
+"Life for Life, or the Spanish Gipsy Girl," "Tom Wildrake's
+School-days." Some of these papers are entitled "Boys' and Girls'"
+weeklies. The old saying is, "Build doves' nests, and doves will
+come." What kind of "nests" are being built by the young readers of
+these publications, of which it may almost literally be said, "no boy
+can do without one"? The boy at school has one between the leaves of
+his geography; the boy riding, or sailing, or resting from his work or
+his play, draws one from his pocket; the grocer's boy comes forward to
+serve you, tucking one under his jacket. In the way of statistics, it
+might be stated that nineteen tons of obscene publications and plates
+for the same were seized at one time in New-York City. Should
+representatives of "our best families" ask, "How does this affect us
+and ours?" it could be answered that catalogues of academies and
+boarding-schools are obtained, and that these publications are then
+forwarded to pupils by mail.
+
+Topics of this kind would naturally suggest those of an opposite kind,
+as modes of awakening in children an appreciation of the beauty, the
+sublimity, the wonderfulness, of the various objects in the world of
+nature; also of cultivating in their minds a taste for the beautiful
+and the refined in art, literature, manners, conversation. These
+considerations could be effectively introduced into a lecture or
+lectures "On the Building of Doves' Nests." Is it not "essential" that
+mothers should have the time, the facilities, and the knowledge
+necessary for accomplishing what is here suggested, and that they be
+made sensible of its importance? But there is many a busy mother now
+who can scarcely "take time" to look out when her children call her to
+see a rainbow, much less to walk out with them among natural objects.
+
+The object of these lectures should not be to teach any particular
+theories on which to act in the management of children, but to so
+instruct, so to enlighten young women, that when the time for action
+comes they will act intelligently. With the majority of women the
+management of children is a mere "getting along." In this "getting
+along" they often have recourse to deception; thus teaching
+deceitfulness. They are often unfair, punishing on one occasion what
+they smile at or wink at on another; thus teaching injustice. They
+lose self-control, and punish when in anger; thus setting examples of
+violence and bad temper. It is probable that a young woman who had
+been educated with a view to her vocation would be more likely to act
+wisely in these emergencies and in her general course of management,
+than one who had not. There would be more chance of her taking pains
+to consider. She would not work so blindly, so aimlessly, so "from
+hand to mouth," as do some of our mothers.
+
+Such enlightenment is an enlightenment for which any good mother will
+be thankful. She wants it to work with. She feels the need of it every
+hour in the day. Why, then, is it not given to young women as a part
+of their education, and as the most important part? They are
+instructed in almost every thing else. They can give you the areas,
+population, boundaries, capitals, and peculiarities of far-away and
+insignificant provinces; the exact measurements of mountain ranges,
+lakes, and rivers; statistics, in figures, of the farthest isle beyond
+the farthest sea. They are lectured on the antediluvians, on the Milky
+Way, on the Siamese, Japanese, North Pole, on all the ologies; on the
+literature, modes of thought, and modes of life, of extinct races.
+They can converse in foreign tongues; they are familiar with dead
+languages, and with the superstitions, observances, and quarrels of
+certain races, barbarous or otherwise, who existed thousands of years
+ago. In fact, they are taught, after some fashion, almost every thing
+except what their life-work will specially require. Little will it
+avail a mother in her seasons of perplexity or of bereavement to
+remember "what wars engaged Rome after the Punic Wars, and how many
+years elapsed before she was mistress of the Mediterranean." This and
+the following questions are taken from the "Examination Papers" of a
+popular "Institute" for young ladies.
+
+"Give names and dates of the principal engagements of the Persian
+wars, with the names of the great men of Greece during that period."
+
+"Show cause, object, and result of the Peloponnesian war."
+
+"Give names and attributes of the seven kings of Rome."
+
+"After the kings were driven out, what does the internal history
+mainly consist of?"
+
+"What were the social, and what were the civil wars?"
+
+Common sense might ask why every child born in the nineteenth century
+must go to work so solemnly to learn the minute particulars of those
+old wars! Still common sense would not declare such knowledge to be
+altogether worthless; it would only suggest that woman wants the kind
+which will help her in her special department, more than she wants
+this kind. Said a lady in my hearing,--an only child reared in the
+very centre of wealth and culture,--"I was most carefully educated;
+but, when I came to be the mother of children, I found myself utterly
+helpless."
+
+It is gratifying to know that in regard to these matters common sense
+has very respectable learning and wisdom on its side. A celebrated
+writer and thinker says, "If by some strange chance not a vestige of
+us descended to the remote future, save a pile of our school-books, or
+some college examination papers, we may imagine how puzzled an
+antiquary of the period would be on finding in them no indication that
+the learners were ever likely to be parents. 'This must have been the
+curriculum for their celibates,' we may fancy him concluding: 'I
+perceive here an elaborate preparation for many things; especially for
+reading the books of extinct nations (from which, indeed, it seems
+clear that these people had very little worth reading in their own
+tongue), but I find no reference whatever to the bringing up of
+children. They could not have been so absurd as to omit all training
+for this gravest of responsibilities. Evidently, then, this was the
+school-course of one of their monastic orders.' Seriously, is it not
+an astonishing fact, that though on the treatment of offspring depend
+their lives or their deaths, and their moral welfare or ruin, not one
+word on such treatment is ever given to those who will hereafter be
+parents? Is it not monstrous, that the fate of a new generation should
+be left to the chances of unreasoning custom, impulse, fancy, joined
+with the suggestions of ignorant nurses and the prejudiced counsel of
+grandmothers? To tens of thousands that are killed, add hundreds of
+thousands that survive with feeble constitutions, and millions that
+grow up with constitutions not so strong as they should be, and you
+will have some idea of the curse inflicted on their offspring by
+parents ignorant of the laws of life. With cruel carelessness they
+have neglected to learn any thing about these vital processes which
+they are unceasingly affecting by their commands and prohibitions; in
+utter ignorance of the simplest physiological laws, they have been,
+year by year, undermining the constitutions of their children, and
+have so inflicted disease and premature death not only on them but on
+their descendants. Consider the young mother and her nursery
+legislation. But a few years ago she was at school, where her memory
+was crammed with words, names, and dates; where not one idea was given
+her respecting the methods of dealing with the opening mind of
+childhood. The intervening years have been passed in practising music,
+in fancy work, in novel-reading, and in party-going; no thought having
+been yet given to the grave responsibilities of maternity. And now see
+her with an unfolding human character committed to her charge,--see
+her profoundly ignorant of the phenomena with which she has to deal,
+undertaking to do that which can be done but imperfectly even with the
+aid of the profoundest knowledge.... Lacking knowledge of mental
+phenomena, with their causes and consequences, her interference is
+frequently more mischievous than absolute passivity would have been."
+
+This writer, it seems, would also have young men educated with a view
+to their probable duties as fathers, and so, of course, would we all;
+and much might be said on this point, especially of its bearing on the
+solution of our problem; still, as Mr. Frothingham said in a recent
+address, "The mother, of all others, is the one to foster and control
+the individuality of the child." It was "good mothers" which Napoleon
+needed in order to secure the welfare of France. "Such kind of women
+as are the mothers of great men," is a significant sentence I have
+seen somewhere in print. In fact, so much depends on mothers, that
+there seems no possible way by which our problem can be fully solved
+until the right kind of mothers shall have been raised up, and their
+children be grown to maturity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+WAYS OF IMMEDIATE ESCAPE.
+
+
+But is there no possible way by which mothers now living may escape
+from this present unsatisfactory condition? Yes; but not many will
+adopt it. Simplicity in food and in dress would set free a very large
+number. A great part of what are called their "domestic" occupations
+consists in the preparation of food which is worse than unnecessary. A
+great part of their sewing work consists in fabricating "trimmings"
+which are worse than useless, even considering beauty a use, which it
+is. Let these simplify their cooking and their dressing, and time for
+culture will appear, and for them our problem be solved. We preach
+against the vice of intemperance, and with reason. Let us ask
+ourselves if intemperance in eating and in dressing is not even more
+to be deplored. The former brings ruin to comparatively a few: by
+means of the latter the whole tone of mind among women is lowered; and
+we have seen what it costs to lower the tone of mind among women. We
+must remember that not only is the condition of the mother reflected
+in the organism of her child, but that the child is taught by the
+daily example of its mother what to look upon as the essentials of
+life. "I feel miserable," said a feeble house-mother, just recovering
+from sickness; "but I managed to crawl out into the kitchen, and stir
+up a loaf of cake." Now, why should a sick woman have crawled out into
+the kitchen, to stir up a loaf of cake? Was that a paramount
+duty,--one which demanded the outlay of her little all of strength?
+This is the obvious inference, and one which children would naturally
+draw. A lady of intelligence, on hearing this case stated, expressed
+the opinion that the woman did no more than her duty. Said this lady,
+"If her husband liked cake, it was her duty to provide it for him at
+whatever sacrifice of health on her own part."
+
+Now, it seems reasonable to suppose that an affectionate couple would
+have a mutual understanding in regard to such matters. It seems
+reasonable to suppose that an affectionate husband would rather
+partake of plain fare in the society of a wife with sufficient health
+and spirits to be companionable, than to eat his cake alone while she
+was recovering from the fatigue of making it.
+
+Speaking of inferences, it is obvious what ones a child will draw from
+seeing its mother deprive herself of sleep and recreation and
+reading-time in order to trim a suit _à la mode_. And these
+inferences of children concerning essentials have a mighty bearing on
+our problem. Some ladies defend the present elaborate style of dress
+on the ground that it affords the means of subsistence to
+sewing-girls. There is something in this, but I think not so much as
+appears. Go into the upper lofts where much of this sewing is done,
+and what will you find? You will find them crowded with young girls,
+bending over sewing-machines, or over work-tables, breathing foul air,
+and, in some cases, engaged in conversations of the most objectionable
+character. Their pay is ridiculously small,--a dollar and a half for
+doing the machine-work on a full-trimmed fashionable "suit." I learned
+this, and about the conversations, from a worker at one of these
+establishments. Clothes, especially outside clothes, they must have
+and will have; consequently the saving must be made on food. Some, too
+poor to pay board, hire attic rooms, and pinch themselves in both fire
+and food. They often carry their dinner, say bread, tea, and
+confectioner's pie, and remain at the store all day. They are liable
+to be thrown among vile associates; they are exposed to many
+temptations. They enrich their employers, but not themselves. In dull
+seasons their situation is pitiable, not to say dangerous. A great
+number of them come from country homes. Of these, many might live
+comfortably in those homes, and others might earn a support by working
+in their neighbors' houses, where they would be considered as members
+of the families, have good lodging and nourishing food, and where
+their assistance is not only desired, but in some cases actually
+suffered for. They prefer the excitements of city life. (Of course,
+these remarks do not apply to all of them.) Fashionable ladies may not
+employ shop-girls directly or indirectly, but their example helps to
+make a market for the services of these girls. Another consideration
+is, that the poor seamstress who is benefited directly by the money of
+fashionable ladies is taught as directly, by their example, false
+views as to the essentials of life; so that what helps in one way
+hinders in another. All this should be considered by those who bring
+forward "sewing-girls' needs" as an argument for an elaborate style of
+dress. Even were this argument sound, it fails to cover the case. A
+very large proportion of our women have not money enough to hire their
+sewing done, and it is upon these that the wearisome burden falls. To
+keep up, to vary with the varying fashion, they toil in season and out
+of season. Day after day you will see them at their work-tables, their
+machines, their lap-boards; ripping, stitching, turning, altering,
+furbishing; complaining often of sideache, of backache, of headache,
+of aching all over; denying themselves outdoor air and exercise and
+reading-time,--and all because they consider dressing fashionably an
+essential of life. With them, what costs only time, health, and
+strength, costs nothing.
+
+Think of this going on all over the country. Think of the sacrifices
+it involves. In view of them, it really seems as if those who can
+afford to hire their sewing done should give up elaborate trimmings
+just for example's sake. To be sure, this is not striking at the
+foundation. To be sure, this is not the true way of bringing about a
+reform. But, while waiting to get at the foundation, would it not be
+well to work a little on the surface for the sake of immediate
+results? You would refrain from taking a glass of wine if, by so
+doing, you made abstinence easier for your weaker brother or sister.
+Why not consider the weakness of these toiling sisters? It is not
+their fault that they do not see what are the true issues of life.
+They have not been wisely educated. If the wealthy and influential
+would adopt a simple style of dress, their doing so would be the means
+of relieving many overburdened women immediately, and of helping them
+to solve the problem we are considering. It is not wicked to dress
+simply, and no principle would be sacrificed. Neither would good
+taste. Indeed, the latter is opposed to excessive ornamentation,
+whether in dress, manners, speech, or writing. Long live beauty! Long
+live taste! Long live the "aesthetic side"! But simplicity does not
+necessarily imply plainness, nor homeliness, nor uncouthness. There
+can be a simplicity of adornment. I am aware that acting for example's
+sake is not a sound principle of action; but it is a question if it be
+not duty in this particular case. A lady physician of large practice
+once said to me, "I see, among poor girls, so much misery caused by
+this,"--meaning this rage for excessive trimming,--"that I can
+scarcely bring myself to wear even one plain fold." If it be asked,
+Should we not also relinquish costly fabrics, and the elegant
+appointments of our dwellings? it may be answered, that "poor girls"
+commonly give up these as being entirely out of their reach. They buy
+low-priced material, and call the dress cheap which costs only their
+time, their strength, their sleep, and their opportunities for reading
+and recreation.
+
+We all know that the right way is to so educate woman that she will be
+sensible in these matters. The external life is but the natural
+outgrowth of the internal. It is of no use cutting off follies and
+fripperies from the outside so long as the heart's desire for them
+remains. This heart's desire must have something better in its
+place,--something higher, nobler, worthier. This something is
+enlightenment; and to effect the exchange we shall have to begin at
+the beginning, and enlighten the mothers. Follies and fripperies, in
+cooking or dressing, will give way before enlightenment, just as do
+the skin paintings, tattooings, gaudy colors, glass beads and tinsel,
+and other absurdities of savage tribes; just as have done the barbaric
+customs and splendors of the barbaric ages. Woman is not quite out of
+her barbaric stage yet. At any rate, she is not fully enlightened. The
+desire for that redundancy of adornment which is in bad taste still
+remains. In the process of evolution, the nose-ring has been cast off;
+but rings are still hooked into the flesh of the ears, and worn with
+genuine barbaric complacency. When women are all wisely educated, our
+problem will melt away and disappear. The wisely-educated woman will,
+of her own accord, lay hold on essentials and let go unessentials. She
+will do the best thing with her time, the best thing with her means.
+She may conform to fashion, but will not feel obliged to do so. In
+fact, when women become enlightened, non-conformity to fashion will be
+all the fashion. Right of private judgment in the matter will be
+conceded. All women shall dress as seemeth to them good; and no woman
+shall say, or think, or look, "Why do ye so?" Those having
+insufficient means and time will be so wise as not to feel compelled
+to dress like those who have plenty of both.
+
+Meanwhile, as an immediate measure of relief, suppose a dozen or
+twenty mothers in each town should agree to adopt a simple yet
+tasteful style of dress for themselves and their little girls. This
+would lighten, at once, their heavy burden of work, give them "time to
+read," and would be a benefit to those little girls in many ways.
+
+Another way of immediate escape is by making the present race of
+husbands aware that their wives are being killed, or crazed, with hard
+work and care, especially husbands in the small towns and villages,
+and more especially farmers. In regard to these last, it is no
+exaggeration to say that their wives in many cases work like slaves.
+Indeed, this falls short of the truth, for slaves have not the added
+burden of responsibility. As things are now, the woman who marries a
+farmer often goes, as one may say, into a workhouse, sentenced to hard
+labor for life.
+
+When these husbands permit their wives to "overwork," it is not from
+indifference, but from sheer ignorance. They don't know, they don't
+begin to conceive, of the labor there is in "woman's work." It is true
+that neither are merchant-princes aware of what it costs their wives
+to superintend the complicated arrangements of their establishments;
+to see that all the wheels, and the wheels within wheels, revolve
+smoothly, and that comfort and style go hand in hand; but let us
+consider now the farmers' wives, toiling on, and on, and on, in
+country towns, East, West, and all the way between. Their husbands, in
+not a few cases, are able to hire at least the drudgery done, and
+would if they only knew. A young woman from a New Hampshire village,
+herself an invalid from hard work, speaking to me of her mother, said,
+"She suffers every thing with her back. When she stoops down to the
+oven to attend to the pies, she has to hold on to her back, hard, to
+get up again." I said, "Why, I shouldn't think your father would let
+her make them."--"Oh," said she, "father don't understand. He's hard."
+One day I was sitting in the house of a young woman,--a fragile,
+delicate creature, scarcely able to lift the baby she was
+holding,--when her husband came in. He was a working man, tall and
+robust looking. He walked toward the pantry. "You mustn't cut a pie,"
+the little wife called out laughing. Then turning to me, she said,
+with a sort of appealing, piteous glance, "He don't understand how
+hard it is for me to make pies." I know a young woman, not a strong
+woman, who, with a family of very little children, does her own work,
+and makes from one to two dozen pies at a common baking, "'cause hubby
+loves 'em." I know another, similarly situated, who gives her husband
+pies at breakfast as well as at other meals, because "he was brought
+up to them at home." Now, all these "hubbies" are loving "hubbies,"
+but--they do not know. A friend of mine, an elderly woman lately
+deceased, came to her death (so her neighbors said) by hard work.
+"Killed with work," was the exact expression they used. She was a dear
+good woman; a person of natural refinement, of strict integrity, of a
+forgiving spirit, intelligent, sweet-tempered, gentle-mannered;
+everybody loved her. Her husband is a well-to-do farmer. He inherited
+money and lands, and has them still. His wife, who was every thing to
+him, whom he could not bear out of his sight, and for whom, if he had
+known, he would have sacrificed money and lands, is gone. But--he did
+not know. "Mother" never complained. "Mother" did the cooking, did the
+washing, scrubbed the floors. They had "company forever," the
+neighbors said. "Mother" received, with smiling hospitality, all who
+came. Help was hard to procure; still help might and would have been
+procured had the husband known the case to be, as it certainly was, a
+case of life or death. But--he did not know: so "mother" died of work
+and care.
+
+You sometimes see a woman, after hurrying through her forenoon's work,
+sink down entirely prostrated, too tired to speak a loud word, every
+nerve in her body quivering. The jar of a footfall upon the floor sets
+her "all a-tremble." As dinnertime approaches, you see that woman
+stepping briskly about the house, a light in her eye, a flush on her
+cheek, vivacity in her motions. She is "living on excitement;" "it is
+ambition which keeps her up." Her husband, coming in to his dinner,
+takes her briskness and vivacity as matters of course, regarding her,
+probably, as a woman who has nothing to do but to stay in the house
+all day. He has no more idea of the condition of that woman than her
+infant has.
+
+There are thousands of husbands, who, if they knew, would lift the
+burden of at least the heaviest drudgery from their wives, thus giving
+them longer leases of life. But, as a rule, wives keep their bad
+feelings to themselves. They know that "a complaining woman" is a term
+of reproach. They are exhorted in newspaper after newspaper to "make
+home happy by cheerful looks and words." They wish to do so. With a
+laudable desire to save money, they spend themselves, and "get along"
+without help. It is truly a getting-along, not a living. Sometimes,
+however, they are obliged to mention their feebleness, or their
+ailments, as reasons for neglect of duty. It is astonishing how little
+importance, in many cases, the husband attaches to the facts thus
+stated. Apparently he considers ailments either as being natural to
+woman, or as afflictions sent upon her by the Lord. He seems to look
+upon her as a sort of machine, which is liable to run down, but which
+may easily be wound up by a little medicine, and set going again. If
+the medicine does not set her going again, he brings her pastor to
+pray for her; if she dies, he says, "The Lord hath taken her away."
+All this because he does not know. When husbands are enlightened on
+this important point, this solemn point, they will insist on less work
+for women. Less work implies more leisure, and with leisure comes time
+for culture.
+
+Another step towards the immediate solution of our problem is, to
+establish the fact that woman stands on a level with man, and is
+neither an appendage nor a "relict." Relict, it is true, only means
+that which is left; still we do not hear James Smith called the
+"relict" of Hannah Smith. Standing on the same level does not imply a
+likeness, but simply a natural equality,--equality, for instance, in
+matters of conscience, judgment, and opinion. It is often said, that,
+as a barbarous race progresses toward civilization, its women are
+brought nearer and nearer to an equality with its men. Thus in the
+barbaric stage woman is an appendage to man, existing solely for his
+pleasure and convenience. She is then at her lowest. As civilization
+progresses, she rises gradually nearer an equality with man.
+
+When she is all the way up, when her individuality is recognized as
+man's is recognized, then civilization, in this respect, will have
+done its perfect work. Woman among us is almost all the way up, but
+not quite. She is still considered, and considers herself, a little
+bit inferior by nature. We see at once how this bears upon our
+question. Just so much as woman is considered inferior, just so much
+less importance is attached to the nature of her occupations and
+acquirements. It is all right enough that an inferior being should
+devote herself to follies, or to drudgeries, or to catering to
+fastidious appetites. These duties are on a level with her capacities;
+for these she was created, and for these culture is unneeded. When
+civilization shall have finished its work, so far as to bring woman up
+to her true position of equality with man,--equality in matters of
+conscience, judgment, opinion, and privileges,--then will man be able
+to put off from his shoulders the responsibility of deciding what is,
+and what is not, proper for her to do. He has carried double weight
+long and uncomplainingly, and should in justice to himself be
+relieved. Equals need not decide for equals. Woman will take up the
+burden he throws off, and decide for herself. We must proceed
+cautiously here, for there are lions in the path. Being free to
+choose, she may choose to take interest in such kinds of public
+affairs as have a bearing on her special duty. We are interested in
+this, remember, because whatever affects her special duty affects the
+solution of our problem.
+
+Now let us ask, under our breaths, what are public affairs? The public
+consists of individuals. If there were no individuals there would be
+no public. Public affairs, then, are only individual's affairs,
+managed collectively, because that is the most convenient way of
+managing them. Their good or bad management affects the comfort of
+men, women, and children. Let us ask, why, simply by being christened
+"public affairs," should they be turned into a great, horrid bugaboo,
+too dangerous for women even to think of? Schools are a part of public
+affairs, and one would suppose it to be a part of woman's vocation to
+ascertain what is the influence of these schools on the children she
+is bringing up; to learn whether they are working with her or against
+her. Cases might arise concerning choice of teachers, hours of study,
+kinds of study, ventilation, and so forth, in which it would be her
+duty, as a child-trainer, to express an opinion: like the following
+one, for instance, which comes to us in the newspapers, as "criminal
+negligence in the affairs at the Mount Pleasant Schoolhouse, by which
+about a dozen children have died of disease, others passed through
+severe sickness, and not a few, including teachers, made temporary
+invalids, or infected with boils or scrofulous sores, caused by
+breathing the polluted air that has infested the building from
+neglected earth-closets. The Board of Health officially announced that
+this was the cause of the sickness, and recommended the removal of the
+earth-closets. The janitor of the building, it seems, is incompetent,
+and holds his place only because he is also a member of the School
+Board; which suggests the query whether men unfit for janitors are
+usually placed on the Nashua School Committee.... Five of the lads who
+died were among the brightest scholars in the public schools. The
+building has not yet been properly renovated."
+
+Shall woman's sons be thus destroyed, and woman be powerless to
+interfere?
+
+In urgent cases like this, it might become the duty of the mother to
+express her opinion by dropping a slip of paper with a name written on
+it into a hat or a box. It would even be possible to conceive of
+emergencies in which these slips of paper would so affect some vital
+issue,--as, for instance, the choice or removal of the janitor who
+will furnish the air for her children to breathe,--that the father
+would stay with the children while the mother went out to thus express
+her opinion.
+
+Then, indeed, would the climax be reached! Then would that state of
+things so long foretold have come to pass: the husband takes care of
+the children, while the wife goes out to vote! Then would the funny
+artist snatch up his pencil, and the funny editor his quill. It has
+always been a mystery to me where the laugh came in on this joke.
+True, it is not his calling; but what is there so very incongruous in
+a father's "taking care" of his own children? Fathers love their
+children, and will toil night and day for them, even for the very
+small ones. Is there any thing ridiculous, then, in their taking them
+in their arms, and overlooking their childish sports? A man may take a
+lamb in his arms without losing an iota of his dignity, and without
+being caricatured in any one of our weeklies. It is quite time that
+these precious little human lambs ceased to be the subjects of scoffs
+and sneers.
+
+But we must pass on from this part of our subject, and glance at one
+or two other ways of immediate escape from the present unsatisfactory
+state of things. See how quickly such escape might be made by a truly
+enlightened family. First, they hold counsel together, men and women,
+all desiring the same object. Question, How shall "mother" find time
+for culture? Say the male members, "Mother's work must be
+lessened,--must be: there is a necessity in the case."--"But
+how?"--"Well, investigate. Begin with the cooking. Let's see what we
+can do without." Three cheers for our side! When man begins to see
+what cooking he can do without, woman will begin to see her time for
+culture. Dinners are summoned to the bar, examined, and found guilty
+of too great variety and of too elaborate desserts. Sentence, less
+variety, and fruit for dessert instead of pies, or even pudding:
+exception filed here in favor of simple pudding when first course is
+scanty or lacking. Suppers summoned, tried, and found guilty of too
+great variety and too much richness; sentenced to omit pies for life,
+and admonished by judge not to cling too closely to work-compelling
+cake. The time thus rescued from the usurper, Cooking, is handed over
+to "mother," the true heir, to have, and to hold.
+
+Or, suppose the question to be one of health. "'Mother' works too
+hard. She will wear herself out."--"She doesn't complain."--"That
+makes no difference. She must have help."--"Where is the money coming
+from to pay the help?"--"Make it; earn it; dig for it; do without
+something; give up something; sell something; live on bread and water.
+Is there any thing that will weigh in the balance against 'mother's'
+life? We shall feel grief when she is worn out; why not when she is
+wearing out? We would make sacrifices to bring her back; why not to
+keep her with us?" The truth is, that heretofore the wrong things have
+been counterbalanced. Placing simple food in one scale, and dainties
+in the other, of course the latter outweighs the former; but place
+"mother's" needs and "mother's" life in one scale, and dainties in the
+other, and then will the latter fly up out of sight, and never be
+heard from any more. Councils of this kind, we must remember, are not
+to become general until the requirements of "woman's mission" are
+generally understood, and until a great many men are made aware that a
+great many women are killing themselves by hard work and care, and
+until academic professors perceive that it is wiser to give a young
+woman the knowledge she will want to use than that which is given for
+custom's sake. But how is this general enlightenment to be effected? I
+don't know, unless the lecturer makes these subjects the theme of his
+lecture, or the poet the burden of his verse, or the minister the text
+of his discourse.--Not proper to be brought into the church? Why not?
+A great deal about heathen women is brought into the church. Are
+American women of less account than they? Does not the condition of
+our women call for missionary effort? True, American wives do not
+sacrifice themselves for their deceased husbands, but we have seen
+that they are sacrificed. There is here no sacred river into which the
+mother hurls her newborn babe; but it has been shown, that, because
+American mothers are left in ignorance, a large proportion of their
+children drop from their arms into the dark river of death.
+
+Should any object that such subjects are below the dignity of the
+church, we might reply that the church is bound to help us for the
+reason that the present state of things is partly owing to her
+efforts. The ministers of the church in past times have labored to
+convince people that this life for its own sake is of little account;
+that we were placed here, not to develop the faculties and enjoy the
+pleasures which pertain to this stage of our existence, but solely to
+prepare for another. They have taught that we sicken and die
+prematurely because God wills it, not because we transgress his laws.
+To those suffering physically from such transgression they have said
+in effect, "Pray God to relieve your pain, for he sent it upon you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+MEANS OF ESCAPE ALREADY IN OPERATION.
+
+
+Three effective means by which the desired change may be accomplished
+are, first, that women meet regularly for the purpose of discussing
+such matters as especially affect them and their mission; second, that
+they have a paper for this same object; third, that representative
+women from different sections of the country come together
+occasionally, and compare views on these matters. Such means we
+already have in the "Woman's Club," the "Woman's Journal," and the
+"Woman's Congress."
+
+The first of these institutions is not what the uninitiated, judging
+from its name, might suppose. The writer, though not a club-member,
+can affirm of her own knowledge, that at the weekly gatherings
+questions are discussed which have a direct bearing on the interests
+of the family and household. From these gatherings, members return to
+their homes strengthened, refreshed, enlightened. All teachers can
+testify that from teachers' conventions they go back to work with
+awakened interest, fresh zeal, and with newly-acquired ideas. The
+contact of mind with mind has invigorated them. They have all taken
+from each other, yet none have been losers, but all have been gainers.
+Every school which lost its teacher for a season gained tenfold by
+that teacher's absence. So it is with the club meetings. Women leave
+their homes to consider how the standard of those homes may be raised.
+I happened to be present once when the discussion was upon "The amount
+and kind of obedience to be exacted from children;" and I said to
+myself, Now, this seems the right thing exactly. How natural, how
+sensible, for women to meet and confer on such subjects as this, each
+one bringing her perplexities or her suggestions; the old giving their
+experience, the young profiting thereby! What better could mothers do
+for their children than thus to meet occasionally and hold counsel
+together?
+
+Still people in general do not take this view of the case. People in
+general are satisfied if a mother is bodily present with her children,
+and do not trouble themselves as to her enlightenment.
+
+Look at the last Woman's Congress, side by side with three other large
+conventions held in this country not so very long ago, and compare its
+purposes with theirs. The questions which occupied the members of one
+of the three related chiefly to articles of belief, and to those
+particular articles of belief in which they all believed. It was
+stated beforehand, that the great object to be attained was unity, and
+that no subjects would come up which, by calling out opposing
+opinions, might mar the harmony of the occasion.
+
+Another convention occupied much of its time in deciding whether those
+of the denomination who sit at communion with others of the
+denomination who have sat at communion with a person who has not been
+wholly immersed, shall be fellowshipped by the denomination.
+
+An enthusiastic member of still another convention publishes a long
+and glowing account of its proceedings, in which account occurs the
+following curious paragraph:--
+
+"During the discussions in convention, the presentation of petitions
+and memorials and drafts of canons, the reports of the committees on
+canons, the amendments and substitutes, the transit of canons back and
+forth between the two houses, and finally, the conference committee,
+the slowly developing action of the convention was under such
+confusion and cloud, that it was and may yet be difficult for many,
+especially those at a distance, to make up their mind as to what
+finally took place." The object of this paragraph was to account for
+some wrong impressions made by the published reports.
+
+I submit that what humanity wants to know is, how to live rightly, and
+that it is suffering for this knowledge. It is not suffering to know
+all about "altar cloths" and "eucharistic lights," and "colored
+chasubles" and "the use of the viretta in worship." It is not
+suffering to know if certain persons can partake of the Lord's Supper
+with other certain persons who have partaken with other certain
+persons. It is not suffering to know that a large number of
+individuals believe exactly alike, and exactly as did their ancestors.
+How are all these agreements and disagreements to help a poor fellow
+who has inherited certain proclivities, and wishes to be rid of them,
+and that his children may overmaster them?
+
+Humanity does want to know, right away, how to keep itself alive and
+well and doing well. It wants brought up for consideration the wrongs
+which oppress it, the evils which defile it, the crimes which degrade
+it; to have their causes investigated, and their remedies suggested.
+This is live work; and it is such work as this which occupied the
+attention of the Woman's Congress. No uncertain sound there. Those "at
+a distance," those at the very antipodes, might "make up their mind"
+that its members were asking themselves, what have we, as wives and
+mothers, to do with these things? While other conventions are
+"agreeing," and "fellowshipping," and wrangling over "altar cloths,"
+and "virettas," the Woman's Congress considers matters which have an
+immediate practical bearing on the welfare of human beings. While the
+community is working away at the surface, with its prisons, its
+police, its hangmen, its societies for the suppression of vice, its
+schools for reform, its homes for the fallen (no doubt often with good
+results), the Woman's Congress strikes at the foundation, and by
+pointing out "The Influence of Literature upon Crime," and the telling
+effect of "Pre-natal Influences," suggests how vice may be prevented,
+character right-formed, and humanity kept from falling. It inquires,
+"How can Woman best oppose Intemperance?" It considers those two vast
+underlying subjects, "The Education of Women," and "The Physical
+Education of our Girls;" while it by no means overlooks those
+unfortunates whom society sets apart, and labels "fallen women."
+
+In regard to our problem, if any light has been thrown, if, "the word"
+has been guessed, I should say "the word" is "enlightenment,"
+--enlightenment of the community as to the requirements of
+woman's mission, enlightenment of woman herself as a preparation
+for that mission. What say you, friends? Shall our women receive
+such enlightenment? and shall it come in to the finishing or
+supplementary part of their education (so called)?
+
+True, this will cause innovations; but is it _therefore_
+objectionable? No one will call our present system of education a
+perfect one; why, then, should there not be innovations? "Why,
+indeed," asks a writer in "The Atlantic," "except that the training of
+their children is the last thing about which parents and communities
+will exert themselves to vigorous thought and independent action? No
+more striking proof of the inertia of the human mind can be found," he
+says, "than the fact... that for many generations the true philosophy
+of teaching has had its prophets and apostles, and yet that
+substantially we are training our children in the same old blundering
+way." The fault of this "old blundering way," it seems to me, is its
+one-sidedness. It educates only the intellect. Is this the right way?
+Surely the moral nature is also educable. Indeed, if the mind is
+trained to act energetically, so much more should the moral sense be
+trained to control the workings of that mind. Then, since the world,
+we hope, is outgrowing battles, why is it considered _essential_
+that we inform ourselves so particularly, so minutely, so
+statistically, concerning battles fought so long, long, long ago? Does
+the process hasten on the time of beating swords into ploughshares?
+Suppose each generation, as it comes on to the stage, does inform
+itself thus minutely: what, in the long-run, does humanity gain
+thereby?
+
+But these considerations open up subjects too vast and too important
+to be even mentioned in these closing chapters. Will not you who know
+the inevitable influence of the mother upon her children,--will you
+not see to it that some portion of the time devoted to her education
+is spent in preparing her for her life-work? Can you think of any
+surer way than this by which good citizens may be raised up for our
+country? Wickedness abounds. It is omnipresent. Every day,--yes, twice
+a day,--the newspapers bring us tidings of corruption, fraud, villany,
+not only in low places, but in high places; in exceedingly high
+places. Crime is on the increase. Public officials, supported and
+trusted by the people, hesitate not to defraud the people. Individuals
+in good and regular standing socially and religiously, church-members,
+sabbath-school teachers, defraud their nearest friends.
+
+Nobody can tell whom to trust. If, then, neither church, nor state,
+nor social position, nor any outside influence, has power to make men
+honest, where shall we look for such power? We must look to an inside
+influence. The restraining power, in order to be effective in all
+cases, must proceed from the character of the individual; and the
+character of the individual is formed to a very great degree by early
+training; and early training comes from--women. So here we are again
+down to our working ground.
+
+Let us hope that innovations will be made. Let us hope that at no
+distant day it will be thought as important for a young person to be
+made a good member of society as to be able to cipher in the "rule of
+three," in "alligation medial" and "alligation alternate." A recent
+writer, a professor in the University of Pennsylvania, urges "the
+importance of incorporating into our public school systems such
+studies and such training as will tend to educate men for their place
+in the body politic." He says, "A line of teaching which concerns
+matters of more importance to society than all the ordinary branches
+of knowledge put together is allowed to have no formal provision made
+for it." This writer recommends the study of biographies. In Locke's
+system good principles were to be cared for first, intellectual
+activity next, and actual knowledge last of all.
+
+Suppose the young women of thirty years ago had been thoroughly
+instructed in hygienic laws: would not the effects of such instruction
+be perceptible in our present health-rates and death-rates? Let us
+begin now to affect the health-rates and death-rates of thirty years
+hence. And it will do no harm to instruct young men also in such
+matters. Even while I am writing these pages, a State Board of Health
+report comes to me, in which it is shown by facts and figures how our
+death-rates are affected by ignorance,--ignorance as exhibited in the
+locating, building, and ventilating of dwelling-houses, drainage,
+situation of wells, planting of trees, choice of food and cooking of
+the same, as well as in the management of children. Can any subjects
+comprised in any school course compare in importance with these? For
+humanity's sake, let our young people take time enough from their
+geographies and Latin dictionaries to learn how to keep themselves
+alive! It is possible too, that, if the young women of thirty years
+ago had been enlightened on the subject of moral and mental training,
+our present crime rates might be less than they are, and dishonesty
+and dishonor in high places and in low places be less frequent.
+
+Mr. Whittier tells the story of a man in a certain town, who desired
+the removal of an old building--an almshouse, I think--from a certain
+locality. As the quickest way of accomplishing this, he gave a man a
+dollar a day on condition that this man should do nothing else but
+talk from morning to night with various people on the subject of
+having that building moved. And it was moved. The old building we have
+to move is made up of prejudices, ignorance, settled opinions, and
+firmly-established customs, and it is therefore quite time we were
+beginning our work. Remember the tremendous importance of our object.
+An Englishman, Lord Rosebury, in a recent address, insists on a
+special preparation for the hereditary rulers who sit in Parliament;
+and, if those who are to rule mind need this, how much more do they
+need it who are to stamp mind, and give it its first direction! Horace
+Mann shall close this chapter with one of his impressive sentences.
+Says this truly great man, "If we fasten our eyes upon the effects
+which education may throw forward into immortal destinies, it is then
+that we are awed, amazed, overpowered, by the thought that we have
+been placed in a system where the soul's eternal flight may he made
+higher or lower by those who plume its tender wings, and direct its
+early course. Such is the magnitude, the transcendence, of this
+subject."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+SUPPLEMENTARY.
+
+
+Some persons have asked, after hearing or reading the foregoing
+suggestions, "Do not _men_ also work too much and read too
+little? Is not the influence of _fathers_ on their children to be
+considered? Should not _fathers_ be educated for their vocation?"
+To these questions there can be but one answer. Yes! and the yes
+cannot be too emphatic. But the paper which formed the nucleus of
+these chapters was written by a woman at the request of women, to be
+read before a woman's club assembled to consider the question, "How
+shall the mother obtain culture?" The very fact that such a question
+had suggested itself to them, shows that women feel the need of more
+than their present opportunities for culture. If men feel this need,
+there is nothing to prevent them from assembling to discuss their
+unsatisfactory condition, to devise ways of improving it, to consider
+their responsibilities, and to inquire how they shall best qualify
+themselves to fulfil the duties of their vocation. The writer is under
+the impression that men's clubs do not meet especially with a view to
+such discussions.
+
+The following paragraphs comprise the first part of a letter published
+in "The New York Tribune."
+
+"These letters will speak to the hearts of thousands of women all
+through the country, and particularly to the women "out West," as they
+have already to my own. This problem has been revolved in my mind
+again and again, but no clew has appeared by which to solve it; and I
+have laid it down hopelessly, feeling that there is no alternative but
+to submit and carry the burden as long as strength endures, and seeing
+no outlook for the future but in a brief period of old age, when care
+and labor must come on younger shoulders.
+
+"I want to speak only of the condition of women with whom I am best
+acquainted,--the wives of farmers in this part of Illinois. Many
+instances I have known of women who received in the East an education
+in some cases superior to that of their husbands, but a life of
+constant care and drudgery has caused them to lose, instead of gain in
+mental culture, while the husbands have grown away from them; and it
+is only in subjects of a lower nature that they have a common
+interest. A man, in his every-day intercourse with other men, and his
+business calls into all kinds of places and scenes, must be a fool not
+to receive new ideas, not to become more intelligent on many subjects.
+But what can be expected of the wife, almost always at home in the
+isolated farm-house, in a sparsely settled community, and if poor and
+struggling with debt, as many are, with no reading except, one or two
+newspapers? If she had a library of books, it would make but little
+difference, for she has no time to read them. All through the Western
+country there is an absolute dearth of women's "help." "A girl" can
+hardly be obtained for love or money. Girls in towns or cities will
+not go into the country, and country girls are too independent. If
+they have a father's house, they will not leave it for any length of
+time, as actual want is not known here in the country. Within a radius
+of five miles in every direction from my home, where I have lived
+eight years, I have never known or heard of a family or person
+suffering for any thing to eat, drink, or wear; and have never had a
+call for help in that direction. A house-mother of my acquaintance,
+whose husband owns a "section" farm, suffers much from illness, and
+has a large family, yet for months has been without any help in her
+work but that of her little girls,--the oldest not over
+twelve,--simply because she could not get a servant. The farmers
+themselves are under less necessity to labor than in many other parts
+of the country. Farms are comparatively large, and produce large
+crops, and it pays them to hire laborers. Many farmers work in the
+field very little, while the wife and mother does the housework not
+only for her own family, but for from one to three laborers. During
+the rush of crop raising and harvesting, from April to August, she
+must be up at four in the morning, and she cannot have her supper
+until the farm work is all done; and by the time her children are put
+to bed, the milk cared for, and dishes washed, it is nine o'clock or
+after. It is hard for a woman who is hungry for reading to see how
+much leisure even "hired men" have to read,--their winter and rainy
+days, their long noonings and evenings, and odd bits of time, while
+she has comparatively none."
+
+It seems, then, that it is with women as with men: at the West too few
+workers for the work, at the East too little work for the workers.
+Now, in the case of the men, there is a regularly organized plan to
+bring the workers to the work. Laborers are taken from the East where
+they stand in each other's way, and carried to the West where their
+services are needed. Why not have some arrangement of this kind for
+the women? In the present condition of things, destitute women and
+girls congregate in our cities, and in dull seasons depend on charity
+for their daily food. In Boston, during the last winter, this
+charitable feeding was reduced to a system, and, according to
+published reports, immense numbers were thus supplied with food. It
+seems a pity that women and girls should starve or live on charity in
+our cities, while so many families in the West are suffering for their
+help. Can there not be some concerted plan between these widely
+separated sections of the country whereby at least a portion of our
+destitute ones can be conveyed to the West, and there provided with
+comfortable homes?
+
+By private letters received from "Tribune" readers living in different
+parts of the country, it appears that many thoughtful people are
+considering our problem, and devising ways of solving it. One of these
+letters says, "You sprinkle rose water where you should pour
+aquafortis. You say husbands '_don't know_' that their wives are
+overworked. The truth is, they don't care." The writer recommends that
+the laws be so altered as to make second marriages illegal, assuming
+that, if a man could have only one wife, he would take good care of
+that one. This is an unpleasant view of the case, and would not be
+presented here, only that, from the earnest downrightness of the
+letter, it seems probable that its writer speaks from knowledge, and
+represents a class,--a small one, let us hope.
+
+Three private letters, coming one from the South, one from the East,
+and one from the West, declare that woman's present state of
+invalidism and thraldom to labor is occasioned by the too frequent
+recurrence of the duties and exhaustive demands of maternity. The
+writers of the letters affirm, that, in these matters, women are often
+made the slaves of sensual husbands, and earnestly entreat that this
+shall be mentioned among the "causes of the present state of things."
+
+The only sure and lasting remedy for the above-mentioned evils, and
+others similar to them, is a wise education. When man is wisely
+educated, and not till then, will he have a proper consideration for
+woman.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Domestic Problem, by Abby Morton Diaz
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