Our Children. 65 



reared daughters placed in. No daughter fulfills her duty who 

 remains inactive, while her father toils and worries to make the 

 family living. Every poor man's daughter should feel it a sort of 

 degradation to hold out her hands for finery, when she has health 

 and strength to earn it for herself. Many a man would live to an 

 old age, who now barely passes the prime of life, if he had the lit- 

 tle help given him which his daughters could give by "dressing 

 themselves.'' Nothing is more contemptible than for a half dozen 

 women to fold their hands in lofty gentility, while some man, father 

 or brother, nearly goes mad under his burdens of toil and care. 

 It is not always what you expend that makes you look well 

 dressed, but the care you take of your clothes after you get them. 

 A tumbled bureau and a carelessly kept wardrobe are sure to 

 speak for themselves, though you fancy no eye but your own 

 sees it. 



Many girls know that their duty is not ended when they make 

 themselves pretty. You must cherish noble hopes and purposes, 

 by having something to live for worthy of humanity. Work 

 with energy and resolution, and without the spirit of vain repining 

 that sinks under difficulties and misfortune, or yields easily to 

 temptations. Do not stand idly by and be charged with want of 

 ability. Men with their assumed superior capability of making 

 money and managing it, stand in need of practical education to in- 

 sure success, and I repeat again, it as rightfully belongs to the 

 daughter as to the son, and I hope that the daughters of to-day will 

 claim the right, and feel that the day is past when the fathers and 

 brothers alone are the makers of money for the support of the fam- 

 ily, on whose shoulders all care and responsibility may be thrown. 

 Do you realize, my young friends, that all through your child- 

 hood and youth, your parents live for you ; when you reach man- 

 hood and womanhood and they are in the decline of life, that 

 they live in you. You can only repay them for all this by being 

 worthy of their purest love and confidence. Study and think, 

 learn to be strong and brave, that your better natures may be fully 

 developed, and find expression in graceful manners and cultivated 

 and useful lives. 



4 — Hoht. 



