390 INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 



cut down the rent to $80 per annum. We must retrench in 

 the article of food, but the reduction here must not be too 

 great, because a certain amount and quality are absolutely neces 

 sary to keep the family in good working condition. It will cost us 

 $250 at least. Then we must dress plainly ; we must use simple, 

 strong woollen goods. This will enable us to reduce this expendi 

 ture to $180. Thus all the household expenses are revised, and 

 while enforcing previous lessons, these new discussions give to them 

 a pleasant variety. These careful and well digested reviews of the 

 various phases of domestic economy are exceedingly attractive to the 

 pupils, in part, doubtless, because they can ventilate the theories 

 which nearly every young woman cherishes in her heart of domestic 

 life. 



In this manner a young woman becomes so thoroughly acquainted 

 with the demands and details of domestic economy that she has well 

 denned ideas, based upon reality and reflection. Far from encour 

 aging the husband or father the purchasing power of whose income 

 she knows in extravagance, or in the waste of money in some par 

 ticular direction, to the diminution of other necessary comforts, 

 she will be prepared to resist temptation herself, and to give suffi 

 cient reasons why the income should not be misdirected. 



Instead of looking upon marriage as a New Jerusalem, where trou 

 bles cannot intrude, she is prepared to bear her share of the great 

 responsibilities and to assume a portion of its ever-increasing cares. 

 Thus the woman becomes self-poised, firm in character, ready to 

 adapt herself to the varying changes of fortune, and to meet with 

 courage the vicissitudes of life. Her children will also be taught 

 that frugality and economy, with the careful use of clothing and 

 household goods, furnish the only true way to prosperity. 



Is not the average woman, when thus thoroughly equipped with a 

 large store of practical information, better fitted to be a successful 

 wife and mother, than if her time had been taken up exclusively with 

 the study of geography, mathematics, grammar, and history? will 

 she not be better prepared to avoid the danger of bankruptcy of her 

 husband, and the terrible and harrowing course of &quot; keeping up 

 appearances,&quot; in which every comfort is sacrificed to the supposed 

 requirements of social position ? 



We all know that the happiness of married life is worn out by the 

 ever-recurring annoyances of little things. &quot; Empty pots are filled 

 with contention,&quot; is a proverb, in substance, of many nations, and 

 the divorce courts are often called in as a last resort and a most ter 

 rible one they are when the struggle between impecuniosity on the 

 one hand, and desires for extravagant expenditures on the other, have 

 turned the love of early days into gall and wormwood. 



In view of these facts, so common that they must have come under 

 the observation of all, it is to be hoped that these features of special 

 female education will receive full and fair discussion, so that these 

 pew studies, with such modifications as experience shall suggest, 

 may be introduced into our high schools and academies for advanced 

 female pupils. 



We are the more certain that these methods are deserving of rec 

 ognition and adoption, because the schools of the city of Gotha en 

 joy a high reputation upon the continent. The seminary for the 



