1854. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



447 



For the New England Farmer. 



MAKE YOUR GIRLS INDEPENDENT. 



BY HENRY F. FRENCH. 



Everybody in New England knows exactly what 

 to do with a boy. Give him, as a matter of 

 course, the best education you can aflTord, and 

 whether he is poor or rich, prepare him for some 

 business, some regular useful business in life, so 

 that whatever be the turn of Fortune's Wheel, he 

 may be independent. A good e(^ucation, and a 

 profession or trade, without property, is enough 

 for him — enough to place him beyond the chari- 

 ties of a cold world, enough to give him hope and 

 courage and assurance of success in life. 



But what is to become of the daughter? Do 

 we consider this question sufficiently ? Is not all 

 New England grossly negligent on this point? — 

 Does the public voice answer this question satis 

 factorily ? 



Let us examine the matter fairly. You have 

 a daughter of sixteen, in a family of half a dozen 

 children. You have a small property, a comfort- 

 able home, a farm perhaps, are tolerably "well 

 off," Avorth perhaps eight or ten thousand dollars. 

 You are still a young man, at least not so very 

 old, that you need necessarily die for some years 

 yet. Suppose this young lady has progressed as 

 well as most girls, in her studies. She can read and 

 write respectably, has cyphered as far as square root, 

 can read French a little, though she cannot speak 

 a sentence of it correctly. She can play on the 

 piano, so that a person of common discernment 

 can distinguish her Old Hundred from the Battle 

 of Prague, but has developed no very decided 

 taste for music. Still she is intelligent, active, 

 and promising. Suppose she were, some pleasant 

 morning, to propose the question directly to you, 

 and ask a serious reply, "What do you intend I 

 shall do when my education is finished ?" What 

 answer would you make, which should satisfy 

 both you and herself] The probability, perhaps, 

 is, that within ten or twelve years, she may mar- 

 ry ; for that is the fate of a majority of ladies. — 

 Still, I think, you would not like to answer her 

 reasonable question by such a suggestion, because 

 such n probability is, after all, a vague uncertain- 

 ty, and you would be quite unwilling a child of 

 yours should make marriage a matter of necessi 

 ty, or even of calculation. No, you could not say 

 to her tliat she has but one chance in life, and 

 that of such a nature, that she cannot seek to 

 avail herself of it. 



Can you say to her deliberately, that you have 

 a home which shall always be hers, also, that you 

 have means to maintain her, and that slie need 

 take no thought for the future? This is, practi- 

 cally, what most fathers are saying to their daugh 

 ters, but frequently, with less regard to truth 

 than they profess. Your own life is uncertain. 



Your business enterprises may fail. Is it safe to 

 risk the welfare of others entirely on your own 

 continued prosperity ? Besides, is there enough 

 in the subordinate duties which usually fall to the 

 share of a daughter in a family, to fill up the as- 

 pirings of human nature, to developo the faculties 

 of the soul? Look at the course of life of grovm 

 up daughters in the families about you. Thoy 

 are usually regarded by the mother as children 

 in all matters pertaining to the household. They 

 do not take a share even of the responsibility of 

 the family. If required to do a share of the 

 work, they do it as a disagreeable task, to which 

 a life of ease is far preferable. In the duties of 

 wife and mother, there is enough to occupy the 

 heart, and exercise the intellect of an educated 

 woman; but the mere drudgery of housework, 

 the cooking and mending and scrubbing, especial- 

 ly in a subordinate position, have in them nothing 

 peculiarly attractive or ennobling to anybody. — 

 LFsually, however, the daughter is not a working 

 bee in the hive. She is better educated than her 

 mother, perhaps, and not half so good a house- 

 keeper, and so she naturally takes to fashion and 

 light literature, receives calls and returns them, 

 dusts the parlor for her share of the housework, 

 works worsted cats and dogs for intellectual dis- 

 cipline, and wears a stylish bonnet to church by 

 way of morals and religion. Without a definite 

 object, how can she be expected to rise early in 

 the morning, or to take an active interest in the 

 affairs of life. 



But the question recurs, what better can be 

 done? What shall be done that our daughters 

 may have courage to look the future calmly in the 

 face, and feel that their position is in some meas- 

 ure, dependent upon their own exertions ? 



A definite hope for the future, can alone make 

 a rational being happy. Give every child, then, 

 male or female, an education for some business. 

 The discipline of acquiring it will be, in itself, 

 salutary, and the consciousness of possessing it 

 will at all times give dignity and independence to 

 the chawacter. Whatever your position in soci- 

 ety, educate your daughter for some business in 

 life, educate her according to your means and 

 condition, and according to her tastes and capa- 

 pacity. The "sphere of woman,'' which has been 

 always reduced far below the hcmisphirc wiiich 

 all accord to her as a right, includes, certainly, 

 the whole range of teaching — in letters, in science, 

 in music and drawing, and whatever else is 

 learned in our schools, "Woman's Mission" surely 

 is to teach, and the demand lor female instructors, 

 of a higli order, is by no means supplied. Acad- 

 emics and liigh seliools are now piyiug salaries of 

 five liundred and a thousaml dollars to college 

 graduates, as mere temporary teacliers, and would 

 be glad to exchange them lor well qualified fe- 



