COMPETITION WHICH MAKES CHARITY 
NECESSARY. 
T here is an old saying that “The Lord helps 
those who help themselves,” and sometimes I 
think it is fortunate that he does, for no one else seems 
to think it is necessary to do so. We have a charitable 
feeling for the “ lame and lazy,” but those who try to 
help themselves are often sadly neglected. This is 
particularly true now that it has become the fashion 
for women to work for wages. They may use a share 
of their wages for charitable purposes; but there would 
be more real charity in their giving up the fad of work¬ 
ing than in giving all they earn to the poor ; for if the 
poor were given the work with fair wages, there would 
be no need of their accepting charity. Not that peo¬ 
ple need lead idle lives ; but those who have plenty of 
this world’s goods should not rob the poor of their 
work and then dole out the wages which should have 
been theirs and call it charity. 
It seems to me that it is no credit to a married 
woman with home cares, whose husband is well able 
to support her; or for young women with pleasant 
homes and all their wants supplied, to long to earn 
money by giving music or painting lessons, or by do¬ 
ing dressmaking or fancy work for the market, when 
there are so many poor widows with families depend¬ 
ent on them, and fatherless young girls who depend 
on these channels of work for their support. The 
work so thoughtlessly taken from them means so 
much to the latter, while to the former it serves as 
a little spending money to be frittered away on frivoli¬ 
ties, because, as often asserted, it was self-earned. No 
amount of charity can cover the wrong which such 
workers are unconsciously doing. 
Go into that fancy store or shop and ask one of those 
pale, tired-looking young girls why she works for 
such starvation wages. She will tell you that it is 
because other girls who live with their parents, and 
do not have to pay board, will work for 33 per week, 
and the self-supporting girl must do the same. The 
former have nothing to do at home, and the money 
they earn buys their clothes and bonbons. But it is 
quite a different matter with the girls who are home¬ 
less and have to pay their board and all other ex¬ 
penses. They dare not complain, for there is not 
much chance for a girl who cannot afford to dress 
well. Merchants like to see their clerks well dressed 
and well fed even on a 33-per-week salary. 
There is another class of people who are really 
wealthy, but who have been brought up with such 
frugal habits that they would be surprised if one 
should propose their taking a girl into their comfort¬ 
able homes and paying her wages for doing a share of 
their work, though they may be in the habit of giving 
as much as the wages would amount to, to charitable 
purposes every year. But helping a poor woman to 
help herself by allowing her to do their washing or a 
day’s housecleaning, would be considered extravagant. 
Yet they complain of having so much to do, and give 
that as an excuse when obliged to neglect outside 
duties, which no one else could do so well as them¬ 
selves. An only daughter oftentimes can hardly be 
spared from her father’s house, where the duties of 
daughter and sister demand her. Although she be 
fitted by education to keep books, teach school or music, 
some other less fortunate girl who has worked and 
studied hard in order to be able to support herself 
will be in need of the place. There are many ways 
of being industrious, but if those who are not obliged 
to work, can find no other way than by robbing the 
poor, it seems to me as though, in some instances, 
laziness might be considered a virtue after all. 
ALICE E. FINNEY. 
THE DUTIES WHICH PARENTS OWE THEIR 
CHILDREN. 
We Must Look the Situation in the Face. 
T here is cause for severe censure in the shirking 
of duty by parents in not teaching their children 
a wholesome and correct view of life. Questions that 
are of vital importance to the race, as well as to the 
individual, are often totally ignored by those who 
have made themselve responsible in the matter by ac¬ 
cepting the relations of parents. When parents do 
all their duties, then, indeed, will the children honor 
their father and mother. But if a child’s questions 
are answered by deliberate lies, and lies so self-evi¬ 
dent that the childish mind throws them aside and 
seeks information elsewhere, is it to be expected the 
child will honor its father and mother after it has 
learned of the deception ? Do not think to keep the 
children in ignorance. They will learn, sooner than 
one thinks they should, many things that parents have 
withheld ; and it would be far better for the child. 
the parent and the world at large if the parent had 
taught it and thrown a sacredness around some things 
which may forever have in the child’s mind a taint of 
coarseness gathered from first impressions—first im¬ 
pressions which are ineffaceable. There is need for 
urgent advice to parents like the following, which we 
quote from Harper’s Bazar and heartily indorse : • 
“ Parents repel confidence in many ways—by lazi¬ 
ness ; by a feeling of inability to put a right view of 
life into language which a young person can grasp ; 
by shrinking from the unpleasantness of unaccus¬ 
tomed topics, accompanied by an easy but futile hope 
that instinct, or something else, will teach the young 
man or woman what he or she needs to know. Un¬ 
fortunately, however, instinct and chance are not the 
best guides for young people at critical periods of 
their lives. The age at which we make our most glar¬ 
ing and far-reaching mistakes is the ignorant age. 
And the parent who sends out young sons and daugh¬ 
ters into the world as lambs in the midst of wolves, 
without giving them the benefit of the experience 
his own mistakes and trials have taught him, must feel 
self-condemned when the lambs come home shorn, 
when the young men and women spend years of 
struggle and pain retrieving the blunders from which 
a little more candor and confidence might have saved 
them. 
“ We must all live better and learn to live higher 
because of our mistakes, yet the wish to save our 
children from the same errors we made ourselves is a 
legitimate one. At least it seems inconsistent that the 
mother who wraps her baby tenderly from the slight¬ 
est breeze should send the same baby, a few years 
later, out into the evils of the world with no knowl¬ 
edge for its protection other than it may get from 
instinct and from chance I ” 
‘i § 
True and False Ideas on the Q,uestiou. 
Mothers are largely responsible for their girls’ im¬ 
proper behavior, because they do not tell them of the 
life before them, and of their own physical nature. 
Some say that if a girl knows all that the mother 
knows, she is liable to be bold and immodest. If they 
learn all these things on the sly, it teaches them to be 
deceitful. They have something hidden from mother, 
and if they keep on having secrets of a wrong nature, 
mother is to blame. On the other hand, if the mother 
teaches her daughter what she must some day know, I 
say most emphatically that it will make her careful, 
shy and modest in the presence of gentlemen. 
Mothers, we owe it to our daughters that they do 
not grow up in ignorance. Suppose, for instance, a 
child makes use of a word or expression that is im¬ 
proper. Do not scold the child without explaining 
just why it is improper. We must remember that our 
children are not supposed to be versed in what is 
wrong and improper ; hence, if they innocently make 
a blunder, tell them of it kindly, and they then have 
confidence in you and respect you. But once you 
have lost the respect of your children, your power for 
good over them is gone. mabel h. monset. 
WHERE PREJUDICE MAKES TROUBLE. 
I WOULD like to refer to the unspoken thought, 
“ between the lines” in nearly every article writ¬ 
ten on the subject of getting hired help. What was 
the thought I seemed to read ? ’Twas “Oh, that the 
untrained girl might learn to keep house.” All over 
our land, good, earnest, helpful, hopeful women are 
trying to solve the problem ; but as yet so little has 
been accomplished! Cooking schools, industrial schools 
have been established in some places, but yet so little 
is being brought to pass. There seems to be a com¬ 
plete network that hedges the way about; a network 
of prejudice and heathenish caste. There is no use to 
talk or write against it so long as those who hold 
firmest to such prejudices are acknowledged by all to 
be the “higher circles.” In what respect are they 
higher ? 
I was telling a friend of a mother of my acquaint¬ 
ance, who had expressed her dissatisfaction with her 
prospective daughters-in-law because they were 
“hired girls.” These two girls were daughters of 
respectable and fairly well-to-do parents; but be¬ 
coming orphans, they went to work as hired girls in 
the families of some of the neighbors. First my friend 
looked indignant, and then smiled and said ; “I used 
to look at things that way when I was quite young; 
but now, having lived so long among people where 
worth counts for what it is worth, I can only pity, 
not blame. That idea has been handed down from 
the time when might made right; when the con¬ 
quered were slaves to the conquerors, and a gentle¬ 
man or lady was a person who did no work.” Those 
who have the power to wear out these old rusty rem¬ 
nants of heathendom are the married people who are 
looked upon as belonging to the higher class If they 
will, by united, determined, persistent effort, stand 
for the right and the Golden Rule, America will be 
freed from this false notion. mbs. b. m. w. 
IF IT WERE NOT FOR BABY. 
“ TF it were not for baby,” said my husband, “I 
-L could take you to the concert this evening. 
Sorry, dear, you must miss it. Good-bye. Will be 
back as soon as the store closes ! ” And he was off, 
forgetting, doubtless, that very instant, the concert 
and its pleasures. Not so with me. It was not quite 
baby’s bed time, and, as she was happy by herself on 
the floor, I sat dreamily gazing into the fire, thinking, 
meanwhile, discontented, aye, almost wicked thoughts. 
Yes, indeed, if it were not for baby, how many 
pleasures would be mine. If it were not for baby, 
nothing would hinder me from enjoying concerts and 
lectures at pleasure, which I scarcely ever could at¬ 
tend now for I hesitated to leave my wee baby to the 
care of another, however, trusty. 
If it were not for baby, I could have taken that 
pleasant vacation trip this summer. 
If it were not for baby, I should have such a deal of 
time for my beloved books. 
If it were not for baby—and no one can tell where I 
would have stopped my complainings, had not at that 
moment come to me the thought of a dear friend who 
with empty arms in an empty home, mourned the 
dear child laid to rest beneath the last winter’s snow. 
How could I ever have been so wicked as to indulge in 
such thoughts? Just then baby crowed and lifted her 
chubby hands to “ Mamma,” and, as I took her in my 
arms, I could not forbear holding her very close, and 
as she cuddled down contentedly, I gazed into the fire 
and continued my mental memoranda, though now in 
a different strain. 
If it were not for baby, how selfish and useless my 
life would have been. 
If it were not for baby, who would ever have taught 
me patience which I so much lacked ? 
If it were not for baby, I could never have known 
one-half the height and depth of the love my own dear 
mother bestowed upon me, or the sacrifice she made 
for me. 
If it were not for baby, the best side of my nature— 
the mother side—would have been undeveloped. 
Right here, baby protested against such ser¬ 
monizing and as she stretched her wee self, murmured 
sleepily, “ Mommie,” and I cuddled her closer and 
whispered, “Thank God for my darling, for without 
her my soul would never have felt the thrill of the 
holiest of all earthly loves, the love of a mother for 
her babe.” baby’s mother. 
A Sure Sign of Progress. —The fact that women are 
awakening to the truth that there may be better 
methods of household economics than those practiced 
by our grandmothers, is a sure sign of progress. 
Because my grandmother always did her own cooking, 
and the family rejoiced in pies, cake, pork and a 
“ boiled dish,” is no reason for her grandchild doing 
the same thing. The life of the Nineteenth Century 
demands skilled labor in every department of the 
home. If we are to keep pace with our husbands in 
the thought of the age, if we are not to get behind 
our children as they go on and up in school and college, 
we shall be obliged to carry on our work in as business¬ 
like a manner as those who go out into the world in 
shop or office. c. f. w. 
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