house—why, they are about as practical as 
the poet’s heroine, who 
“Knew the reasons of things, 
Why the Indians wore rlnjcs. 
In their red, aboriginal noses," 
but who. as her chronicler continues, didn’t 
know'chicken from turkey. 
* * * 
No, we must, do our duty in the state of life 
to which we are called, as the catechism says, 
and if duty it is, we must follow Meg March’s 
heroic example, and offer up our roughened 
hands and stubbed fingers as a sacrifice on 
the domestic altar. Why, if we look at it in 
that way we may blacken the kitchen stove 
with as high moral purpose as ever inspired 
Maria Theresa, and it oughr. to shine all the 
brighter in consequence. A certain cultured 
gentlewoman whose name is familiar enough 
to the readers of the Rural, finds herself com¬ 
pelled to take active part in household duties, 
in addition to literary work, study and social 
accomplishments. But she is Hover heard to 
lament such work, as lessening her intellectual 
scope, and she makes the very dullest domes¬ 
tic details an expression of high womanliness, 
simply because she 
“Set* hidden In the tiling the thought 
That animates Its being.*’ 
What a wandering homily we have given, 
and all from the text of stubbed fingers 
versus accomplishments! We cannot con¬ 
clude better than by quoting, for the twenti¬ 
eth time, Herbert’s lines: 
“A servant with tills elaUBO 
Malms drudgery divine; 
WIhi sweeps the room as by Thy law's 
Makes that and ill’ action fine!" 
A WOMANLY WORK. 
ALICE BROWN. 
I N all that is written about work for women, 
in all that is done to enlarge their—our 
lives, 1 am interested, and 1 feel a pride and 
pleasure in the achievements of every woman 
who succeeds in some before untried field, if 
it is a field where she can carry her womanly 
virtues. 
Another current that carries nmuy good 
women on its course tends to limit woman’s 
life to the home, and there are few women 
who do not at times feel that home-work and 
home life are the most womanly. This is the 
work that suggests these thoughts. In homo 
life the work of man and woman differs in 
that he produce* and she cares for the pro¬ 
ducts. It is because of this fact that we hear 
the saying, “ A man must ask bis wife’s per¬ 
mission to become rich,” He brings to her 
raw material and their home is the workshop 
where these are changed into food, clothing 
and comfort. 
The woman works over details, but a man 
who spends his time on trifles fails to do his 
part, while the same work may be the wisest 
thing to which the woman can give her time. 
The man grows the grain, the fruit and the 
vegetables, brings them to the woman and 
his work ends. Hers begins: she may make 
good or ill use of them. Ho earns the money 
to buy clothing, furniture, utensils and maybe 
luxuries. Hero tb© womanly work is taken 
up; the man stands helpless lie fore her work; 
his own takes his time and thought; he can¬ 
not. make a home, she must do that. 
The round of work that will seem drudgery 
at. times, the envy that, will fill the mind of 
busy home-makers, when they see women 
doing the work, and gaining the independence 
of men, grow small in the thought of the 
riches a real home-life, created by all these 
tiresome details, bestows upon all who come 
within its touch. 
If a woman despises her work and does it 
as though driven like a slave, it becomes a 
source of degradation; its rewards never reach 
her more than il’ she were indeed a slave, and 
she has no charmed home the fruit of her 
work to give its blessing to othi rs. 
But let her make her work her pride, and 
do it for the blessings it enables her to scatter, 
and it becomes her willing servant. 
The work will be to make the products of 
the man’s labor do their utmost, and this to 
be sure menus patching clothes, darning stock¬ 
ings, saving in the kitchen, taking thin po¬ 
tato poolings, watching soap and sugar and 
butter and eggs, so they will not be wasted; 
learning to cook palatably undesirable pieces 
of meat, to make puddings of dry cake or 
bread; to look to pantry, parlor and attic 
with constant vigilance and with it all to keep 
alive the woman, the wife, the mother, not 
merging them into the scrupulous, thrifty 
housekeeper. To do all this well is a womanly 
work no one can accomplish at one step, but, 
like every worthy work, years are needed to 
perfect it. 
But the woman who succeeds may look at 
her work with a pride equally ns just as that 
the women feel who have succeeded in other 
spheres. 
The enlargement granted to women is 
needed, is just, and many are making wise 
use of their advantages, but the womau w bo 
lives in the home-world and looks out from its 
boundaries into lives that seem richer and 
broader lias a work that even in her thoughts 
ought not be placed below any of the occupa¬ 
tions women have entered anywhere. There 
arc failures in every calling, book-keeping, 
teaching, lecturing, writing, farming. Com¬ 
pare the unsuccessful woman in the home 
with some of these failures, not with the suc¬ 
cessful women who have taken up such work. 
Then the comparison will he a just one. 
A home in time becomes a garner where are 
stored the treasures a husband and wife 
may gather. They may be all household 
goods, or they may bo the printed thoughts 
of the world’s wisest writers, the painted 
thoughts of the greatest artists and the finest 
products of the industries of many countries. 
Hu much a home may be, and to woman is en¬ 
trusted the power to create such homes; to 
man falls the work that gives her the material 
for her creation. 
There arc homes where the man fails in his 
part, there are homes where the woman fails 
in hers. But. there are homes where both are 
faithful, and his products are changed under 
her touch into—home. 
ANOTHER CHAPTER ON THE SUBJECT. 
E. A C. kaym: “Exceptions, or rather dif¬ 
ferences of nature considered, woman is en¬ 
titled Inequality with man. Am I not right?” 
Woman is entitled to equality with man and 
she is entitled to more. As his mother, his sis¬ 
ter, liis wife or his associate she is entitled to 
his adoration, his courtesy and his protection. 
Even the relics of n semi-barbarous age, tho 
lifting of the hat and the bow, are recognition 
of the superiority of woman. Woman in her 
proper sphere of wife and mother, with all the 
creative and formulative forces of the two 
positions, wields a power for good or for evil 
which I ri» met mis everything else in life. Men 
everywhere recognize the superiority of 
woman in her alloted sphere. It. is only when 
she steps down from the exalted position for 
which she was created and mixes with and 
attempts to compete with him in the toilsome 
ami commonplace struggle for a subsistence 
that he questions her superiority or even equal¬ 
ity. No right minded person will question her 
ability to do as much and as good or iu some 
cases even better work than men, or her right 
to equal compensation. The secret of the low 
compensation and frequent fulluro of women 
is not the want of opportunity or appreciation, 
but the fact that, with so-called educated 
men, they are seeking occupation more iu the 
nature of recreation than real productive 
labor. Woman’s sphere outside of domestic 
occupation is limited by our educational sys¬ 
tem to, say, a dozen professions and trades. 
At first—in the day of the manly chivalry 
of our grandfathers—she was permitted to 
m.mupulizo the lighter and least exhausting 
occupations, but, like the euincl iu the fable, 
after getting her head in 'he tent she is now 
congratulating herself that she has succeeded 
in kicking the former occupant completely 
out. In average clerical positions and kin¬ 
dred employments, woman’s work is so much 
better anil cheaper that men no longer at¬ 
tempt to comjMsto witn her, ni.d have been 
forced into other and more laborious employ¬ 
ments. This is as It should be; if women are 
forced to become bread-winners, they should 
be permitted to monopolize the lighter em¬ 
ployments. 1 have no word of complaint with 
women who are forced into employment. 
Their lot, already hard, is only made the 
hairier by the partially employed, tho “anx¬ 
ious and aimless,” who, while dependent upon 
parents or brothers, compete with the bread¬ 
winners and write articles about woman's 
rights, unequal compensation, etc., etc. 
After all, the fundamental and vital pro¬ 
blem is, can women continue to clamor about 
their rigbth, tho enfranchisement of their sex, 
and their Independence of tho opposite sex, 
without sacrificing tho reverence and protec¬ 
tion of men! Old maids who talk about 
woman’s rights and the independence of their 
sex, must not forget that theirs is an abnormal 
existence. They may be “independent,” but 
the chances are that they arc living at the ex¬ 
pense of parents or relatives. The great ma¬ 
jority and the most useful of their sox must 
be protected, und the average newspaper arti¬ 
cle on the subject is harmful iu that it tends 
to take from them their natural protector, or 
at least weaken bis sense of allegiance and 
responsibility. 
The average creature of the masculine gen¬ 
der, owing to incompetent parents, is only too 
anxious to keep his seat in tho ears, smoke in 
public places and escape all responsibility of 
home or the marriage relation. Unfortunate¬ 
ly, tho average writer on the subject gives 
them the excuse for asserting their Indepen¬ 
dence, and the unfortunate mother, wife or 
workingwomau suffers in consequence. 
Girls are taught that the first object iu life 
is the acquirement of some superficial accom¬ 
plishment; then they are told they must not 
marry young, that they must not marry for 
love or for money or for admiration; and by 
the time they have acquired the accomplish¬ 
ment and learned a reason for marrying, they 
have become too old and unattractive to 
marry at, all, and they join the army of the 
“anxious and aimless” and make all the trou¬ 
ble they can for their married sisters and the 
unfortunates who toil for a living. 
There never was a time in tho history of 
the world when intelligent and educated home- 
creators were in such great, demand. Womu 
run, and rub, and jostlp each other in the so- 
called genteel employments while the children 
of the land are growing up in the streets or in 
foundling asylums. The very women who 
ought to be bearing and educating the Children 
who are to follow us are living lives of luxu¬ 
rious idleness or following insignificant, profes¬ 
sions; while the iguoraut, and foreign classes 
are populating our country with vicious and 
diseased children who must be cured for mid 
educated, if at all, at the public expense. 
Marriage, home life, domestic employments, 
and dependence under nat ural and proper con¬ 
ditions must lie encouraged while the forms 
of selfish, idle and comparatively useless siu- 
gle life must be discouraged. 
When it shall bo the ambition of the women 
of our land to create or perfect tho homo in¬ 
stead of excelling in some superficial accom¬ 
plishment. <»r the acquirement of a smattering 
of some insignificant art, we shall hoar less of 
the iuequality of opportunity and compensa¬ 
tion, of anuroby, socialism, and kindred 
topics. 
It may be said that this is dodging the ques¬ 
tion of woman’s work, but 1 think not. Ho 
long as the women of the land see to it, that 
the sacredness of home life is preserved, that 
domestic life is encouraged, that household 
duties are faithfully and economically per¬ 
formed and that children are properly 
clothed, educated and cared for, (here is no 
objection to the enfranchisement and the ele¬ 
vation of the sex. But I claim, and the claim 
is supported by common observation and 
experience, that because of tho neglect and 
incompetence of women, old-fashioned home 
life is becoming obsolete, that household 
duties are shabbily performed, when done at 
all, that domestic labor is degraded while it 
Should bo exalted, that children are looked 
upon as a curse rather than a blessing, and 
that they are permitted to come up, their con¬ 
duct being governed by negative aud prohibi¬ 
tion laws rather than motherly advice and 
precept. 
I would claim, further, that while women 
are writing and tnlkiug about limited sphere, 
inadequate or unequal compensation, and 
clamoring for more rights and privileges— 
their natural and proper work is being sadly 
neglected, it is too often not done at all, but 
when done it is usually slovenly performed by 
uneducuteil and irresponsible hirelings. We 
want, we must have, more and better homes, 
arid more and better housekeepers to create 
and preserve them. • 
I often see a group of perhaps half a dozen 
little curly-patod, dirty-faced, nigged aud 
barefooted youngsters. It is only one group 
of thousands iu the vicinity of New York. I 
never see them but 1 think of the women who 
talk of the higher education, the enfranchise¬ 
ment of their sex. These poor little unfortu¬ 
nates who, perhaps, have never even heard 
tho sacred names of “Mamma” or “ Rapa” or 
“ home” are but the logical results of their 
teachings. I have noticed that very many of 
these children boar evidence of refined—oven 
aristocratic parentage—and very likely their 
parents have advanced ideas of “ woman’s 
sphere aud duty,” and may be oven lenders in 
fashionable society. 
In a word, I would exalt the sacred dut ies 
of the wife und mother above all things else, 
and I would encourage aud protect the noble 
uriny of women who would lighten the bur¬ 
dens of parents or other relations by nt least 
supporting themselves; and deprecate in 
every possible way the teachings and living 
examples of the Ro-oalled advanced thinkers, 
chiefly Old Maids who in common with the 
nameless classes and the vast, army of socialists 
and communists, are the direct antagonists of 
American homes and home life. J. H. G. 
- » ♦ ♦ — 
LITTLE BITS. 
MRS. M. B. 
In the Forum for September, Mrs. Muloek 
Craik opposes the idea of the equality of tho 
sexes. She says: “Nature herself sets her face 
against it by the inherent desire planted in 
most women’s tareusts to look up to some one 
greater than themselves, physically and men¬ 
tally; some emo to whom they can ding wit h¬ 
out any seme of inferiority. Not merely to 
love, but to worship, to make herself a mat 
for the man’s feet to walk over, to believe 
everything he fiooe find »»ys is right, ty be 
ready to live for him or die for him, and merge 
her own identity completely in his—this I 
think is the instinct of woman. It is nature, 
aud nature, wo may nllow, is occasionally 
right.” 
I wonder if Mrs. Craik hail ever tried it— 
this being a “mat” for some man to wipe Ins 
muddy feet on. Any woman who has such 
an inane desire is very likely to have her am¬ 
bition gratified. Hho will find plenty of men 
who will lie quite willing to plant, their num¬ 
ber nines on her soft little body, auil that isall 
tho thanks she will got. Do you suppose a 
man respects a woman on whom he can walk? 
Not a bit of it. There is just about one man 
in a thousand who resoects every woman be¬ 
cause of bis mother, but the majority of them 
think lightly enough of the sex now, without 
our descending to the level of a door mat. 
A writer on the servant question claims that 
the freedom allowed in dress among the ser¬ 
vants of all except, the very wealthy has much 
to do with the degeneracy of the class. An 
English or French servant is always sensibly 
dressed: an American servant, copies in cheap 
imitation the not always over tasteful costume 
of her mistress. No respectable cook or bon nr. 
or chambermaid in Paris ever thinks of apiug 
the dress of her mistress. They would us soon 
think of wearing the blanket and tuft, of 
feathers of an Iudian brave, as of donning a 
silk dress or velvet clonk, while our servants 
wear cotton velvets and flimsy silk galore. 
Although the Republic and its attendant 
ideas have cuused the once universal cap to be 
looked upon with disfavor, as being in some 
sort a badge of servitude, so that the Parisian 
maid now wears a simple hat or bonnet on 
Sunday and fete days, still it is always a mat, 
and simple specimen of millinery generally 
trimmed, aud never over-trimmed by her own 
hands. 
I always had very fair success with my ser¬ 
vants as servants go, when 1 took them im¬ 
mediately upon landing, and taught them my 
ways from the start, until they accumulated 
enough money to indulge in finery, wheu their 
value as servants began to decrease in exact 
ratio as their feathers and furbelows in¬ 
creased. 
Olio of the social problems that the world 
will never tire of discussing, is, why Ameri- 
enn-boru girls prefer the shop auil factory 
to the kitchen and nursery. The answer 
seems to me a simple one. It is because 
they uro free-born. You may argue as 
you please that, they are better paid as 
servants, live in better houses, eat better 
food, sleep on better beds; but the fact re¬ 
mains that the food, the beds, the. houses are 
their master’s while the brown bread, the tiny 
cot, t he cheap papered garret are their own, 
and from six oclock in the evening until eight 
the next morning, they are their own mis¬ 
tresses. Resides, do not forget that for the 
one wealthy family where the servant’s life 
is one of comparative ease, there are ten in 
middle, or even poor circumstances, just able 
to keep one ill-paid aud poorly fed household 
drudge. We have in America many foreign 
families, especially Jews, who keep servants, 
und I can easily understand how impossible 
it would be for an American girl to serve in 
such a family. There are few families in 
which a freeborn American would esteem it 
a privilege to be a handmaiden. 
■ - -*■■* » — 
GOLDEN GRAINS. 
Dr. Cuyler says that every strand that is 
cut in the sacred bond of wedlock loosens the 
fabric of both society and the church. 
Dn. Spring says it is a poor relief from sor¬ 
row to fly to tho distractions of tho world; as 
well might a lost, and wearied bird, suspended 
over the abyss of the tempestuous ocean, seek 
a resting place on its topmost wave, as the 
child of sorrow seeks a place of repose amid 
the bustling cares and intoxicating pleasure 
of earth and timo. 
Sir Thomas Moke wrote in his journal; 
“I make it my business to wish as little as 
I can, except that I were wiser and better.” .. 
Peloubkt says God may bring us into 
trials, and thou we are to count it all joy; but 
the prayer of conscious weaknessand humility 
is to escape these trials lest we full. More¬ 
over, anyone who goes deliberately into 
temptation is more than half fallen already... 
The influence which one unconsciously ex¬ 
erts over others, whether for good or evil, by 
I&dvcrtiisiufl. 
When Baby wn*Rlck, we save her Castorla 
When whe win a Child. *ho cried tor Castorla, 
When she became MIhb, Hho clunc to Castorla 
When »ho had Children, she save them Oaatorta. 
