On this page
-
Text (1)
-
HOW TO UTILIZE THE POWERS OF WOMEN. 89
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
—, ~*Ss* Immense According Country Three...
" Let us liope so , " answered the physician , " thong !! as yet they have not fallen in my way . Perhaps , however , they abound here
in Shiraz . " " So far from thafc , " answered the son of commerce , 6 i I am
convinced no one here will believe the story of my wife . They will think we have borrowed the narrative from the fictions of the
Arabs . " This anecdote , which most travellers in Southern Persia must have
heard , is rather a proof , however , of what affection can perform , than the aptitude of the Persian women for business . Still if the lady
in question had not received the necessary abilities from nature , she 'would not have been successful in her undertaking , even had she
possessed the love of the Mistress of Mesnoun . Here , "with , us , life must be contemplated in a more practical and
common-place light than in the poetical countries of the East . We have tough every-day work to do , around us are innumerable
trials for every atom of profit that is to be earned by toil , and often , in spite of great patience and skill , the aspirant for a comfortable
fire-side finds her task as difficult as the aspirant for the crown of ambition . Generally when all has been said and done it comes to
this , that some portion of the population must be dislodged and sent drifting away from the common mass , before any new hands can
find employment . And , in the ordinary business of life , the hands of women are almost entirely new hands . They have prejudices
without end to contend with . Propose any new work for them , and you are sure to be encountered by a sneer . Accordingly we feel
perfectly certain that most persons will consider it extremely comic to maintain , as we do- seriously , that in several departments of
government young women might be employed as clerks , especially to copy and draught . As , however , it would not answer to mix '" up
clerks of both sexes , there should of course be apartments for each . A King of Western Afrvica has carried his innovating notions
considerably farther than we just now propose to do , by organising a female army and trusting his royal person to its protection . These
sooty Amazons are moreover on the increase , and our sex take to arms with wonderful alacrity . In the same part of the world ,
women have in all ages been , distinguished for their business capacity . They carry on nearly every kind of trade , and it is by no
means uncommon to behold a grave and reverend signor sitting quietly on a stool to have his head shaved by a ja / iinty young female
barber . But when people are used to it , all that is comical in the affair disappears . Even among our neighbours of Normandy ,
we ourselves have seen a female shaver operating on a man ' s chin , and , be it said to her credit , that she wielded the razor with
great dexterity . In these matters the _French are certainly more philosophical than we , and slide into novelties with a better grace .
But after all , society must to some extent be re-organised before
women can be -properly provided for , unless in these ancient heredi-
How To Utilize The Powers Of Women. 89
HOW TO UTILIZE THE POWERS OF WOMEN . 89
-
-
Citation
-
English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1859, page 39, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031859/page/39/
-