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    192 work rer which women are deficient.

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    : ¦* In This Age Of Women Workers, And M...

    who now hangs entranced over the dulcet strains of their music , will go to sleep over the same sweet harmonies before a year of

    matrimony has passed over their heads ; or that there are lords of the creation , so sensual and _dej 3 raved as to enjoy a good dinner before

    the finest singing , and to prefer home comfort to the best dressed wife in the world ! Nor is this entirely all the wort in which the young

    persons of our own sex are wanting . It is well said that " No one stands to himself or falls to himself . No single influence is so

    powerless that it does not exercise some degree of control over minds perhaps still weaker and more easily moulded than itself . "

    How strange and sad it must seem then to many an earnest woman worker to hear that common home complaint amongst young ladies :

    " What do you find to amuse yourself with in the country . How do you get through the winter ? One cannot always be drawing ,

    practising , or singing , with nobody to listen to one , and it is so dull driving out in the carriage every day through muddlanesor

    taking what mamma calls a constitutional , and if one y sends , into town for a book , one is sure not to get what one wants ; and

    altogether it is heavy work to get through the time . " Perhaps some energetic mind replies to these complaints" I

    wonder you don't interest yourself in the village ; that you , don't attend the schools , or form a class of your own for church music ,

    you who sing so well ; or take up some pursuit , such as learning Germanor anything that would interest and employ you at the

    same time , . " But no , the listless young lady makes reply , * I don't think I

    ever should do any good amongst the poor , I don't understand them , or mamma is afraid of my going into the cottagesthey are so

    dirty she is afraid of my taking any of their complain , ts , and I never had any talent for teaching , and as for learning German ,

    what would be the good of it when perhaps I shall never go abroad ?" Still energy makes answer , " Ah , you do not know what a pleasure

    it is to have a purpose , in life , or you would wonder how you ever existed without one . Do let me show you in what simple pleasures

    happiness consists . Do let me teach you to live out of yourself and exist more for others , you cannot think how far a little kindness

    goes , what great happiness you may give , both to yourself and others , by only one self-denying action . "

    "No , " replies listlessness , " I have never been brought up to that sort of thing , I should not like it ; besides I have a great objection

    to appearing to be better than other people , or setting myself up as a village Lady Bountiful . I am very glad to be able to assist

    poor people when they are pointed out to me , but I do not see why any I should thrust myself into their cottages . "

    There is , however , a worse phase of mind than this , viz ., when the poor sickly ill-educated daughter of the house catches the

    infection of the atmosphere of luxury and false sentiment in which _,

    she has been reared , and conceives upon it some misplaced attach-

    192 Work Rer Which Women Are Deficient.

    192 work rer which women are deficient .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1859, page 192, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051859/page/48/