Part 2 (1/2)
”It happened this way. Mr. Roebling, who was superintending its construction, was taken ill, and his wife took his place and personally gave oversight to every part of the work until it was done. You see, her being a woman did not prevent her doing the work. But if she had been only a careless or an ignorant woman she could not have done it. It was _mind_, you see, and cultured mind at that, which was the master power.
If she had not been working with him in making the plans, she could not have worked for him in carrying them out. Instead of lamenting over your s.e.x, you would better rejoice in the fact that you are a _spirit_, and realize that your power in all spheres of activity will be measured by the cultivation of your mental and spiritual powers.”
”But, father, even if I do cultivate my mind, I shall probably never have an opportunity to do such a grand thing as help to build a Brooklyn bridge.”
”Probably not, but you can do a greater thing. You can fit yourself to work on finer material than insensate stones. You can mould plastic minds. It is a far greater thing to wield spiritual forces than to manipulate inorganic matter.”
”But, all men do not merely make _things_. There are great statesmen, great soldiers, great writers.”
”True, but you would not want to be a soldier, I am sure. To kill is not a glorious profession. And to be a great statesman or writer is not merely a question of s.e.x; it is a question of mind.”
”Do you think women have as much ability as men? Aren't men really smarter than women?”
Mr. Wayne smiled at the girl's eagerness. ”I do not compare men and women to decide their relative ability,” he answered. ”I believe their minds differ, but that does not imply that one is superior and the other inferior. Each is superior in its own place.”
”But men's minds are so much stronger, father. Women never can be on the same level as men.”
”Bring me two needles of different sizes from your work basket. Now, tell me, which is superior to the other.”
”That depends on what you want to do with them,” replied Helen. ”If you were going to sew on shoe b.u.t.tons, you'd use this big one. If you wanted to hem a cambric handkerchief, you'd take this fine one.”
”Just so. Each is superior in its special place, and both are necessary.
This is just as it seems to me in regard to the ability of men and women. They are both minds; one strong, robust, enduring rough usage; the other fine, delicate, going where the first cannot go, and therefore supplementing it, and increasing the range of work that can be accomplished. The fine needle might complain that it could not do hard work, but do you think the complaint would be justifiable?”
”Why, no, I don't; but tell me what great things a woman can do--things that are worth while, I mean; something besides keep house and take care of children. It seems to me that merely to be a cook and nurse girl is not a very high calling.”
”She might be a chemist,” suggested Mr. Wayne.
”Oh, yes, a few women might; but I mean something that I could be, or other girls like me who have no special talent.”
”There is a great need of scientific knowledge among women. Every housekeeper needs to know something of chemistry. The woman who knows the chemical action of acids and alkalies on each other will never use soda with sweet milk, nor make the mistake of using an excess of soda with sour milk. And every day, in a myriad of ways, her knowledge of chemistry will be called into use.”
”Then every woman should be a psychologist, most especially if she is to have the care of children.”
”O, father, you use such big words. Tell me just what you mean.”
”I mean that the office of nurse or mother demands the highest study of mental evolution. More big words, but I'll try to make you understand.
”It seems to you that any one can take care of a baby. But what is a baby? Not just a helpless little animal, to be fed and clothed and kept warm. A baby is a spirit in the process of development. From the moment of birth it is being educated by everything around it; the very tones of voice used in speaking to it are educating it. It is a great thing to be President of the United States, but that president was once a baby. His life depended on the way he was fed and cared for; his character was largely created by the circ.u.mstances of his life; and his mental powers--which he inherited from both parents--were in his babyhood and early childhood largely under the training of some woman. That woman, whether mother or nurse, had the first chance to develop him, to make him worthy or unworthy. John Quincy Adams said, 'All I am I owe to my mother,' and that is the testimony of many of earth's greatest men.
Garfield's first kiss after his inauguration was very justly given to his mother.
”G.o.d has entrusted mothers with life's grandest work, the moulding of humanity in its plastic stage. You have done clay modelling in school, and you know that when the clay is fresh and moist you can make of it almost anything you will, but when it has hardened it is past remodelling. It is just the same with humanity. In babyhood the mind is plastic; when one has grown to maturity, it is hard and unyielding. Man makes _things_; woman makes _men_. Which is the greater work?”
Helen hesitated. ”It seems very n.o.ble as you talk of it, to train a child; but you know people don't feel that way. Mothers cuddle their babies, to be sure, but men think caring for babies is beneath them.
They sneer at it as woman's work.”
”Not all men, dear. Some of the great men of the world have spent years in the study of infancy, realizing that to know how the baby develops will enable them to understand better how to train it, and rightly to train babies is in reality to make the nation.”
Helen, leaning her head back on her father's shoulder, was silent for a while, then she kissed him softly, saying, ”Thank you, father dear. It has been a beautiful talk together. I am sure it will help me to be a better woman.”