Part 13 (1/2)
Domestic service is expensive, and of poor quality, for no one is willing to occupy the position of a ence of our wo a good personal ience to the construction and arrangeh order of taste in these matters, and the skilled labor that can satisfy it, is necessarily very costly
Our wo these ence and hands inthe work of our women, take into account the real brain-power expended in this triple combination of econolish Traits_ says, referring to the English aristocracy:--”It is surprising how o into fine manners”
It would be very pertinent to say of Ao into fine dressing,” and our girls join theirfrom work to society, the strain upon our woularly, have irregular hours, and an irregular regireeable and brilliant
English faces at a party look as they do at church, and as they do at Madame Tussaud's Contrast with them the smiles, luminous eyes, and pretty cant or toss of the head of the carefully-dressed American woman, and think of the work to be done the next day
In place of a health-seeking instinct in A which says, ”I do not mind how hard a strain I have, provided I can hold out till I get through it” We are too much eue and ill-health Neither have we sufficient feeling respecting the permanence of the family to lead us to plan for a succession of descendants An American says, ”I had rather have forty-five or fifty years of active, satisfactory life, than sixty or seventy years of a co existence;” and, if we look at the case only as it affects hi, but e consider the constitution that this overstrained life bequeathes to the children, it assu accusto and best-bred families, the eye is mis-educated; we establish a false ideal for women, and become comparatively indifferent to a fine physique ina faallantry inclines theular habits are to soreatest ularity, and take little pains to avoid it We have soestion, but they are for the most part practised only by those who have acquired ills, and are not very frequently applied in the rearing of children
The extree open air exercise, and coo out
Our children do solish children, and they have a good deal more of their time wasted in our systeland in the sense in which we use it, which requires that the able and conscientious pupils of the class shall look on while the weak and indolent ones are being drilled; which plan, judging froe, I feel justified in saying, involves for them not only a waste of froue fully or nearly equal to the sareat pressure upon class rank, the value of which is deterh degree of regularity in their work; at the same time it has most effect upon the most conscientious pupils; if it does not lead them to overdo in work, it is liable to irls suffer farthe relation between the health of the country and the education, the feomen who have had a university course of study need not be taken into account Most of thee when people are allowed to decide upon their own habits, and, as a matter of fact, these habits have been deter circumstances that surround woe, with few exceptions, they o forward to self-support, and ere borrowing the whole, or a part of the money required for their current expenses, on the proes of their subsequent work
Many of the private lessons, or were teaching classes in the preparatory school connected with the college; and, if a few hours of leisure were left after all this employment, they were likely to be spent upon extra studies; aside fro, and many of them boarded themselves They often overworked, but it was the necessities of their lives that were driving thee However, if the English feeling respecting health, and theit, prevailed in our country, these mistakes would less frequently occur
Unquestionably our whole nation needs so activities We need either less work, or some more skilful combination of the different varieties of work, that will secure us more rest, and, except in a small circle of wealth, our women, as a rule, need this rest more than the men We need repose, freedom from anxiety perhaps, et it?
We cannot have back the caste condition of society, nor would we desire it We cannot stop the progress of our syste to do it We cannot set aside the practice and belief in equality of education for men and women; men would not like it, and wos that can be done that will conduce to the desired result, and the best aanize women's work
The education is not a mistake; the fault lies in this, that the industries of wo education
They have been exeree unknown in the old countries, and the average education is far higher than exists elsewhere a wo a few of the intellectual industries hithertoof the professions, or, indeed, all lines of human industry, to woreater importance is the application of scientific econoe sphere of work already in their hands, and which is re in a disastrously undeveloped condition, just because it is in their hands
The low rate of fees leaves the in the ways of their grand ners that in the application of the division of labor principle to domestic work, we are actually behind them, that we still permit such excess of work and excess of waste in our do branches of doree trades, while nursing and laundry-work are trades in a far greater degree than with us
Upon this point of the organization of do, I can do no better than to refer to the suggestive article of Mrs E M King in the _Contemporary Review_ for December, 1873 The substance of this article was presented at the last ht Honorable Mr Forster occupied the chair, and at the close of the discussion reive up his private hoive up its palaces to rush into the society of a set of co-operative hoe fortunes” would ains in domestic service The scheme at the outset would recommend itself only to those whose incomes did not provide an adequate supply for their wants on the present wasteful plan of doer returns for their outlay of money, and it could advance in favor only as it fulfilled this pro a trustworthy principle of econoainst the destruction of the tian to consult Mrs King in regard to the house arrange out her plan
There will be no difficulty in preserving the desired privacy for the falish ho in the English degree
Adopt and apply the plan of which Mrs King suggests an outline, press the division of labor principle in wohters who make our homes will not break down from overwork
The readiest and surest corrective for the excessive greed of our girls for society is to carry on the systeratification to the social appetites, induces girls to reh work, thus securing to them other sources of pleasure than social amusements and the companionshi+p of friends The process of co-education tends to develop a well-balanced character, and to put into it a trustworthy ballast, which Airls cannot afford to do without For confirmation of this, one need only read the reports of any school judiciously ed on this plan, or he need only use his eyes in coirls educated in the high schools and private schools of our Western cities Of course girls of the present average habits and inherited tendencies ree of work that may be safely required of their brothers, who have fewer domestic demands upon their time, eneral, healthier habits of life Many a girl who takes especial care of herself--and, as a rule, the able girls do this--or who has especial care from her mother, may safely do what the best boys do without especial care
But so long as girls require from one hour and a half to three hours a day, to be, or to develop theirl, and boys require only about one-third of that tiet theirls in with, or they must economize their power better, if they are able to do as irls must consume power in all the ways that constitute the approved specialties of girls, they cannot do the whole work of boys without doing much more than boys do