The Future of our Daughters

Southland Times, Issue 11670, 26 February 1891, Page 3

The Future of our Daughters

i New York Forum, What is to be tbe result of the full and free entrance of our daughters into thia outside world of freedom, of achievement, of satitfyine work, and of rewarding wages ? Tbe result will be their full and free investiture with power. We have learned that knowledge is power; we know that caone} in power; they are to possess both. 'Wisdom is a defence, aod money is a defence,' said Solomon, and in tbeir poiitigioD ot wisdom and of money, or of the opportunity to learn tbe oo« and to earn tbe other, they are to be equipped to meet life witb all its vicissitudes. But more and better than this, they are to know tbe j >y of feeling themselves a part ot the living, moulding, life-iDipiring forces of the world and of the universe. They ar« to wit>ld for tbemtelvf g 'the Godiike power of changing and compelling circumstance.' In tbe higher ream of the intellect they are to ferlthe exultaion of ha haman f p rit whtn it faces the great prob eou of eci<-nce and philosophy, and feeU witi ia it*elf the ac piration, »y, the ability, to comprehend and , tolvn ihem. Tney are to knew the deligut of realising the infinite fie ds of knowledge that every where around them lie op«-n for their exp!oratioo. They are to know the joy of comradeship with the mighty thinkers and work*™, who help to opi if t tbe human race. All this on the intellectu .1 and spiritual plane. < n the plane of material life they are to be enabled to gratify tbat Gorl-given instinct ihat craves ita own, and tbioks no price too dear to psy for such j p)Bießsioo. They are to learn tbe power j ard uses of tbat most subtle instrument of I civilisation, money, and to command the respect that is accorded to tbe woman who carries a cht q a e-book und is a stockholder in banks, railroad^ mires, and great luauufaclunug enterprises ; who pays taxes on pf-r*OD*l property hi d real estate; aod duubllbSi, a* the logical and ethical result of ail this, in the not fardiataot future will drop a ballot. ' But while we argue thus for the future ' of onr daughters who mast be, or who choose to in , breail- winners, we do not for. get the great domains of usefulness and of power lying above the pUoe of br« d- awi' D Dg ihat HTe open to niu n'tid w. m o. , O..ce g.ve foil scope to the expression ot i their powers, in &n> tina every form if i lic'ivi y that may or rresponrl to those ! pow«rs ; relieve alik- from f«ar of poverty I and (<ep«ndence, and from the tyraooy of eoforo-d inactivity ; and wnmaohood will i blossom into a beauty and sirength and ' lovelinet* of character hitherto nndream<d ' of. Esp^cinilv in the home relations of women will thia be apparent. As an earnett t'. inker upon tbe subject has said : ' It is iotvitabl« that the removal of any external i pressure of necessity to marry for the t-ake ; of a home and eupyort will have a teadency to elevate the standard of marriage, firat among women, aod then among men.' Oae of the greatest foes to liippy marriages is tbe exieteoceof the mercenary spirit on the part of parents and daughter*. Nothing will so effectively remove it as the posses sion by young girls and women of satisfactory, honourable, remunerative occupations, and the countenance and approbation of s< ciety in ih« pursuit of them. Margaret Fuller said : 'No woman nan give her band with dignity until she has learned to stand alone.' Tbe day is near at hand when the thoroughly educated woman will be tbe one admiringly described by Goethe aa 'able, if necessary, to be both father and mother to her children.' Here will be found <he trne conditions for forming love-inwpired marriages, and as a ennseqa nee, tbe ceasing to be of any other kiud. Aod whitn we open to them the door of freedom to find that highest heaven of narlbly hippinws, the home boilt upon love and a Uappy murriage, we at the same tim« furnish them with a key of escape from that Bistile,that hell, a marriage from which love and respect have departed. We enable tbeni when, through mistake or deception, ench a calamity has overtaken them, to ksep their children, and if necessary to that keeping, to support them; and to exe<cine that special power wt>i<:h seems to hive b- en conferred upon the mother alone, of uinking a home for herself and for h-r little «aea if she has bat a roof and a crust.