Show The Decay De ag of I I II Domesticity S By ORell I the dull season when society is out of town when the politicians DURING D have ceased to squabble in the Palace of Westminster ter the London pa papers papers papers pers generally open their columns for the discussion of some question I of the day Thousands of British readers anonymous or ot otherwise seize the opportunity opportunity opportunity by the forelock and enjoy the th pleasure of seeing themselves Thus we have had Is Marriage ll a F Hure What Shall We Do With Our Boys Bos The Servant Question Qu and sa S on The Dally Daily Chronicle has started a discussion on The Decay of Domestic Domesticity ity which has lias caused some some of Its readers to write interesting letters on the question Many lany of them explain It by the more and more increasing difficulty In finding servants Others maintain that this is the result of higher education which makes woman look for more Intellectual than the mere rear rearIng Ins Ing of o children and arid of housekeeping S SNow t that Now I believe what nature has preordained Physiologists know every animal has a sphere that it is endowed with certain specific organs and qualities suited for usefulness In a particular environment S IsIt it then to be supposed that woman woman is the only animal without a sphere Dont we know the exact contrary Dont we know that her characteristics design her not nat for lighting fighting the world but for the supremely important work that men cannot do the Ithe caring for children In infancy anti them themI to Ii I not there comprised in Ia this of f character sufficient to satisfy the intellectual cravings of woman and Is not an absurd misconception of the whole raison detre for her to ta say that she Is nobody If she doesn t make use o oher of her education to make a name for Her choice is between being a woman filling supremely Well her lier womans woman s mission the only sIngle mission in Wh l she Is not superfluous in which no noman noman noman man can ever hope to be her rival or being a more m re or less mediocre journal journalIst or novelist or lawyer lawer cr r doctor There is no fear that a George Sand or a George Eliot will wUl not be pro produced produced produced such vocations vacations impose themselves x The nineteenth century produced two women wo en geniuses as os novelists How much worse off would the world be tomorrow is women ceased to be Journal Journalists journalists isis novelists lawyers lawers or doctors No woman can do supremely v veil ell two distinct things and aud my argument Is that the average woman Is 13 needed for the conservation and consolidation nay for the very existence of the home and not in the least needed outside of it Let women show what women ca can be how they might influence men how they educate children how they might idealize home and family life Let them endeavor to realize their ideals as mothers wives daughters and sisters and their emancipation about which th they y talk so much cant and lind rubbish will be on the lines that are in conformity with nature and sex and ana not nol counter to them It seems seemu to me unless I am very dense that in saying every woman should hould be brought up to earn her own living the woman righter Tighter gives away aay her case since the natural result of a social revolution of this kind would uld be beto beto beto to Increase the mischief generally so fO much attacked by her that Is the decay of womanly virtues and qualities the growing competition between the sexes and the general tendency to despise domestic accomplishments as un unworthy unworthy unworthy worthy of serious attention What I personally would advise Is that woman Should be so trained as to tomake tomake tomake make her a specialist in the conduct and the management of the home and whether her own r rs for a trained in this manner would never experience e any in making ranking her own wn living There temptation is often ten strong trough ough to increase the family famay ny the 1 e earnings but ut outside of the th manual labor bor of the working w classes the adva advantage Is so small in compa comparison lson to the expense of delegating dome tic duties dutie to paid workers that only In certain o occupations such as have haye wo woI women adopted It When In my l I se sea ary of my women On 3 bard a at work ork I say sayto to them now naw here her Is a quarter tor for you now nov no please give Kie ive me In the pleasure of your company for tor the th n next three hours The decay of or domesticity is not Jue to the lack of servants the spreading of education the ruction erection r of pI flat fiat houseS house but only to the spreading of sense senseless senseless senseless less theories which every very day more and und more tend to take woman away awny from the lovely which was intended for her T by y that never to be excelled mother Nature Copyright 1901 by W R B Hearst I |