第48章 MOUNTAIN-FRIENDS(4)

No;let girls be as thankful that they are girls as that they are human beings;for they also,according to his own loving plan for them,were created in the image of God.Their real power,the divine dowry of womanhood,is that of receiving and giving inspiration.In this a girl often surpasses her brother;and it is for her to hold firmly and faithfully to her holiest instincts,so that when he lets his standard droop,she may,through her spiritual strength,be a standard bearer for him.

Courage and self-reliance are now held to be virtues as womanly as they are manly;for the world has grown wise enough to see that nothing except a life can really help another life.It is strange that it should ever have held any other theory about woman.

That was a true use of the word "help"that grew up so naturally in the rendering and receiving of womanly service in the old-fashioned New England household.A girl came into a family as one of the home-group,to share its burdens,to feel that they were her own.The woman who employed her,if her nature was at all generous,could not feel that money alone was an equivalent for a heart's service;she added to it her friendship,her gratitude and esteem.The domestic problem can never be rightly settled until the old idea of mutual help is in some way restored.This is a question for girls of the present generation to consider,and she who can bring about a practical solution of it will win the world's gratitude.

We used sometimes to see it claimed,in public prints,that it would be better for all of us mill-girls to be working in families,at domestic service,than to be where we were.

Perhaps the difficulties of modern housekeepers did begin with the opening of the Lowell factories.Country girls were naturally independent,and the feeling that at this new work the few hours they had of every-day leisure were entirely their own was a satisfaction to them.They preferred it to going out as "hired help."It was like a young man's pleasure in entering upon business for himself.Girls had never tried that experiment before,and they liked it.It brought out in them a dormant strength of character which the world did not previously see,but now fully acknowledges.Of course they had a right to continue at that freer kind of work as long as they chose,although their doing so increased the perplexities of the housekeeping problem for themselves even,since many of them were to become,and did become,American house-mistresses.

It would be a step towards the settlement of this vexed and vexing question if girls would decline to classify each other by their occupations,which among us are usually only temporary,and are continually shifting from one pair of hands to another.

Changes of fortune come so abruptly that the millionaire's daugh-ter of to-day may be glad to earn her living by sewing or sweeping tomorrow.

It is the first duty of every woman to recognize the mutual bond of universal womanhood.Let her ask herself whether she would like to hear herself or little sister spoken of as a shop-girl,or a factory-girl,or a servant-girl,if necessity had compelled her for a time to be employed in either of the ways indicated.

If she would shrink from it a little,then she is a little inhuman when she puts her unknown human sisters who are so occupied into a class by themselves,feeling herself to be somewhat their superior.She is really the superior person who has accepted her work and is doing it faithfully,whatever it is.

This designating others by their casual employments prevents one from making real distinctions,from knowing persons as persons.

A false standard is set up in the minds of those who classify and of those who are classified.

Perhaps it is chiefly the fault of ladies themselves that the word "lady"has nearly lost its original meaning (a noble one)indicating sympathy and service;--bread-giver to those who are in need.The idea that it means something external in dress or circumstances has been too generally adopted by rich and poor;and this,coupled with the sweeping notion that in our country one person is just as good as another,has led to ridiculous results,like that of saleswomen calling themselves "sales-ladies."I have even heard a chambermaid at a hotel introduce herself to guests as "the chamber-lady."I do not believe that any Lowell mill-girl was ever absurd enough to wish to be known as a "factory-lady,"although most of them knew that "factory-girl"did not represent a high type of womanhood in the Old World.But they themselves belonged to the New World,not to the Old;and they were making their own traditions,to hand down to their Republican descendants--one of which was and is that honest work has no need to assert itself or to humble itself in a nation like ours,but simply to take its place as one of the foundation-stones of the Republic.

The young women who worked at Lowell had the advantage of living in a community where character alone commanded respect.They never,at their work or away from it,heard themselves contempt-uously spoken of on account of their occupation,except by the ignorant or weak-minded,whose comments they were of course to sensible to heed.

We may as well acknowledge that one of the unworthy tendencies of womankind is towards petty estimates of other women.This classifying habit illustrates the fact.If we must classify our sisters,let us broaden ourselves by making large classifica-tions.We might all place ourselves in one of two ranks -the women who do something and the women who do nothing;the first being of course the only creditable place to occupy.And if we would escape from our pettinesses,as we all may and should,the way to do it is to find the key to other lives,and live in their largeness,by sharing their outlook upon life.Even poorer people's windows will give us a new horizon,and people's windows will give us a new horizon,and often a far broader one than our own.