Girls and Women

ced character. I knew a girl who was a good cook before she was ten years old; she had a genius for sewing; she was an excellent scholar in school, and had musical talent

another, because when she found every reality fall short of her ideal she had not the good sense to work quietly to improve the matter, but went about proclaiming her disgust.

why not form it by teaching practical things

to cook,

e for good reading. She may study the whole circle of the sciences without reaching this end, or she may not have more than half a dozen books in her library and yet learn the lesson. The practical advantage of most of her studies in school depends on whether or no they lead to this result. How many girls ever use chemistry, or physics, or geology, or zo?logy in any practical way? Yet what a difference the study of al

not so. I do believe in a very broad education for girls; but if I had to choose between a broad education which had crammed a girl with

ssays, novels, and especially poetry. She needs to be able to decide what is best and what is not; she must learn to respond to beauty and truth, and to repel what is false and ugly. This is the practical education, because it bears upon both happiness and characte

rather think out a domestic problem than act it out. The education of books alone is so on

g; and in any emergency sewing may be neglected from week to week without serious consequences, while cooking must go on every day

n to cook. But cooking is certainly practical, ninety-nine women in a hundred have occasion some time in their lives for this accom

hey want to be chemists hate the idea of going into their own kitchens to work. It is possibly because they cannot choose their own hours for cooking. Cooking certainly develops the

home is the practical goal of the majority of women. A woman who is neat and intelligent generally proves to be a good

y business arithmetic, which she can learn if occasion requires, but the principle

rly, or even guide her own affairs as a single woman, without a good knowledge of arithmetic. Her money will be wasted, her servants will cheat her, tradespeople will be demoralized by her. T

abulous price, while he engaged an artist of distinction to oversee her untidy attempts at drawing. At last he remembered that she ought to have a teacher

of good nature. "I hate arithmetic, you know," she said confidingly, shrugging he

cessity of dividing $3.25 by 13, and she went to work. After a season of struggle her countenance cleared. "Upon my word, I've got the answer-25!" "Twenty-five what?" "Twenty-five-why-twenty-five dollars!" "Wouldn't that be rather high for ribbon?" asked the teacher. "Oh, I don't know," replied Miss Malvina carelessly. "I'll tell you," she added triumphantly; "I should tell them to give me the b

don't know what they want," she said forlornly. "They say we are all so extravagant. I don't know what difference that makes to them if we pay for what we buy. We never hurt

ive up her last ration of water to any one who needed it more. She was ready to pour out money in any case of distress, but she had no idea of its va

rithmetic is positively needed by every girl, rich or poor, she could have learned all she needed to know o

provided for without the contraction of debt. In a rich family the burden of the mother's incapacity for figures does not fall directly on those dearest to her, but it has un

the time she is old enough to have an allowance of even ten cents a month, and ther

hment. I should not wish to be understood as limiting a musical education to these requirements. I should like to have every girl carry her education as far as she can without neglecting duties she feels more important. Even when she has no musical talent, but merely a love for music, though she cannot give much pleasure to others,

way for girls to study art is for them to look at good pictures with older people who have taste and judgment, because this gives them new resources of enjoyment. O

t on all the rest. Then, anything which puts cheap pleasures within our reach is a safeguard and a blessing. The happiness of life is n

write a legible hand, and to speak correctly. She ought to be able to teach them arithmetic, and also the rudiments of one science, to give them in early life the right outlook upon the world around them. She ought particularly to be able to give them fine manners, but these belong to the moral training which was spoken of at the beginning of the chapter. They do bear, however, on that part of the social life which may not be distinctly moral,

usually called success in the world, they are probably courage, good

at to live rather than live to eat, I think even from a practical standpoint the full development of a woman is of more consequence than the amount of money she can earn. As far as the mere living goes, a practical woman can live better on a little money than an unpractical