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    78 TACTS VERSUS IDEAS.

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    + Beautiful As Weeds, Flowers If Left Un...

    for all classes , rising from _, the lowest to tlie highest ; since to lead a life of luxurious ease and pleasure"without aim ox effortis as

    inju-, , rious to the well-being * of the individual , as are enforced inactivity and uselessness to those of whom we specially speak .

    Examples are so numerous , and of such constant recurrence , of the fatal evils which track the steps and strew with thorns the paths ,

    of daughters left destitute , that our difficulty lies in making * a choice among the disappointed , care-worn beings by whom we are

    surrounded . For the sake of clearness we shall divide them into three groups , and take first , the daughters of men of property , for whom ,

    in case of the father ' s death , ample provision is presumed to have been made . Secondly , the daughters of men supposed to be wealthy ,

    but whose riches , dependent on commerce , may not be relied upon for a certainty . Thirdlythe daughters of those who have barel

    sufficient to support' their , families , ( according to the present luxu y - rious habits of living , ) and whose incomes die with them . „ We

    might almost add a fourth to the series , and take in the daughters of small tradesmen , or of the better class of artisans , whose

    daughters , equally without preparation , are flung into the world to sink or swim , as force of will or strength of body may enable them to battle

    with the waves of circumstances . The difference between them and the others consists in the fact that they are thrust into the tide of

    active life during the lifetime of their parents , and do not wait to be thus thrust , until literally they are homeless . From this point

    of view , theirs is the lesser hardship , because , although untrained and untaught , they know that somehow or other they must scramble

    for their living , and some of these girls , by the habits they have acquired for themselves , dp manage to get on in a fashion which is

    j > ut out of the _j _> ower of the girls in the classes above them . Daughters of men of property may be supposed to be exempt

    from the dangers attendant on altered circumstances , as they are almost sure to find husbands . But it sometimes happens that even

    these women suffer from the negligence of their natural guardians . Fathers are not so careful as they ought to be in securing the

    tions of the female members of their families _njDon . themselves por and it not unfrequently occurs that the reckless extravagance of brothers ,

    leaves only a bare pittance for the sisters . The same in marriage : many a man has brought wife and daughters to beggary by

    thoughtless _exjDenditure ; how can even these women , any more than their ¦ poorer unless they unm have arried 'been sisters taug , ht hel when p themselves youngself in -reliance their hour and of received need ,

    an'education which could then , be turned , to good account , ? They cannot undo the past , and hard , dreary , nay almost impossible , is the

    task now to be performed by those who hitherto had never been asked to exert either mind or bodthe dreary task of learning and

    unlearning at the' same time . All y _; this misery might have been averted hy a few strokes of a father ' s pen when he made his will .

    But negligence of this nature is nothing in comparison with the

    78 Tacts Versus Ideas.

    78 TACTS VERSUS IDEAS .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1861, page 78, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041861/page/6/