Practical Suggestions for Mother and Housewife | Page 9

a fellow citizen and member of society, under the common
rights of citizenship and the proper social rules, but in business hours
she should obey the strict ethics of business. Thus she may don what
dress she will when her work is done, adopt all the eccentricities of
fashion she pleases, but she should wear with cheerfulness, and even
pride, the simple dress prescribed, for good and sufficient reasons, as
her working costume. Even when no such regulations are made, her
good sense and taste should lead her to adopt a modest, practical
working dress, simple mode of arranging the hair, etc. This is always
agreeable to customers, and it is by pleasing these she best pleases her
employer.
Stenographers and secretaries have a special obligation to keep sacred
the confidences of their employers. If they find that in so doing they are
made instruments in perpetrating frauds on other business men, or the

community in general, they have no right to expose these. Their only
proper course is to resign their positions, holding sacred, however, the
knowledge gained while acting as employees. It is only when formally
relieved of this obligation by legal compulsion to testify in court that
they may reveal this knowledge.
While it is the custom of an employer to demand references of the
employee, and not give them for himself, the only safe course for a
woman seeking employment is to look into the character of the man for
whom she is to work, and the nature of his business. This she may do
indirectly in the case of character, and directly in the case of nature of
business. If the employer refuses to impart this, saying, "Your work
will be to do whatever I ask you," it is a blind, and therefore dangerous
contract into which you are entering, and you should withdraw from it
in time.
When an employee has proved her efficiency, and has seen that it is
producing an amount of returns to the business of which she is not
receiving her proportionate share, it is her right and duty to ask for an
increase in wages. If she fails to receive this, she should investigate the
conditions in the labor market of her class, and guide her action
accordingly. If she finds that there is a demand for workers of her
ability at the higher wage, she should again proffer her request to her
employer, with a statement of this fact. If he still refuses the increase,
she should resign her position, upon proper notice, and seek
employment elsewhere.
When the unmarried woman employs herself in free service for the
public good there will be no need for her to contend for the proper
returns, which will be the love and respect of the community, given her
in full measure. In comparison with these rewards, the honors of club
president and society leader, for which many women contend with a
rivalry that surpasses in bitterness contests for political honors among
men, are mean and empty. The words of the Master to His disciples,
that he who would be first among them should be servant to his fellows,
should be taken to heart by American women, before whom are
opening new and vast opportunities for the display of pride and

ambition no less than for modest, faithful service.

CHAPTER III
THE WIFE
Nature's Intention in Marriage--The Woman's Crime in Marrying for
Support--Her Blunder in Marrying an Inefficient Man for Love--The
Proper Union--Mutual Aid of Husband and Wife--Manipulating a
Husband--By Deceit--By Tact--Confidence Between Man and Wife.
"Her very soul is in home, and in the discharge of all those quiet virtues
of which home is the centre. Her husband will be to her the object of all
her care, solicitude and affection. She will see nothing but by him, and
through him. If he is a man of sense and virtue, she will sympathize in
his sorrows, divert his fatigue, and share his pleasures. If she becomes
the property of a churlish or negligent husband, she will suit his taste
also, for she will not long survive his unkindness."--SIR WALTER
SCOTT--_Waverley._
Marriage is the crown of woman's life, a dignity that is all the more
honorable because it is of general expectation and realization. There is
a presumption that the unmarried woman has missed the central and
significant reason for her existence, the perpetuation and nurture of the
race, and that the burden is upon her for compensating society by other
services for this lost opportunity. Marriage for a woman means
attainment first and fulfilment after, the reward given in advance of
labor, and therefore entailing a special moral obligation that it be
justified in its fruits. Nature gives the future mother peace of mind, rest
from doubt as to career and from