Women Working And Reading

Mi-s. E. W. CraftB, of Sliaron, read an excellent paper before the Grass Lake farmers' club on tJie above sub ject, fi-om which we clip a few wel 1 eressed tlioughts as reported iir tbe Graas Liikc News: "I liave no doubt I shall voice the veriest kind of tmison whenlsay that wlnle I certai.ily think women in general shonld iead more. I do not tliink that it follows that less vvork will bring about tlie desired reformation. There is the style of woman wlio will read at all costs. The brea muy run over, the babies may ery, the place ia general suggest the ragsred enge ot despair, but the serenity of it guardián angel remainsunruffled wlii] she pursues the fortunes of an fmpossl ble hero and weeps in sympathy witl n eqnally impossible heroïne. There is the woman whosava shn hn no time to i-ead, but wliose liouse is deluged with nselesa fanoy work of hei ou-.i construct ion. íVorüd it not be well for lier to allow the elegance of siniplicity and intelligent conversaron to make up for a lack ó'í blue worsted dogsand hand-painted scoop shovels' Tbere is another who devotea all her spare time to calling on her iieighbors and sroing shopping, who couldn'tthink oi Joining a literary society because it vrould take her so much from home. Then there is the novel reading woman. She is the pnly case in which I shóaid advise more work and less reading. She is a drug on the ufa i rhe idefas of life are perverted, her strength is sapped by her emotion, süe sa morbid, over-sensitive, dlssatlsfled vomaii. Show me a novel-readinggirl an.l 1 will show yon a disrnal failureas woman. She will be tl.e first to fln.i oUTftmt her husband is not a pnIlce that hor babies are not cherubs, that 'fe m ffenenii is far from lici ideal e P'ty her, but with the wealth of noble líterature with wbich the coun'9 proviiled tliere seems small ; her. I should suggest as a that work besupplied in plenl readiiiK with sucli scarcitv thal I u IJ nicle on inetaphvsics would freslúiüt to her. Perhaps r ,„ ffÍ cal upon this subject, butwhenl an.edShallwomeiireadmorel8av nost deeidedly yes, if tl.ey uilllet rI(;;U' ie we tlmn trashy novéis withwhicli the country isflooded Put cittes in the pockets of your boys Hives and Tolstoi out of the librariea oí vour girls. The one may destroy ! body, the other may destroy the Uien there is the great class of ■ women whosc bodies are ovenvorke.l anfl whose rninds are underfed W ome who are worn and weary with '"''cl' serving, vvhose lives are one 'rearyroun.1 „f dnties that are never ' and the monotony of whose exifenoe is never breken. Statlatlmi wow tliat our insane asylums are béing (Uled wïtli just 8„c"i, women. beprtniary cause cannot be found in t mayand undoubtedly does fojurethehealth of many but it does not the mind. luisband never spends a dollar to better advantage than wl,en he invests a book ftr his wife, and a daughter can „ever hiy „p happlncss for ureyears in a more realistic way n when she takes the mending basket fram tho tired hands of her mether and replaces it with a npwlv cut