Farm Boys and Girls

by William A. McKeever

1. May teach the young.—School teaching is perhaps the most common, as well as the most commendable, occupation for unmarried women. In many a case, the farmer’s daughter will find it greatly to her advantage to engage in this occupation for one or more terms. Thousands of the most worthy young women in our land are devoting their lives to this highest of secondary vocations for women. The work of teaching gives exercise to the altruistic feminine nature and approaches in a fair degree the satisfaction which comes to the mother who is sacrificing for children of her own.

But school teaching wears heavily on the vitality of nearly all young women who follow it long. Diseases peculiar to the sex are said to be very prevalent among such teachers, probably resulting from an excessive amount of standing. Tens of thousands of girls are going from the farm home to the school room, some of them to remain permanently in the business, but the majority to earn money of their own and to place themselves in better position for successful marriage. So, perhaps the first duty of the country parents to the daughter who takes up school teaching is to see that the latter’s health be not seriously impaired thereby. After that, the young woman’s proper advancement in the profession may be thought of. The ungraded district school is an excellent trying-out and testing position for the young teacher. But if she continues many terms in the school room, graded work will prove more advantageous, especially in the important matter of bringing the young woman into the company of marriageable young men.

2. May take up stenography.—A vast army of young women now support themselves with the use of the typewriter. This work pays slightly more the year round than school teaching. It is somewhat more confining; but, for various other reasons, it is less deleterious to the general health. Such office business, however, subjects the young woman to many temptations. It is the opinion of the author that stenography is not at all a desirable occupation for the farmer’s daughter to enter. The continued absence from home, the constant association with people differing radically in tastes and manners from the rural population, not to mention again the many temptations to accept lower moral standards—these and other matters will tend to estrange the farm daughter from her parents and to make them feel that something of the former charm of sweet simplicity and home affection has passed permanently out of her life.

One thing at least is to be considered before the daughter be permitted to leave the country home for an office position. That is, the work is not to be considered as permanent, but rather as a possible means of preparing for marriage and the contented home life that should follow.

3. May do social work.—Next to the work of teaching, perhaps the social-service work now being developed and carried on in the cities would make its appeal to the true-hearted young woman. Here again we have a sort of task that dips into the affections and sympathies of the worker and furnishes an opportunity for her to give freely out of the best she has in her make-up. Among the fortunate considerations of teaching and social work are the opportunities they offer for the sympathetic care and guidance of children—the indulgence of altruism and the mother instinct in the young woman. Parents will observe as a rule that their daughter returns from such occupations as these with increased affections for the home family and the home life and a broader and more general interest in people.

In recent years there has developed a new and remarkably promising field of social work for both young men and young women. Charitable, philanthropic, and other social-welfare institutions have been greatly multiplied, while their work has been put on a scientific basis. The modern method of securing employees in such places is that of calling persons especially trained and fitted to do the work required, and to pay reasonably for the service. Several new, first-class schools and institutions for training workers in this human field have been recently organized.

Now, if country parents become anxious to have their daughter go away to the city and find desirable employment and that at living wages, the author recommends this new line of social work most highly. For reasons given above, and for others, it will prove an excellent stepping-stone to the home life—the work is in the general field of human betterment so inviting to the natural instincts of the well-reared young woman; the associates are persons likewise interested in human welfare and ranking high in moral and religious character; the required work is usually of a nature to awaken the deepest sympathies and affections and to make the countenance of the worker shine with a new spiritual light.

4. May secure clerkships.—Clerking and general store work is much followed by young women to-day, but such work may be put down in the list of hazardous occupations for women of any age. Close economic conditions in the cities force many thousands of girls to leave home and seek clerkships at a wage so low as indirectly to undermine the health and more directly to impair the morals. Great armies of these girls are compelled to live in dingy, cramped quarters, to subsist on much less than the quantity of wholesome food necessary for good health, to practice the strictest economy in matters of dress—to say nothing of the constant temptation to sell their virtue as a means of increasing the small income to the living margin.

Only in extreme cases, therefore, will intelligent farm parents consent to their daughter’s leaving home to take up a clerkship, and that when her home life and her social surroundings can be satisfactorily foreseen and arranged for in advance. Even then, the question must be raised: Will this new position probably prove helpful as an introduction to a better form of occupation?

No other possible occupations for the farmer’s daughter will be listed here excepting that of trained nurse—a position in which many young women are doing a splendid service for humanity and at the same time supporting themselves adequately. But of course such a position should not be thought of unless the girl feels an inner call to take it up. Practically all other outside lines of work for women are too masculine. Parents should by no means allow their daughters to take up a life task that means nothing other than mere money-making. Many women, it is true, are succeeding to-day in business callings, but they are doing so as a rule in violation of certain laws of nature. Many of these business women are masculine in their dispositions and they become more so as the unnatural calling continues to be pursued.