of its women. While
heathen and savage, they are drudges; when enlightened by education and
moulded by Christianity, they rise to the highest plane of humanity.
When a Neapolitan woman gave birth to a girl, it was, until very
recently, the custom of the poorer classes to display a black flag from
an upper window of the house, to avoid the unpleasant necessity of
informing inquirers of the sex of the infant. Even at the birth of a
child in the higher ranks, the midwife and physician who are in
attendance never announce to the anxious mother the sex of the newly
born, if a girl, until pressed to disclose it, because a female child is
never welcome.

It is much the fashion of the times to say that the sphere of woman is
exclusively within the domestic circle. It is highly probable that the
great majority desire no wider range; but even in the obscure quietude
of that circle they are subject to a thousand chances. We see what kind
of husbands many women obtain,--and that even the most deserving are at
times overtaken by sickness or poverty, and then are left with no
certain means of living. Poets and novelists may limit their destiny to
that of being beautiful and charming, but the wise and considerate have
long since seen that some comprehensive improvement in their condition
is needed. Their resources must be enlarged and made available. It will
increase their self-respect, and make them spurn dependence on the
charity of friends. I am inclined to think that all true women are
working-women,--at least they would be such, if they could obtain the
proper employment. American girls cannot all become house-servants,
and few of them are willing to be such. Their aspirations are
evidently higher. They have sought the factory, the bindery, the
printing-office,--thus graduating, by force of their own inherent
aptitude for better things, to a higher and more intellectual
occupation, leaving the Irish and Germans in undisputed possession of
the kitchen.

A volume has been printed, giving a list of employments suitable for
women, but meagre in practical suggestions how to secure them. It was
thought that the war would bring about a brisk demand for female labor,
as great armies cannot be collected without causing a corresponding
drain from many occupations into which women would thus find admission.
But the melancholy facts already recited show how fallacious the idea
is, that war can be in any way a blessing to the sex. If some