Complaining Women by N. Y. Evening Post

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 16, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 39.

Complaining Women.

By N. Y. Evening Post

If an observing person were to make a broad generalization of the mental attitude of the majority of American women, he would say that it is characterized by a strong disposition toward complaint. If he were an old man, or one whose vigor of life was spent in the last generation, he would say that in this respect women have degenerated sadly. The causes of the tone of melancholy dissatisfaction may be in part attributed to a lack of physical strength; to the flavor of the air about us in this transition period in politics or religion. If he were less charitable in his judgments of people, he would say that it is caused more frequently by self-indulgence than anything else, and would argue that it is a disease susceptible of cure.

We do complain too much. It has certainly come to this, that one of the rarest characters in society is that of the woman who "takes things as they come," and labors to make the best of them. Our children catch the inspiration of our discontent, and are injured by it. A visitor to a kindergarten remarked the other day that almost every child in the room pouted if a wrong stitch were taken, or a wrong stroke of the pen given. It is usual to attribute the ills spoken of here to a strain upon the nerves, but in how few cases is there any justifiable strain? It is rarely a strain for food or for clothing, or for the schooling of the children, that knits the brow of the mother of to-day. Let any woman who reads these words look into her own heart and answer with honesty the question, "What is it that gives me the greatest anxiety every day? Why is my brow clouded and my spirit not serene?"