Page:Theresa Serber Malkiel - Woman of Yesterday and To-day.djvu/5



YOUR Great Grandmother was a womanly woman, who did not mix in politics, did not go to shows, did not dance at the age of forty. Ignorant of the ways of the world she clung to your Great Grandfather for moral support and bodily protection. She seldom, if ever, asserted herself, or did anything against his will.

Born and raised within her father's homestead, she had no voice in its management, no choice of occupation, no reward for her daily labor. She earned the clothes she wore and the food she ate, but her clothes as well as her food, belonged to her father for whom she had to work and whose duty it was to clothe and feed her.

She had to marry in compliance with his will; was transferred from one homestead to another, not as legal part owner, only as a helpmate—she could not buy or sell the place she called home, nor give or take anything without her husband's consent. She and everything she possessed became the husband's property on the day of their marriage. Rising with the sun she milked, washed, cooked, brewed, spun, sewed, made soap and candles, cured