The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-12-31 00:00:00

"A WORD IN SEASON" TO ENGLISH-

WOMEN.

" A French Lady" has sent the following sensible
letter to the papers for publication :

May I venture to send you. few lines suggested to me by
a several weeks' sojourn in England, where the terrible
strife now raging on the Continent has led me to seek a
refuge? What I have to say has, no doubt, been said many
times by English writers, teachers, and preachers far better
than I, a Frenchwoman Can presume to do. Still, some sub-
jects can never be too often treated, and my foreign and,
most likely, incorrect way of eseressing my view. upan
them may be acceptable in this age oi lomaLs intseference
and Elucstion Bills.

lime. been frr the lett three months living In England
—alternately in the country north and south, to C country
town and lo lodging, by the sea-aide. Everywhere the same
feature ol Elpli.h life has struck me. whether staying with
rich talent's or teitnivine 100 ouch more humble sphere
of Ille—the 'capacity of Englishwomen to what we
inocairomes cabekler to be We IDA Woe of ma IMP

day lits—lmowing how to mend, to cut out, to mar, to knit.
to wash, to cook, to look Moe and make all around you look
Mae, even with the smallest manna. It saddens sad die-
Fee" me to see the mak the old Emery, the dirty clothes
ha which children (your lovely English children we should be
so proud of), girls, And ,ea men go about without the
slighted apparent send of shame, and Which could be re-
paired with a few momenta labour, or • needle and thread
—why, their wires and mothers ought to be sahamed of
themselves and this degrading want of trouble on their
part. And from all I see, it is not that they do not esze
about fine clothes and smart dressing When they can get It.
Ne ; they wlil boy new clothe. as on as they can afford
them, but no woman mama to consider It her Ent duty to
mend and keep clean those garments which her husband's
wages have hardly earned, and which her lazy and unclean
Engin do not cars to keep tidy to the end.
How I wish some of your good English wives 'honest,
brave mole, with, perhaps, more starling virtuee than many
• French one), who let their husbands go to their dolly
work with dirty and unmeoded shirt., tattered vents, and
torn socks—how I wish they could see many • French
"b10t..," old, worn, faded, but neatly patched, cleanly
washed, tidily repaired by the active fingers of our
" nshaagires " That Is the word, that is the quality which,
to any mind, Is so missing in English households—high
and low.

Thai fearful vice of drunkenness, which seems so madly
nrishing in England, would it in thrive were the working
man—or even, to speak of higher classes, wetly a man of
bustners—t) find his home, his clothes, his food more pleaa
In nicer, more attractive?

•
Here, too, Is another subject of my reflections, and chilly
In the lodgings where I am now staying don It recur to me
personally ant In • most forcible manner. Why do not
Englishwomen know • little more about the plainest file
means of cookery? lilt to very difficult for them to muter
• tow of the very simple rules and receipts which make food
pleasanter to the eye, to the taste, and, I do believe, to the
stomach

Why I, like most other French Wilt s—though we have at
home but the trouble of inlet log an caciillent mosl to get it—
know more about cooking than any of the proteins(' cooks
I have met with here—and Icon &wee you that the good
woman who WI eriateode the dinners I now eat wil be far
wiser when I leave her lodgings from my very simple Wisc.
hoes In the way of treating vegeiables and daioti'y ssarmicg-
p scene
Why, because English routs and steak. are so well done,
many Englilh punning. to good, some English dishes so
acceptable, must your vegetables be raw, your omelettes like
shoe 'outlier, your sauces uneatable, your spinach like bitter
orb?

Why, because England's fair daughters have many and
rare accomplishments', her women are true and noble, and
have virtues which few countries can bout of, can they not
also be clever with their fingers, tidy In their habits In
England married women are seldom called upon to earn
their living as they daily are in France. Would it not be a
noble and quite as real way of doing in if by mending,
making, turning to ac,munt, they saved much of what Is
earned for them?

Where does the evil Ile? Is It In the want of early train-
ing at home, or of useful and practical ernes in schools?
I leave thle to those more competent than myself to say.
But when I hear of ladies' brains busied upon such subjects
u the Contagious Messes Act, and then me my landlora's
very Intelligent and nice little daughter of twelve, who can
neither sew nor knit, although she goes to school, I marvel
why clever and Influential women will •• chercher mid
quatorze heuree," and not seek to remedy evils nearer and
more fitted to their Christian efforts.