Liberty advocate. [volume] (Liberty, Miss.) 1835-1866, 1843-12-16
TAE PUZZLED HOUSEWIFE.


consider tho domestic education OF sue
Of you as arc the daughters Of our rio
merchants, successful professional men
or men OF inherited fortune. II you ar
30 fortunate as 10 1.-Two in tho country, 80
will probably learn domestic oconom.
from the necessity Of your condition. re-
Your opportunities ofinsirucllon may no
be- cutie equal TO Mary Bonds but IRON
the imperlcctions Of our domestic ser
Nice, from the Incompetence OF domestic
and the occasional mpos5ibiity of oh
thinning them--either the family wheel
must stand still, or you must put you
Shoulders 10 them,
This necessity, coming only occasi on
", may seem great hardship to you
You will have none of the facilities tha
Mary Bond has acquired from habit, anc
half days ironing, sweeping aud ar
ranging the bed rooms, laying the Ia
bIes, and above all, kneading batch Of
bread, will seem Herculeau labor to you
Depend upon it if you are totally ig-
norant Of domestic affairs, you are near
ly as unfit to be an American wife and
mother, as you were lame in both feet
and hands.
But what shall we say to those un
Fortunate young persons, who, bred up
in luxurious establishments in town, are
cut off from all accidental and rresista-
bic opportunities of acquiring a knowl-
edge Of domestic affairs? They are as
ignorant of domestic processes as is the
lily that neither spins nor weayes, of the
modes by which 1t is more gorgeoualy
arrayed, than Solomon in all his glory.
This ignorance lis all but an inevitable
misfortune. There is an intrinsic diff
Guilty in the case. All the. arrangements
of a town establishment, and all the ar
engagements of town life, preslppose that
the ladies' Of the house are to do moth
ing.
Such ladies may be so fortunate as to-
s secure competent, we'll instructed and
4 faithful domestic, but such birds are rare
in our land and those to whose share
they DO not fail, must make up their
\ minds TO having some times confusion
h and disorder in their establishments; to
NEGLECTED children and displeased hus-
bands; to finding they have been i'm
\ posed upon, or, what is far more painful,
4 that they have been unjust to their do
&mes,ics. How is this to be avoided ?-On-
4 ly by an allconquering sense of duty on
I the part of the parent, or by the com
i bined sense and virtue of self training
4 daughter.
u To show the disastrous and Notifying
consequences Of emitting this must have
of an American girls education, we pub
\ fish extracts from the letter Of an ac-
accomplished friend who, after keeping
house for twelve.years at New York, re-
moyed soon after commercial crisis, to
one ofthe Western States.
After describing The richness ana ex'
gusite beauty of the country about her,
and the change in her husband from ex
IRENE detection TO cheerfulness, in con
sequence of the happy change in his Pc
cuniary prospects, she says-"But hat
does all this avail mel lam miserable,
mortified woman. Don't be alarmed by
my language. have not yet broken "a
ny Of the laws sof the land, nor lost my
husbands affections, though | am sure
Deserve to lose them; but read on, and
plty me. You know, | determined TO be
Xrtuously economical, SO brought but
two servants wite me. This was rather
aredaction from my usual establishment
Disk; but our fortune was reduced, and
wished to conform to my Husbands cir
cnmstances. Anne was to be my woman
q all work; she was country-bred, and
highly recommended; and the other
Rose O'Brlen, was to be my chldren's
nurse.
"We sent on Anne some weeks before
Us TO unPack the furniture and get the
house in order, and when we arrived, in
pee order it was; and Anne had found
lime to do up courtship, and the very
day we arrived, she set off to be married
ito a young farmer at the head Of the Ri
yer, telling me very coolIy, that she
should think | might have expected as
much-that all girls that came to the
West, calculated to be marriedm
81 submitted Il could do nothing else,
Rose had been brought up TO nursery
work. and was almost as ignorant as my
selfcf all household work, and besides,
her hands were full with my baby who
was cutting her eye teeth.
"Fhe first morning after our arrival,
determined to be energetic, and do my
best to make my family comfortable Till
could supply Anne's place, SO / hurried
onmy dressing gown, and went down TO-
the kitchen to make coffee But how was
1t to be made? | ran up to ask Rose.--
She had always seenit made in gree
que; 50 had ], but we hadnone. thought,
If | let it soak long enough in boiling wa
ter II would be as good as il poured