Eastern times. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1846-1857, 1852-10-07
MISCELLANY Y.
The Ladies Of Maine.

The Ladies Of Maine.
Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe writes as fol-
lows to the National Era, in letter dated at
Bethel, Oxford County, Me.
These hooks and hollows among the moun-
tains produce race Of great intellectual act;v-
ity.
YouRo into plain farm honse, where the
furniture and all appertenances retain the most
primitive simplicity-be not surprised if you
see Latin, Greek and German books lying on
the table. You look inquiringly, and are told
perhaps of certain Mary Ann or Maria, who
is keeping school up at Umbagog, or some 9TH
er impossible out ofthe-way place, whose
books these are. She has long done using
them-she got them when she first began -
Now she has left them for Cynthia and Louisa,
or some other fair successor in the family line,
who is equally hardy and energetic in her at
tacks upon the tree of knowledge. Ten to one
you get glimpse Of said Cynthia, who proves
slender, bue-eyed girl, trinity dressed, with
pair of very pretty earrings in her ears, and
an al. of quiet composure, and sauior faire
which shows that she is princess of the blood
in her regions. You talk with her, and find
she has mind as sharp and bright and keen as
one OF the quartz crystals among her own
mountains. She has been to the academy in
the neighboring town. She has fancy for
drawing, and may be shows you crayon head
or landscape, which you did not expect to see
just then-she wishes she could learn more
about lt-she has cousin who paints in oils
she thinks perhaps, after she has taught quar-
ter or two, she will save enough enough to get
to Portland, and there take lessons of mas
ter.
One is struck with the intellectual activity
OF the Maine women, wherever he travels
among them. A friend of mine told me the
other day that in one of the towns where he
was visiting, in the clergyman's family, he
was much surprized to find the walls decorated
with oil paintings, which he thought it quite
beyond the means of his friend TO have pur
chased
Where did you get these paintings,' he
asked.
80, these! my wife painted ihem.' was the
reply.
The same gentleman relates that at another
time, when Hospitality entertained in an obscure
settlement, far out in the woods Of Maine, be-
ing struck with the domestic talents and agree
able manners of his hostess, he entered into
some compensation with her Knowing that
he was connected with the collegiate institu-
tlon In Brunswick, she inquired with great in
terest after young gentleman there, adding,
as an apology for her inquisitiveness, Il feel
interested in that young man, for fitted him
for college,
My friend, of course, thought she alluded to
some such fitting as knitting his stockings, or
making his shirts-and made remark to that
effect.
20, no. said the lady composedly, 4 mean
that taught him Greek and Latin, and so on,
and of course should wish to hear that he was
doing WELL 1t seemed to be quite an
OF course affair to her, nothing TO what she
could do. l can assure you, by the by, that
these women are yeomen housekeepers, and
that you will never taste the Latin and Greek
in sour bread or bad butter, or see the draw
ing and painting looking out of holes in
dresses.
The fact is, that sterile soil and harsh eli
mate, though not good for growing anything
else, are first rate for raising men and ,comen
and men and tconlen, in the full emphatic sense
of the word, are the staple produce of Maine.
The long cheeress winters here are powerful
educators, both physically and moraly-physi-
cally in the amount Of oxygen and vitality
which they force on one for intellectual pur-
suits. Apropos of the winters, l will relate an
anecdote which | heard in my village under
the mountains. which might give some of our
Southern friends new idea of what winter
here is like.
Said one of our friends, whose house lies d.
recly under the mountains Last winter the
snow was banked up quite TO the ridge-pole of
the house.
Is it possible!' exclaimed. sWhy, what
did you all dog
'Tunnelled through it y said my friend, COM
posedly we had a tunnel some fifteen feet
long to the road
And, pray, how long did it last!' said l.
Well, about six MONTHS said he.
1t made the house very warm, indeed ad-
ded his wife, almost oppressive.
That was one view of snow-bank that had
never suggested itself to me. But must add
to what said about the Maine women and
girls, one drawback-one is impressed with it
even in the most mountainous districts-rhe
want of an appearance of robust health. The
young girls are fair, sparkling, Intellectual
looking, but they are wanting in the physique.
They lock like the forest fowers-very fair,
but as if breath might wither them. The
mind seems altogether to have got the s,art-of
the body. The long winters may have some
thing TO do with this. For more than half of
the year the female sex in this climate are very
much confined indoors, in stove-heated rooms,
generally very partially ventilated, as rooms in
cold weather always are. Here they read and
study, and sew-and 60 out, at most, only in
pleasant weather-oiter only in seghs, with
fathers or brothers to drive them, and the
sleigh is vehicle that gives no sort of exer-
else. Can we not see in this fact The reason
for that predisposiiion to diseases of the lungs