The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1856-01-30
from Women as they Are.l
OF WOMEN.


His singular, but true, that woman
rarely trusts woman in any great emer-
gency. The erring, who might readily
be reclaimed, are driven out of the path
Of the frigid virtue that keeps on its
own narrow and improbable way; the
unfortunate, who fall from a position,
are held aloof by the worldliness that
sees no advantage in continued contact
tho sensitive ia feeling, and elevated in
thought, are too frequently hardly tried,
and maryeiled at, and driven to aud fro,
until life becomes a WEAKNESS to them.
Who shall say that this is not true?
If il were equally true, as some would
lead US to believe, and as I once beEev-
ed, that no wouan of refined thought,
Of sensitive feeling, need lack protection,
ped enter into the hard struggle for
bare existence, it would matter less;
but this is not So. It would matter less
if men, cowardly and cruel, did not cast
~reproach, readily recognized by abe
other sex, upon such e of honora-
BILE exertion as are open to women. To
widows, compelled to struggle for their
children to sisters, on whom falls the
maintenance of brothers and sisters left
to their charge; to daughters and wives,
required to strive fer whole families, in
Guiding the husband or father, who are
sinking prematurely, oyertasked, or who
have become imbecile, as men have done,
aud yet will do, amid trial that woman
endures to the end. / think of all this
with sorrow, when I feel from expert
enca that there is no earthly trouble,
however great, which the sympathy of
an earnest, warm-hearted, intelligent
Christian woman might not alleviate, if
It could not be removed. The really
dangerous women are these n no are new
er completely understood exee. ut by wo-
men. That aniable Miss Coils, who
is smiling so sweetly upon you now, sir
whose subdued manner, and low,
measured voice, are SO suggestive to you
of popular ideas of feminine perfeetio on
exhibits herself in a very different
way to me. She is far eleverer than
she viii allow you to understand.
After taking much pains to discover
exactly how I am situated, and where I
am most assailable7onwhat point touch
ing my affections, my pride, my hope,
or fear, or self esteem, I can most read
lily be humbled, disconnected, cut to the
very depth Of an unhealed heart wound
she will come eut strongly with bitter
and CALLING remarks, scarcely to be
borne, and rendered the more nnendu-
rable, because ofthe calm, quiet tone in
which they are uttered. She Will do
this with more caution, because, believ-
ing me to be Il an odd person )" she has
reckoned on the probability of making
an exhibition of temper that will add to
my unpopularity, as it must be impossi-
BILE for a third person to comprehend
what it is all about. The very bland
and specious Lady Boothby, or Mrs.
Floyd, will still less allow you to I'M
derstand them as they really are; and
IN both cases, you will be fattered and
mysti6ed in proportion to your "eligi-
bility The world abounds with Miss
GOllises, and Lady B~oothbys, and Miss
Rawsons and society becomes famil-
iarized with the low elements of their
teaching, and their example reconciled
to the worthless profession by which re-
ligion is degraded ; to the unscrupu-
lous scheming, and heartless ambition,
shat remorselessly coerce human affec-
tions, and barter the spirit, with its d.
vine capabilities, for the basest of earth's
clay to the pitiful malice, and winged
calumny, that also have their victims,
stricken down in the dark, to rise no
more it may be, or rise only to resist
and retaliate with painfully acquired
strength, and the scorn that embitters
every better feeling upon which it is en-
forced.
1 sit sometimes and think of what
Bertha more than once said to me-
q Never trust the woman who has no
generous impulse about her Myideal
woman is frank, intelligent: generous,
energetic, gentle, and tender to the
hearts core, and has a dash of romance
about her. The romantic are ever bouy-
ant; for so called romantic feelings are
only an evidence of the spirits fresh
life. They do not readily sink into the
dry-Tot Of an inane existence ; they do
swell the list Of the nervous.minded
and the sordid, and the mean, and the
intriguing, and the selfrighteous- OF
them are not made the slatternly or
shreWish wives, the incapable OF indif-
mothers, the ~treaeherous friends,
Of whose existence We may hear any day
on all sides. They are widely separate
from the women-cold and hard, and
wanting in intelligence and sensibility-i
Who, with sour and superciiious aspect .
sntrenoh themselves in their small cir /