Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1859-12-07
Aristoeratic notions of a Democrat
ic Organ.
tRrom tho wheeling paily uniO

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We read in an exchange the foregoing
lamentation over the decline of female con-
veTsation; and the accompanying ingenious
attempts to assign an adequate cause. We
Nsfreqnently listen to mournfuE dirges over
the speedy post-connubinl death of Female
Accomplishments. Many are the causes
uniting to produce these lamented results,
but not the least among them may be con-
sidered the Punishment, by the efforts of
the highly literary pseudo-Philanthro-
pists,: from our midst of the sable hand
maidens who were once wont to encounter
and overcome the physical labor of our
housekeeping: How cam the refined and
cultivated gentleman expect to find a con-
genial companion in the wife he has de-
graded or who has been degraded by
causes beyond his control, into very
newer of wood and drawer OF water.
Our Northern neighbors, Gctuated by
diversity of motives, have succeeded in
stealing or driving South the dusky body
guard which in the olden time surrounded
almost every Virginia family, aud there
by thrown us upon the tender mcrcies of
the Gutteral Sclayonic, or the wild, un-
washed and untutored Hibernian. If while
they preach to us of the example and
opinions of England they could supply US
with her wcll-trained and efficient peAsan-
try from which is drawn her corps of do
nestle servants, we might gladly welcome
the exchange. But female Young America
of the middle and lower classes have been
too deeply imbued with the notions of
liberty and equality,-equnl rights and the
largest liberty, to submit to an aristocracy
of talent and education. The Northern
politician may condemn the ills of slavery,
the Southern philosopher mny in his heart
admit that there exists no human institu-
ton without its imperfections, but woman,
educated woman, must proclaim thatto this
much reviled peculiar institution has she
been indebted for the amelioration of
many of the evils of her lot. Were the
hand not hardened and the soul harrassed
by performance of mental household du-
ties they could much more easily be ut
tuned to the concord of sweet sounds of
voice and instrument and better calculated
to throw the vail of grace and poetry
around the stern realities of life. The
we'll known proverb which designates as
the surcst way TO the heart of man the
catering to his appetite, may be somewhat
slanderous, but none will declare them
selves insenSiblc or Indifferent to the at
fractions of generous board. But is not
the pleasure of the cuisine much distract
ed from by the reflection that fair brow
has been scorchcd and q delicate hand
roughened in its preparation.
The dusky skins of the daughters of
Africa assume no darker tint over the
frightening Goals; their proper element
seems to be the ruddy blaze of broad
and glowing hearth, where, whilst the fair
Circassian would suffocate, they move Sc
renely smiling on the scctling ham and
browning fowls, which arc the perishable
monuments of her skill. This is then
their proper sphere, and filling it they arc
useful and happy. But reverse positions,
and require them to WELD the pen or
sweep the harp, and what becomes of the
talent which was given them to use and
return multiplicd?- we'll were it buried
in napkin, as of old, or in bandanna
handkerchief.
If there be time for nil things, there
are also fitting agents for every depart
ment of life; the competency for which is
as obvious and distinctive us the difference
of color between the negro and the Anglo
Saxon,
Take from the delicate shoulders of
delicate and refined women the great
weight of household work unsuited to
their strength, and light and graceful ac-
complishments will adOrn their lives;
otherwise let men cease to require at their
hands an impossibility-the service of two
masters.