Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1862-11-12
An Engli.hwoman's Protest.

Look ut the numerous iamilies of girk
IN some neighborhoods. The brothers ot
these girls are every one in busines:
or professions they have something
10 10; IL sisters have no earthly pleas
ures bu. . useholi work and sewing; nc
earthly .sasure Luz an improbable
visiting; - hope, in all their life to come
Of anything better. This state of things
makes them decline in health they are
never well, and their minds and views
shrink to wondrous narrowness. Then
great wish, the sole aim OF every one OF
them is to marry but many of them will
never marry they die as they now live.
They scheme, they plot, they dress to en-
snare husbands. The gentlemen turn
them into ridicule, they don't want them,
they hold them very cheap. They say,
! have heard them say it with sneering
laughs many q tIme-the matrimonial
market IS overstocked. Fathers say SO
too and are very angry with their daugh-
ters when they observe thsir maneuyers /;
they order them to stay at home? Ifyou
ask, they would answer, sew and cook
They expect to do this, and this only,
regularly uncomplainingly, all their lives
long, as If they had no germs of faculties
for anything else; doctrine as unreason-
able as that the fathers have no faculties
but for eating what their daughters cook,
and for wearing what the daughters sew.
Could the men live so themselves
Would they not be very weary ? And
when there came no relief to their weari-
ness, but only reproaches at its slightest
manifestation, would not their WEAKNESS
ferment in time TO frenzy? Lucretia spin
ming at midnight in the midst of her
maidens, and SOlOmOn's virtuous woman,
are often quoted as patterns Of what the
sex, AS they say, ought TO be. | don't
know; LucretIa | dare say was most
worthy sort of person, but she kept her
servants up very late. ! should not have
liked to have been among the number of
her maidens. The ''yirtuous woman"
again had her household up in the very
middle OF the night, she got breakfast
over before one O. clock. buI she had some
thing more to do than TO spin and give
out portions she was manufacturer,
she made fine linen and sold it. she was
an agriculturist she bought estates and
vineyards. That woman was Il manager.
On the whole, like her a great deal bet
ter than Lucretia, but l don't believe
MANY SDAAANA NC SOI lliC OcllGI Vi IlCE III
a bargain. Strength and honor were her
clothing the heart of her husband safely
trusted in her. She opened her mouth
with wisdom, in her tongue was the law OF
kindness. Her children rose up and call
ell her blessed, her husband also praised
her" King OF Israel, your model is
worthy model. But are we in these days
brought up to be like her? Men of York
shire, do your daughters reach this loyal
standard! Can they reach it. Can you
help them to reach it? Can you give
them field in which their faculties can
be exercised and grown Men of England
look at your poor daughters, many of
them fading around you, dropping off in
consumption or decline or what is worse
desenerating into sour old maids, envious
back-biting, wretched, because life is
desert TO them; or what is worse than all
reduced to strive by scarce modest coquet-
ry and debasing artifce 10 gain that po-
siuOn and consideration by marriage
which to celibacy is denied. Fathers, can
not you alter these? Perhaps not all at
once; but consider the matter well when
it is brought before you, receive it as a
scheme worthy of thought; do not dis
miss it with an idle Jest or an unmanly
insult. You would wish to be proud of
your daughters and not to blush for them;
then seek for them an interest and an oc-
cupation which shall raise them above
the tlrt, the maneuverer, the mischief
making Keep your girls
minds narrow and fettered, they will still
be "A plague and Il care, sometimes dis
grace to you; cultivate them; give them
scope and work, and they will be your
gayest companions in health, your tender
est nurses in sickness, your most faithful
props in old age.-Charlohe Brohts