The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1864-05-14

economical. and the heaven blessed Chris
tan Commission.
An Appeal - Legal women.
The womanhood Of America has respond
cd nobly to the exigencies Of the war. In
zeal and action, in patriotic sympathy and
private effort, our wives and daughters
have Joined with full hands and fuller
hearts in labors Of loyalty and love. All
We are compelled to say" One thing thou
lacksst." The demand Of the hour is not
simply, " Sell What thou hast and give to
the poor" That has been done, is doing,
will be done to most gratifying and COM
mendable extent. And yet this is not all,
this IL not enough. There are in this coun-
try Thousands Of beautiful, kind-hearted
our suffering soldiers with one hand, and
with the other, white and jewelled rs it is,
unconsciously otabbing the nation to its
heart. Nay, there are many women who
are hourly trembling for the safety of sons
and brothers in the army, and yet hourly
doing very much to prolong the war and
bring it to disastrous result.
The mournful inconsistency happens in
this way. While the war lasts our COM
merce il Obstructed, and our producing
power largely expended, not in agriculture
and manufactures, but in military activi-
ties. We have not, as formerly, large
surplus of raw materials to exchange for
the choice products OF foreign taste and
skill. The grain that once fed the artisan
| abroad now feeds the soldier at home
The cotton that once supplied English
looms and paid for English brOadcloths is
now scantily raised and difficult Of access.
If we buy luxuries as before, we must pay
the inevitable balance in domestic gold,
and gold is 1T . premium of seventy per
| (IrNl1 II no 1ifo. h1oOd Nf h0 nation
and We not only wiring it out in drops but
pour it out in streams to win the means Of
extravaganza and display. Success in war
| is usually with the longest purse. Uncle
Sans purse reaches from California to
New York, but what avails its length 50
long as the eagles pour continuously from
the gap at the eastern end?
This extravagance is largely refarrible to
woman. Furniture and eQujpage, II not
purchased by her, are chosen with refer
ence to her taste. And most Of the magnif-
iCence in dress and living which IL bring
ing the country to the verge of bankruptcy
| is her personal work. She does not know
| it she has not meant it but it Is time that
she should learn that when she buys q
needless foreign toy, she pays for it, not
from her own abundance but from her
country's peril. She is taking from the ma
ton in it's hour Of need, that which it can
spare least OF all. She 10 bleeding the sick
man, already perishing for want of nOur.
| ishment and tonics. The Boston Transcript
in recent and timely article, shows clear
ly that to the mfstimed luxuries of the
wealthy is due the alarming costliness of
the necessaries of lite. 1t says:
'sIo cater TO this unreasonable appetite
for show-to enable the frivolous, the in
considerable and the self-seeking to go clad
in silks and ermines-Our foreign impOrta-
tons are stimulated to an unhealthy and un-
paralleled extent, and millions in gold ere
needlessly sent out Of the country, at time
when all the sinews of war are wanted to
help our success in the field, and to fOrtify
the government against that financial em-
| barrassment which always eventually
brings in its train political and military de-
bility and decentralization. The present i'm
mediate consequence is an enormous rise
in all the necessaries Of life, distressing to
| the poor, and visiting with alarm aud anx-
iety thousands OF households
| If these evils have arisen through the ex-
| penditures of women, the remedy is large
| " in their hands. They can make economy
fashionable, as they nave already made
charity. They can show by precept and
example, that to flaunt these costly import
ed fabrics in public is in deplorably bad
taste, that the woman who does 90 il either
or hopelessly vulgar. Butterflies, it is true,
are not given to reflection. They will fut-
ter their gay pinions in the sunshine, even
though it glesms from the edge Of . dark
cloud whose gathering tempest shall drench
them into ruin: But t1e aar ana ir1v1loos
are largely initiative Of the thoughtful and
refined. The women VINO give tone 70 90
ciety have tact and culture tney are quick
to see and generous 70 1oei, ana oe4tfcoe 70
adapt. They can make their slight sisters
ashamed Of their untimely gauds, unbefit-
ting the peril in whose shadow the nation
isdiea' leyal leaaue. which shall pledge it,
- even the love Of ~ beeutiful. for the
conntrv,a rood. Who Win NOT 6leas the
Ssir finresr that Law the oamelia of 6ashion
nnon the loyal shrinef The Tfanscripe
|
I&oyos tW9t 80 54*e~.ss &A.