Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1864-05-21


women are sometimes childish, and various
curious phenomena take place. There is
an inability to speak for moment or a
month, the heart seems to Jump up in the
mouth or there is terrible feeling of i'm
pending suffocation. At other times there
are actual convulsIons, or an uncomfortable
bursting out into tears. These and other
lisagreeable phenomena are derisively and
unteelngly called "hystericsn or nervous
ness" but there are no more unreal to the
sufferer than are the pains of extraction for
nothing but the toothache." These sym
toms are not unfrequently set down to the
account of perverseness when it should no
more he done than to call it pcrversity to
break out in uncomfortable grief at the sud-
/ den information of the death of the dearest
friend on earth. The course of conduct to
be pcrsued in cases of this kind is at once
the dictate of science, of humanity, and of
common sense; it is to sympathise with and
sooth the patient in all ways possible until
the excess of perturbation has passed away,
and the system calms down to its natural
even action.
/ Unless made otherwise by vicious train
| ing, woman is as naturally tasteful, tidy,
and neat in herself, and as to all her sur
roundings, as the beautiful canary, which
bathes itself every morning, and will not be
satisfied until each rebelious feather is COM
PEELED to take the shape and place which
nature designed. 1t is nothing short of bru-
tality to war against those pure, elevating
and refining instincts of a woman's better
nature, and it is a husbands highest duty,
his interest, and his pride, to sympathizc
with his wife in the cultivation of these in
stincts, and to checrfully afford her the ne
} E,r hn 1.,
sistcntly. No money is better spent on a
farm, or anywhere else, than tina: which en-
ablcs the wife 20 make herself her children.
her husband, and her house appear fully up
to their circumstances. The consciousness
of a torn or bu,tonless jacket or soiled Gress
worn at school degrades boy or girl IN
their own estimation, and who that is a man
does not hate to feel that he is wearing q
ragged or dirty shirt The wife who is
worthy of the name will never allow these
things il she IS provided with means for
their prevention, and il is in the noble en-
deavor to maintain for herself and family
rcspectability of appearance with their
station demands, with means and help far
too limited, which so irrtatcs and chates
and annoys her propriety, that many time
the wifc's heart and constitution and health
are all broken together. This is the history
of mulutudcs of farmers wives, and the
niggardly natures which allow it, after TAX
ing an intelligent view of the subject, are
simply beneath contempt. What adds to
the better appearance Of the person elevates;
what adds to the better appearance of a farm
increases its value and the responsibility of
the occupant; SO that it is always good
investment, morally and pecuniarily, io- a
farmer to supply his wife generously and
checrfully, according to his ability, with
the means of making her family and home
neat and tidy. 4 bunch OF flowers or a
shilling ribbon for the dress, or few pen
MES worth of lime or dollars's worth of
paint for the house, may be so used as to
give an impression OF life, of Cheeriuncss,
and of thrift about a home altogether be-
yond the value of the means employed for
the purpose.
Many farmers wife is literally worked
in an inadvertent manner from want of re-
Election or consideration on the part of her
husband. None can understand better
than he, in plowing' or sowing, or harvest
time, that il horse gets sick, or runs away,
or is stolen, another must be procured that
very day or the work will inevitably go be-
hindhand. lie does not carry the same
practical sense into the kitchen when the
hired help leaves without warning or be-
comes disabled, although he knows as well
as any man can know that 1.-THE hands will
expect their meals with the same regularity,
with the same promptness, and with the
same proper mode of preparation; ; but, in
stead of procuring other ''help" on the in
stant, lac allows himself to be persuaded, if
the "helpn is sick, she will get well in q
day or two, or in week at furthest, and
| that it is hardly worth while to get another
| for SO short time. II the "hclp' has taken
French leave" his mind fixes on the fact
that it is u busy time, and neither he nor a
single hand can be spared, or that, in the
course OF week, some one will have to 20
to town for some other purpose, and both
these matters can DC attended to ut the
same time. Meanwhile the wife is eXpcc-
ted not only to attend to her ordinary du'
ties as usual, but somehow or other to spare
/ the time to do all that the cook or washer
women was accustomed to, that is, to do
the full work of two persons, each one OF
whom had quite as much labor to perform
as she could possibly attend to. The wife
attempts it. by Hercuean efforts all goes
on well. The farmer perceives no jar, nc
hitch in the working of the machinery, and
because no complaint is uttered, think:
that everything is going on without an eff
fort. Meanwhile time passes, and Qntinit'
shame ON some of them they begin to cal
culate how much has been saved from ser
wants wages, and how much less food has
been eaten, and because still no complaint
is made, the resolution quietly forms in the
mind to do nothing until she does com
plain but before that takes place, she tal
a victim 10 her oycr-eXertions, in having
laid the foundation Tor weeks and months
Of illness, if not OF premature decline an1
death. Sincerely il is believed that thes'
statements ought to he written in large let
tiers above the mantles of half the farmers o
the country, and il over the other half also
il would not be labor lost In favor of man,
u heroic aud uncomplainiag but outrage'
farmers wife and daughter.
CgNENr FOR WoUNDEp TREEs.-Take o
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