The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1866-03-21
The Women Of the South.
from the Courier DIES Flats Unis. I

f from the Courier DIES Etats Unis.J
n For some days past The Tribune, whicl
generally possesses the virtue efselfrespect
not knowing doubtless, how else to Civ
vent to its i'll humor OF the turn of affairs
has lavished insults npon the women o
q the South. 1t seems to us that Thousand
reasons, not to mention the simple one
propriety, should restrain q Northern jour
nal from such attacks The Tribune should
remember, too, the hcroisin displayed By
the Confederate women for their cause
{ whether this cause were good or,bad til,
southern women have sustained it nobly
and with o force of character which recalll
i the ancient women of Sparta, and which
has everywhere commanded respect and
admiration. i3lti Hs
j Not satisfied with attacking the South
ern women, The Tribune Institutes between
them and the women of the North "a com
parison as odious as it is unjust.
"Our women" says Mr.. Greeley's news
paper, u" are everywhere most cultivated
class; the women of the South are more
illiterate than the men,"
| We dispute the truth Of this assertion.
There are ct the South, as at the North,
educated women and ignorant women, well
bred and i'll bred, vulgar women. But we
do not believe that the proportion is so I'M
favorable to the South. The ladies of
Charleston, of New Orleans and Of Rich
Inond have shone in all the European sa-
looms where they have appeared, as bril-
iiantly as those of New York and Boston.
That the Southern women are less literary
| than their husbands is very possible, bnt
we do not consider this surely as reproach.
We do not like learned women; we are re-
PEELED by women yersed in Latin and phil
osophy, and unlike Mr.. Greeley, take the
part of Henriette against Armailde. A wO-
man may be educated certainly, but let her
never become pedant; and, above all, let
her never parade her learning. We do not
see at the South such physical snd philo-.
sophical ladies; we see only too many of
them at the North; and what these gain in
science, if science that may be called which
consists in great number of ideas, almost
always confused and specifically under
stood, joined to enormous pretensiOn, lose
in grace and attraction. Wesay this with
out intending any injustice to those charm
ing Northern women who avoid the gro
tesque and ridiculous, and resemble in this
their sisters Of the South.
Let us permit The Tribune to insist upon
the gross ignorance" of the Confederate
women, and to refer to this ignorance their
energy and consistency dnring the war. We
attribute the great qualities OF which the
Southern women have given noble example
to higher origin. Ignorance, The Tribune
has said it q hundred times, can engender
only vice and meanness-and, if the Con-
federate women have been heroic, it is be-
cause they had faith in their cause. There
are no occasions in history when women,
whose mission in ordinary times is to make
the good wife, the tender mother, and to
polish manners by the charm and grace
which she brings into all social relations,
may rise above herself and give examples
of the highest virtues. These occasions oc-
cur when the sacred soil of her country,
and with it Tor through it) the domestic
hearth and the family are threatened with
invasion. These high virtues the women
of the South have practiced without osten-
tation, without theatrical parade.
They have borne all privations, they have
defed all outrages by their proud and i'm
passable attitude. Soldiers, drunken with
blood, could outrage their bodies, but their
victims remained as pure as those Christian
virgins whose memories the embraces oil
the executi0ner could not defile. All that
is precious to women-dress, jewels, the
luxuries of hOme-all these the Southern
women gave up--they did not even recoil
before sacrifices still more painful-they
did not fear to break their hearts by send
ing forth their sons to do battle for cause, |
sacred in their eyes, like that Lacedem0ni- |
an mother who showed a shield to her son
and said simply--return with it-or lido
thy duty, or die
And while desolation over all the hearths |
of the South, while mothers had each day
fresh tears to wipe away, yet bravely bore
their grief, how were the woman of the |
North9 In developing costly luxury
against which The Tribune itself cried out,
calling attention to its scandalous extent,
feminine prodigality became more and more
We know to what disastrous
result this state Of affairs had led. Some
ladies', it is true, like Miss Anna Dickinson,
gave tireseme lectures to promiscuous audi
ences, others clamored for pretended wo-
mans rights, and exposed themselves to
the derision of the public; and Others still
enrolled themselves under the banner of
It is among these classes
Of women, who defy good sense and modes
ty in public exhibitions, that The Tribune
finds its ideal.
Let this journal, then, cease to insult
these conquered women, Of whom the de-
feat has not diminished the greatness; let
it cease to embitter and dishonor its pen in
an indefensible paradox. The
North, like the South, has its contingent of
good, graceful, educated and elegant bred
women; it has perhaps, larger number
Of that class who SO little deserve the name
Of women, and for whom certain announce
nents are made in the journals; it posses
ses, also, o greater share of learned and
pedantic Mdies--but for these, will New
Orleans not become envious of Boston. AS