The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1866-02-21
The Women Of the South.
Translated for the Courier faom the Courier
dcs Etats UniSl

| Translated for the Courier faom the Courier
dcs Etats Unis.
For some days past the Tribune, which
generally possesses the virtue of self-respect,
not knowing, doubtless, how elsest give vent
to it's lll-hunor at the turn of affairs, has Law
| ished insults upon the women Of the South.
1t seems to US that thousand reasons, not to
mention the simple one Of propriety, should
restrain Northern journal from such attacks.
The Tribune should remember, too, the hero
! ism displayed by the Confederate women for
their cause Whether this cause were good
or bad, the Southern women have sustained
| it nobly and with a force of character which
recalls the ancient women Of Sparta, and
which h as everywhere commanded respect
and admiration.
Not satisfied with attacking the Southern
women, the Tribune institutes between them
and the women of the North comparison as
odious as it is unjust.
"Our women" says Mr.. Greeley's newspa-
per, ''are everywhere most cultivated class !;
the women Of the South are more illiserate
than the men,"
We dispute the truth of this assertion.
There are at the south, as at the North, edu-
Gated women and ignorant women, well bred
and i'll bred, vulgar women. But We do not
believe that the proportion is so unfavorabie
to the South. The ladies Of Charleston, of
New Orleans, and Richmond have shone in
all the European saloons where they have ap-
peared, as brilliantly as those of New York
and Boston. That the Southern women are
less literary than their husbands is very
possible but We do not consider this surely
as a reproach We do not like learned wo-
men; we are repeed by women vcrsed in
latin and ptil0sophy, and, unlike Mr.. Gree
ley, take the part of Henriette against Ar
manda. A woman may be educated certainly
but let her me0er become pedant; and,
above all, let her never parade her learning.
We do not see at the South such physical
and philosophical 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 superficial
lY understood, Joined to enormous pretension,
they lose in grace and attraction. We say
this without intendir any injustice to tiose
charming Northern women who avoid the
grotesque and ridiculous, and resemble IN
this their sisters of the South.
Lltt rs permit the Tribune to insist upon
the "groSs Ignorance" of the Confederate "o'
men and to refer to this ignorance their ener-
gy and constancy during the war. we at
! tribute the great qualities of which the South
crn women have given noble example to
higher origin. Ignorance, the Tribune bas
said it hundred times, can engender only
vice aud meanness-and, if the Confederate
women have been heroic, it is because they
had faith in their cause. There are occasions
| in history when woman, 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 occur when the sacred soil of her
country and with it, (or through iD the do
mestic hearth and the family are threatened
with invasion. These high virtues the wo-
men Of the South have practiced without os-
tentation, without theatrical parade. They
have borne all privations, they have defed all
outrages by their proud and impossible atti.
tude. Soldiers drunken with blood, could
outrage their bodies, but their victims re-
maincd as pure as those Christian virgins
whose memories the embraces of the eXecu-
toner could not dctile All that is precious
to womcn-dress, jewels, the luxuries ofhome
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 sending forth their sons to do bat
tie for cause, sacred in their eyes, like that
Lacedonian mother who showed shield to
her son and said simply-return with lt-or
upon lido thy duty, or die. Do not expect
such traits from ignorant women, from souls
without elevation
And while desolation brooded 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 women of the
North employed? In developing costly
luxury against which the Tribune itself cried
out, calling attention to its scandalous extent,
feminine prodgalty became more and more
unrestrained. We know to what disastrous
result this state of affairs had led. Some Ia
dies, it is true, like Miss Anna Dickinson,
gave tiresome lectures 10 promiscuous audi
ences, others clamored for pretended woman's
rights, and exposed themselves to the derision
of the public and others sill enrolled
themselves under the banner Of miscege-
nation. Is it among these classes of wo-
men, who defy good sense and modesty
in public exhibitions, that the Tribune
finds it's ideal?
conquered women, of whom the defeat has
not diminished the greatness; let it cease to
emhittcr and dshonor its pen in sustaining
an indefensble paradox. The North, like the
South, has its contingent of good, graceful,
educated, and elegant bred women; it has,
perhaps, a large number Of that class who so
; little deserve the name of women, and for
! whom certain announcements are made in the
journals; it possess, also, greater share
of learned and pedantic ladies-but for these,
will New Orleans not become envious of Bos.
} ton? AS for good and well-bred society, it
| is the same everywhere; and the Tribune
may be sure that woman of the world, COM
ing from Boston, would not feel out of place
in New Orleans (nor would the contrary be
true). In calumniating the Southern women
Mr.. Greeley has simply proved that he does
not know them, and that he knows still less
| the common laws ofpropriety.