The Carolina Spartan. [volume] (Spartanburg, S.C.) 1852-1896, 1866-06-28

give vent 70 ils Ill humorat the turn OF af
fairs, he's lavished insults upon the women
OF the South. 1t seems to US that thou.
sand reasons, not to mention the simple one
of propriety, should restrain Northern
journal from such attacks. The Tribune
should remember, too, the heroism display
ed by the Confederate women for their
cause. Whether this cause were good or
bad, the Southern women have sustained
1t no6ly and with force of character which
recalls the ancient women of Sparta, and
which has everywhere commanded respect
and admiration.
Not satisfied with attacking the South.
ern women, the Tribune institutes between
them and the women OF the North n com.
parison as odious as it is unjust.
"Our women" says Mr.. Greeley's news.
paper, care everywhere most cultivated
class; the women Of the South are more
llliterate than the men,"
We dispute the truth of this assertion.
There are at the South, as at the North.
educated women and ignorant women, we'll
bred and i'll bred, vulgar women. But we
do not believe that the proportion is so up
favorable to the South. The ladies of
Charleston, of New Orleans, and Of Rich.
mond have shown in all the European sa-
looms where they have appeared, as bril-.
llantly as those Of New York and Boston.
That the Southern women are less literary
than their husbands is very possible but
we do lot consider this surely as reproach.
We do not like learned women; we are re
PEELED by women versed in latin and phi
losophy, and, unlike Mr.. Greeley, take the
part OF Henriettee against Armande. A
woman may be educated certainly, but let
her never become n 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 superfcial.y
understood, Joined to enormous pretension.
they lose in grace and attraction. We saw
this without intending any injustice to
those charming Northern women who avoid
the gro'esque 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 constaucy during the war. We
attribute the great qualities of which the
Southern women have given noble exam.
pie to higher origin. Ignorance, the
Tribune has said it hundred times. can
cngender only vice and meanness-and. If
the Confederate women have been heroic
it is because they had faith in their cause
There are occasions in history when wo.
men, whose mission in ordinary times ia IN
make the good wife, the tender mother
and to polish manners by the charm and
grace which she brings into all social rela
tions, may rise above herself and give ex.
amples to the highest virtues. These oc
casions occur when the sacred soil of her
codntry, and with it or through it; the do.
mestic hearth and family are threatened
with invasion. These high virtues the
women ofthe South have practiced without
ostentatlon, without theatrical parade
They have borne all privations, they have
detied all outIages 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 of
the executioneI could not defilc. All that
Is precious to women-dress, jewels, the
iuxuries of home-all these the Southern
women gave up-they did not even recoil
before sacrifices still more painful-ihey
DID not fear to break their hearts, by send
ing forth their sons to do battle for cause.
sacred In their eyes, like that Lacedemo
Man mother who showed a shield to her
son and said simply-return with it, or
upon lido thy duty, or die Do no. ex.
pect such traits from ignorant women, from
souls without elevation
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 women of the
North employed? In developing costly
luxury against which The Tribune itself
cried out, calling attention to its scandalous
extent, feminine prodigality became more
and more uhrestrained. We know to what
disastrous result this state of affairs had
led Some ladies, it is true, like Miss
Anna Dickinson, gave tiresome lectures to
promiscuous audiences, others clamored for |
pretended women's rights, and exposed |
themselves TO the derision of the public
and others still enrolled themselves under
the banner of mieoeoenation II ie oonn,.