The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-06-14
The Bellies OF Southern Society.
The Fredericksburg (va.) Herald

says: ,1'2a1'i
''The late Mr.. Willis, of the Home
Journal, who, whatever we may think
Of him in other respects, was no mean
Judge of the g1aces and amenities of
life, remarked, soon after secession,
that American society would lose,. in
the absence of Southern women,
large portion of its elegance and re-
finement. Mr.. Willis never made q
more sensible observation. There is
something in the manners, the ap-
pearance, the entire bearing of our
Southern women of the world, 1--WE
use the expression in its most favora-
BILE sense, which speaks Enthusiastically
tof not only the tsangre dzzura' or
blue blood of birth, but of what is
nobler far, the truly aristocratic and
royal spirit tine spirit of purity, SEN
timent and exquisite delicacy of
thought and purpose.
sat the North, it cannot be denied
that the original stock, which might
have been good enough in it's way,
has suffered from the grating of
foreign offshoots, 80 that the popula-
ton shows some of the characteristics
of mongrel race. Now. under such
conditions, the aconaen of any country
are sure to degenerate, in O. special
and marked degree. Beauty of per-
son and beauty of mqrale decays
together. They become coarse in
body and coarse in soul. On the
other hand, the women of compara-
lively homogeneous race (if that race
was primarily pure,) are certain to
retain all those charms which we are
accustomed to term, par excellence,
feminine. 3.
''The Southern States before the
war, because of their peculiar in
stitution, preserved their original
blood and pride of race untainted.
Their ancestors had been chiefly
English gentlemen and English gen
tlewomen. Norman grace and Saxon
power had combined in making them
what they were, and the influence of
Southern climate and Southern
habits resulted in combination of
qualities which were admirable
unique. Our women particularly ex-
hibited the rarest union of fastidious
tastes of social pliability and art.
with virtue stern as Cornelia's, and
also those domestic household ac-
complishments inherited from their
English great-great- -grand-mothers.
They could be arch, lively piquant,
flashing all over like beautiful
summers cloud, with innocent 'heat
lightning's' of wit, while doing their
deuoirs ut ball Or assembly-but in
the privacy of home, wit softened
into affection, and the arch couuette
became the loving unselfish angel of
the hearth stone Moreover, what
housewives and house-keepers they
were, land are whether young, mid
dle-aged or old.
''The Yankee who first started the
idea that Southern women were
habitually listless and indolent, that
their days were passed in reclining
upon snmptuous cushions with half
score of slave-girls to fan them, and
their nights in perpetual waltz,
ought to be rewarded by his coun-
trymen with monument built of
Boston 'hard-tack, and cemented by
cod fish, because never in the worlds
history has there been 80 unblushing
and preposterous lie, and not few
Of our neighbors across the border
appreciate mendacity us fine art
NO! in our most prosperous times,
the Southern woman was as We have
painted her But what shall we say
of her devotion and heroism, de-
veloped by the recent revolution?
'NoblesSe od'iye' WAS never SO glo-
riously illustrated beforel These de-
licate beings, sensitive and high
toned, encountered the most revolt
ing scenes, simply from motives of
humanity. Fathers, sons, brothers,
were exalted in will, encouraged in
trial, and supported under misfortune
by them, and perhaps, the Northern
journalist who declared that 6m for
the Southern female rebels, the con-
test would have ended much sooner
was not especially wrong after all.
"And now that all is over, now
that we suffer from almost every i'll
which flesh is heir to-, what would
become of us men of the South, de-
prived of that last stay and safe
guard. the pathetic fidelity of our
women?" M
'In national sense we have, like
Francis at Pavia, lost all but honor,
yet in the sweetest security of our
L o-l r