The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1868-11-05
Where then shonld I be9,,

P4O,OOO
Where then should I be?''
"Ohl but old Pickles would do
something, And, besides, you put
the figures too high"
"How do I know that the father
would do anything? He has never
endowed his daughter. He has
brought her up to live at the rate of
twelve or fifteen thousand dollars a
year; but ne has never settled a PEN
ny upon her. Do propose to put
myself before him as a beggar? Not
! if know myself. Have I put the
figures too high2 Then halve them,
and where should I be?"
"Well, it may be all so; but people
do get married, sOmehOw-women do
something themselves, I guess, eh?"
"Not a thing-not a thing. No la
dy expects to do anything but spend
money. Now, Peter, put that in your
pipe and smoke it; and do it before
you go any further with Miss Foster.
No, Peter, women, now, are not worth
a tinker's milldam- that's what I
think.1
Such was, in brief, the conversation
that happened to hear one evening
lat DelmonicO's.
1t is quite certain that these crowds
.Of pretty creatures, who swarm our
streets, who display their charms so
charmingly, do not intend to be nui-
.sances to their husbands when they
get them; do not deliberately say to
themselves: tsI must be a lady, and
must spend five or six thousand dol
lars a year in doing it; and my hus-
band must get it for me, for I cannot
earn one cent Of it myself" They do
not say this, and do not intend to be a
load too heavy to bear, and yet
Let me illustrate. It has been my
misfortune to hear snch things as this
for the last forty years: "Oh, these
dreadful servantsI What can we do?
They do not know how to do a thing;
thoy must be seen to night and day;
not a cook that understands her busi-
ness, &C., &c. Good manners for
bade me to say, what perhaps I may
be pardOned for saying here: "La-
dies, do you know that every man has
to see to his business, day and night;
has to watch over his clerks; has to
spend his whole time with his men in
the field, in the workshop, on the
ships deck; has to work and watch
and worry, in order to have his busi-
ness done properly and promptly?" ]
might have asked, though never did:
''Ladies, do YOU know how
to do anything? Can you make
bread? can you cook piece of beef?
can you cut and make your child's
clothes? do you know whether pota-
toes should be boiled two hours, or
twenty minutes? do you know what
your meat bills are per month? do you
know how much is eaten and how
much is wasted, in your hOuse-in
fine do you understand your business?"
I have never asked such foolish ques-
tiOns, and am sure that I should
have been told, if I had, 'sthat cook
ing was not their business" If had
been ill-natured-as I am mott
might have said: "Ladies, what Is
your business?"
Most men prefer to look forward. 1
cannot myself see very far into the fu-
ture, but good way into the past.
In that past, see that the patriarch
Abraham killed the meat, and Sarah,
his wife, cooked it; that she made
cakes, and baked them herself for the
angelic visitors; and she was
not the less a princess for havin @ done
it. Are we doing any better now? IF
the man finds the meat, might not the
woman cook it? Or, if ''society" is so
changed that she cannot, might she
not be an amiable and contented wife
accepting what she gets with graft
tude, and a smiling face? am told
by carping bachelor, that, as a rule,
women are pIeasanter and livelier
with anybody than their husbands. I
no longer wonder that matrimony is
becoming difficult, and may become
imp Ossible.
Now, if matrimOny is to become
more and more difficult, who will suf- |
fer most by such state of things? 1t |
must be woman. For, try to make
her into a man, as some may, it is i'm
possible; she is his equal, but not the