The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-05-07
DoyEs And DOTECOTS.
From the Saturday Revisw.l

From the Saturday Revsw]
Times must be very bad indeed if q faithful
few are not still left to keep the sources OF 80
clety sweet aid wholesome. When corruption
has gone through the whole mass and all
classes are bad alike, everything comes 10 an
end, and there is q general overthrow OF ma
tional life; but while some are left pure and
unspotted we are not quite updene, and We
reasonably hope for better days in the future.
In the midst OF the reign OF the girl OF the pc
riod. with her slang and her boldness-of the
fashionable woman, with her denial OF duty
and her madness for pleasure-we come every
now and then upon group OF good girls Of
the real old English type, the faithful few
growing up silently among us, .,a but none the
no public display-doves who are content with
life as they have it in the dovecot, and have no
desire to be either eagles dwelling on romantic
heights, or peacocks displaying their pride in
sunny courts. We find these faithful few
in town and country alike; but they are
1ifest in the country, where there is less
large towns, and where life is more simple, and
the moral tone undepiably higher. The lead
| ing feature of these girls is their love OF home
and of their own family, and their power Of
making occupation and happiness out OF appa-
rently meagre materials. II they are the eld-
ers, they find amusement and more in their
little brothers and sisters, whom they consider
| immensely funny, and to whom they are as
much girl-mothers as sisters; il th.y are the
| yo1ngers, they idoliZe their baby nephews and
| nieces. For Chere ls always baby going on
somewhere about these houses babies being
| the great excitement OF homo Life. and the an
tiseptic element which keeps everything else
pure. They are passlonately attached to papa
and mamma, whom thay think the very king
and queen ofhumanity, and whom they do not
call by even endearing slang names. 1t has
never occurred to them to criticise them Is or
binary mortals; and as they have not been
in the way OF learning the prevailing ac-
cent OF disrespect they have not shaken off
that almost religious veneration for their
parents which all young people feel naturally,
corrupted. The yoke in most middle-class
country.house is one fitting very loosely round
alFnecks; and there being no power OF usln :
greater freedom, il even they had it, the girls
are not fret ed by its pressure, and are con-
tent to live under it in peace. They adore their
elder brothers who are from home just begin
ming the great battle Of life for themselves. and
confidently believe them to be the finest fell
lows going. aud the future great men OF the
day if olly they IRE to put out those splendid
talents OF theirs, and take the trouble Of pluck
ing the prizes within their reach. They may
have slight reservation, perhaps, in favor OF
the brothers, friend, whom they place on
pedestal OF almost equal height. But they
keep their mental architecture q profound
secret from every one, and o not suffer them
selves 70 let it grow into too sold structure
unless 1t has some surer foundation than their
own fancy. For, though doves ere loving,
they are by no means love-slck damsels; they
are too healthy and natural and quietly busy
for uuwholesome dreams. II one Of them mar
r1es, they all unite IN loving the man who
comes in among them. He is adopted as one
OF themselves, and leaps into family OF ido.-
iZng sisters who pet him as their brother
with Just that subtle little difference in the pet
ting that it comes from sisters unaccustomed.
and 80 has the Charm OF novelty it not the e1-
citement of uaughtiness. But this KIND ofthln9
is about the most dangerous to mans moral
nature that can bstall him. Though pretty to
sec and undenlably pleasant to experience, aud
though perfectly innocent in every way. still
nothing enervates one so much as this loola-
trous submission Of q large family OF women.
In q widows house. where there arc many
who marries enc marries the whole family, and
is worshlpped accordingly tho danger is OF
course increased tenfold; but if there are bro
tbers and father, the sisters husband though
affectiorately oed over, ls not made quite
such fuss with, and the association ls all the
less hurtful In consequence.
The life Of these girls is by no means stupid,
though it Is quiet and without any spasmodic
events or caIaclysms OF fortune in any way.
and they teach at the Sunday-schoo, and at
tend the mothers meetings and clothing. clubs
and the like, spd learn to get Interested IN
their humber frie DIS, who, after all, are Chris
tian sisters. They read their romances in real
life instead OF in three-volume novels, and
study human nature as it ls-in the rough,
certainly, but perhaps IN more genuine form
tnan If they learnt it only in what is called
society, Then they have their pleasures,
though they are OF an unexcitlng kind anu
what fast girls would call awfully slow. They
have their horses and their croquet parties
and their archery meetings, they have batches
OF new music, and monthly box from NUDES,
and they know the value OF both; and they 20
out to tea sometimes, and sometimes to dlnner
in the neighborhood; and enjoy the r ,re coun-
try balls with zest unknown TO London girls
who are out every night IN the week. They
have their village Hower-shows, which the
great families patronize in tree-and-easy
kind Of way, and which give occupation for
weeks before and subject for talk for weeks
after; their school feasts, where the pet parson
Of the district comes out with his best aoec-
dotes, and makes mild Jokes az long distance
from Sydney Smith; their periodical mls-
sIonary meetings. where they have great guns
from London and where they hear unctuous
stories about the saintlIness OF converted cam
nibals, and are required to believe in the power
Of change of faith to produce an ethnoiogI-
cal miracle; they have their friends to stay
with schoolgirl friends-wlth whom
they exchange deep condolences, and go back
| over the old days-so old 10 their youth aud
| their brothers come down in the summer; and
| their brothers friends come with them, and do
| little spooning in the shrubbery. But there
is more spoouiug done at plcuics than any
where else; and more offers are made there.
under the shadow OF the old run, or 10 the
quiet leaty nook by the river side, than at any
other gathering time OF the country. And as
we are ali to q certain extent what we are made,
these pleasures being the only ones known 10
them. the doves take to them quite hudly and
gratefully. and enjoy themselves in smplici-
| ty Of circumstances which would give no pl3a-
sure at all to girls accustomed to more highly
speed entertainments.
Doves know very little OF evil They are not
in the way OF learning it; and they do
not care to learn it. The few vlllaeers
1 who are supposed to lead i'll lives are
spoken OF below the breath, and care
fully avoided without being critically studied.
When the railway ls carried down past their
quiet nest, there is an immense excitement .s
tue report goes that knot OF strange men
have been seen scattering themselves over tue
fields with their littlo white flags and theodol-
ites-thelr measuring lines and levels. But
when the army Of navvies follows after, the ex-
citemept is changed to constcrnalloD, and q
general sense of evil broodng ruthlossly ovcr
them. The clergy OF the district organize spe-
giously away from the p ace Wnere the haVvl'
are hutted. They are little better than the
sayages, tho dcputatioa tell them about once
\ a1t n1f q m