National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1869-06-18
American Heathen.

step the drops and bugles on her !
mantle shook and the hard ball !
trimming on her throat cliIkcd, and |
her hoop ear rings struck the beads, |
adding to the clatter, and the dang
ling ornaments OH her bonnet struck !
like tinkling cymbals.
There was missionary i'll the |
pulpit that day, IA man Drowned !
with foreign suns who had come to
tell, the fashionable New York au
dience Of the benighted heather
whom the Church OF Christ was try
ing to convert.
He told them of the Feejee Island
ers who arrayed themselves i'll fan
tastic garments covered with curl
Gus ornaments an d draped with
! fringes of beads and bells. He de-
scr!bed the rings they wore pendent
from their noses and the bracelets
that encirclcd their arms and ank
les.
The audience listened attentively,
and their sanctimonSOuS faces said,
as plain as wols could say it;
From all such folly, good Lord, de-
liver uSn
a old fashioned fellow sitting un.
der the gallery, one Common Sense,
thoroughly unprejudiced, and some
what unpopular, looked hard at Mrs.
Livingston Guyer, and taking into
account the fringcs, beads and or
naments on her dress, the hoops
pedent from her eal $, and the brace
lets on her arms. thought there was
distinction without difference be-
: tween this woman and Feejee
Islander.
The missionary told his audience
of Burmese women hO colOred
their faces to make them beautiful,
and discolored their teeth by chew
ing betel-nuts. He gave accounts
also of the Africans who blackcned
their eyebrows with antim0ny, and
stained their finger nails red.
The faces of the audience express
ed surprise at such unnatural prac
tees but the fashioned fellow
/, in the corner fell to studying the
face of belle present, whltened by
some preparation Of chalk, aud red
t dencd by rouge, and he regarded at
t tentively the teeth of man discolor
] ed by the use of tobacco. lie knew
moreover, that mere compilations il
5 tha. audience blcachcd by eating
arsenic, eyes brighten by the use o
| belladonna, and masses of II a II
4 changed 10y some decotion from the
| natural tint to fashionable hue
| and lie couldn't for the life of him
5 see why the hcathen were worse III
, this respect than those people in q
e high state of civilization.
/ The missionary informed his au-
r dicnce that heather devotcS tortnr
ed their bodies 10y unnatural com
Il pressions and painful attitudes
n thinking to appease the anger o
offended deity.
} The faces of the audience indica
e ted pity for such ignorence bu
e Common Sense glanced over to
y man whose boots were instrument
Il of torture to him, and to woma
l. whose head was poised in an III
is natural attitude, shoulders throw
N distressingly high, and waist con
st pressed until her muscles, sincw!
G. diaphragm, heart, lungs, and live
ut failed to do the work allotted thel
by natue and, rejecting that thi
- S,sf, IL -. ..,l
II propitiatc the goddess Fashion, h
st wondered if the missionary Nigh
re not return to foreign lands wit
mt tales Of American heather.
=; The missionary told his audicnt
lc ofhcathcn mothers who threw chill,
al rcn into ,hc Ganges and cast the
before JugGcrnaut, offerings I
their gods.
O. The audience shuddcrcd convul
" lively at. the monstrous tale, b
Common Sense had his eye fixed ,
RS child standing within he 60
shadows east by the church
neck and arms were bare; and !
f. little knees, blue with the bitil
cold, knocked together painfully
the child waited toI the nurse WI
lot held protractcd diScussioa with
boon companion. Common Sen
-, recognized the child as the reprcS,
'' tativc of a large class given up
their mothers to The abSurditlcs
DS. fashionable dress and incomptcu
of servants, until disease and prem
ture death was the result, and
ng wondered f hcathcn mothers
their sacrifices were more culpal
than American mothers in their II,
'o' lcct
The Missionary told his audion
of the division of caste, Inc inform
'SS them that the higher orders dcsp
ed inferior grades and IL u pcrs
elk. fell to IN inferior rank his old &C
panlous in the former caste ha,
right to subject him to insult, Il
IT'S put upon him every indignity I'll
scorn might conceive.
Great astonishmcnt was writ
'''' ON the faces of the audience,
Common Sense looked straight Il
at fashionable woman who shr
from her poor ncghbor IN the p'
and that very day had refused
lcSS speak to u woman whose social
sltion had once been equal with II,
IL n but through rcvcrscs of fortune,
suul, TO "A lower station.
thought with such examples BET
don him, that the orders OF caste
IL | L.. -. ......i..I.. l.uI "A nurlllIl