The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1870-02-12

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or workshop without receiving insult OIL
being contaminated, what must be the sit
uation Of the wife and daughters who ac-
knowledge his authority in the house he
calls their home? There he lays aside all
restraints, and, being lord, acts and speaks
as seemeth to him good. His temper, his
passions, his blasphemous propensities-
remember we speak here of such men ~
as women may not in public associate with
there rage uncontrolled, and the delicate
woman, the young maiden daughters, even
the lisping child, listen and tremble before
him who should be their natural guardian
and protector. Talk Of keeping women
within the sanctuary of home lest their
purity shosld be weakened or soled by IA
miliar intercourse with the common herd
of mankind? Who, let us ask, compose
this common herd? Are they not all sons,
brothers, husbands or fathers of women,
dwelling in the freedom Of domestic inter-
course with those near relations? And is
not the worst rowdy at the tavern, the
cearsest ruffian, the vilest criminal, the
daily and nightly associate, the legal lord
and master, of some one Of these so ten
derby cherished and cared for women?
Every man is thoroughly known to some
woman. All his virtues, all his vices, all
his follies, all his faults, are perfectly un-
derstood by his mother, his sister, his wife,
his daughter, or by all of these. Oh vain
and arrogant man if you could know how
perfectly you are comprehended by woman,
you would no lenger prattle about keeping
hsr from being contaminated by public in
fluence by restraining her from wandering
from the sanctity of home. She knows
you in your worst guise. She has seen you
in your darkest aspect. Need she go
abroad to learn how inhuman you can be?
Who knows a man SO thoroughly as the
mother who has nursed his infancy, taught
his childhood, and guided his early youth ?
Who beside the mother, can understand
him as do the sisters who grew up with
him in the intimate communion of paternal
affection? Only the wife, who, living in
oneness with him, enters yet within deeper
chamber of his nature, and knows him
more thoroughly than he knows himself
And almost every woman is acquainted
with man in one or all of these relations
and he stands thus unveiled before her in
the sanctuary Of home. Shall she remain
immured within that sanctuary lest she be-
come acquainted with the man as he is p
Courtesy, conventionality and polite hypoc-
risy, gild his manners and disguise him
everywhere save in the unrestrained atmos-
phere Of home. And there is no vice, no
passion, no species of intenperance, no III
baldry OF impiety, which does not desscrate
some spot that man calls home, and faint
her whose sphere of love and duty, whose
purity, whose honor, whose empire, is said
to lie within husbands home.
Do not imagine that we would break
down the palisades which inclose the ark
of csvenant-the domestic bower. Home,
to every creature, is the dearest spot on
earth. Home is indeed a sanctuary where
the weaknesses, the weaknesses, the fol-
lies Of humanity, are hidden from the outer
world, locked in the deep casket of domes-
tic charity. But they are not therefore
inert. Wherever there be wrong. there
must be a sufferer; wherever there be vice,
some one must be polluted.
The home in which honor, magnanimity
mutual concession and affection constitute
the bond and the authority, is indeed the
throne and nursery of all that is truly
thought valuable in life. Disappointment,
sorrow, sickness, and the Death angel enter
even here; but the grief is lessened by
sympathy, and the equally afflicted sustain
and soothe each other. In this home there
is no MASTER no slave, no tyrant, no victim,
no imperious commander, no abject vassal
despising herself hating her oppressor, and
murmuring against her God.
How many raams of paper have been
written over for the purpose of impressing
upon woman the duty of making home an
agreeable resting place for her husband
and always being there, with the most
pleasant surroundings, to welcome him
when he comes away from the tolls and
vexations of outdoor life The following
is one of the many paragraphs which are
constantly going the rounds of the news
papers, and instructing women in their
duty in this respect:
A nice young woman called upon a cler-
gyman one day, and told him that her hus-
band was unkind to her, and that he passed
nearly all of his leisure hours away from
home, and that, in short, his conduct was
rendering her miserable. 81 thought,
SIR" she said, Gas you are COED and wise
man, perhaps you would advise me what to
do, that l might reclaim my husband. y
:" our complaint is not an uncommon one,
my geod woman" said the pastor, "and
think it is within reach of a simple rem
edy." "Oh tell it to me, and l will bless
YOU said the poor woman. The pastor
took her hand kindly, and looking into
her face, said, impressively: Always meet
your husband with smile"
This is only as it should be and what
matter what her own daily trials may have
been But should not the smiles and gentl
words be mutualo She is weary with care,
weak, perhaps, and burdened with mater
nifty Shall not the husband endeavor tc
bring home with him glad looks, peace
and the materials with which she may Gre
ate order and comfort? Should not the
effort and forbearance be mutual? Although
Woman is the presiding genius of home
and home is the birth place and foundation
of society and government-social, civi
and religious-and while all receive colol
and tone from the lips, the eyes and the
hands Of Woman, still the happiness ant
the virtue of this universal cradle of thu
world depend in great degree upon hin
whose duty it is to provide not only bread
but whatsoever else he would wish to enjo,
within its sacred precincts.
Let man provide pleasant dwellin.
furnish it with comfort, and gladden.
with honor, kindness and affection. and tn