Litchfield enquirer., 1871-07-13

i t, be sure, the noodle will have become an
 inefficient, weak minded woman, while her 1 husband grows and develops by contact with the world; he wilfeven feel a sense o1
 disgrace when she reveals her ignorance to
 his friends, and will lament to himself tha,
 she has no sympathy with his enlarged
 ideas; but for all this, there in his house
 the noodle will reign, blessed outwardly
 with wealth and social distinction, and
 cherished, we will hope, by her husband.
 tender, all endearing love; while the poor
 unplucked wall flower is first in nobody
 thoughts and plans, and must dwell de
 pendent in the houses of others and ci
 pher in the society she is suffered to ire
 quent. No, it is plain to our young wo
 man, life is too precious to be wasted ir
 learning to be useful or intelligent
 The invalidism of which we have spoken
 is also the fruit, in a great measure, o
 these early years. In order to be present
 and to shine at the evening parties where
 society is to be met, she must break every
 law of health respecting dress, food, sleer
 and active exercise in open air and sun.
 shine. She may be perfectly we'll aware
 that eating oysters and salads at midnight
 substituting vaporous tarletons at evening l for the thick merinos worn by day, and dancing till morning hours in close, vitiated
 air is to ruin any constitution not made oi
 iron, but she is also we'll aware that hel physical charms are never so effectively displayed as when set off by clouds of lace
 and knots of flowers under the soft glamour
 of the gas light, and so health has to go in this desperate search after admiration.
 Such life creates in her taste for arti- -s- II T tu old age and subjects her constantly to their i'll effects.
 Woman's extravagance ln dress is her only extravaganza in money matters, but is so great and so productive of evil to her. self and others that it is properly the ob- ject of general censure. This, all will ad- init, is mostly acquired in the days between school and marriage, when she resorts to it to highten the beauties of face and fig- ure, upon which so much of her success must depend No pains and money can then be spared to render her costume beau tiful and becoming. She racks her brains for new designs, she closets herself morn ing after morning with her dressmaker or her needle. and ransacks shops all the af- ternoon for fresh materials. Such fond ness for rare and exquisite fabrics is never overcome. but rather grows with what it feeds upon. Women perhaps overrate the influence of fine dress and the latest fash ions upon gentlemen, and certain it is that the very responsiveness of their attire frightens most beholders from all thoughts of matrimony, but these facts are not ap- parent to their superficial gaze. They see only the immediate effects of their beruf- fled loveliness upon the circle of fattering admirers, and fancy that matter of-fact cal culations can never mingle with the sweet homage of those glances. If the dizzy heads around them preserve sufficient bal ance, reckon coolly and profanely the prob able price per suit of so much silk, lace and workmanship, and the probable number required per year, together with the sundry other personal expenses to which these dainty beings have wonted themselves, it is because the cost of living and the relent- less nature of yearly bills have become to them the foundation upon which the whole social structure rests. They may buzz of an evening around the pretty blaze, warm ing and glorifying themselves in it's light, but they fly off in safety at last, without scorching the tips of their giddy wings. And still the gorgeous apparel is varied and multiplied till the advent of the prince ly suitor, whether young or old, who is will ling to furnish purple and fine linen with out stint.
 Such system of training for our idle young women leaves them, after marriage. inferior in mental culture, disingenuous in character, nervous, dyspeptic and hopeless ly broken in health, with taste for dis play, craving for complimentsa and ador- ation, and love of crowded, characterless as their only recreation. Veal thy often, and fashionable, they lead the rest Of womankind after them at a slower pace, for nearly all women, even the most sensible, cannot but have certain servility in their minds and an undue desire to copy others, when the whole tendency of the in- structions given them since the world stood has been to repress in them any independ- ence of thought or conduct. They must always be the blind and obsequious devo- tees of authority, in fashion and in all things, till they are led to reason and to act for themselves.
 We do not desire to overstate these evil effects upon woman's character, and we be- lieve, indeed, that they cannot be oversta- ted. While admitting that there are, even in the highest ranks of society, where so much tends to foster such course, many an Ethel Newcome, who looks with mute scorn upon the maneuvres going on around her, and submits to them at last only be- cause she is helpless to withstand them, and numberless others who devote them selves to vaLisy and coquetries from sheer idleness, without any we'll defined aim, it is nevertheless true that the great majority of unmarried young women live the life and are subject to the influences we have described. That the sex in general have no condemnation to offer, is because there has not been time for them to cast aside the old heritage of Eastern ideas. They have been obliged for so long to pander to the prejudices and the passions of others, without questioning it's propriety or right, that they have come to believe it to be their natural vocation. But regarding these practices, to which they are for the most part driven to secure husband and a liberal maintenance. as evils that afiict and disgrace us all, we must dencunce them in unmeasured terms. Did we honor wo- mans real nature less, or harbor any doubts of the strength of her mental and physical powers when properly trained, did we feel less keenly any degradation put upon the sex as Q personal reproach, we