The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1871-09-16
Comforting WOn1en.

| comfort is q mans DeSettlng weakness. A
partiality for ease, quiet and repose, is inherent
| in all of us, and we are not slow TO see, however
10th to acknowledge, any means Of spproxima-
ting to so celesnsaan end.
| Some Women seem to have affiatus of COM
fort, which, like the fragrance Of the musk, in
stills itself into every particle OF toe domestic at
mosphere. Happy women Happier home The
| bissful gift they have received they are ever
ready 10 lavish and as the senseless clay as
sumes form, color, beauty, almost life itself, from
| the artists hands, so, under their management,
the household is nodded into shape, order springs
| from chaos, and the wheels of home run smooth
| y, noiselessly, and without flaw.
| comforting woman is dscrenbe at a glance
She is not
| GA daughter of the gods, divincly tall'
| for she is neither tall nor short, stout nor thin
but ber form partakes of the golden mean, both
vertically and horizontally. Nor must she neces-
| sarily be in graceful portion or hideous outline
| She is neither Venus nor Harper. Must she
be young or old ? She may be either. We have
| no Procrustean rule by which to measure the
| comforting woman. But there is a certain some
thing which stamps her at once as PECULIAR
Just as fair Cytherea in Virgil is disclosed by her
gait,
"And showed the goddess she stepped"
So too your comforting woman is recognized
by the air OF comfort she dispenses, whether her
form be fair or foul, or her features graceful or
ugly In her case, all the ordinary criteria by
which we judge women are thrown to the winds.
In fact, were she surprisingly pretty, with the
culture of De Stael and the grace of Recamier,
possessing all the qualifications which generally
make women objects of love and admiration, she
would not come under our definition OF COM
forting woman Her other more dazzling quail
ties would eclipse her humble virtue-comforta-
bleness and men would be entranced with her
beauty, wit and grace, rarely constant qualities,
when it is comfort alone which is undying, like
the sum- warming and regulating life.
Who has met comforting woman and was
insensible to her presence If you are sick, she
does not alarm with gloomy representations, and
stihe help by useless hustle and noise. Her Or
ders however quiet are imperative; her move
ments, seemingly uHconcerned, are cautious
Her gentle touch soothes the aching brow, and
medicine from such hand is doubly efficacious.
She calculates, to wonderful nicely, the suffer-
er's wants, and supplies his food and drink with
a grace that is perfectly irresistible. Her sweet
breath drives off the bot fever and kiss from
her lips thrills the whole frame with dreamy hap
piness Her look Of sympathy is a world of
comfort while her hand like fairy wand will
calm the widest paroxysms, and dismiss one to
balmy sleep and pleasing dreams, whence he will
awake refreshed, glorifed, and restored, all
through the wondrous power Of the comforting
woman |
Nor is it in sickness only that the comforting
woman displays hersf In the trouble and tur-
mcil Of hcs,e-fe, in the skifnl discipline of the
thousand and one discordant elements at her
right hand and her left, she is in her proper
sphere and, like old father Neptune, WHO could
calm the raging sea by O look, she, by her very
presence, allays the fierce storm about her.
spoilt dinner, however vexatious, she excuses on
the ground that it might be something worse
If her dress is badly ironed she does not loudly
condemn the awkward servant, but quietly ad
monishes her of her fault, and instructs her as to
its remedy. If her husband is out of temper
with burnt chop she will herself broil another;
and, in few minutes the crisp, juicy meat
anopted with a sprig of parsley and radiant with
gravy, will amply satisfy her irate half, and COM
fort will be his portion the rest of the day
OF course the comforting woman has lesser
virtues; she has tact, if not talent. 1dleness is
her abomnaton, for she is ever active, though
never meddlesome. She is fond of talk, not of
gossip. She detests scandal, for she likes to
think well of everybody, and always looks on
the bright side of things She is sympathzing,
but never inquisitive Unselfsh, she never prates
of her self-sacr6ces. Her Gaping virtue is her
good nature. In this she is as impregnable as
Gibraltar Her common sense, too, is well de-
veloped. These qualities, sprinkled with good
| of your comforting woman.
The comforting woman is not all sunshine. e.
She, too, has her little gusts of passion-her
little tempests of petulance. But the sun is al
ways shining in her storms, which, in truth are
necessary to proper appreciation of her charac-
ter; for were the aspect of nature perpetually
fair the grass forever green, and the sky forever
blue, we would become not only insensible to the
beauty of creation, but also weary of its dull
O. fhn Clo dc xuhi ioh md
then darken the comforting woman bring out, in
clearer relief, her true character, warning the Un
wary that there is limit even to her good nature
and establishing, as it were, frmer alliance be-
tween u.s. since we are both sensible of each
others shortcomings.
The genus woman has already been differen-
taed into numerous species. Among these, the
| comforting woman has certainly strong pre-
sumptive claim to pre-emnence. Your pretty
| woman may be as sleek as the dove and as soft
| as the dew but the serpent is equally seek and
soft, and the faces of both are similarly fascina-
ting and auring. Your charming woman, in
| the spring-time of life, when beauty and wit
conirve to bathe her in prismatic colcrs, is
| tainly not to be slighted. But as age draws on,
her stock in trade withers the toothless crone is
hardly charming But the comforting woman
holds lifelong sway, spanned by birth and
death alone. Age heightens, not dims, her
| power, for that increases with years. Noquahty
So illumines the aged woman as the feeling of
comfort hex face reflects, when we see prattling
grandchildren on her knees, pulling her now
white locks out of all propriety, while the whole
household throngs to her side to pour into SYM
pathizing ears its pains and pleasures.
The true woman must possess the magic OF
comfortableness, otherwise her sway dies with
her beauty. To realize the aspirations of her
own nature as well as TO perform Alright the
sacred duties of mother, wife, sister, daughter,
she must dispense comfort, and thus prove, in
the poets words:
| "a perfect woman, nobly plann'd
| To warn, to comfort and command"