New-York tribune., 1871-05-01


sailes army without the city walls. 10 tniS
complexion affairs have been Fastening 1or
some time the accident at Fort dlssy mas
merely advanced the end few days.
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MAY-DEW.
OF all mornings in the year, this Is the one
which in old times belonged exclusively 10
Poetry. and now il claimed by the hardest
Gsted prose. Merrie England sent it down TO
us. rcdclent of buttercups and daisies, falr
legend of music and dancing, and flower
crowned yonth and love- We wake to find 1t
choking with years upturned dust, jammed
with carts, dirty carpets, and smasheu iurii-
ture. Young maidens in the May that the
world once knew rose before dawn, and be-
took themselves to tho fields to wash their
focns in the unsunncd dew, and so acquired q
brilliancy of complexion which nothing e'9e
cou,d give. Our young matron nowadays
also rises with the sun, but has no ego
upon dew. She has spent weeks IN inc
annual search for q house, ana To-
day comes the grand elimination or hcr
plans and work. She has Bridget and Patrick
wagons, silver, china, carpets, and kltchen-
ware, all TO carry on her own uilaldcd Draih
through this day of days. She has ioftIer aims
in life than dancing around May-poles, ana
better use for her mornings than securing the
fields for dew to whiten her sallOw skin. she
reads with disgust of Diane de Poitiers, who,
sjmply to increase her beauty, rode on horse
hack for an hour every morning before dawn,
and came back to take a milk bath and nap
before her meatess breakfast. What does 1t
matter that she retained power over men,
through her wonderful beauty, until old agef
The American Dianas look upon such arts
with sc0rn. Before matrimony IL accomplished,
they use, perhaps, instead of May-dew ana
milk baths, the cheaper cosmetics OF prepared
chalk and rouge. But, once safely married,
tbey are apt to abandon all consideration OF
their own persons for the woightier businesses
of housekeeping and embarrassing. The more
devout and respectable middle-class American
woman is, the more probably is this the case
Her house is spotleSs, her jelly crystal-cear,
her children brought up according to all the
requirements of the moral law; while her skin
grows sallow and muddy, her hair is unkempt
ard an anxious scOwl is fixed upon her brow
When she dies, duh, untidy drudge drops
out of her drudgcry, and, dear as she may be,
neither husband nor children have one beau
tiful, pleasing memory to brighten their re-
membrancc Of her features. Now women who
persistently ignore the uses of beauty in their
persons are assuredy not apt to bring it into
their homes. There is no more lamentable
trait in our national character than the
| barrenness and narrow culture shown III
the houses of our middle class. When
| Smith the mechanic or Jones tho grocer
gets ND in the wOrld,' he spreads hideOus
| Brussels carpet on the parlor floor, sets a gilt
| per-g glass against the wall, hangs glittering
gas mOnstrosity from the ceiling, and then sits
down content OF the softening, gracious de-
light of cheap beauty brought into daily life
he has apparently no conception. The woman
who tolls early and late to help feed and teach
her children and to push her husband on, who
eternaIy besegcs Heaven with tears and
PRAYERS to keep them from il-doing, would
laugh to scOrn the idea that a brighter, pretticr
! home, with fair neatly dressed woman to
preside over it, would educate them as no books
could do would widen and soften their child
| hood, and elevate their whole lives toward
| truth and religion. Our good housewife is un-
wearied in compromising soups and puddings:
she spends days in shaping clothes after the
newest fashion, how much longer would she
require to learn how to match the celors III
her cheap curtains and chairs or to train q
few flowers over the windowsi
We certainly do not want the anxious ma
| tron, ruling over draymen and disaster to-day,
| to leave all in the hands of idOtic Biddy and
| betake herself to the meadows in search of q
cosmetic; but when the brunt is over and
| draymen and disaster are banished, what if she
tried, by simple, honest means, to stay the
vanishing beauty of her youth for the sake of
her husband and childrenf Diane de Poiters
was not all uDwise when she maintained her
power over those who loved her, until the
grave shut her out from their sight. We do Mt
ask wife and mother to abandon her yearly
scrubbing to frisk about May-pole; but
which, after ALL was the moro rational Occu-
patton If her pail and brush had occasional
rest, and her children a few holidays and
frantic races through the meadows and dances
among roses to remember, at the end of tho
year-what thenq No woman need say she
has grown too old for such follies. " DaS
Lebenis Mai bidht einmal," says the poet,
"und nicM ciedcr' Q.ifo's May blooms once
and never again; but there is May dew
which will brighten the face of every life into
brightness and beauty. Would that every
woman would gather and carry it with her
into her new home to-day
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