The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1872-05-31

the attention OF some one many times q
day, and constant oversight. In fami-
lies where 4 child's nurse is never en-
ploved. and where mothers take pride
in doing all OF their town work.
woman gets praise if she has an 'eXcel-
lent faculty for turning of her childrenv'
The woman who allows herself to be
''hindered' by any calls for sympathy
in her children's pleasures and sorrows
is supposed, by many, to be lacking in
faculty as hOusekeeper.
Cannot any person of sound mind per-
ceive that a baby is work and care
enough for the woman who is the baby's
mother, till its days of actual babyhOOd
are over? No; there are very few wem-
Ell or men who can understand this at
the present time. But better days are
surely coming for mothers and for ba-
bies, and so for ALL
/ suppose there are people who really
like to hear of mothers doing such an
amount of work, outside their regular
mOtherly duties. They look back upOu
the ''good old times" when our grand
mothers baked and brewed, scrubbed
and spun and wove from morning till
night, while unnumbered babies clung
to their skirts and lay in their laps, as
the very paradise of existence. Such
people would find more pleasure in The
Odosia, if she had not only done all her
hOusework and sewing, and child-nurs-
ing, painting pictures, practicing music,
learning new languages, ETC., but had
also become a mother anew as often as
once in two or three years. Couldn't
she do as much as that for her cOuntry's
sake?
There may be women, even in our
day, who bring forth children with such
frequency, and do all their own house
work. The country is full of broken
down, nervous remnants of wOmanhoOd.
But this model Theodosia had time also
for music, painting, literature, Ian
guages, society, hospitality!
Here is something better. 1t is the
best thing / have read concerning
women in many a day. Jennie June!
Bless her! She also has done too mnch;
but she gets up and eOnfesses it, for our
sakes. Does She indeed love humanity
/ too well to allow herself to be set up
I before us all, as heroine of the times
an example to stimulate other wOm-
en-? We have all read of her wonderful
achievements in the triple career OF
writer, hOusekeeper, and mother. ],
for one, thought no more of her for per-
forming so much; but when | read hel
done harm by making it seem possible
and profitable, to carry on hoUsekeep
ing, and maternal duties, and literary
labOrs at the same time, when it wa!
not, l wanted to send my love to tht
brave woman for speaking those tru,
words. She says that the strength o
the woman should go into the mother
and that the children must suffer if TIN
mother is pressed with other cares.
Judging by my own observation,
suspect that there are thousands of eX
cellent women, who are constantly dis
couraged by their inability TO keep NJ
with the demands of public opinion il
: regard to wOman's duties, as mother anC
housekeepers. 1 know what it is to fee
paralyZed by the amount of work wait
ing for network which seemed a sheel
imposition in comparison with the sweet
though arduous mOtheTly duties thai
must inevitably suffer, when mother:
hands are tied by the never ceasine
cares of n hOusekeeper. You can write
if you must, after the children are in
bed at night; but you cannot cOnven-
iently cook dinner or wash breakfast
dishes then. 1t is misfortune, to say
the least, when a woman is OBLIGED by
circumstances to carry any other burden
while the sacred one of maternity rests
upon her
Gail Hamilton has said some excel
lent things on this subject, and women
surely thank her for that. She sees
pretty clearly how some things are, in
the dim twilight of the approaching
day? l hope there is no incurable
defect in her sight. But let her speak on
We need to see just how things are
especially how bad they are, so a
heartily to set ourselves toward better
things; but il is too bad to 90 to throw.
ing blame right and left. We didn't
, any of us ''go for to do it''-this mischie
that lies all abroad in society, the wOrlC
over. Anybody, with half an eye, car
see that truth and right do not prevail
[ in the land; that the spirit of slavery, o
caste, is in the chief seats; and tina
} pharisaism binds heavy burdens, when
! ever it gets chance, and won't lift it
, finger to help those who stagger unde
them. 1t is pretty bad state of things
but, in one sense, L suppose it is al
: right-all right as part of our race-ex
r perience, through which we may lear
\ something like race wisdom.
D FAITH ROCHESTER.