Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1872-11-21
LADY LOAFERS.

"Three small housekeepers on small
scale, in the middle rank of life, writ
disquisition in the Cincinnati Com
mercial on Lady Loafers," in which
they denounce the social good-for-noth
ings in unmeasured terms. The on,
writer who speaks for the others says:
Sometimes it seems to me that tht
whole social life of women is based upor
two ideas-aping and envy The woman
who lives in two little back rooms uI
stairs apes and envies the women who
has a whole house to herself. The
woman who has small house apes and
envies the woman with large house
and the woman with large house is in
"a steady fever Of fear and fretting lest
she be not recognized and visited by the
woman who has stone front house anC
circus chariot with clown dressed uI
in buttons. No matter how high q wo-
man climbs upon the social ladder
there is always still some higher height
which she can't scale, some other woman
over her head who looks down upon her
and gives her days aud nights Of jeal.
ousy and heartsche. Not q blessed
woman of them all is happy and con
tented in the soil wherein fate has plant
ed her. but must needs spend her best time
and strength in frantic efforts to pull
herself out by the roots and transplant
herself somewhere else. The snobs
who ride in circus chariots curl up their
noses at the schoolmistrcsses the school
mistresses look down from infinite nights
upon the clerks end dressmakers, and
the clerks and dressmakers In turn pay
it off with interest upon the kitchen girls.
What nonsense, what supreme tom-fool-
cry it all isl Is a schoolmistress any
better or higher up than washerwoman
Not a bit. And are not the schoolmis.
tresses aud the washerwomen both in-
finitely better and higher up than the
lady ioafers-the Stole Moores Of the
feminine sex, in short2 Yea, verify.
"Women are the most absurd crea-
lures, all owing to the silly fancy that IT
is lady-like to be a loafer. A little hme
ago one of my small busy housekeeper
friends asked lady loaier caller what
had become of her sister.
"'She goes dOgD town town every day,
now says the lady loaier, hesitatingly.
~ Is she at work. quOth the house
keeper.
"'WelI, ye--yes," says the lady loafer,
still more hesitatingly.
"What does she do2' asked my friend,
The lady loafer siammersd aud
backed of painfully two or three times,
aud finally made a clean breast Of 1t
thusly:
She-she-she has charge Of the
trimmings in a-dressmaking establish
ment. She has nothing to do with the
dressmaking. She has charge of the
trimmings It's not a common dress
making establishment It's ons Of the
fashionable dressmakers. She won't
make a dress for poor person. e.t
"' Oh, glory fan me with a cabbage
leaf quoth my friend. the small, busy
b housekeeper.
THE idea Of a body's dressmaker
setting herself up to be highstooraoy.
The laurels Of the lady loafers in the
circus chariois are quite faded and with
cred after that And yet, Why not a
dressmekerf Ism { money made at dress
making quite as aristOcratic as money
made with pork, whisky, hides, soup.
tallou and t0bacco7 Those are the ma
terial foundations upen which our Amer
lean nobility found their airy castles Of