The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-11-27
A Lady Worth Knowing.

There is one lady in literature and
In life whose acquaintance is most de-
sirable and delightful. She is the one
woman, indeed, whom all men are said,
not always without some sarcastic feel
ing, TO wish especially to know. She is
declared TO be the vision that haunts the
youth, as his heart opens TO the soft in
fuences of love, and her figure, trim and
debonair, allures the older fancy of the
man who sits "alone dnd merry at forty
year." having seen his earlier Lillian
and Marian and a score more happily
married. She is, in fact, the domestic
magician, the good fairy, the genius of
home, the thoughtful, tactful, careful,
Intelligent hOusekeeper. She is the
very she whom Milton had in mind
when he wrote,
Herbs and other country messes
Which the neat-handed Phillis dresses"
Her name is Phillis-not exactly rO-
mantle name, nor, indeed, meant by the
poet for a romantic name; for he has
just before sketched another kind Of
woman:
Towers and battlements II sees
BOSOm'd high in tufted trees,
Where perhaps some beauty lies,
The cynosure OF neighboring eyes,
Such a eynosure could not possibly
have been named Phillis; Artemis, per
haps, or Hildegarde; Constance, Edith,
Mildred, or Cunigunda, but by no possi-
bility Phillis. That is a pastoral name,
q shepherds sweetheart. Indeed, the
two kinds of women are perfectly indi-
Gated and distinguished in these lines of
EAHegrO, which have no detail of de-
scriptiOn. The impression Of womanly
difference is nowhere more completely
given. One picture is that of the lofty,
naughty, ''high-born Helen" the su-
perb Lady Clara We're de We've; the
other is that of the thrifty Baucis, the
gardener Adams wife. And the two
are as near in the young mans heart as
they are in the poem.
When Mr.. William Guppy raised his
eyes from the pit of the theater to Miss
Esther Summerson sitting i'm the boxes,
the "image imprinted on his art" was
that of the synosure of neighboring
eyes, stately among stately towers and
ancestral trees. But doubtless when Mr..
William Guppy, as lovers will, aban-
doned himself TO blissful dreams of the
possible home that should grow out of
his lofty passion, it was another vision
that he saw; it was the high-born Helen
coming down TO breakfast i'm a sweet
morning-cap, a neat-handed Phillis.
For love, which scars and sings, also
builds its nest The one instinct is as
deep and sure as the other. The cyno-
sure of worshipping hearts aud eyes is
but the romantic aspect of Phillis; and
because she is so lofty and so lovely will
she be the miracle-worker in the house
hold. The secret sorrow of thousand
homes is that the lady Of the towers and
6attlements does not prove in fact TO be
the neat-handed Phillis.
Indeed, II is kind of national COM
plant ana lamentation that the neat
gether This is the signifeance of the
servant-girl question. This is the root
of the alarming conviction that Phillis
is changing into Biddy, whose fit epi- |
thet is not neat-handed. This is the
meading Of the cry for bread-light,
sweet, well-baked bread, not the cIammy
dough which is served to despairinr
land. This is the reason of the wonder
ing question: What has become of roast
meat? and of the melancholy conviction
that henceforth baked beef is TO replace
the juicy sirloin of tradition, history,
aud elegant literature. OF the accom-
plsbed and intelligent women who
honor the easy chair at this moment by
their attention, of course the immense
majority can broil a steak to turn, or
mix the airiest bread, or boil potatoes
onOns nut lucI6 dTe
some unfortunates who cannot do il. 1
tSI EeS US pity them. They would probably |
@ oeII US that they have not studied poetry /
@ au music the French language. 1
SSiochet' and the Boston to become
h,'cnsn ~ d5udgesi and they Will not fail
obor,'a sn,nu ,i'l Us that Cinderella did not
- IL tie ~ tle frlnee as a kitchen-naid
and that she ceased to be Cindarhraaoh, ,
ana s.ihae emerged mel from the chimney-corner
when she married him. But viii ~ .,.e.r
please TO curb their wrath for r,o,s.l ~ sney
and listen to DR.. Clarke? "Uniess iD'nelt rea,.
and women both have brains, the natien fien
will go down. As much brain is ,,.s11o, 1is.ion
to govern household as TO eomnoes,d
ship; as much TO guide family aTi0bt
as to guide Congress Alright; as m6cb
to do the least and the geatest of woTal
ans work as to do the least and a.
greatest of mans work" Now The
dressing of messes by the neat-bandaJ
Phillis is one Of the important elements
Of governing a household; and the
Princess Cinderella was the better
housewife because she had once been