The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1874-05-16
MISCELLANY Y.
The Last Straw.

LAYS UGt11r Will SlONhSts
have survived " tatting,'' | have even
maintained my reason in sight of one of
those monstrosities of worsted work,
framed in gilt and called pictures, which
require, as we see complacently stated, the
leisure hours of from three to ten years
but this is too much this is the last straw
Listen. it is taken from the published let
ter-of an .eminently- practical lady, who
usuallywlites of hollsehOld work:sg
sit was hanging basket, made OF
bleached muslin torn in strips an inch and
a half wide, and raveled out on both
edges ,IeaNilg three or four threads in the
middle. So light, sc. white, so tasteful, and
made out of ward and half of the very
coarsest bleached mustn't When will
nlarVels and miracles of ingenuity and taste
ceaSe?'
Good Heavens! is a woman a machine,
that she must be kept at some senseless
motion of the hands, or else grow rusty?
Are there no books to be read? is there no
science to be mastered? no art to be prac-
ticed? nothing to do-that human being
with brains and soul, must set herself to
ravel thirty-six. yards OF bieached muslin
to produce-not thing of beauty that
shall be pleasure and delight to her-but
asniere pretty fancy that the first layer of
dust or spot of soil shall ruin and eonsign
to the rag bag? Is it a matter OF wonder
that men treat their wives like children.
and the law classes them with idiots, when
they spend the leisure of ten years produc-
ing an abomination of Worsted work. even
counting the stitches, so as to occupy the
mind as well as the fingers? Is 1t any wen-
der that the boarding house, the sewing
machine, and the lower grades OF school
rooms offer the only resources against
Starvation to one thrown upon the
world, if she has trified away her
life in tying thread into loops and call
ing it tatting?" Isit matter OF surprise
that the ranks of these ill-paid services
are crowded to overfiowing, so that wo-
mans work can notoriously be procured
for starvation wages, if it is in crocheting
elaborate carri ge robes of zephyr wool,
recurring months of labor, to be ruined by
the first shower or spot of mud, that she
has trained mind and fingers? LIS it any
more than might be expected, that the ar
mics of fallen women are recruited every
day from the ranks of girls who have thus
frittered away their youth in fancy
work %
Oh, my sister, throw away the tatting
shuttle; bury the crochet needle; burn
up the pattern books stop the fancy
work magazine or paper; do solnetlhlng
don't ask you to read politics. to study
law or medicine, to preach or togo into
business. Thereare enough who must dc
these e,butsstuly read. collect minerals Oh
shefls or insects or plants, draw, paint, de
sign, model, play, sing-do something
either useful or beautiful. Cultivate some
thing besides All elaborate doing OF moth
ing: know little more tomorrow thai
YOU know to-day, if it is only the numbel
of legs on spider. Yen will not grow
less wonanly-God forbid !-only less like
an IDIOT Imagine your husband or fat1el
employing his leisure hours In whiting
piece of wood into links of a chain, or
series of balls that will turnin each other
or any other senselesswork Why shoult
veu be less of a woman than he d man? |
was all very well in the dark ages, whel
every man who knew much was monk
and every other a warrior, wandering
over the world in search of adventures t
keep out of mischief; and when women
shut up in their homes, with few books
and fewer clothes to make, and unable Z
buy fabrics to crafty their love of tn
beautifuI-it was well enough then 10
them to embroider, OF only dresse
and robes and room hangings, bu
even the covers to their books. bu
now. in this nineteenth century, whel
tllesbare care of your wardrobe takes NOR
time in day than theirs did in month
when society makes requirements on you
time and labor that those benighted dame
never dreamed of; when your fingers can
begin to rival the looms; when you can bu
a prettier collar for dollar than yon ca
Sstats in a month; when there is SO niue
SO much womanis work crying out
he slane so many waiting children to b
fed and eomfortei: SO many crushed sil
ters to be lifted up so much ignorane
and darkness to be lispelled, so niue
that is wrong and crooked and tangled u
in society to- be slstraightened out-b
woman alone-ohi can you trifle ava
precious hours raveling out thirty-si
yards of bleaehed muslin?
You can't do anything, yoti say yo
have noagreat talents TO straighten out S,
cial tangles, or intellect to solve social pr
,blems, or money to relieve suffering. Pc