The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-12-06

LECTURE BY MRS. SWISSHELM
6 TO THE DUTCH, OH! LADIES, AND LEARN
WISDOM.

AIEITTrRE BY MRS SWlSSHELM
=, TO THE DUTCH, OH! LADIES, AND LEARN
WISDOM.
The following letter from Mrs. Swisshelm, the
great woman reformer, to the Chicago T7t"ne,is
ege.full OF sense, and ought to be read by every
mother and daughter in the land:
Among the many letters which come to me. on
dress reform. is one from a lady Of this county,
who says: r. ~, ooa
10 Country Girls" mad it given me when was
eight or nine years old, and was very much I'm
pressed with the chapter on tight-laclnS: have
never from that time to this worn anything uSht
around my body. Ofcourse have always had
fight with dressmakers for they declared they
never saw such figure in their lives, etc. But
have always had vigorous health, and have often
walked light and Ten miles on ;e thirteen. ana
here little result: am now tN eatysx, lmaIred,
and have two Children and have had none OF the
ais OF mother no ID which women generally nave.
What a vulgar creature, says Mrs: bacKache,
a she Tolls amid her cushions, wondering II INC
doctor never will give her anything to cure these
terrible attacks Of headache and dyspepsia and
liver complaint, and neuralgia, and nervousness
and sIeeplessness, and general debility, ana az
the other ailments, while her puny infant IS III
the arms of q nurse, kept at a cost OF half her
husbands income and draws ,, us t mIafe
1t is so horrid you know, to be healthy 80
vulgar Tor a woman to be alb G 70 take care OF her
own child, after the manner OF Gods law! ~ IS
SO coarse not to keep ones bed when one Is nov
scraping the streets with India rubber scrapers,
and ones body for a handle! Dear me! Why'
| it's Dutch! and dutch is the GROWING op-
| probrium, simply because it is the synonym lor
| s'health.''
| In these later days, to be Dutch is to be
dreadful! German is quite genteel for we
| have German ladies who ale almost, II not qnne,
as useless and expensive as the American article.
Do we. with our hollow pretenses Oh Irot . ah
civilization and civil liberty, bought with the
bio. d Of martyrs forget that the Dutch held Hol-
land through thirty years OF the tiercest war IN
history !; that it was the sturdy burshe,s OF that
most honored land who first taught the wtfld
| that the common people, united on point OF con
science with God for King and Communicating
| Chief are more than match for the proudest
sovereigns, backed by the most ancient hered.
| itary rights and the most unlimited command OF
| treasure 1t was the Dutch who first met Des-
potism face to face and made q successful stand.
| AS descendant Of the old Scotch Covenanters.
the Dutch are the only people to whom l can do
mental obeisance, Notwithstanding it is fashion
able, since Germany has given us so large q
voting population, and logged France, for Amer
lea to be polite to the Germans. Ihey are
very good class OF folks, and have done the world
SOME service. Without the German brain there
would be very large alrchailnel IN tne "9f. ~
| Uranium; and if German women only haa the
backbone to retain, i'll this country, the beautl-
t,A and healthful costume, OF their native land,
| they would be, to us, god-end indeed but they
have generally become about as lnlch tne pohdr
slaves OF Mrs Grundy, the supp tools OF
dressmakars and nurses, as the daughters
of the once proud Pilgrim Fathers
who do not hesitate to confess themselves SER
wants of servants, ruled out OF their own kltchen
by Biddy, fed on whatever she may please to
give them, at a cost Of whatever she may please
to make it; ruled out of their own wardrObes by
dressmakers, totally ignorant OF the natural out
lines of the bodies they dress, and whose primer
nal qualifications for their business Is lmpudence;
ruled out of their own nurseries by Ignorant
nurses who live by the helplessness and disease
they load with fulsome batteries!
Statesmen and statsticians tell us mat 1or-
eigIers are to take this country, bec' use OF the
physical degeneracy of American women, and
the small number Of children reared by them
but they have not taken the dressmaker and nurse
into their calculations. So long as these subJu'
gate German and Irish women at the rate they
are now doing so long as none but ''the Dutch
dare to obey the most imperative laws OF lie, 1oI
fear the dressmaker, nurse, and Mrs. Grundy will
curl their lips in scorn-eo long, there IL little
danger that our Irish, German, French, Scandl-
nayian. and Italian emigrants Of to. day will long
hold any supremacy over the descendants OF those
who came over 200 years ago. The American
dressmaker and nurse have an iron bedstead, on
which they promptly regulate all differences OF
stature among the various people that compose
, our nation and, by its rule, the maximum birth
rate of the foreigner soon reaches the minimum
Of the native-born.
The cook, the dressmaker. aud the nurse, are
the trinity which rules the census OF this coun-
try: for our ladies have generally been too lately
lifted from humble stations to have learned the
t art Of governing households. The habit OF com
mand only comes through generations OF cui-
ture and our aiistocracy of wealth found yes
terday live in state Of chronic war with the
servants who hope to displace them Tomorrow.
So your American lady, weighed to the earth by
the silks, velvets, laces and jewels necessary to
| l., in,
comes the easy prey of Biddy, not yet broken on
the wheel of fine ladyhoOd, and mistakes her
dressmaker for the autocrat OF destiny LII dress.
and the nurse in general department.
As these arbiters Of fate are generally persons
of narrow nteects and well sharpened wits, and
it is to their immediate interest to cultivate the
dependence on which they depend, our domestle
history teens with repettions of the old story OF
Queen Ann and Lady Churchlil OF mistiesses
!. held IN most degrading bondage by their own
{ servants. rs in that case, SO IN these, Fhysica
vigor was the plus which overbalanced legitimate
authori Y, wealth. and social position, IN the sum
total OF the problem. so long as woman , SCI.
wants can rule her through her physical disability
and increase this at will, so long she Is then
tool, instead Of mistress or employer:
The dressmaker who sneers at the feminine
fo.m as God made it, and as the greatest artist.
, and poets the world has ever seen have dehneatec
it. in mar ble on canvas and in immortal song, Is
: simply an impairment ignoramus. and should De
, treated as such. ! he nurse who seeks to cult
!, vate helplessness by making vigorous heaitn
, something OF which the possessor should o
! ashamed, is akin to the witches who plotted tn
de struction of Macbeth. They are deliberate
imposters, self-deceived deceivers, Of whom sen
sible women should beware:
There is nothing in which women more neeo
the aid Of man than in eeking the emancipation
from the tyranny Of dressmakers t ana nurses ro,
! Of cooks and chambormaids. Even have beer
. unable to cope. single handed, with the dress
! maker. True, have never employed one FOL
! myself and | would soon think OF hirinS az