Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1877-08-02

their children being grown up, and
the claims of maternity no longer par
amount, they will be enabled to fill
any station which providence assigns
them, and become the leaders of soci.
ETY., and companions of their daugh-
tiers or other young women, of whom
they are, by superior knowledge of
life, cultivated femme instincts, and
freedom from the bias of passion, the
safest and wisest guides.
American society is likely to be ru-
ined on account of its youngness-its
trdly character. American women of
middle age, as class, lack the quail
ties requisite to give tone to the best
society. For when women lose youths
full charms without gaining any COM
pensating graces in the richness of a
well stored intellect, and subdued
emotional nature, they are showed
aside; for when the question is one
of matter only, the youngest, rosiest
matter has the best of it. Fresh phys
ical charms are to be preferred to
faded ones quite naturally. Women
OF middle age are apt to become eth
err dull or sour, neither of which is at
tractive, and society learns to do
without their help.
know that life is so great bur-
den to many American women, and
the effort to keep up the requisite
amount of style with poor or defective
service is so onerous, that little spirit
is left to enjoy society provided there
was no other impeachment. But now
we come to the root of the matter.
If women were what they should
be to each other, homeless girls would
find shelter and protection within the
safe precincts of the family instead of
earning their livelihood as now III
shops and factories. Service in fam
lilies would not be distasteful to girls
of self.respect. The relation of mis-.
tress and maid would not be one of
antagonism, but of mutual help and
dependence. \ Belle Brees would be
charming reality in cultivated
American households, and all grades
of society would be the gamers. The
refinements of the higher classes
not the nonsense-would, with suit
able adaptations, pervade the lower,
and the higher would gain in effective
service.
Doubtless social distinctions will al.
ways exist. and they are orderly, at
least as things exist in this life. But
American social distinctions are a
very different thing from the hered-
itary distinctions of the old world and
are founded upon quite other preten-
sions. The girl earning her own liv-
ing to-day may become the wife of
millionaire and may move in the high
est circles, or her daughters may if
she does not. The daughters of the
millionaire of to-day may tomorrow
be compelled to earn their own sup
port and contribute to that of their
friends, and the true womanhood of
both should enable the transition in
either case to be made without un.
due exaltation or depression. If all
strove to perfect themselves in that
station of life where Providence has
placed them, and which we'll filled is
the surest preparation tor a higher
or lower-there would be less com.
plant OF the friyolity and vulgarity
ofthe newly rich, land less distress and
discomfort would attend a sudden re-
verse of fortune.
Daughters should early learn to fill
their mothers place and divide her
cares, to help themselves and each
other, instead of increasing her toll
by selfish disregard of her claims to
leisure and repose. Young women
would in this way become initiated
into all womanly duties, and much OF
the wear and tear of after life prevent
ed by wholesome early training, as
well as more leisure for older women
to undertake with dignity and ease
such duties as their experience has
fitted them to perform for society.
1t is putting woman to a very
poor use to make her simply house
hold drudge; and it need not be if all
did their duty and life was less COM
plicated affair. We strive for that
which we prize most. Let it once be
seen that a plain dinner with graceful
talk, and perfect equinimity of tenn.
per is far choicer luxury than the
most deliberately cooked or costly vi
ands, and let the criterion of gentility
be the sum of their contribution to
the happiness of society on the part
of a family of daughters, rather than
the variety and costliness OF their
wardrobe; in short, let it be fashion.
able to live less for show and more
for comfort. to cultivate mind and
heart, and give less attention to pure
ly external matters which feed Meth
err mind or heart; to read good book
instead of altering a dress into con
formity with the latest whim of fash.
ion; to read in the evening to tired
father, or assist a brother with his
lessons, instead of idling with an in
ane beau, in a word, to do good in
stead of exciting envy. / say if thi:
state of things could once come to bt
fashionable and the rule, instead Of
the rare exception, as now, American
homes would become nurseries of al
that is good and lovely, and would
better represent American civilization
than foreign customs, for the intro
duction of which nothing in Ameri
can institutions is adapted, while th'
tendency of those institutions is still
farther from such a consummation.
In future article we shall endeav
or to show the effect which refined
home culture, such as we have triec
to shadow, would have upon the son
of such mothers, and the brothers o
such sisters; and how women cal
help to lift up the world into a NOR
noble state in manner far more ell
fectual than by voting, or holding OF
fetal positions. GONE OF THEM"
Mrs. A. T. Within ey's "other Girls"
A New York chemist says b
wants nothing more than three pail;