The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1877-10-13
Frontier WoHon.

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crafty, and when the little differences
of manner that arise from frequent So
cial contact, and the elegance Of dress
that any one can have by money and
neighborhood, are overlooked, that they
shine beside their city sisters with an
enviable luste-. SlHa- lEl5.z
It ought not to be surprising, if one
only paused to think; but that is the
last thing which many of us do. We see
and wonder, without reasoning and
weighing; and one quick and sighting
glance having rested on the dress not in
the last fashion, on the jewelry doubt
less Of price to the owner, but uncom-
monty common to us, on the ill-arrang-
ed hair and the restless hands, we form
a rapid and supercilious conclusion of
inferiority, possibly strengthened by
some peculiarities of speech.
Never were we more mistaken. In
what does our superiority consist We
dress in the mode-no merit of ours,
since any fool can do it who lives where
the mode prevails; but our best playing
is SO far beneath the standard of excel
lence, that the difference between that
land the worst, when compared with ex-
cellence, is really not appreciate. We
have certain little graces of behavior
the ready smile, the ready word which
are unknown or difficult of achievement
with them, but which are ours merely
through the accident of situation and
contagious example, not from any thing
inherent in ourselves, nowise intrinsic
or to our credit. To Offset these super
fetal advantages of ours, what have
they? They can fire rife, and hit
with the shot; they can dress a wound;
they can saddle horse, and ride him
| they can face wilderness, and supply
themselves with civilization out of their
own resources. While we futter round
the flowers and enjoy ourselves, they
meet and conquer all the stern realities
of life, and found States and peoples.
We do not mean to decry civilization
and culture, or any of the best things
in city life, for one can be boor upon
the frontier as one can be doll in the
city, but merely to speak of the claims
to consideration of those who, without
any of the great helps that city life is
able to afford to those that will avail
themselves of their opportunities, real
ly achieve corresponding mental results.
Nor do we mean by the latter class
simply those persons who live in the
country" and rust away the soul and
body there, and who meet with few de-
veloping emergencies there, but strictly
| the women of the frontier wives
and daughters and mothers of pioneers
who have always been meeting new
emergencies and setting their. wits at
| To 70 ,hn,
presence of mind and an amazing self
possession have been developed, with
devotion and keen intelligence, and who
have weighed the world in the balance,
and learned to look with no awe upon
the trivial and unnecessary, although
often dazzling, things of it.
The face of these women are some
times, but by no means always, weather.
stained; their dress is often poor; but
in those faces there is vivid intellect
as attractive as mere pink and white,
and when they have satisfied themselves
sufficiently concerning your worthiness,
aud have begun to talk, you find your
self in the presence of people who have
spent their long silences in thinking
thinking out for themselves all the prob
| lCulS WuOSC ICSulL OtuCIS COO O1lCA tsthc
on mere hearsay, and frequently with
startling originality of premise and con-
clusion.
As rule, the minds of the women of
the frontier are great and strong minds,
well fed and constantly active. OF
course there are exceptions; but, in COM
parison, they are seldom met. These
women are eager and assiduous readers;
they find time to attend to all their du-
ties, and more than all-for they are
constantly exercising their inventive in
genuity in little ways in order to en-
nance the comfort of their households
and to attend to their reading too. They
have very little to read, but what they
have, they read thoroughly; they ex-
tract the last drop of honey from every
flower of literature that they come
across. When they have read their
book, they think of it, and then they
read it again; they talk it over; it is a
feature in their lives, living part of
them. r-s. s....,...
In our own experience we have found
women of whom, judging from their
lonely life in the wilderness, we should
have expected absolutely nothing but
strong common sense when needed, who
presently discussed Darwinism much
more learnedly than any but scientific
professors, we should have supposed,
would have thought of doing; were in
terested in the last discovery of astrono-
my, the last theory of medicine; had
original conclusions to draw from his
tory; had new ideas upon the distribu-
ton of race; and evinced a knowledge |
of the interior economy of certain states
men and politicians, gathered from the
deductions afforded by some poor week
" newspaper, that people who had
known the statesmen all their lives
had failed to gather. 1t is, of
course, very possible that this
same woman in q city would have
been equally thoughtful and intel
lectual, with good deal of added
grace; but, in proportion to numbers,
she is not so frequently met with in the |
city, for city life is apt to scatter the in
tellectual power over wider surface.
instead of running it into profound
grooves, as solitary life does. The cleo
tricity is drawn from one at q thousand
points, and the demands of social life |
are too many, and occupy too much
time, to allow one to pursue study to
advantage, unless one is really extra
ordinary person, and of much more than |
average determination. There are some |
people of wealth in cities who can de-
volve all but slight superintendent on
others whom they employ, and can thus
obtain opportunity for serious work,
and continue their social life as well;