Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-02-15
DOES ITPAY?
Publisher and Proprietor.


tn WRshfBgton-ROW Women Arc
DeFnOraitzed.
Washington Correspondence of the Chicago
Times.l
In Anthony Trollope's 'Barches-
ter Towers" there is an ecclesiasti-
cal gathering pictured-a reception
given by the bishop of an English
diocese-in which the hostess "Mrs.
Proudie, moved about with well
regulated grace, measuring out the
quantity of her favors according to
the quality Of her guests"
1t is amusing to see how many
"Mrs Proudies" there are in Wash
;ngton. And it is (not) amusing
to see how many nice little wives
and good, plain mothers are spoiled
by taste of gayety in our republi-
can capital. One members wife,
when she came here first, a few
months ago, was really homesiek
for her little village. But after the
cards came in to her, and she began
to fully realize that she was the wife
of member of congress, what airs
the country mite took on herself.
Ladies whose claim to distinction
rested upon their innate refinement
and intelligence, and not upon ac-
cidental position Of their husbands,
were passed unnoticed save by the
faintest smilingless inclination; and
the grade or rank of a lady's has
band could have been told by q
looker-on by the warmth or cool
ness with which the wife of the
new member welcomed them. The
change in the toilette of the lady
was marked. Her eye eagerly ran
over the dresses of her acquaint-
ance. From a modest lady in a
plain black silk and smooth brown
locks she burst into the less dis
tingue style Of light satin and bare
shoulders, and pyramid shaped
head with the surrounding thatch
of frizzes which hides the broad,
beautiful brow and makes every wo-
man look like an idot. The lady
now trips to her hired cab every
day and gives her orders to the
coachman with an icy, fault-fnding
tone, which she, poor soul, does not
know indicates her newness to the
luxury of a hired team and liyery.
Her days are round of ceaseless,
meaningless todyism; her nights
wild reyels, where neither sense nor
comfort ever show their plain old
fashioned faces. This women
BEFORE HER HUSBANDS ELECTION
would have sat up with her neigh
boris sick child. She would have
made its tiny grave clothes and put
flowers in its dead hands, while
her eyes were misty with sympathy.
With her own needle and thread
She would have put the Grape bands
on the parents clothing, and
watched that no iarring sound or
care grated upon them the little
while they were left alone with their
dead. She would have stayed in
the dwelling, and put away little
dresses and broken toys while the
family We're at the cemetery. She
will neverd do it again. Never again
find time for the sweet amenities Of
life, or the comforting sympathy
with the bereayed. She will never
again be satisfied to live in coun.
try town, or go to church sewing
societies, or sit up with the sick.
She is above that now.
| And yet, she was a sweet young
girl; a fair young wife; a gentle
young mother ] eft in retirement,
She would have bloomed ont a long,
fragrant life of good deeds, and
been truly mourned at her death.
Sore hearts that che had bound up
would have remembered her, per.
haps, as a clear.eyed saint, who
wore soft white cap, and q plain
alpaca dress in her old age, and on
autumn Sundays, when quiet hung
like o benediction over the still
woods. they would have Jed little
children around the simple head
stone, have loiteFsd and told of her
lovely life until tho memory
breathed into infant hearts would,
like the seed of the soft, mellow
earth, have brought forth good
deeds in some future strait. Thus.