The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1878-05-17
The Good Virtue of GadaIng.

Simplicity becomes every body, and il
is cheap and costs little time and work
and does not vex mothers to death, and
keep them cooped up in prisOn-hOuses
on Sunday afternoons when they should
be out doors, gadding for health and
fun, and fishing in the sunlit sea for io
cund spirits. As it is now, a great
many women, able to hire house work
done, are victims of this nonsense ofover.
dress for themselves and their daughters
and for "Ornamenting" their houses with
jim cracks that mean absolutely nothing.
they ought to put intellect into house
ornaments, as well as dress You &c
into many homes and find meaningless
pictures stuck around on walls, and q
superfuity OF tides, rugs, gew-gaws,
brackets, bric-a brac, etc, rooms crowd
ed with elegant" trumpery, and you'o
like to sweep it all into the street. It's
pieasanter to go into backeast big barns
ornamented only with mud nests on the
rafters, with swallows darting through
the windows, singing songs that mean
more than the idiotic cheeping of i'm
prisoned canaries We do not mean to
be cynical and ascetic, but strive simply
TO express the conviction that women
fool away too much time and nerve force
on unworthy things, and they are a race
of invalids, as a consequence of this fool
ish, self-imposed slavery to house and
children. Too many of them have con-
founded female diseases, and broken
backs, and sallow faces that call for -four,
and they have to call in the doctor and
clergyman for pills and spiritual com,
fort more than is good for them or even
ecessary if they would not enslaven
themselves with tasks that amount to
nothing after they are done. There's a
good deal of hard sense in Walt Whits
mans " barbaric yawp" about floating
and inviting your SOUL" and we'd like to
see every man and woman in this town
who is able to keep g domestic, to spend
at least half of each pleasant afternoon
on the street. They don't promenade or
"gad" half enough for their mental and
physical good. Never mind what foolish
gossips say about your ''ga1ding;" that's
the way to keep your health, and to re-
cover it when gone, and such ldleness is
worth 10000 times over, the "industry''
that consists IN making cotton>batting
dogs and dress of the same frivolous
character.
We said these vain devotions not only
ruin health, but actually narrow the
mind. The proof of it is in the fact,
noted by all, that such admirable women
as De Stael, lady Blessington, and oth>
exs make their way and win admiration.
not by store clothes, but by an excellent
wit: and when a woman has elevated
sense, Information, a fine wit, delicious
numor, and can manage mild satire as
deity az train, she can afford to dis
dain millinery and do without personal
beauty, and does disdain it, with all ado
vantage to herself, too. And while all
M IN like TO see well-dressed woman,
sensible men, whose opinions are alone
worth needing by women, ike much bet
ter to see woman who carries 8 higher
fashion in her mind and manners.
Madame de Stael said she would not
walk across the room to see the Bav of
Naples, but would travel across Europe
to talk with cultivated man whom she
had not seen. We do not advise our
women to go promenading +" to see A
man, no matter how cultivated, but 90
Tor gadding's sake as a means of health.
Don't let your children make slaves of
you through the vain idea that they
must dress as bravely as other peoples
iris and boys. It is no killing disgrace
+ your boys have even +" letters in the |
" or dirty hands now and then.
That's their natural, graceless state any.
low. Nor is it sin TO let your little 1
iris be Tom boys, and delight in racing, /
limbing trees, or hunting eggs on the /
ay NOV. That is health getting, and
allure, inside and out OF them, invites
} such harum-scarum careers in Young
ears. Nor should you be prisoner in
our houses. a home is mighty good
ling--to go to, but not TO stop in, day
and Jay out. Leave IL each pl, ant
ternoon, TO enjoy it the more when you
,me back, refreshed by q sunbath and
punished by contact with agreeable
lends. We go to Europe, Emerson says,
be Americanized-to love America
,tter than ever on our return. II
Now, then, mesdames, after dinner, if
e day be fair, put on that sensible
alking short-tailed dress, and go gadding :
rec or four hours do it every day; let /
e cotton batting dogs go to thunder;
d If some silly woman of candy rabbit {
,e turns up her insignificant putty ,
sc, put her in the prison of your mild I
and 60 gadding all the same.-- I
Press.