Litchfield enquirer., 1880-09-23
NEW ENGLAND BLYTHE BACKDooR
As Looked Into by a Southerner

NEW ENdLANUb b IdE BAChUUUh-
As Looked Into by southerner
Correspondence of the Baltimore Sun.
LEBANON, Conn, Aug. 25, 1880.
: Looking closely at the face of one of those
women whose habit it is to do the washing of
the family, Isaw. what I had net before OBJ
served, that in her youth She must have been
quite pretty. Her education had not been
neglected her tastes were refined, her brow
showed intellect. The vivacity, the ease and
grace of manner, the flow of conversation on
many topics, so natural to women of leisure,
were wanting They had gone, methought,
into the wash-tub and the cooking stove. And
yet, tired as she was on washing andiironing
days, she was not unhappy. Her father, a
man in good circumstances, not grasping, but
noted rather for his liberality, bad preferred
for her the school of the milliner to the fash
ionable boarding school, and as milliner she
had worked for many years. Her husband,
who is evidently prospecting and certainly is
kind, thinks it no hardship for her to do the
work to which i have alluded. Neither he
nor his wife appear toiregaTd it as drudgery.
| Here, then, Is a grand social division be-
tween the North and South. Here comes in
the saying which makes one section rich and
keeps the other in debt. ''Bnt the woman
holds up the heavy end of the log, and that is
not right" In this particular case the hus-
band finds better paying work than milking
choppng wood, gardening, etc.. but thou
sands of husbands do these things as mat
ter of course. ! have seen professional man,
well enough off to be thought rich in our part
of the world, backing his shoes in the front
porch, where every passer-by could see him.
The minister in, a man of, attachments,
often passed through the principal street of
the village, pail in hand, on his return from
milking. Illustrations drawn from his per-
sonal experience as farmer gave a point to
bis sermons that nothing else could have CIV
en- The richest citizen in, a man of So,
blows big horn in the village band. Not
only hotel men, but merchants, doctors, ETC.,
have carried my trunk up and down stairs.
Only the large city hotels indulge in the lux
said he had been thinking for a long time
about getting a little darkey to set up in bust
ness as bootblack. "We three hotels" said
he, fought to give him good living" In
brief, the men as we'll as the women of New
England know how to use their hands, and
are not afraid to soil them. 1t is the custom
OF the country, and one of long standing.
ga Lebanon Town account of services and
supplies upon this occasion" (the breaking out
of the revolution) "made out subsequently, as
in all the towns of Connecticut, for settlement
at the colonial treasury awards Trumbull,
for his own personal labor at this time, the
sum of two pounds and sixteen shillings."
-Stuart's Life of Jonathan Trumbull, ST.,
page 176. Trumbull was then Governor of
the State, but had a store a few hundred
yards from where am now writing, and
there he did the boxing, barreling, etc., for
which the above hill was rendered. :a...... ..
Such things on the part of men and women
do not tally with our Southern customs or fit
into our modes of thought. But what will
you? You can't eat your cake and have it too.
In its last form the question shapes itself thus:
isn't it better to have fewer ladies and gen
tlemen and more independence" You and /
might say no." but taking the world as we
find it, there would be much to rejoice at if
all its rural districts were peopled as New
England is. But a moment ago laid down
the pencil to listen to the singing of young
girl next door. She sings well and accom-
panies herself on the piano. In the morning
she is dressed in plain calico, but in the after
noon she appears in nicer attire, with her hair
carefully cnrled, and while she tends the
flowers in the front yard sings for very hap
piness. s.. .r.
us that free concert, Carrie ?" asked
companion about her own age, who lives IN
the house with me. ..s.s. .sc w..
eyes" is the answer. II don't care who
hears me sing"
do not know it to be fact, but think it
quite probable that she helps in the house
keeping, and possibly in the cooking and
washing also. Her father owns farm some
three miles from town, to which he goes in
the morning and returns at night. His hum
dred acres have enabled him TO build this
handsome wel-equipped house of ten or
twelve rooms, bay window, ETC., in the mod
ern style.
And now it is high time should say some
thing about Lebanon ITSELF My sole motive
for coming here was to see Yankees, whose
abdominal regions were as azure as any in the
hottest radical centre of Massachusetts, A
lawyer in Litchfeld assured me I would find
them here, and an intelligent gentleman of the
town confirms his statement. On this head
more anon.
An intoxicated man, anxious to bet every
body any amount on anything, occupied the
same seat with me on the way from New
Haven to New London, and at the latter
place the smoking car was invaded by lot
of young fellows in red flannel neckties, who
yelled and carried on at a prodigiousrate. The
conductor looked on in silence, but the pas
sengers enjoyed their pranks, such as snatch
ing cigars out of each others mouths, pulling
hats over heads, and 80 on. They were men,
bers of a club of some kind, who had been
wining and dining in New London that day.
This is the only unbecoming conduct have
seen during my three weeks visit
The New London Northern railroad takes
you up the valley of the beautiful Thames,
past Yantic, Norwich, Norwich Town, and
divers towns and villages whose names l have
forgotten. A few miles south of Willimantic
is Lebanon Station, as lonely a looking place
as you. will find in this thickly settled coun-
try. Night was approaching the driver of
the mail wagon was not forthcoming, but
soon would be. 1t turned out that, having no
mail to meet on the train that brought me up,
he had gone to neighboring town on bust
ness, and did not make his appearance till the
following morning This fortunately enabled
me to sup at one house and sleep at another,
thus giving me new glimpses of life. At the
first house, the hat-rack made nae think that
had run into female boarding school. SO full
of feminine head-gear was it. There were a
number of young ladies, two orthree of whom
were school teachers taking rustic vacation;
a married lady boarder; the mistress of the
house and her two daughters completed the
list. The younger of these two daughters
was lively girl, who got bunged in the eye
that very evening while riding in a long coup
led ox-cart, which had brought to the station
a tree fifty feet long. intended for a pile, or
"spile." as the timber getter, who supped