Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1880-09-17

will be the result of the controversy IL Is
hard to foresee. Both sides will 0Dstl-
nate and an appeal to the SupreY Court
will be made probably.
What Yankee Woman Oa|Do.
The following extract from one OF Or.
Bagby g interesting series ofletters tome
Baltimore sssuns' giving views Of ''New
England by the back door" will be q es-
pecial interest to our lady readers
At no private house except thai OF
man of wealth in bridgeport have Jsee1
hired cook. My landlady in Cornwall qua
all the cooking herself; here in lebanon
the lady of the house is assisted. Dy ner
daughter of IA; SO it is wherever tne girls
are old enough to render efficientala. AZ
one of the farm houses in which stayea
the mistress. being old, had bird 'heip,n
in the person of pretty girl Of 10. AS 50
rule, in the farming towns and IN INC
country proper the cooking. :nd very o.
ten the washing, too, is dom by the wives
not only of farmers, but also OF mercnanIs
able to EN- ploy cook and washerWoman.
But it is the habit Of the country not 70
employ anybody at all if the work IN ana
about the house can be done by tne nus
band and wife, assisted by the chlldren,
when they get old enough. | talked WIN
Mr.. A on this subject. my wife and
To said he, sshaving no children, needed
no help, and we never had any, except
when we lived in the country and was
engaged in large farming operations. MY
neiphbor. B., does mercantile busl-
ness in addition to his farming, ana ne
needs help; but at the boarding house,
just as soon as the boarders leave, the help
will all be dismissed. Look, lit was Sun
day afternoon there goes the help OF the
next house. How nicely and in whatgooo
taste she is dressed. You would never
take her to be cook or a chamDermald,
would you?n
.No, indeed, . replied; II thought she
was one of the young ladies from New
York or Brooklyn"
II don't know it to be fact" he con-
tinued, ''but think it quite likely that
she takes one or two magazines. She is
Massachusetts girl, I think, and ha5 been
employed by that family for number OF
years." ..s l...-.sg a..
Putting crucial questions, will YOU de-
mand to know exactly how these house.
cleaning, clothes washing women look and
act, and what impression they made upon
me? I answer that if in coming to New
England had been actuated by base MP
tives, and had, while prying into back
doors, seen anything which if set down IN
print would have wounded and grieved
the people thus taken unawares, my course
would not have been clear. Bound to Tell
the truth, if / tell anything at all, would
have been compelled either to bring my
letters to an abrupt close or else to give
such offense as would have placed me out
side the pale, not merely of gentility, lut
of human nature. Happily ! am limo
such quandary. There is nothing Obec-
tionable to report. In my mind aresix
women, and of slender build and apparent
ly physically incapable of cooking, mich
less of washing, and one OF them old
enough to be a grandmother. OF these
only one came from the kitchen tothe
table with hair little disordered aad
dress not absolutely fresh. One, Irenem-
Der, appeared at every meal, morning,
noon and night, always pale and tranquil.
never worried, or cross, or 0VerheateC by
the stove, her hair and her whole attire
thoroughly cared for. Her tea and cSffee
and her dessert she left in the kitchen to
be kept warm. AS each cup needed filing
she rose, took the cup to the kitchen, ilied
it and resumed her place at table, COM
posed in feature, untaxed in Strength.
And so with the dessert. AS soon az we
finished our meat and vegetables she
changed our plates and helped each in
succession from the hot dishes on the
stove, without furry or impotence. Yet
she was seemingly the most delicate OF the
six. She. however, had no washing to do.
In Litchfield the landlords son-in-law
told me that his wife made all the pastry
with her own hands. Now when you
learn that every day we had five different
kinds of pies, besides a pudding OF some
sort, and that there were never less than
twenty five and often nearer forty people
at table, you may form some idea of the
work she had to do. Yet when she took
her seat at table, often with the guests,
you could not have distinguished her from
the city ladies who sat near her. And
will do her and her sister(a widow lady,
who helped her in housekeeping the JUS
tice to say that they had trimmer figures
and walked more gracefully than any
ladies I saw in Litchfeld. More than
that, this same pie-maker had been
the leading spirit in a successful move
ment to get up a town library of some l.
500 well selected volumes, and on the days
When it was opened to the public assisted
her niece in disehaFging the duties OF Ii.
brarlan. The lady who SO TRANQUILITY went
back and forth between the dining.room
anu Cu0 kltCu0u, Guou8u uOv uOAoOAA lAVoAo a.
ry, was the sister of an authoress OF some
distinction in the North. Half dozen or
more of her books, in prose and verse,
were on the shelves of the etagere in the
parlor. And even the lady who did the
family washing complained. while playing
on the organ, that on Monday nights her
fingers were always stiff. and that she
never felt ih the hnlaor for singing. She
has an uncommonly good voice, switch has
been fairly we'll trained. Her house is fnll
Of pictures, her porches and windows are
adorned by great variety Of pretty flow
ers, and she has an aviary Of twenty or
more caparies, besides an aquarium.
Does il not seem az if p conspiracy had
been formed to "sh6w The tie best side Of
New England life2 Yet, as my letters
prove, I have pumped down upon the peos
pie as il I had dropped from the skies, and
in every instance have found lodging
where / did not at first seek it, chance be-
ing my only guide, ;,
shall answer that question with absolute
frankness, but not in this letter, which is
already too long. b.