The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1882-03-29
American Women and Family Dutics.

A gentleman writes TO the 81. JlmcS
GG-ettc, London, the following letter on
the domestic condition Of America:
The foot you quoted the other
day from Mr.. Goldwin Smiths pnpcr in
the Nineteenth CcatUy, and your ar.
ticlc, Is the Family in Dangcr?' ar
calculated to give your readers an unfair
impression Of American women and
their views of family duty Mr. Goodwin
Smith might very well have qualified
his remarks by adding that the womau-
suffrage movement, about which oifil
no opinion, is in n small minority in the
United States that it has there much
less hold on the better classes than it has
here that it has little hold at all on. tho
vast industrial and agricultural popula.
ton outside OF great cities and that the
ideas which, rightly or wrongly, he at.
tributes to its leaders rs to matr,mony
and maternity are wholly rcpugnant to
the vast majority Of American women.
In fact, his argument pointed to dangers
real or exaggeratcd-in the future, not
to the present state OF alluirs. Though
my experience of America has not been
so long and continuous rs Mr. Goodwin
Smiths, | have been in America enough,
and have seen enough Of the various u.s.
poets OF American society, to have some
right to an opinion. And have some
hope that l shall find Mr.. Goodwin
Smith agreeing with me when / say,
without hesitation, that nowhere can
family life, i'll its simple, honest allrc-
tons, the cohesion Of its members, the
sense of duty of husband and wife,
parent and child, be seen better doyel-
oped than in New England And so.
ciety in other parts Of the States differs
from that III New England more in de-
grecs OF education and refinement than
in essential habits and principles. Any
one acquainted with American society
knows, for instance, that young married
women live much simpler, more whole
some life than they do in London draw
ing-rooms, and give more of their time
to home life, to their husbands and chill
dren, and less to social engagements,
than they do in England. The statistics
OF the writer in the Century may show
that the relaxation of the divorce law in
some OF the States has been unsntisfac.
tory as leading to capricious breaking
up OF the marriage tic for unsubstantial
reasons in certain classes of American
society. The fact, however, remains that
the grosser scandals of married life
which the Divorce Court too frequently
reveals III the higher circles of English
society are strikingly rare in families of
similar position in America
81 shall be glad to be permitted thus
to state what think is the true state of
the case, because many readers who do
not know America themselves might be
led by the extract and your article to
hasty and unjust CONGRATULATIONS which
would have about as much solid founda-
ton as similar concentrations suggested
some years ago by the brilliant lucubra-
tons of that industrious book-maker.
the late Mr. Hepworth Dixon
EIGHT silver vases have been found in
tomb in Sweden, and have been bought
by the Stockholm Museum. Four date
from the fourteenth century, one is cred
tied to the twelfth century and the other
three are older still. All bear quaint
designs and one has Runic inscrip-
ton,