Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-04-11
Southern Women.

There is an impression in the North
that educated and cultivated southern
women are less able to take care Of them
selves when oVertaken by misfortune than
Northern women OF the same class are.
This impression is not well founded, and
those who have it know nothing about
! Southern women, and have not had access
/ to correct sources OF information. There
is another incorrect impression enter
tanned at the North with respect to
Southern women. Ii is that they do not
hold labor in as much esteem as Northern
women do, and are notso ready, therefore,
to undertake TO support themselves when
thrown upon their own resources.
1t is doubtful if there is in any section
of the country, in proportion to the num-
Der Of the class to which they belong, so
many refined and cultivated women who
are earning their own support or helping
to earn it as there are in the South. 1t is
true, probably, that when slavery was an
institution, and there was little poverty
among educated people, southern wo-
men of the better class were not often
found engaged in work OF any kind that
was not purely matter of choice. There
was no occasion for them to work.
When misfortune came, however,
they were not found wanting
in any of the qualities which were necess-
AIRY to meet the requirements of their
changed condition. They faced the stu
alton pluckily and hopefully, and did will.
lIngly whatever they could find to do
Everywhere in the South now, in town
and country, there are young women, ed
ucated and cultivated, belonging to the
best families and moving in the best cir
cles, who are quietly earning their own
support and helping to support others de-
pendent upon them. They make no pa
rade OF what they are doing, and those
whose lot is exceptionally hard seldom
complain.
The South has made great progress in
the last twenty years. She is richer now,
doubtless, than ever before. Her wealth
is perhaps not so apparent as it was in
slavery times, because it s much more
generally distributed. If the truth could
be known it would appear, doubtless,
that the women OF the South by their ex-
ample, self-reliance, readiness and will
lingness to do with their own hands what
ever became necessary for them to do,
and by the encouragement they have
given the men have done their full share
towards creating the wealth and making
the comfortable homes that are now TO be
found IN the South, and they are still
working, and have as profound an appre-
citation Of the dignity Of labor as there is
t. be found anywhere in the world.
They are not wasting any time in re-
GREETING the past or in envyng their more
prosperous sisters of the North. Their
misfortunes and their struggles have not
robbed them Of their beauty, the sweet
ness of their natures, or made them less
courteous or charitable. "Gau Hamil-
ton" one of the most brilliant and gifted
women of the North, in an article
published IN the April number OF
the Forum, says that southern
women are prettior than North
ern women" and that they ''meet kindly
the stranger within their gates" She also
says that the southern woman on Co
lumhia Heights, on the South Battery. in
Forsythe Park, is pleasant to the eye.''
The witnesses are innumerable who will
testify to the truth of what "GaiI Hamil-
ton" saws.
No, Southern women are not helpless
and dependent, and they are not wanting
in esteem for labor. In all that is best
and nOblest in woman they have no
! superiors.