Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1886-01-23
WOMAN AND HOME.
THE WhIRLlNG METROPOLIS AND ITS
cEAsELEss ARTlFclALlTY.
A Child's Own Museum How to Reno
waite Lace Underneath the Surface
Fatigue Marks Terrible Mis-
take Odds and Ends


There Is less domesticity among the
women of New York than in any other
American city. There is less hons life in
New York than any other American city.
There is har llv house from one end OF the
city to the other that looks like homo.
The streets are unhon,slike elevated
railroads.&c. the had, iangling mass of
stone and iron, are only suggestive of
makeshft. temporary style of existence. II
is like living in hotsl close to railroad
depot where ones ears are constantly be-
labore3 with the ringing OF bells and the
sizzing of steam.
Take look up and down one of our streets
whether up or down town. Tho houses are
jammed together as il they were packed for
shipment, the streets are made of granite
boulders and the endless stream of horses
and vehicles is shoi with steel Fifth ave-
nue. looks like q barren waste. Not tree
or bit of grassy yard softens its hard and
unsympathetic aspect The sun shines. but
in summer that but makes the stones dryer
and hotter; the wind blows, but in winter
that but makes the prospect bleaker and
more cherries. Nature is almost denied
admission. Artifi ,iality reigns over ALL
and dominates all With remorseless will A
private residence 4 New York is a private
hotel; hence thers is not much difference
between living at home and living at pub
lie house
People come to New York from every
where. The death rate is far greater than
the birth rate. People are born before
they come here, but they stay here to die.
The only memories of home most OF us have
are founded back in Illinois Ohio, Ken
lucky, Missouri. France, England, Ireland,
Germany or somewhere else. People come
here to make money, just as they focked
into California in 1S49 and 1850, and many
of them grow very rich and build fine
houses and have troops of servants and go
to Europe every summer and have yachts
and build cottages at watering places and
amaze the whole world with their extrava-
gances But all this involves the neglect,
the destruction of home and home life.
From mans standpoint this is not dis
tressing; at least it is not SO as long as he
looks at the present only and takes a selfish
view of life. A man is very well adapted
to livinr in hotel or in a steam yacht or on
railroad car. He can even camp out, go
soldering, live around the borders of the
north pole or put up with the accommoda-
tions of Central Africa. But how about the
women and children? What life it is for
them in New York The children that grow
up in this great whirling metropolis are
much like the chickens made by patent in
cubators, havorless and characterless.
Mothers farm out their children to the
nursery maid and go out to enjoy themselves
in the theatre or atreceptions. The glare OF
ceaseless artifciality comes in to dry up
every tender and ennobling impulse
Home is woman's kingdom. If it is not,
she has none at all. All her efforts to get
outside and make something else her king
dom have been disastrous to society in gem
eral and fatal to herself in particular. She
is the natural conservator of all the simple
virtues the first teacher of the primary les
sons of life, the appointed guardian of the
infant race, and it is around the fireside
that her sweet and gentle influences fall
upon the heart like the summer rain falls
upon the grateful earth. She is the first
leader. The first footsteps follow after her..
To her the hands are first held out, and she
goes astray and is lost in the gay world,
what becomes of the futurea The whole
tendency of New York life is to destroy all
the associations and endearments of home
and turn womankind adrift on restless
sea of dissipation, extravaganza and waste.
The result of this is that New York
will become nothing but a center Of exhaus-
tinn-a sort of remorseless Moloch, where
people are thrown in to be eaten up and de-
stroyed with no aftergrowth 1t is happy
circumstance that New York does not in
clude the whole country.