Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-10-07
AMERICAN WOMEN.
They Are Generally Sensible, Unaffected
and Very Good Managers.

They Are Generally Sensible, Unaffected
and Very Good Managers.
( ANY one familiar with American nov.
s's would be apt to think from the de-
scription of American ladies that they
were mere butterflies when young and
inyalids after marriage. Boston ladies
have been widely represented as all head
and no heart, living in an atmosphere
of metaphysical distractions and utter
duties of life Taking some such view
as this, Canadian writer some time
since spoke of them as marrying at
sixteen, faded at twenty. toothless at
twenty-five, hideous at thirty. alternate
" passing their time between their
rocking-chairs and their beds, lazy, list.
less, up and down like an old-fashioned
bean-poie. Are these the things to rear
/ heroes?' The late war of the rebellion
is a sufficient answer to this question.
The ladies of both contending parties
sent TO the war as gallant an array,
both of officers and privates--men who
had been nurtured with as much care
as the most refined aristocrats of En-
rope-as ever drew a sabre ON any
stricken field" 1t is peculiarly of
the English-speaking races. and equally
so of the Teutonic races. that they have
never debased their blood by
mingling with inferior races, in
consequence of which Americans
are of as pure blood as their En-
glish, Scotch, Irish or German ances-
tors. Because man has been born in
China it does not follow that he must
be Monaghan. or because he has been
bern in America that he must be an
Indian. Race, not locality, determines
qualities and character. Climate, of
course, has an influence on the body.
bnt the English-speaking races in all
parts of the world-and they are ram
bling everywhere-mainta their native
characteristics. Many ladies of rank in
each of the three kingdoms from which
this country has been so largely stocked
have been distinguished for their ability
in the management of large house
holds. have been as familiar with the
details of a kitchen as of drawing
room. The same is true of the high
born danes of the Fatherland. Such
cases have been placed by some writers
in contrast with the hotel life of some
of our American parvenus- The hotel
pdTN tIiS. uOhGhGl, tit but Vel
small fraction Of the American people.
If any person VII take the pains to find
out how wealthy American ladies who
keep house manage Their Establishments,
thay Will soon preceive the same econ
omy and order, and the same talent for
managing family affairs for which their
ancestors across the sea have been dis.
tinguished-
", III +7a+ l,,.io,
sketch of the way Boston lady with
large family managed her own house
hold She has a husband. some seven
Or eight robust children. keeps butler
and seven female domest cs. and super
intends the whole without the aid of
houSekeeper. She never asks a servant
what she wants: she supplies at stated
times to each all that is required in his
or her department, and keeps the run
of everything in the house from the
most valuable articles down to the waste
paper necessary to light fire. Her
husband Is not only gentleman of
great wealth. bat is highly esteemed for
his intellectual attachments and upright
life. He furnishes her with all the
money she requires, and never asks how
it IS to be used. 1t is not, therefore,
mere economy that governs his wife,
but the love of system. We know an
other lady of this same capable type,
who not only manages large family,
but super intends a benevolent institu-
ton and keeps the run of millions OF
property. As a rule, the ladies OF
our well-to-do families are healthy.
sensible and free from -affectation; even
those who take an active interest in the
various isms of the day, or are travelling
in Europe, retain a strong love of home
and its domestic virtues. and after a few
years settle down and become exem-
plary heads of households In the
everyday walks of life our ladies are
also models: they are first in supporting
our churches and in their labors in be-
half OF those less fortunate than them
selves. and we believe that the ladies OF
our laboring people every woman is
lady by right of her sex''-are better
educated. better clothed and better
hammered than their sisters in Europe
Our novelists, therefore. if they wish to
give fair delineation of American Ia
dies, and not merely to describe few
butterflies. who have become rich by
accident, as types of the whole, woulS
do well TO take a closer view of them.
SO as TO do them justice. Globe.