The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1893-08-03
of American Women.


Wherever we meet the American wo-
man-and we meet her everywhere, in
the ranks of the English peerage and OF
the highest European aristocracy, as
well as in more modest conditions-we
are struck with that marvellous adapt
ability in which wise men see the sign of
the superiority of race or of a species.
1t is revealed notably by that good
humor with which she accepts the
numerous petty annoyances that every
change of medium implies, and which
put the best characters ON trial.
She submits to them without effort
and criticises them without bitterness;
she is, further, prepared for them by her
education and does not expect to find
everything easy. Then the necessity of
mutual labor does not seem to her like
degraded condition: at most only one or
two generations separate her from the
time when her grandmother kneaded the
family bread in the primitive settle
ments. These stories are familiar to her
and the lessons deduced from them are
not discouraging or humiliating. She is
the daughter of a race of emigrants who
have become a great people through
work, energy and determination.
She has in this at her command
whole treasury of traditions from which
she draws, not without pride. We might
say, in listening to these stories, that we
were hearing one of those grandes dams
of the past century, emigrants and poor,
telling with pride in their memoirs how,
to supply their wants, they worked in
London or in Germany, utilizing their
accomplishments and their correct taste,
and making trimmings and embroider-
ing robes with their own aristocratic
hands.-IHe Popular Science Monthly.
Southern States Magazine for July
The July number of the Southern
States magazine contains several striking
features of distinctiyely Southern char
acter. The leading article is a finely il
Illustrated description of some Southern
p Grasty. H. s. Flemming contributes
an interesting article on the old Chesa-
peake and Ohio canal, beautifully illus
trated from photographs made by the
author during trip over the canal in a
launch The two stories of Southern life
which were awarded the prizes offered
by the Southern States are published in
this number. One is a powerful story OF
Georgia mountain life by Mrs. Kathleen
Gray Nelson, of Atlanta; the other is a
pathetic tale of Florida ''cracker" life
and character by Mrs. Byrdie Ierndon
Hansbrough, of Leesburg, Fla. There
is an amusing North Carolina dialect
sketch by Thos. G Harris, and a short
poem by Chas. J. Bayne, of the Augusta
Chronicle Mrs. Harriet Peirce Sanborn
traces the growth of poetry in the South,
and Col. John L. Black, a former South
Carolina STAKEHOLDER and cotton planter,
contributes a strong paper on the cheap
labor of the South. The climate and
crops of Texas form the subject of an ar
ticle by Dr. l. NJ. Cline. The editorial
departments are full of interesting dis
cussions of Southern topics and items
about the progress of the South. The
price of this characteristic Southern
magazine is fifteen cents per copy or
ST. per year. 1t is published by the
Manufacturers Record Publishing Co.,
Baltimore. Md, and can be procured
through any newsdealer.