Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1898-10-15
The Women Who Won.

The good women whose tombstones
were planted in tho eighteenth century
are moro alive for good in the nine
teenth century than they were before,
as the good women Of this nineteenth
century will be more alive for good III
the twentieth century than now. Mark
you, have no idea that the grandmoth-
ers were any better than their grand
daughters. You cannot get very old peo-
ple to talk much about how things were
when they were boys and girls. They
have reticence and a noncommlttallsm
which makes me- think they feel them
selves to be tho custodians of the repu-
tation of their early comrades. While
our dear old folks are rehearsing the
follies Of the present if we put them on
the witness stand and cross examine
them as to how things were 70 years
ago the silence becomes oppressive.
The celebrated Frenchman, Volney,
visited this country in 1886, and he
says of woman S diet in those times "lf
premium was offered for regimen
most destructive to health, none could
be devised moro efficacious for these
ends than that in use among these peo'
pie. (" That eclipses our lobster salad at
midnight. Everybody talks about the
dissipation Of modern society and how
womanly health goes down under it,,
but it was worse 100 years ago, for the
chaplain of a French regiment in our
Revolutionary war wrote in 1852 in his
Book of American Women, saying:
"They are tall and we'll proportioned,
their features are generally regular,
their compilations are generally fair and
without color. AT 20 years of age the
women have no longer the freshness OF
youth. At 80 or 40 they are decrepit. "
In 1912 foreign consul wrote a book
entitled ga Sketch of the United States
at the Commencement of the Present
Century, and he says of the women OF
those times, SAT the age Of 30 all their
charms have disappeared. One glance
at the portraits of the women 100 years
ago and their style of dress makes us
wonder how they ever got their breath
All this makes me think that the ex-
press rail train is no more an improve
ment on the old canalboat or the tele-
graph no more an improvement on the
old time saddlebags than the women
of our day are an improvement on the
women Of the last century.
Honor the Aged.
But still, Notwithstanding that those
times were so much worse than ours,
there was q glorious race of godly wom-
en- 70 and 100 years ago who held the
world back from sin and lifted it toward
virtue, and without their exalted and
sanctifed influence before this the last
good influence would have persisted from
the earth. Indeed all over this land
there are seated today-not SO much II
churches, fur many of them are too fee
BILE to come-a great many aged grand
mothers They sometimes feel that the
world has gone past them, and they
have an idea that they are of little ac'
count. Their beads sometimes get aching
from the racket of the grandchildren
down stairs or in the next room. They
steady themselves By the banisters az
,hey 90 up and down When they get 9
,old, it hangs on them longer than it
used to. They cannot bear to have the
grandchildren punished even when they
deserve it and have so relaxed their
ideas of family discipline that they
would spoil all the youngsters OF the
household by too great leniency. These
old folks are the resort when great trou.
bles come, and there is a calming ano
soothing power in the touch OF an agec
hand that is almost supernatural. They
feel they are almost through with the
Journey of life and read the old BOOB