Year: 1870

Gail Hamilton finds fault with our
graEdmothers, in her own inimitable
manner, in an article which we clip
from Harper's Bazar.


Some OF the reproa ,hes wherewithal
we reproach our Gaming
in this instance our toremothers-ar
directed against customs which, | am
persuaded, have their rise in this dread
tul and fearful burden of houseworS.
We have ali ridiculed or denounced
the farm houses, open on the kitchen
side, but solemnly shut up as to the
best rooms; and we-those OF US who
are men-write essays and deliver lee
lures, to show how much better and
more cheerful it Is to throw open the
whole house to the free play OF sun and
breeze l regret to admit that have
Joined in these short sighted diatribes
myself. I desire to make public re-
cantation, and do hereby declare and
affirm that, SO far from aenouneing the
custom, my only wonder is that women
who perform their own housework do
not shut up their houses altogether
and live in the barn chamber. 1would
a thousand times rather eat my meat,
with gladness and singleness OF heart,
on a haystack, and serenely toss the
fragments down to the stalled OK my:
self than eat hlm in ever so gorgeous "A
dining-room, with the dishes to wash
and the floor to sweep atterward. For,
in the first case the stalled OK would
be my cheerful and soothing compan-
ion, in the other, he would be my irri-
tatlng and inexorable tvrant. While
I should be dcvouring his body he
would be devouring my soul.


1t is simply imposslble-listen now,
l pray, all knights of high and low de-
gree, marching along thousand-score
strong, great hearted gentlemen sing
ing this song of woman's sphericlty-
it is simply impossible for any woman
to do the whole work OF her household
and make her life what womans life
ought to be. THIS is rule which ad-
nuts of no exception and no modlfca-
tion. The machinery of the family is
so complicated and so exact;ng that
one vs,nan can not have the sole
charge of it without neglecting other
and equally important matters. The
duties which woman owes to society.
and to the moral aud spiritual par, OF
her household, are just as imperative
as those which she owes to its physical
comfort 1And if she alone ministers
tb the latter the former must be neg
ii ctel, and the latter will hardly be
thoroughly accomplished. 1 know all
about our noble grandmothers. have
beard OF them before. think we
could run race with them any day.
But il we can not, whose fault is it?
II the woman of to-day are puny, 1rag-
lie, degenerate, are they not the grand
children OF their OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
inc such constitutions as their grand
mothers coulI transmit? 1t was the
duty OF those venerable ladies not on
~ to be strong themselves, but to see
TO it that their children were strong.
4 sturdy race should leave sturdy
race. 1t was far more their duty to
give to their children vigorous minds,
stalwart bodies, healthy nerves, firm
principles, than it was to spin and
weave and make butter and cheese all
day. We should have got along just
as well with less linen laid up in laven-
der; and if our rgran6mothers could only
have waited we would have woven
them more cloth in day than their
hand-looms would turn out in life
time. But there is no royal road to a
healthy manhood and womanhood.-
Nothing less costly than human life
goes into tho construction OF human
life. We should have more reason to
be grateful to our ancestors # they
would have given up their supertluous
industries, called off their energy from
its perishable objects, and let more OF
their soul and strength flow leisurely