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EDITORIAL
321
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Miss Summer on Ilousswxrsar.—We have rarely read Q and misery of house-keeping, from the rising to the setting more goal sense than in the following, by Catharine M. sun, from our Canadian frontier to far south of Mason 8 Svdgwick, on “The Qualified Housewife.” She begins:— Dixon‘s line, will lie—“'8 will not say overcome, but most “Many parents expect their daughters to many, and thus certainly greatly diminished.” To all of which we say be provided for; the daughters themselves expect it. But Amen! it may be well for both parent and child to consider the A BEAUTIFUL Posse—Where, in the whole range of Eng chances against the provision. Marriage may come, and a lish poetry, can be found a better description of an infant life of pecuniary adversity, or a widowhood of penury may follow; or marriage may not come at all. As civilization than in the following lines? RUTH, '(so called} goes on, multiplying wants, and converting luxu xxzsuxo AND aocxnvo 'rnz cunts. ties into necessities, the number of single women fearfully What is the little one thinking about? increases, and is in greatest proportion where there is most Very wonderful things, no doubt, refinement, whereby women are least qualified to take care Unwritten history! Uufuthomable mystery! of themselves. In the simple lives of our ancestors, men Yet he laughs and cries. and cats and drinks, were not deterred from marriage by the difficulty of meeting And chuckles and crows, and nods and winks, the expenses of their families. Their win-s were helpmates. As if his hand were as full of kinks, And curious riddles as any sphinxl If they could not earn bread they could make it. If they Warped by colic, and wet by tears. did not comprehend the ‘rights of women,’ they practised ., Punctured by pins, and tortured by than, her duties. If they did not study political economy and Our little nephew will lose twa years; algebra. they knew the calculation by which ‘the penny And he'll never know ~Where the Summers go— nved is the penny gained.’ Instead of waiting to be stifled Ile need not laugh, for he‘ll find it 80! by costly and wasteful Milcsians, they ‘looked Well to the Who can tell what a baby thinks? ways of their household, and ate not the bread of idleness.’ Who can follow the gosszuuer links By which the mnnnikin feels his way The Puritan wife did not ask her husband to be decked in Out from the rllOl't‘ of the great unknown, French gauds, but was truly Blind. and wailing, and alone, Into the light of day?— ‘The gentle wife who decks his board, Out from the shore of the unknown sea, And makes the day to have no night.’ Tossing in pitiful agony— Of the. unknown sea that reels and rolls, “In giving the reasons that restrain men from marrying Spccked with the barks of little souls d the present day, and thereby diminish the chances of this 'f /"I-W/'NI/‘I/'I /IJfNI J I"
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Barks that were launched on the other side, absolute provision for women, we beg not to be misunder
And slipped from Heaven on an ebbing tide! What does he think of his mother's eyes? What does he think of his mother’s hair? What of the cradle roof that flies Forward and backward through the air! What (1008 he think of his mothtrs breast— Bare and beautiful. smooth and white, Seeking it ever with fresh deli lit— Cup of his life and couch of giis rest! What does he think when her quick embrace Pres<cs his hand and buries his face, Deep where the heart-throhs sink and swell With a tenderness she can never tell, Though sho murmur the words
stood. We would not restrict women to the humble offices of maternal existence. The btflt instructed and most thoroughly accomplished women we have ever known. have best understood and practised the saving arts of domestic life. If parents, from pride, or prejudice. or honest judg ment. refuse to provide their daughters with a profession or trade, by which their independence may be secured; if they persist in throwing them on one chance; if daughters them selves Wrnevere in trusting to this ‘neck-or-nothing’ fate, then let them be qualified in that act and craft in which their grandmothers, and which is now, more than at any preceding time. the necessary and boundeu duty of every i American wife, whatever be her condition.
Never by women
in any civilization was this art so needed, for never, we be lieve, were there such obstructions to prosperity and com fort as exist in our domestic service. And how are the young women of the luxurious classes prepared to meet them? How are the women of the middle classes fitted to overcome them? And how are the poorer class trained to rejoice in their exemption from them? “If a parent look forward to provision by marriage for his daughter, he should, at least qualify her for that condi
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or all [he lJh'ilF—
Words she has learned to murmur well? ‘
Now he thinks he’ll go to sleepl
I can see the shadow creep Over his eyes, in soft eclipse, Over his brow, and over his lips, Out to his little flnger-tlpsl Softly sinking, down he goes!
Down he goes!
Down he goes!
(Rising and carefully retreating to her 5003,)
See!
110 is hushed in sweet repose!
Wns'r THOUSANDS SAY.——Tl10 Ztlarrietta (0.) Republican sayez—“We have read nearly all the articles that have ap peared in ‘ Peterson‘s Magazine,’ and yet have never seen in tion, and be ashamed to give her to her husband unless she one of them, one word that was morally improper, or one is able to manage her house, to educate her children. to .nrticle that did not contain some great moral lesson. Pro nurse her sick, and to train her servants—the inevitable bably no book designed exclusively for the ladies, possesses destiny of American housewives. If she can do all this well, higher claims to their patronage than this, and it is equally she is a productive partner, and, as Madame Bodichon says, certain that its editors bring to their labor a greater amount does much for the support of her household as her husband. of ability, than is employed upon any similar work in Ame It may. or may not be the duty of a mother to educate her rica. It“ you want a pleasant companion, send for this dlildren in the technical sense. b'nt if her husband is Magazine." We quote this, because it embodies, in few straining~ every nerve to support his family, it would be words, what scores of other editors have said during the both relief and help if she could save him the immense ex past three months, as well as thousands of private indivi pense of our first rate schools, or the cost of governess. If duals, and because it is due to ourselves as editors, to show she be skilled in the art of nursing, she may stave off the what impartial persons think of this Magazine. fearful bill of the physician. If she know the cost and " Poa A’ Ten. an’ A’ Turf—The air of this ballad is so necoi-sary consumption of provision, the keeping of accounts. and, in short, the whole art and mystery of domestic eco old that the authorship is unknown. Burns wroti- for it the noble lyric which we give. Some of the words require de nomy. she will not only preserve her husband from an im finitions? For iiistant‘e, “birkie” means “a young fellow;” meme amount of hamsinglcare, but secure to him the safety, bleesing and honor of living within his means. If "coil" means “a simpleton;" “fa’” means “to try,” and aha be a qualified housewife, the great burden, perplexity, “gree” means “superiority.” -—
