1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



211 



GIRLS ON THE FARM. 



2.^ ROM a correspondent we re- 



cently received a letter touch- 

 ing upon almost every sub- 

 that relates to the interests of 

 farmers, in which our friend makes 

 yv' bold to enter within the precincts 

 \^i>« q£ (^jjg family itself, and with a free 

 *- pen to criticise as follows. We give 

 him»a hearing, availing ourselves of an edi- 

 tor's privilege of commenting as freely as he 

 ■writes. 



He says, — "where can the young farmer 

 find a help-mate qualified to assume and prop- 

 erly direct the management of the details and 

 domestic matters of a well-regulated house- 

 hold? The wives and mothers of old were 

 educated at the spinning wheel and the loom, 

 and not at the boarding school and the piano. 

 They were early taught to reverence their 

 country and its institutions. Now, nothing 

 that is not in some measuife foreign to both, 

 claims the respect of our females. They must 

 study French ahd Italian, 'learn music' and 

 embroidery, and manifest their dislike for 

 •whatever is not of foreign lands ! Even among 

 the daughters of our farmers, dress and 'polite 

 accomplishments' are permitted to usurp the 

 place of more useful endowments. The girl 

 who should have remained at home to assist by 

 her labors and presence the efforts of her 

 mother, and, under her watchful instruction, lay 

 the Jooundation of future usefulness, is no 

 sooner in her 'teens,' than she is sent off to 

 some boarding school, or 'institute,' from 

 which, after a brief residence, she returns to 

 ridicule the vulgarity of rustic life, and be 

 paraded by her misguided parents, as a 'mirror 

 of accomplishments' — the 'bright, particular 

 star' of the family, and 



'The cynosure of every eye.' 



"The influence which such a person ex- 

 erts over the minds of her susceptible and 

 uninitiated companions, whose simplicity in- 

 duces them to regard her as a paragon, is 

 highly deleterious, as it creates a disrelish and 

 disgust for the more honorable objects of life, 

 and elevates to the rank of virtues, those 

 merely superficial and frivolous acquirements 

 which are calculated to subserve no important 

 or honorable purpose in life." 



That some cause exists for such sharp' criti- 

 cism, we cannot deny, — and that fashion ab- 

 sorbs too much of the time and strength of 



I women, is evident everywhere. A common 

 expression among them, is, "We might as 

 well be out of the world as out of fashion !" 

 But we cannot join in any general denuncia- 

 tion of whatever will educate (iiiid bj' that 

 word we mean elevate) the mind and improve 

 the manners and taste. Far otherwise ! Sci- 

 ence, literature and polite accomplishments 

 are greatly to be desired for all. We depre- 

 cate nothing that is calculated to contribute to 

 human usefulness, or to augment, however 

 slightly, the sum of earthly h&ppiness. The 

 unamiable vanity and ambition of those who 

 would give precedence to the superficial em- 

 bellishments of society, and palm off the mere 

 shadow of an exalted virtue as the actual sub- 

 stance, is simply absurd. 



The most distinguished women of America 

 have been alike distinguished for their knowl- 

 edge of domestic concerns. The idea that to 

 be "a lady," one must necessarily possess 

 "delicate health," and macerate her form to 

 the tenuity of a shadow, or a mere skeleton, 

 never entered their heads. In them, the moral 

 and domestic virtues shone pre-eminent, and 

 love wore 



"to the lover's eye, a look of love." 



They were formed by nature to foster the 

 elements of a republic, and give new glory to 

 the achievements of its arts and aims. This 

 was evident in a thousand instances ia the late 

 wicked rebellion. 



Why honest industry should be considered 

 as a derogation of dignity, by any American 

 woman with the average amount of sense, we 

 are truly at a loss to conceive. Labor is one 

 of the primary condiiions annexed by the 

 Eternal to our lease of life, and no less essen- 

 tial to our happiness, and the best develop- 

 ment of our capacities, than the food we eat, 

 or the air we breathe. Idleness is far from 

 being a condition of happiness. Action is 

 impressed upon nature as an immutable law of 

 being. Throughout the universe, nothing is 

 idle ; mutations and permutations, embracing 

 the revolution of worlds and the most mighty 

 systems, as well as the simplest modifications 

 and changes, are perpetually operating to pro- 

 duce specific ends. 



The many painful and fatal maladies which 

 at present number their victims among the 

 gentler sex, are no doubt often induced by the 

 indulgence of habits of ease and luxury to 



