212 



NEW ENGLAND FARIVCER. 



May 



■which our mothers were happily strangers. 

 Few young women, comparatively, are now 

 bred up to domestic employments. Even in 

 the families of our most conservative farmers, 

 many of the common domestic duties are neg- 

 lected to be taught to daughters. Thousands 

 of young women enter the marriage state, and 

 find the affairs of housekeeping resting upon 

 them, which they understand about as well as 

 how to build a ship or a sewing machine ! In 

 too many cases, their time is occupied by the 

 guitar, piano and centre tables loaded with the 

 flash literature of the day. If female help is 

 wanted, recourse is had to the groups and fam- 

 ilies of recently arrived emigrants, who must 

 receive a part of the education which daugh- 

 ters need, before they are fit to be intrusted 

 with the fire in the kitchen stove, — much less 

 with the food we are to eat. Few American 

 girls can be had, either for love or money, 

 who are competent to take charge of a family. 

 In many sections, it has become nearly impos- 

 sible to procure female assistance, even in 

 cases of tickness. 



There is a cause for this inconvenient state 

 of things, and we think it lies principally in 

 the want of early habits of industry, and a 

 thorough education in the domestic duties of 

 the family. One would not think of risking 

 his interests with a young man practicing law, 

 or prescribing medicine, who had not been 

 trained to understand either of them. Is it 

 any more reasonable to expect a young woman 

 to discharge the duties of a housekeeper eco 

 nomically, or in any way acceptably, who 

 knows little or nothing about those duties ? 

 By no means. This is the rock upon which 

 the happiness of hundreds of families is ru- 

 ined. There would be far less applications 

 for divorce before the courts, if both parties 

 were more thoroughly educated in the domes- 

 tic duties which properly appertain to each. 



But in the midst of these frequently painful 

 inconveniences, there are thousands of young 

 women unemployed, or living only at the star- 

 vation point, for the want of occupation. 

 Crowded in cities, immured in garrets or cel- 

 lars, half clad, tempted, not half-fed, shiver- 

 ing in the cold, unnoticed by the good, and 

 ruined by the wicked. Why are they not 

 sometimes out in God's blessed sunlight, 



"to breathe the breath 

 Of the cowslip aud priiuroi'e eweet, 



With the sky above their bead, 

 Aud Uie feruBB Lieneath their feet ?" 



Why are they not in the ten thousand pleas- 

 ant homes of the land, where families are suf- 

 fering for the good work which they might 

 give, and be fed and clothed and educated for 

 useful lives? Why, do we ask? Why? the 

 answer is plain. It is because of the estima- 

 tion in which such service is held, by those 

 who consider themselves as occupying a more 

 elevated and "respectable sphere." The very 

 appellation of "housemaid" is regarded as a 

 disgrace — a term of censure not to be endured ! 

 And so men, women and children "board" in- 

 stead of keeping house, and the good old Pu- 

 ritan family system goes into decay, and the 

 wailing prayer of young girls goes through the 

 land, — 



"O I but for one short hour I 



A respite, however brief I 

 No blesBi d leisure for love or hope, 



But only time f.r grief ! 

 A little weeping would ease my heart, 



But in their briny bed 

 My tears must Ptop, fjr every drop 



Uinders needle and thread." 



When will the benevolent take this matter 

 in hand, devise some measures for the employ- 

 ment of these fair but hapless beings, where 

 they will not be looked upon as in an abject 

 condition, and relieve our cities of this foul 

 wrong that exists in them ? 



Windham County, Vt. — The board of 

 managers of the Agricultural Society of this 

 county held their annual meeting in Fayette- 

 ville, Feb. 17, and after revising and increas- 

 ing the premium list to about $900, appointed 

 the several committees for awarding premiums 

 at the next fair. 



The officers of the Society are : — 



President— O . S. Howard, E^q., Townsend. 



Vice Presidents— Col. H. Plimpton, Newfane, Ruel 

 Smitii, Ki*q., U ilmington. 



Secretary and Treasurer — W. A. Stedman, Fayette- 

 ville. 



And a Board of nine managers. 



Green Pickles. — You may have green 

 pickles without copper or other poisonous salts 

 by merely steeping the leaves of the grape- 

 vine or those of spinach or parsley in the vine- 

 gar. The use of earthen vessels glazed with 

 lead should also be avoided as a solution of the 

 acetate of lead is inevitably the result, acting 

 as a slow poison in the system, and like the 

 use of lead in hair-washes, lotions for the skin, 

 leid I ipe for water conduits, etc., very fre- 

 quently ending in paralysis. The large pickled 

 cucumbers iuiported into this country from 

 Holland in wooden kegs are not colored green 

 by any of these artiticial means and are not 

 only the most wholesome, but also ihe moat 

 pa atable of any. 



