Part 11 (1/2)

There is not a spot in any known land where a woman can live in absolute seclusion from all contact with evil Should the Misses Blank even turn Roman Catholics, and take to a convent, their very confessor lad to flee for refuge to the busy, buying, selling, dancing, voting world outside

No: Mrs Blank's prayers for absolute protection will never be answered, in respect to her daughters Why not, then, find a better model for prayer in that made by Jesus for his disciples: ”I pray Thee, not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep the nobler in the world, Mrs Blank, than to be a fragile toy, to be put behind a glass case, and protected from contact It is not her mission to be hidden away from all life's evil, but bravely to work that the world may be refor Aestions of what irls,--the plan, that is, of extreotten, in these suggestions, that not iven anywhere to this particular class as a whole Everywhere in Europe the restrictions are of caste, not of sex Even in Turkey, travellers tell us, women of the humbler vocations are not much secluded It is not the object of the ”European plan,” in any for wo ladies; and the protection is pretty effectually liuese in the island of Fayal I found it to be the ahter in a sort of lady-like seclusion: she never went into the street alone, or without a hood which was equivalent to a veil; she was taught indoor industries only; she was constantly under the eye of her ht be thus protected, all the other daughters were allowed to go alone, day or evening, bareheaded or bare-footed, by the loneliest es or firewood or whatever their work uard was for a class: the average exposure of young woreater than with us So in London, while you rarely see a young lady alone in the streets, the house with a freedom at which our city domestics would quite rebel; and one has to stay but a short time in Paris to see how entirely li French girls are said to be kept

Again, it is to be remembered that the whole ”European plan,” so far as it is applied on the continent of Europe, is a plan based upon utter distrust and suspicion, not only as to chastity, but as to all other virtues It is applied aher classes alirls In every school under church auspices, it is the French theory that boys are never to be left unwatched for a irls will be untruthful if left to the This to the Anglo-Saxon race see ”Suspicion,” said Sir Philip Sidney, ”is the way to lose that which we fear to lose” Readers of the Bronte novels will relish pupils and teachers in French schools at the constant espionage around theirls who had been trained at such institutions say that it was a wonder if they had any truthfulness left, so invariable was the assuirls to lie I cannot iht and noble character, in man or woman, than the systematic application of the ”European plan”

And that it produces just the results that ht be feared, the whole tone of European literature proves Foreigners, no doubt, do habitual injustice to the morality of French households; but it is impossible that fiction can utterly misrepresent the community which produces and reads it When one thinks of the utter lightness of tone hich breaches, both of truth and chastity, are treated even in the better class of French novels and plays, it seems absurd to deny the correctness of the picture Besides, it is not merely a question of plays and novels Consider, for instance, the conte the onies when she thinks that her son has seduced a young girl, a social inferior Thackeray is not really considered a lish writers; but the Frenchlishman should describe even the saintliest of ht to such a small affair

An able newspaper writer, quoted with apparent approval by the ”Boston Daily Advertiser,” praises the supposed foreign method for the ”habit of dependence and deference” that it produces; and because it gives to a young man a hose ”habit of deference is established” But it must be remembered, that, where this theory is established, the habit of deference is logically carried al convenience would take it Its natural outcome is the authority of the priest, not of the husband

That domination of the women of France by the priesthood which forms even now the chief peril of the republic--which is the strength of legitiainst the liberty of the French people--is only the visible and inevitable result of this dangerous docility

One thing is certain, that the best preparation for freedoirls are so poorly prepared for American life as those whose early years are passed in Europe Some of the worst imprudences, the most unmaidenly and offensive actions, that I have ever heard of in decent society, have been on the part of young women educated abroad, who have been launched into A,--have been treated as children until they suddenly awakened to the freedom of women

On the other hand, I remember with pleasure, that a cultivated French hter's fine qualities were the best seal of her motherhood, once toldwere certain fah peculiar circumstances, seenletters ever quoted in any book is that given in Curzon's ”Monasteries of the Levant,” as the production of a Turkish sultana who had just learned English It is as follows:--

NOTE FROM ADILE SULTANA, THE BETROTHED OF ABBAS PASHA, TO HER ARMENIAN COMMISSIONER

CONSTANTINOPLE, 1844

MY nobLE FRIEND:--Here are the featherses sent my soul, my noble friend, are there no other featherses leaved in the shop besides these featherses? and these featherses remains, and these featherses are ukly They are very dear, who buyses dheses? And my noble friend, ant a noat froht last tim, those you sees were very beautiful; we had searched; ain, of those featherses In Kalada there is plenty of feather Whatever bees, I only want beautiful featherses; I want featherses of every desolation to-ned) YOU KNOW WHO

The first steps in culture do not, then, it sees Nor do the later steps wholly extinguish it; for did not Grace Greenwood hear the learned Mary So with the wise Harriet Martineau as to whether a certain dress should be dyed to match a certain shawl? Well! why not? Because wonore ”featherses ”? Because they learn science,beautiful? If ret the loss Let women hold to it, while yet within their reach

Mrs Rachel Rowland of New Bedford,Friends, and a hted the young girls at a Newport Yearly Meeting, a few years since, by boldly declaring that she thought God meant women to make the world beautiful, as much as flowers and butterflies, and that there was no sin in tasteful dress, but only in devoting to it too much money or too much time

It is a blessed doctrine The utmost extremes of dress, the love of colors, of fabrics, of jewels, of ”featherses,” are, after all, but an effort after the beautiful The reason why the beautiful is not always the result is because so norant or merely imitative They have no sense of fitness: the short hat belongs to the tall, and brunettes sacrifice their natural beauty to look like blondes Or they have no adaptation; and even an eard for appropriateness, as where a fine lady sweeps the streets, or a fair orator the platform, with a silken or velvet train which accords only with a carpet as luxurious as itself What is inappropriate is never beautiful

What is merely in the fashi+on is never beautiful But who does not know so are so perfect that fashi+on becorace instead of a despot, and the worst excrescence that can be prescribed--a _chignon_, a hoop, a panier--is softened into soe seems but a chain of roses?

In such hands, even ”featherses” become a fine art, not a matter of vanity

Are women so much more vain than men? No doubt they talk more about their dress, for there is much more to talk about; yet did you never hear the men of fashi+on discuss boots and hats and the liveries of grooh heels for a great many pretty feet on Fifth Avenue in New York, declares that women are not so vain in that direction as men ”A man who thinks he has a handsoive usour customers I have noticed this for twenty years” The testiests the question, What is to be the future of racelessness and h needs of a workaday world? It is to be remembered that the difference in this respect between the dress of the sexes is a very recent thing Till within a century or so, men dressed as picturesquely as women, and paid as minute attention to their costume Even the fashi+ons in arowns One of Henry III's courtiers, Sir J Arundel, had fifty-two coold No satin, no velvet, was too elegant for those who sat to Copley for their pictures In Puritan days the laws could hardly besilver-lace and ”broad bone-lace,” and shoulder-bands of undue width, and double ruffs and ”ireat breeches” What seemed to the Cavaliers the extreme of stupid sobriety in dress would pass now for theof to-day in his ”new colored silk suit and coat triold broad lace round his hands, very rich and fine” It would give to the cereht is a fancy ball than the ordinary entertainor of masculine costume is a little relaxed; velvets resume their picturesque sway: and, instead of the custoold editions at evening parties

Let us hope that good sense and taste may yet meet each other, for both sexes; that men may borrow for their dress some woain witness a graceful and appropriate costu too much absorbed in ”featherses”

VI