The Richest Person Now In The Island Owes All His
Present Prosperity And Success To The Ingenuity Of His Wife:
This is
a known fact which is well recorded; for while he was performing his
first cruises, she traded
With pins and needles, and kept a school.
Afterward she purchased more considerable articles, which she sold
with so much judgment, that she laid the foundation of a system of
business, that she has ever since prosecuted with equal dexterity
and success. She wrote to London, formed connections, and, in short,
became the only ostensible instrument of that house, both at home
and abroad. Who is he in this country, and who is a citizen of
Nantucket or Boston, who does not know Aunt Kesiah? I must tell you
that she is the wife of Mr. C - - n, a very respectable man, who,
well pleased with all her schemes, trusts to her judgment, and
relies on her sagacity, with so entire a confidence, as to be
altogether passive to the concerns of his family. They have the best
country seat on the island, at Quayes, where they live with
hospitality, and in perfect union. He seems to be altogether the
contemplative man.
To this dexterity in managing the husband's business whilst he is
absent, the Nantucket wives unite a great deal of industry. They
spin, or cause to be spun in their houses, abundance of wool and
flax; and would be for ever disgraced and looked upon as idlers if
all the family were not clad in good, neat, and sufficient home-spun
cloth. First Days are the only seasons when it is lawful for both
sexes to exhibit some garments of English manufacture; even these
are of the most moderate price, and of the gravest colours: there is
no kind of difference in their dress, they are all clad alike, and
resemble in that respect the members of one family.
A singular custom prevails here among the women, at which I was
greatly surprised; and am really at a loss how to account for the
original cause that has introduced in this primitive society so
remarkable a fashion, or rather so extraordinary a want. They have
adopted these many years the Asiatic custom of taking a dose of
opium every morning; and so deeply rooted is it, that they would be
at a loss how to live without this indulgence; they would rather be
deprived of any necessary than forego their favourite luxury. This
is much more prevailing among the women than the men, few of the
latter having caught the contagion; though the sheriff, whom I may
call the first person in the island, who is an eminent physician
beside, and whom I had the pleasure of being well acquainted with,
has for many years submitted to this custom. He takes three grains
of it every day after breakfast, without the effects of which, he
often told me, he was not able to transact any business.
It is hard to conceive how a people always happy and healthy, in
consequence of the exercise and labour they undergo, never oppressed
with the vapours of idleness, yet should want the fictitious effects
of opium to preserve that cheerfulness to which their temperance,
their climate, their happy situation so justly entitle them.
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