They Do Not, Like Us, Fade Their Cheeks Lying Awake
Nights Ruminating The Awful Question Who Shall Do The Washing Next
Week, Or Who Shall Take The Chambermaid's Place, Who Is Going To Be
Married, Or That Of The Cook, Who Has Signified Her Intention Of
Parting With The Mistress.
Their hospitality is never embarrassed by
the consideration that their whole kitchen cabinet may desert at the
moment that their guests arrive.
They are not obliged to choose
between washing their own dishes, or having their cut glass, silver,
and china left to the mercy of a foreigner, who has never done any
thing but field work. And last, not least, they are not possessed with
that ambition to do the impossible in all branches, which, I believe,
is the death of a third of the women in America. What is there ever
read of in books, or described in foreign travel, as attained by
people in possession of every means and appliance, which our women
will not undertake, single-handed, in spite of every providential
indication to the contrary? Who is not cognizant of dinner parties
invited, in which the lady of the house has figured successively as
confectioner, cook, dining-room girl, and, lastly, rushed up stairs to
bathe her glowing cheeks, smooth her hair, draw on satin dress and kid
gloves, and appear in the drawing room as if nothing were the matter?
Certainly the undaunted bravery of our American females can never
enough be admired. Other women can play gracefully the head of the
establishment; but who, like them, could be head, hand, and foot, all
at once?
As I have spoken of stoves, I will here remark that I have not yet
seen one in England; neither, so far as I can remember, have I seen a
house warmed by a furnace. Bright coal fires, in grates of polished
steel, are as yet the lares and penates of old England. If I am
inclined to mourn over any defection in my own country, it is the
closing up of the cheerful open fire, with its bright lights and
dancing shadows, and the planting on our domestic hearth of that
sullen, stifling gnome, the air-tight. I agree with Hawthorne in
thinking the movement fatal to patriotism; for who would fight for an
airtight!
I have run on a good way beyond our evening company; so good by for
the present.
LETTER XXI
May 13. Dear father: -
To-day we are to go out to visit your Quaker friend, Mr. Alexander, at
Stoke Newington, where you passed so many pleasant hours during your
sojourn in England. At half past nine we went into the Congregational
Union, which is now in session. I had a seat upon the platform, where
I could command a view of the house. It was a most interesting
assemblage to me, recalling forcibly our New England associations, and
impressing more than ever on my mind how much of one blood the two
countries are. These earnest, thoughtful, intelligent-looking men
seemed to transport me back to my own country. They received us with
most gratifying cordiality and kindness. Most naturally
Congregationalism in England must turn with deep interest and sympathy
to Congregationalism in America. In several very cordial addresses
they testified their pleasure at seeing us among them, speaking most
affectionately of you and your labors, and your former visit to
England. The wives and daughters of many of them present expressed in
their countenances the deepest and most affectionate feeling. It is
cheering to feel that an ocean does not divide our hearts, and that
the Christians of America and England are one.
In the afternoon we drove out to Mr. Alexander's. His place is called
Paradise, and very justly, being one more of those home Edens in which
England abounds, where, without ostentation or display, every
appliance of rational enjoyment surrounds one.
We were ushered into a cheerful room, opening by one glass door upon a
brilliant conservatory of flowers, and by another upon a neatly-kept
garden. The air was fresh and sweet with the perfume of blossoming
trees, and every thing seemed doubly refreshing from the contrast with
the din and smoke of London. Our chamber looked out upon a beautiful
park, shaded with fine old trees. While contemplating the white
draperies of our windows, and the snowy robings of the bed, we could
not but call to mind the fact, of which we were before aware, that not
an article was the result of the unpaid oil of the slave; neither did
this restriction, voluntarily assumed, fetter at all the bountifulness
of the table, where free-grown sugar, coffee, rice, and spices seemed
to derive a double value to our friends from this consideration.
Some of the Quakers carry the principle so far as to refuse money in a
business transaction which they have reason to believe has been gained
by the unpaid toil of the slave. A Friend in Edinburgh told me of a
brother of his in the city of Carlisle, who kept a celebrated biscuit
bakery, who received an order from New Orleans for a thousand dollars
worth of biscuit. Before closing the bargain he took the buyer into
his counting room, and told him that he had conscientious objections
about receiving money from slaveholders, and that in case he were one
he should prefer not to trade with him. Fortunately, in this case,
consistency and interest were both on one side.
Things like these cannot but excite reflection in one's mind, and the
query must arise, if all who really believe slavery to be a wrong
should pursue this course, what would be the result? There are great
practical difficulties in the way of such a course, particularly in
America, where the subject has received comparatively little
attention. Yet since I have been in England, I am informed by the
Friends here, that there has been for many years an association of
Friends in Philadelphia, who have sent their agents through the entire
Southern States, entering by them into communication with quite a
considerable number scattered through the states, who, either from
poverty or principle, raise their cotton by free labor; that they have
established a depot in Philadelphia, and also a manufactory, where the
cotton thus received is made into various household articles; and
thus, by dint of some care and self-sacrifice, many of them are
enabled to abstain entirely from any participation with the results of
this crime.
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