A Treatise on Domestic Economy; For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School — John Shaqi
A Treatise on Domestic Economy; For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at SchoolBeecher, Catharine Esther
General
A Treatise on Domestic Economy; For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School
Beecher, Catharine Esther
Home economics
But how different is the state of things in this Country. Every thing
is moving and changing. Persons in poverty, are rising to opulence, and
persons of wealth, are sinking to poverty. The children of common
laborers, by their talents and enterprise, are becoming nobles in
intellect, or wealth, or office; while the children of the wealthy,
enervated by indulgence, are sinking to humbler stations. The sons of
the wealthy are leaving the rich mansions of their fathers, to dwell in
the log cabins of the forest, where very soon they bear away the
daughters of ease and refinement, to share the privations of a new
settlement. Meantime, even in the more stationary portions of the
community, there is a mingling of all grades of wealth, intellect, and
education. There are no distinct classes, as in aristocratic lands,
whose bounds are protected by distinct and impassable lines, but all are
thrown into promiscuous masses. Thus, persons of humble means are
brought into contact with those of vast wealth, while all intervening
grades are placed side by side. Thus, too, there is a constant
comparison of conditions, among equals, and a constant temptation
presented to imitate the customs, and to strive for the enjoyments, of
those who possess larger means.
In addition to this, the flow of wealth, among all classes, is
constantly increasing the number of those who live in a style demanding
much hired service, while the number of those, who are compelled to go
to service, is constantly diminishing. Our manufactories, also, are
making increased demands for female labor, and offering larger
compensation. In consequence of these things, there is such a
disproportion between those who wish to hire, and those who are willing
to go to domestic service, that, in the non-slaveholding States, were it
not for the supply of poverty-stricken foreigners, there would not be a
domestic for each family who demands one. And this resort to foreigners,
poor as it is, scarcely meets the demand; while the disproportion must
every year increase, especially if our prosperity increases. For, just
in proportion as wealth rolls in upon us, the number of those, who will
give up their own independent homes to serve strangers, will be
diminished.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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