Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. VI, November 1850, Vol. IVarious
History
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. VI, November 1850, Vol. I
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
Not that the every-day married lady is unsocial--not at all: all
comfortable people are social; but she is partial to her own class, and
does not care to carry her confidences out of it. She has several
intimate friends whom she is fond of meeting; but besides that, she is a
sort of freemason in her way, and finds out every-day people by the word
and sign. Rank has very little to do with this society, as you will find
if you observed her sitting at a cottage door, where, in purchasing a
draught of milk, she has recognized a sister. If these two every-day
married women had been rocked in the same cradle, they could not talk
more intimately; and, indeed, they have heavy matters to talk about, for
of all the babies that ever came into this breathing world, theirs were
the most extraordinary babies. The miracle is, that any of them are
extant after such outrageous measles, and scarlet fevers, and
chicken-poxes--prophesied of, so to speak, even before their birth, by
memorabilia that might have alarmed Dr. Simson. The interlocutors part
very well pleased with each other: the cottager proud to find that she
has so much in common with a real lady, and the lady pronouncing the
reflection of herself she had met with to be a most sensible individual.
Although careless in this instance of the circumstance of rank, the
every-day married lady has but little sympathy with the class of
domestic servants. She looks upon her servants, in fact, as in some sort
her natural enemies, and her life may therefore be said to be passed at
the best in a state of armed neutrality. She commonly proceeds on the
allowance system; and this is the best way, as it prevents so many
sickening apprehensions touching that leg of mutton. Indeed the appetite
of servants is a constant puzzle to her: she can not make it out. She
has a sharp eye, too, upon the policeman, and wonders what on earth he
always looks down her area for. As for followers, that is quite out of
the question. Servants stay long enough upon their errands to talk to
all the men and women in the parish; and the idea of having an
acquaintance now and then besides--more especially of the male
sex--tramping into the kitchen to see them, is wildly unnatural. She
tells of a sailor whom she once detected sitting in the coolest possible
manner by the fireside. When she appeared, the man rose up and
bowed--and then sat down again. Think of that! The artful girl said he
was her brother!--and here all the every-day married ladies in the
company laugh bitterly. Since that time she has been haunted by a
sailor, and smells tar in all sorts of places.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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