The International Monthly, Volume 4, No. 2, September, 1851 — John Shaqi
The International Monthly, Volume 4, No. 2, September, 1851Various
History
The International Monthly, Volume 4, No. 2, September, 1851
Various
Art, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- History -- Periodicals
After remarking the melancholy fact, which the strictest examination
would, we fear confirm, in a still higher degree, that the
sewing-girls employed in our umbrella factories, tailor
establishments, &c., are very inadequately paid, he makes a statement
which is, however, glaringly false, that among these poor girls
corruption of manners prevails to a degree unknown in any country of
Europe, save indeed "merry England." Without being familiar with such
statistics, we are on the contrary firmly convinced that though
females in these employments are _not_ so well paid even as in
Germany, there is no country on the face of the earth--most certainly
not in Bavaria, Austria, or Prussia, where the standard of morals is
in this respect so high as in our own. There are a thousand
correlative facts in the state of society in our country which confirm
our assertion. This opinion of our author's is, however, slightly at
variance, as far as appearance is concerned, with a part of the
following good advice to the more beautiful portion of his fair young
countrywomen, who propose repairing to this country for the sake of
catching husbands:
"And I deem this a fit place to give them a warning, which I
have before often repeated, namely, that these lovely
beings, when they forsake their homes, also leave behind
them their fantastic national dress. In this country long
dresses are worn--and not merely frocks which barely reach
the knee, as is usual in several parts of Germany. The same
may be applied to their head-dresses, which are not
unfrequently so eccentric as to give their wearers the
appearance of having escaped from a lunatic asylum. On which
account, I beg my _ladies_, or any women who design
emigrating to this land of equality, to buy themselves
French bonnets,[2] or a similar style of head covering, but
in no instance to run bareheaded about the streets, which is
here remarkably unpopular, since neither widow, wife, nor
maiden, ever appears in the public way without hat or
bonnet. And I moreover beg of them, on their first arrival
in the populous cities, to restrain their manifestations of
affection to the house, where walls are the only witnesses,
_and not to permit their lovers, fiancées, or husbands, to
clasp them about the waist, and lead them in this close
embrace about the streets_, since this would be for
Americans a scandalous spectacle. I will not assert that the
American is incapable of tender feeling, but he at least
observes decency in the public streets, and _apropos_ of
this, I would further remark, that in this country the wife
or maiden invariably walks by the side of her male
companion, and never follows after him in _Indian
file_--that is, like geese returning from pasture."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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