The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 9, May, 1835Various
History
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 9, May, 1835
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
Of the ladies of this country, she seems to have formed a low estimate
in many respects, and to look upon them generally with no little
contempt. Of those in New York, she says: "The women dress very much,
and very much like French women gone mad; they all of them seem to me
to walk horribly ill, as if they wore tight shoes."--And again: "The
women here, like those in most warm climates, ripen very early, and
decay proportionably soon. They are, generally speaking, pretty, with
good complexions, and an air of freshness and brilliancy, but this I
am told is very evanescent; and whereas, in England, a woman is in the
full bloom of health and beauty, from twenty to five and thirty; here,
they scarce reach the first period without being faded, and looking
old. They marry very young, and this is another reason why age comes
prematurely upon them. There was a fair young thing at dinner to-day,
who did not look above seventeen, and she was a wife. As for their
figures, like those of the French women, they are too well dressed for
one to judge exactly what they are really like: they are, for the most
part, short and slight, with remarkably pretty feet and ancles; but
there's too much pelerine and petticoat, and 'de quoi' of every sort
to guess any thing more,"--p. 88.
This is a delicate subject, and one on which we should be averse to
enter the lists with Mrs. Butler, prejudiced as she most probably is.
But some of her observations on the mode of nurturing females, strike
us as exhibiting good sense: In the following note to the above, we
apprehend there is much truth:
"The climate of this country is made the scape-goat upon which all the
ill looks, and ill health of the ladies is laid; but while they are
brought up as effeminately as they are, take as little exercise, live
in rooms heated like ovens during the winter, and marry as early as
they do; it will appear evident, that many causes combine with an
extremely variable climate, to sallow their complexions, and destroy
their constitutions."
We are sorry to be forced to say, that there is also much sound sense
and unwelcome truth in her remarks upon the situation of married
females in our fashionable circles generally, (although the picture is
overwrought and is more peculiarly applicable to northern females,)
which we quote from Vol i. p. 160.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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