YANKEE LADIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume III, Issue 643, 4 December 1865, Page 5

YANKEE LADIES

(From The Queen.) This robust and ruddy Englishman, when he roaohea New York, is appalled at the first sight of the cadaverous ladies who stallk the Broadway, suggesting the idea of galvanised mummies out fen* an airing. Rivalling the Anglo Indian in the parchment of their their expression is grim and forbidding. Neither copious supplies of rouge am! pearl-powder, or a magnificent double row of l'alse tooth could succeed in imparting n cheerful aspect to their wan visiges—a town full of Mrs. Pipchinses could not be moro repulsive. Yet they are not as a rulo miserable; on the contrary, few women are more oharming in all the relations of life, than then those who aie denizens of Yahkeeland. As wives they are affectionate and considerate. If, remembering that they are the children of a land of liberty and equality, tlioy objocfc to promise obedience at the alter tboy are • not the less ready to fulfil thoir understood obligations. No mothers can be moro tendor and watchful of the welfare of their children ; no sisters can bo more loving and disinterested ; and if, as daughters, they decline to accept of advico or guidance in their little matrimonial arrangements—" guessing'" that they know best who will make them a good husband—they are not less anxious than Mrs. CEiudlo to have "dear mother" come and livo with them. It is rare that widowed mothers, or even the old couple, are not to be found domosticated with the married offspring. Then, as companions, thGy are intelligent-, frank, and courteous. Their hospitalities are gracefully rendered ; and if a decaand is made upon their friendship, few can bo more generous and confiding. Whence, then, the peculiarly grave, sour, and often ghastly expression of their countenances? Are they envious, jealous, suspicious, designing, out of sorts with tue world, and ill at ease at homo ? Probably nothing of oil this effects them. But they aro terrible victims to diseases and troubled fancies. At least one half of the best coditioned women in Yankeeland are victims of dyspepsia—at least a fourth are i.ho slaves of torturing neuralgia, and rlioumatism is t'i ■ nstant assailant of a large proportion of tlio 1-., i under. Tlioy blame their fickle climato for ti, *_• calamities —fickle, indeed, in its changes, but not in its severity, alternating, as it does, between Arctic, frigidity unci tho temperature of the torrid zone. Alas, for tlio climate, —it is much maligned! ![> may not agree with tho constitutions of oven all those who are born under it.-, influence, but it is by no means responsible for every ill to which Yankee flesh is heir. In common candour, tho specified diseases should be referied to a multitude of causes to which tho climate has r;o concern. Tho climate does not compel young la:tio3 to eat meat threo times a day, nor Burfeit themselves with poisonous can'li's and "deleterious lozenges, rich paltry, iced water, hot cak>-s, and a multitudo of vegotublos. It is nr-t. tho insalubrity and capricious charactor of the clim-.'e which induces ladies to laco themselves until the riba ~ie forced out of their shape, tho necessary ex pan ho telow becoming a contraction, and the contractions above acquirim- .in unnatural oxpanse. There is nothing in the cli• 'oto warrant the use of thiu boots in wintry v, . .her, nor tho total cxclujian of oxygen from the !, ving rooms aud bed-rooms, nor an indulgence in 1 nor tlio excitement of ' Eensation" literatur, Ail these stimulating causos of tho diseases wh.c.i appear to bo tho companions of Yankee ladies originate in ovil example, tho absence of firm maternal control, and a self-will which defies all counsel and exporionce. So much for tho secret of tho unprepossessing exterior of American ladios —an exterior which will not bo improved when the decrees of fashion banish crinolino and other artifices for rectifying nature's penury. Turn wo now to a moro agreeable theme—tho intellectual furniture of the female Yankeo. It is unnecessary to say that, in tho United States everybody is educated. The public schools aro open gratuitously to all classes of citizens, and it would bo considered a sin and a disgraco if a parent did not compel his children to attend tho courses of instruction. But, indeed, no compulsion is necessary. At a very early age tho children discover that school is a pastirao; then it grows into a matter of omulation ; and as years alvanco, tho value of knowledgo becomes apparent as its possession is felt to bo agreeable. That tho citizcns of both sexes may have a fair start in life, no distinction whatever is made in tho kind of education given at tho national establishments. The daughter of a wealthy merchant, or lawyer in latge practico, occupies no higher position than tho poor ragged child of the Irish emigrant. Personal cleanliness is a sbie qua lion of the daily admittance of each pupil, but the quality of the garment is no bar to tho occupation of a front placo in tho school, provided that tho littlo candidate for scholastic honours has aptitude and application. Prido of birth thus roceives an early rebuko, proper sympathy is evoked, and a fraternisation established, which has a potent influence in enlarging tho charities of life at a later period. The " school-mate" is rarely forgotten. Indeed, the " school-mato" of the richest lady in the land~will ofton work out a position for herself, to which possession of wealth alone offers no parallel in a country where iutollect iB honoured. To become a school-teacher is an object of serious ambition with vast numbers of girls, and as thoro is no royal road to the distinction, closo application to the pres ribed studies is indisponsiblo, and, of course, the etudent in time is fitted to occupy tho highest place in society. Many of tho Grst men in the land seek their life-com-panions among tho educator*. Tho singular perversity which, in aristocratic England, leads men to think it di-giaceful to marry a governess, and which condomnß tho lady entrusted with the cultivation of tho minds and manners of children to a position scarcely romovod abovo that of the menial, and often paid at a lower rate than a femme de chambrc, is totally unknown in America. People are measured there by an intellectual and moral standard, and happines? is more frequently found to spring from tho union of persons of congenial tastes and pursuits, than from tho vulvar, but too common combiiiati&n of wealth and insipidity. With all her predilections, howover, for the aesthetics of life, tho American woman is eminently practical. In tho Southern States tlio ladies took a considerable share in the government of tho plantations and lookod with affectimate solicitude after the material welfare of the slaves. In the North tho lady iB tho prudont and activo menagire. Indeed, she had need to be so, for the domestic servants, which aro, for tho most part, Irish importations fro m the old country, are more of a trouble and a plague than a " help." Tg no rant and exacting, they require a large amount of patient training, and a skilful combination of indulgence with discipline, before they can bo rendered useful and reliablo. Cookery, to this hour, in the smaller towns of tho States is in its infancy. Baking, boiling, and broiling are the solo agents for tho conversion of fish, flesh, fowl, and vegetables into human o.liblea. 3ho delicato operations of roasting and stewiug, exalted by a Erancatclli, an TTde, and a Soyer into sublime arts, are scarcoly understood in Yankeeland. In the manufacture of " breads" tho American lady is without a rival. The wheaton flour of the country is peculiarly fine and abundant, and Indian corn supplies an addition to tho farinaceoußdelicacieß of the tablo unknown in our homesteads. The fair daughters of Columbia do not profess to givo dinners remarkable for the refinement and variety of the cuisine, but thoir tea and supper tableii are incomparable for the profusion of appetising cates with which they are covered, and which aro pressed upon tho visitor with unaffected hospitalityWhilo the beauty of an American woman laßfs, it is exquisitely delicato and attractive. The proudest salons in Europe cannot surpass Yankeo ball-rooms in their assemblages of youthful loveliness. If they dress with somewhat less taste thin the Parisians, it is because they follow too literally the pictorial illustrations of Ls Toilet, and are under no conventional restraints. The Prince of Wales and his suite are said to have been greatly pleased with the coups d'tcl presented at the grand fetes given in honor of His Royal Highness at New i'ork, Boston, and Philadelphia. An excess of parure was not out of place, and the joyfulness of tho occasion imparted a charming expression to every countenance. Pity that the precocious development of female loveliness should follow the dictates of nature in all her kingdoms, and yield to a premature decay. Une dame bien conservee would bo a p rodigy in many parts of America.