806
THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
the even tenor of their ways. They were not superstitious, though they had listened to fairy tales; had heard from the cabins of ghosts and goblins. I never heard of their hanging up a horse-shoe over the door or over the bed for good luck, nor did they cross themselves if a rabbit flitted across the way before them. No; the old faith in which Abraham walked, for which their forefathers fought, in which their mothers died, was theirs to enjoy and teach to others. Church work, attendance upon its ordinances, reverence for those who wmre authorized to minister at its altars, had place in their creed. The distance to a place of worship was not an insurmountable obstacle, nor rough roads too great a difficulty in the way of attendance. A family of fourteen went regularly to church every Sabbath day, unless rain or storm prevented, for forty years, fully ten miles. This was not an isolated case. Many daughters thus trained grew to womanhood with profound respect for the institutions of the Christian religion. The means of education were prized. School was a marked feature in household plans, and the teacher, or private tutor, a person of importance. Education for the masses was not provided as it is now; but many Southern women were finely educated—were educated out of the barbarizing tendency to flatten their “ i’s,” broaden their “ a’s” or dropout their “ r’s.” In the line of literary productions I can not note many women very distinguished in the times of which I speak. “ Beulah ” and “Alone ” were extensively read, but I can not say they gave rise to activity of very high literary worth. Purely sensational books give birth to a numerous progeny of weak stories, but do not nourish the reasoning, thinking soul, or much excite the imagination while feeding the fancy. Books and periodicals filled the libraries, but these were not often products of the soil. On these they depended for mental food, from these they learned when the world was out of joint, but “ cursed spite, they did not feel that they were born to set it right.” Their training was not for the big, round world, but for the place they called home; where rich, true womanhood could be found. They had no doubt about their sphere, and talked little and wrote less on the subject. Education for the marts of trade or lines of commerce was not thought indispensable; though many, when compelled, managed business affairs. A lady of Mississippi, whom I knew, was left with a large family and an encumbered estate (a thirty-thousand-dollar debt), cleared off the debt, educated her daughters, gave her sons access to the learned professions, kept herself well posted in current literature, and found time to enjoy the classics. Many Southern women had to cook, too, and could do it well; to patch and darn, and often to provide food and raiment for the household, because the husband and father frequented drink-shops or wasted his substance in riotous living.
In such trying cases no thought of seeking a competency behind the counter or in a work-shop entered a woman’s brain as possible. The cotton-field or tobacco- patch was preferred. They were inclined to walk in the old paths, to follow old customs, and carefully scrutinized an innovation, or regarded it with suspicion. They were not ambitious, were strong in their likes and dislikes, and in their heart of hearts believed their own skies were bluest, their own cornfields greenest, their tobacco finest, and no cotton-fields like theirs on the face of the earth. Somewhat resentful, they were not bitter in their animosities, nor pugilistic, nor cruel, though slow to take to their hearts again those who had been estranged. Broad in their hospitality, they did not seal a friendship until gathered about the table, where the bounties of the home were dispensed. They were not slow in their mental processes, were self-sacrificing when love prompted, were devoted to old friends, old manners and customs, gloried in their birthright—desired no better country. The mighty civil convulsion of 1861 brought about new conditions in the social as well as industrial life of the South. Women who had been satisfied and happy under the old regime, were stirred to the depths of their natures. They were not eager for change, but soon open to conviction; they showed a readiness to advance along the lines of the new development. Awake now to affairs that affect the good of the race, they realized that a better way to establish the home, as well as preserve it, is to rid the country of the great evils,