Household industry.
At a time like this we are glad to know that those household arts which our ancestral mothers, of Revolutionary and revered memory, plied so industriously and with so much advantage to the nation, are revived in the country generally.
There is nothing more agreeable to the true Southern man and patriot than the busy hum of the spinning wheel and the industrious clatter of the loom, as he approaches the country mansion, where those sounds have been hushed for a quarter of a century.
The loom and the wheel had been
Shandon, and Yankee cotton, Yankee sheetings and shirtings, were introduced everywhere.
The handiwork of woman was revolutionized, and her labors directed to less useful employment.
With the change in industry came a change in dress and manners, until the older inhabitants could contemplate a revolution social, as well as industrial, that was melancholy and discouraging.
Simplicity and virtue are twin sisters, and adversity is their nurse.
These framed the characters and the manners of the noble women of '76, and made them models to their sex in all ages.
They were the spirit and the soul of the Revolution.
They imbued the men with their zeal and their national devotion.
They clothed and fed them, and nursed them when sick and wounded.
Untiring and unflagging in their exertions in their homes, in the hospitals, and even in the severe industry of the fields, they ministered to the wants and the sufferings of the Revolutionary soldiers, and thus gave an indispensable aid in securing victory and independence to the country.
It is a matter of pride to us now to see our mothers and daughters readily accepting the conditions and consequences of the war, and entering upon the part which belongs to them with an energy and patriotism — nay, piety — which makes them worthy descendants of their mothers of '76.
They have reinstalled the spinning wheel and the loom.
They are reviving the long forgotten household arts, and show as much tact and capacity in them as if they had never been suspended.
They are imitating the example and displaying the virtues of what we had believed to have been a better day and a better time, and are showing that though modern art and commerce had changed their occupations and their customs, they still preserve all the constancy, all the public spirit, all the promptness at self-sacrifice, all the heroism of the women of '76.--They are achieving wonders in their exertions to clothe, feed, and comfort the army.
Their means and appliances for these objects are increasing daily, and we shall find that in our country the character of woman and her important part in the great struggles of nations for independence will be more than vindicated.
God bless the women of the
South!
