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276 NOTICES OF BOOKS.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
—«B » A. Decade Of Italian Women. By T. ...
ings claim ave . , : _' when To the work hot , at sun iny hard desire scor and ches , to they us fare in showe badl our d y hard ine is throug our field lot -work h their from in , comfortless childhood summerand dwell to the the
gr cold winter ' s windas it enters through the many crevices of our , wooden married shutters , ' makes was a us common , shiver exclamation in our beds . ' with 'Oh them ! would and to they heavens would I had often never
declare , that , to rear up children in any kind of decency , was a task that wore necessaries they out their said , live ( of we s life with slave trouble Ah and ! the slave , anxiety hard to existence gain , and a toil scanty that . falls ' supp From to ly the m of orning lot the of commonest to a mother night , '
of cares a famil which y can the hardl maternal . y be told position . ' **** involves , * she has Besides to cut the fodder suffering for , and the agricultural cattle , to tend labors , to feed * , and * to * clean * husband them , and and to wife take are a sharer share s in alike outside in a
toilsome and poverty ; -stricken existence . " Of late years the condition of the Tuscan peasant has been
rendered still more grievous by the fatal disease which has attacked his vines , and which baffles all investigation .
( l In former years , when the vine yielded an abundant and delicious fruit , the possession peasant of could many calculate more barrels , after of deducting wine than the landlord would the best be ' s sh required are , on sold the for
his afforded own the and means family of ' s purchasing use . This , besides surplus many ( always little comforts ) , being articles of , to prime ' necessity said peasant , such as talking clothes on . the ' Our subj wine ect was to me food ' and It quenched drink and our covering thirst
and us refreshed , a us in the , summer ' s heat , it warmed . us "in the winter ' s cold , , it gave us strength to work , it enabled us to do with far less With food these than old we
worn eat now out , garments it brought that us clothing you see we for must ourselves content and ourselves children , until . the Almighty is pleased in his good providence to give us back our wine again .. ' "
Miss Crawford is already favorably known to the readers of the " English Woman ' s Journal , " by a very interesting paper on
" Women in Italy , " contributed to the number for last September . In the volume before us she gives further pictures of social life in
Tuscany , both among the upper and lower classes , pictures to whose fidelity all who have lived much in Italy and with Italians can
testify—the sapient reviewer of " The Saturday" to the contrary . At the close of an animated picture of the thraldom to which a young
widow in Tuscany is subjected , ( a parallel case to which is within our own knowledge ) we find a ready solution for the low standard ,
, both intellectual and moral , to which Italian women of the present day attain . That there are brilliant exceptions is beyond all _doxibt ,
but Miss Crawford faithfully represents the general condition of the _wojnen of Tuscany and the states of Southern Italy .
little _very " In low attended a country degree to , . it where Thu may s the readil error intellectual y tends be believed ever faculties to its that self education of -perpetu women ation is are a . rated matter The weak at but aand not
her and deficiencies ignorant girl merges on in into the the old weak beaten and track ignorant ; which mother results , in daug feeling hters another as weak and impressed ignorant , goes with as the she belief is herself that . the So chief one generation merit of their of women sex is to follows look
handsome , , and their chief duty to be well dressed . "
276 Notices Of Books.
276 NOTICES OF BOOKS .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), June 1, 1859, page 276, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01061859/page/60/
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