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WEST-END HOUSEKEEPERS. 253
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.
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• The Lively Discussion Excited By A Cer...
¦ l ages of any and every class above liiin . But it would "be a mistake to suppose that the gain is all on the side of democracy ;
foT the man or woman who has entered the aristocratic atmosphere , usuallamong usthrows his or her whole weight into that scale
Imbibes y , the habits , of thought , and the polite friendly condescension , which marks the well-born and well-bred aristocrat .
I believe I am justified in saying * that this short paper will probably be read by many women of quite the upper classas "well as
, by workers like myself ; and tliey will bear me out that the division of which I assert the existence is , after all , one which is
kept subordinate in great degree to higher and divine laws . Take any large nobleman's household in the country , and the
womanhood of that dwelling , from the lady herself , downward to her daughters , nieces , cousins , teachers and companions ,
_housekeej _^ er , ( herself often a well-educated lady of the middle class , ) lady ' s maidsand servantsare knit together in something very like
intimacy . There , is always , the old nurse or the old cook , who form the link between two generations , and whom the young
ladies and gentlemen have been brought up to respect , and whom ¦ they would as soon think of turning out of doors as one of their
_own selves . Nevertheless , it is precisely under these circumstances that the divisions of rank , least enforced , are least lost sight of .
Herethenwe are face to face with the associations which , under-, , lie the vexed question of what makes a lady . There are large
classes to whom , a refined education alone does not seem sufficient to constitute a claim , yet who are usually little solicitous to press
the disqualification in individual cases ; and there are other , and in England larger classes , who borrow in daily life the titles and
customs of the ranks above them , yet who , when themselves elevated bforce of character and industrynot unfrequently turn
round and y deny the claims of the level from , which they themselves have lately sprung . These discrepancies are at the bottom , of the
constant soreness existing on the exact value of the word lady ; and they are discrepancies which cannofc be removed unless we can
_isake the England of to-day , such as past times have made her , and bray her various social elements together in a mill;—and even
then , have we any especial reason to look with delight and encouragement on the results of free and independent democracy in
New York ? Had we not better put up with a few lines of demarcationa little exclusivenessa sprinkling of condescension , which ,
, , . after all , is lialf-unconscious ? It is not possible to be logical in arguing on a matter of feeling ;
• that we are what we are , is truer in England than elsewhere , and . a merciful Providence has so far watched over our three little
ever islands been , bristling made of with the insular foundations prejudices of our , national that no life tabula on rasa which has a
: p iron hilosop . Our hical land theorist is , so could to speak build , dotted up a flimsy over with erection the stump , of glass s of and the ,
West-End Housekeepers. 253
WEST-END HOUSEKEEPERS . 253
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1861, page 253, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121861/page/37/
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