May 12, 2011 by Society Sunday
May 15, 1873
EDITORIAL NOTES
THE MOTTO of the Good Templar girls of Salem, New Jersey, is worth recording in golden letters, and being- hung up for general admiration and adoption. It is :
The lips that touch wine shall never touch mine.
IT HAS been proved by scientific researches that the perfume of flowers overcomes noxious vapors that are often in the atmosphere, especially the exhalations from marshy grounds or decomposing animal matter. In other words, they are healthful and add to life, as well as minister to the enjoyment of the senses. Plant flowers, then, for their beauty, and perfume flowers for their fragrance and you will increase the general health as a result.
Fruit for Children
Fruits have been marked as the special enemies of childhood–the things to be avoided at that age above all the rest. Farmers unable to keep their children out of their orchards have been known to cut down their fruit-trees so as to place the pernicious things beyond their reach, and nothing is more common than to hear men and women predicting that the season is going to be sickly because there is so much fruit.
It would be difficult to conceive of any notion more absurd than this, and yet it has had for many years the sanction of the highest medical authority. One of the precepts that have come down to us from the most ancient school of medicine founded in Christendom contains a warning against the enjoyment of these rich gifts of Providence, “Autumni fructus caveas no sint tibi luctus” and well and faithfully has the precept been inculcated by the successors of the faculty of Salernum.
Instinct and reason, however, have begun at last to prevail over the heresy, and now physicians generally, when asked an opinion, say “Eat all the fruit you want–the more the better.”
And indeed, nothing could be more sensible than this answer. I am not sure the sense of languor and lassitude so generally felt in the Spring is not owing to the want of fruit, which probably results a state of the system bordering on scurvy! By sub-acid fruits and the vegetables of Summer that scorbutic tendency is corrected and in Autumn as a consequence the acme of health is attained. On this account I should place foremost among the culinary inventions of our times the art of preserving fruits in their fresh state all the year round.
Relief Society Reports
Report from Provo: The sisters in the 4th Ward Relief Society are faithful in the discharge of their duties and many of them impart of their substance until I almost think the receiver fares better than the giver. Our meetings are not so well attended as I could wish but the faithful few seem to possess ft good spirit and enjoy our communion together. I believe the Relief Societies have had a great influence in uniting the hearts of the sisters and of doing away in some degree with that exclusiveness which has been too much in the midst of the Saints.
We have invested in Co-operative institutions where we have a small but perpetual benefit in dividends, but in consequence of the many poor in our Ward we have not been able as yet to build a house, but hope to do so in time.
Repectfully yours, RUIA A. HOLDEN President.
The following is a brief synopsis of the minutes of the 57th meeting of the Senior and Junior Co-operative Retrenchment Association of Salt Lake City, held May 10th, 1873 at the 14th Ward Assembly Rooms.
After singing and prayer, minutes of the previous meeting were read and accepted. The minutes of meetings held in the 9th, 10th and 11th Wards were also read. The spirit of the meeting was to impress upon the minds of the sisters the importance of each one seeking diligently to carry out the commandments of the Lord as given in words of counsel and instruction by President Brigham Young. They were admonished to take interest in saving their paper rags and jointly assisting in commencing and maturing the plan suggested by President Young of making their own books.
The EXPONENT was also spoken of, and the sisters were urged to renew their subscriptions–those who had taken the first volume and those who had never subscribed for it were advised and solicited to do so.
The subject of writing was introduced and the fact illustrated that practice and cultivation in composition would prove that true talent and genius existed with many of the daughters of Zion. Sympathy and approbation were expressed in relation to the course being pursued by the women of Lowell, Massachusetts. Faith and prayer were spoken of as safe guards against temptation and sin, and requisite auxiliaries in accomplishing whatever was undertaken.
“Medicine” was chosen as a subject for the next meeting.
From the 12th Ward Salt Lake City, May 8, 1873
The Society is in a flourishing condition, although but few in comparison attend our meetings. The teachers are faithful in visiting on their various blocks instructing the sisters and gathering their offerings, and we are happy to state that the people of the Ward have responded liberally to whatever call has been made.
We are favored with the following from Spring City, Sanpete County: Having suffered by Indian depredations as well as by being sorely scourged by the ravages of grasshoppers, and being a small settlement, we have not accomplished as much as some others under more favorable circumstances.
Our President, Mrs. Hyde, is a faithful Saint striving to her utmost to carry out all the duties which devolve upon her. We have suffered severely from the spotted fever—quite a number have died from effects–some twenty within the last six months. Wishing success to the EXPONENT, Respectfully, MRS. P. BENSON Secretary.
This comes from Bountiful May 2, 1873:
Having been rather dilatory in forwarding a report of this Branch of the Relief Society, we will now endeavor to be as brief as possible. We feel it a satisfaction to know that we can be co-workers together with and lighten the care of our brethren in helping to roll forth the kingdom of God, and that it is woman’s portion to be full of charity, seek out the oppressed, the poor ,the widow, and the orphan, imparting to them of her substance and binding up the broken heart.
We have a great interest in the EXPONENT, through which we rejoice to hear from our sisters far and near. Stimulating every heart to press on and bear their part, ELIZABETH H. BARLOW President.
From Marriottsville near Ogden: The Relief Society of Lynn and Marriottsville was organized April 21st 1870. On the 21st and 22, we celebrated the anniversary of our organization, held meetings both days–well attended and favored with the presence and kind cheering instructions of our brethren, after which we concluded the little season of social enjoyment with a party at which good order and harmony prevailed. –ANN BICKINGTON President
Petition for Polygamy
The following petition has been prepared and signed by a large number of ladies in Lowell, Massachusetts, to be presented to the Legislature of that State. The petition has already appeared in a number of leading Eastern journals, the first to give it place being the New York Graphic, from which it was clipped into the Chicago Times and other papers.
LOWELL, April 1873.
To the Honorable, the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts:
The undersigned citizens of the State respectfully set forth the grievances under which they suffer as women who are not permitted to vote, hold any and all offices, and engage in the occupations opened to men and are otherwise restricted in the opportunity of earning a living, and herewith beg your permission to suggest a remedy for these evils upon which they pray your honorable body to act.
The law which now governs society says, practically, that women should be married, should engage in work at their own homes, and should look to their husbands for support. On the other hand, the census shows that it is impossible to carry out this unwritten but recognized law for the reason that there is a large excess of women in the commonwealth, and many of the men of lawful age are idle, vicious, incompetent or otherwise unfit to be heads of households.
Yet, your petitioners hold that the matter is not without remedy. Prejudice and custom has decided in favor of restricting the husband to a single wife, yet without justice and authority, as we believe. In the Book which lies at the foundation of all law recognized in this country, there is no injunction against a plurality of wives, while there are many examples therein recorded in its favor.
Men’s wives appear to have increased in number in proportion with their flocks and riches. Such a rule even now holds in the land from which the Christian nations received their religion.
Your petitioners have no desire to interfere with the regulations of any existing household, but simply to present their claims to the marriage state for your respectful consideration. They deem it their privilege and their duty to suggest the marriage of a man to more than one wife in cases where the first wife does not object and where it is made evident that the man is able to support the burden laid upon his resources.
They are aware that it takes years to remove prejudices, and that those who take a second or third place in the household may be looked upon with disfavor, but confident that their proposed action will ultimately do away with much of the social evil which afflicts and distresses all communities. They are willing to be the first to engage in this work of reform. Society, which now insists that woman shall be married and look to her husband for support will, after mature reflection, counteract this effort to carry out the law practically.
It is far from the design of your petitioners to ask legislation in behalf of free love or any loosening of the marriage bond. We ask that the marriage of the second wife shall be made as permanent and binding as that of the first, and that all the children of the household shall have equal honor.
And in asking this, we believe we have taken a long step toward doing away with foundling asylums, preventing ante-murders, and lessening the vagabond child population of our large cities.
For the reasons enumerated your petitioners respectfully ask the passage of a law permitting plural marriages in the cases above enumerated and under such other condition as to your judgment may seem wise and proper. And your petitioners will ever pray, &etc.
Exponent Response to A Petition for Polygamy
In this issue of the EXPONENT will be found a petition purporting to be got up in Lowell, Massachusetts, asking the Legislature of that State to enact a law authorizing and legalizing, under certain conditions, plural marriages.
From other newspaper sources we gather that many of the signers of this petition are married women, who, like Emily Faithful, see the condition in which women are placed and are prepared to brave public prejudice in their behalf. But apart from the reasons advanced therein why such a proposition should receive legislative sanction, there are still others which might be most strongly urged.
Evil courses are so common among young men, especially in large cities, that men of pure and blameless lives are largely in the minority. These young men are “sowing their wild oats,” sowing a harvest that is to produce a crop of evils, diseases, shattered constitutions, ruined fortunes, and blighted reputations. And when they have lived lives of intemperance and lewdness for years, then they seek fair, young, pure virgin forms for their wives. They desire youth and purity to minister to their vitiated senses and propose to increase the number of diseased, sickly inhabitants of the earth by their union with chaste and guileless maidens.
They do not seek wives among those whom they have dragged down to destruction–they could not think of associating themselves permanently with women whose lives have been at all like their own– but having destroyed virtue, perhaps at the outset, having rioted with vice and become tired of ministering to gross sensuality, they again seek spotless virtue to ally to their licentious, depraved lives.
Are such men fit to become the husbands of pure women, the fathers of children borne by pure women? Yet, society as it exists in most places in Christendom, gives millions of women no choice but to marry such men or remain single. They must rush out or bury beyond human sight, every holy aspiration of wifehood and maternity, or accept hand and share the life of men who have been steeped in vice until they are saturated with it.
We say “must do so,” for, supposing the sexes to be equal marriageable age, the minority of really pure men is confessedly so great that no alternative is left to the majority of women but that we have mentioned.
Were the Legislature of Massachusetts to act upon this petition, no one would be compelled to adopt plural marriage, but it would leave those free to legally enter into such marital bonds who desired to do so, and the result would be an improvement in the morals of society such as few imagine. It is not alone that it would close many avenues by which the social evil is now supplied, but when young men would discover that purity in men was at a premium among pure women, and that masculine corruption and licentiousness were not condoned and overlooked as at present, the very instincts of their natures would prompt them to cultivate a purity now as rare as it commendable when found.
Has Massachusetts virtue enough to favorably receive the proposition?
The Importance of Decision
Is it better to spend half a life contemplating what is best to do, than to make up your mind to some laudable course of conduct and make a bold attempt to reach the mark you set out for, even though it be not the highest on record and even though you come short of gaining the exact point you started for? I think not.
True, It is better “to move moderately than to move wrong” and it is well to “look before you leap,” but indecision holds many a man from achieving the most praiseworthy results of high and noble ambition. A young man realizes that he might become a first class architect or a superior workman of any kind–he would like the trade, has the abilities, and probably there is nothing in the way to interfere with his commencing to learn at once. But, it will require time and patience and practice to acquire a thorough knowledge of it; such as he would need if he undertook it–and possibly something else may be presented that will be a little easier and pay better just now. The future stands away off and can be looked after when it gets here. He will wait a year or two and look around. He does not really know that the trade would suit him; it might not be as much to his taste as he imagines. So the chance passes without being improved and the time slips away and is lost.
And thus people waste the best and most useful days of their lives in very many instances, and nothing being decided upon–nothing is accomplished. There is no necessity for taking what seems to be a wrong step in order to move in some direction. The way chosen may not always prove the wisest, but we may dally in uncertainty half our lives for fear of running a dangerous risk and then make the worst of mistakes when we are too old to rise above and outlive them.
A Common Vice
Is wastefulness a sin? If so, how very guilty in this respect are Americans as a people. Living has been so easy in nearly all portions of this country, food so plentiful and so readily obtained, that little or no care has been manifested by the great mass of people as to how or whence it came.
People are lavish of fuel, lights, material for clothing, and indeed, whatever Is employed in keeping house, throwing away in preparation nearly as much as is made use of, and using twice as much as is needed of almost everything.
Servants and children follow in the footsteps of their masters and parents, and learn to waste and destroy enough to support largo communities in good style if what is thrown away could be judiciously put to use. Miserly covetousness is worse than despicable, but to save and make some use of every last article, even the smallest bit of rag that may be ground up and made into paper, is in no wise mean, but would be honorable in the wives and daughters of millionaires as well as of mechanics or laborers.
The great Creator has placed around His children the numberless varieties of beauty and use to cheer and gladden their lives, but not that they should become idle and indifferent over them by being abundantly blessed with the good things of the earth.
In the midst of luxury, we should seek to cultivate simple habits which are the greatest producers of genuine happiness, longevity and usefulness. Children should be taught to be less self-indulgent and more industrious than many are, and women should at least superintend their own households and see that nothing is left to go to waste which might be beneficial to some one of our Father’s creatures, if not to themselves.
No bread tastes so sweet as that which is fairly earned ,and no poverty can be so stinging and mortifying as that which comes of carelessness and extravagance. Live prudently and within your means is an excellent rule to hold to.
Poultry Keeping For Women
There are many women who, especially within the last half-dozen years while the price of eggs has been so high, make money much faster by tending poultry than by sewing.
It is an occupation especially suited to women, because it involves patience and constant details rather than strength. Then, again, the hardest thing for many men to learn in handling either poultry or bees is gentleness. How many times we have seen boys, and men with no more sense than boys, jerk hens roughly from their nests, enter the poultry houses abruptly, and frighten the occupants till they rush into the furthest corner and keep the poultry community in constant agitation and distress.
But all domestic animals appreciate the manners of female attendants when they are fortunate enough to be cared for by them.
Now, there are women gardeners and florists who, by commendable industry, and business qualities, have risen to eminence in these callings–and while one of the most successful bee keepers in the world is a woman, we hope to see others give poultry more attention than it has hitherto received.
Aside from profit, the keepingof fine poultry for fancy is an elegant pastime very popular with English ladies, and we see no reason why the fashion should not be adopted in this country.
Household Hints
Simmer together in a sauce-pan a pound of loaf-sugar, four eggs, the juice of two lemons, and the rind cut very small. When the materials have become the consistency of honey, pour into a jar and preserve for use.
Take some suet and cut it small, currants, sugar, grated lemon-peel, ground ginger, eggs and bread crumbs. Mix them into a paste, roll them into balls, tie up in a buttered cloth and boil them for twenty minutes.
Mix two pounds of flour, and the same quantities of powdered sugar and good butter with nutmeg, cloves, and mace. Make them into paste with some milk or cream. Roll into a thin layer, cut into squares, prick them with holes, and bake them on tin plates.
The whites of two eggs, two ounces of red currant jelly, two ounces of raspberry jelly, one ounce of sifted loaf-sugar. Put all into a bowl and beat until it rises into a thin froth. Serve in a glass dish or custard cups. Though of quite a dark shade of red when beginning to whip it, it becomes paler and paler as the froth rises and when finished is a very pale shade of pink. Apricot jelly can be used also.
Boil in somewhat salted water, the ears, skin, feet, and a proportion of the sides of the hog till the meat drops off or the flesh is quite soft. Take out and chop not so fine as for sausage and season with pepper, salt, cloves, and herbs. Mix well together and put in a pot or vessel with a weight on it. When needed, it can be cut in slices and eaten cold.
When of long standing, it is difficult to get them out, since the iron has become thoroughly peroxidized and must be reduced. The following recipe will be found worthy of trial: Water, one pint, and hydrochloric acid, seven pennyweights. Moisten the spot with this solution thoroughly until the color disappears and rinse with water.
is easily made by placing in the interstices of wet sponge grains of wheat, rye, peas, or any similar plant and hanging it up in the window where the plants will very soon begin to spray out and after a little time you have a beautiful green growing ball suspended by a cord or ribband from the top of your window frame.
Woman’s Work
With regard to a newspaper’s refusal to hire women printers, due to the hard physical labor and late night hours required:
Those who advocate the cause of the working women are under no obligation to give them employment unless it happens to be profitable to do so. The relations of business and labor are not relations of sentiment or charity and if a man thinks it desirable that women should have a greater variety of occupations, he does not thereby become bound to hire any number of women as laborers when he has no labor for them to perform.
If there are any advocates of women’s rights who contend for more than justice toward women, those advocates are mistaken. All that society is bound to afford any of its members is a fair and equal chance in the battle of life and.this is true of women as it is of men.
Reform In Dress
EDITOR WOMAN’S EXPONENT:
As an advocate for every principle advocated for the good of mankind and womankind, I wish to say a word upon the already well worn subject of woman’s dress. While watching the toilet making of a young lady whose dressing room I was incvited into not long since, I could not withhold the exclamation, “How can our Father be so merciful? Why are we allowed to live at all when we tamper and trifle with the laws of nature as we do?”
Yet, the young lady asserted as nearly all fashionable ladies will, that the prodigious roll which she fastened upon her was not heavy, and that her corsets were not at all tight, and as we walked down the street it was not the high heels and close fit of her boots that made it painful for her to walk—she never was able to walk with any comfort in her life.
I have reflected that the very plainest and neatest costumes worn by American ladies at the present day might be much improved in comfort and convenience without detracting from their appearance. If half the weight of clothing that is now generally suspended from the hips instead of the shoulders as it should be could be dispensed with, that would certainly be a great relief!
And again, I do not know of a style of dress in which a woman can appear respectable on the street if the wind is blowing. We nearly all wear skirts which are so broad and long that they flap and switch about if we happen out in a storm and are not half as becoming or convenient as more closely fitting garments would be.
And these common suits are quite as great a hindrance in working as in walking. Around the kitchen stove or grate, particularly in very busy seasons such as washing, fruit drying, and preserving time, making soap etc., everything is in the way, and a woman’s dress, if she isn’t all the while on the look out for it, is catching up every particle of grease and dirt.
I wish that some of our sensible leading ladies and some of our dressmakers would ake it in hands and appoint a committee, if necessary, to establish some more suitable and pleasing costumes for the kitchen and the street than we have at present.
–COUNTRY WOMAN
Commentary
Again, not much commentary today. Too busy recovering from having a baby! I found the article on wastefulness particularly timely for right now–it’s amazing how similar we are to our sisters from 1873. I want to make sugar biscuits, but will pass on the head cheese. I enjoyed reading about how women felt about polygamy who lived it. It was interesting to see their point of view. And, I would like to call for a reform in dress, as well. Let’s get some sensible young ladies and dressmakers to come up with better costumes for the kitchen and the street! I also agree completely with the sentiments of the editor regarding poultry keeping and gentleness. That was my favorite quote:
But all domestic animals appreciate the manners of female attendants when they are fortunate enough to be cared for by them.
To read the entire May 15, 1873 Exponent, click here.
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