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gious rite, preparatory to the Sabbath; and is, I believe, the only religious rite in which the numerous fectaries of this city perfectly agree. The ceremony begins about funfet, and continues till about ten or eleven at night. It is very difficult for a stranger to walk the streets on thofe evenings; he runs a continual risk of having a bucket of dirty water thrown against his legs: but a Philadelphian born is fo much accustomed to the danger, that he avoids it with furprifing dexterity. It is from this circumftance that Philadelphian may be known any where by his gait. The streets of New-York are paved with rough ftones; these indeed are not washed, but the dirt is fo thoroughly fwept from before the doors, that the ftones ftand up fharp and prominent, to the great inconvenience of those who are not accustomed to fo rough a path. But habit reconciles every thing. It is diverting enough to fee a Philadelphian at New York; he walks the street

with as much painful caution, as if his toes were covered with corns, or his feet lamed by the gout; whilst a New-Yorker, as little approving the plain mafonry of Philadelphia, fhuffles along the pavements like a parrot upon a mahogany table.

It must be acknowledged that the ablutions I have mentioned are attended with no fmall inconvenience; but the women would not be induced, for any confideration, to refign their privilege. Notwithftanding this, I can give you the strongest affurances that the women of America make the moft faithful wives, and the most attentive mo thers in the world; and I am fure you will join me in opinion, that if a married man is made miferable only for one week in a whole year, he will have no great caufe to complain of the matrimonial bond.

This letter has run on to a length I did not expect, I therefore haften to affure you, that I am, as ever, Yours, &c. &c.

SIR,

Defence of Women and White-Washing.

I HAVE feen a piece in a late Magazine upon the fubject of WHITE-WASHING, in which that neceffary duty of a good houfe-wife is treated with unmerited ridicule. I fhould probably have forgot the foolish thing by this time; but the feafon coming on which most women think fuitable for cleanfing their apartments from the fmoke and dirt of the Winter, I find this faucy author difh'd up in every family, and his flippant performance quoted wherever a wife attempts to exercise her reasonable prerogative, or execute the duties of her ftation. Women generally employ their time to better purpofe than fcrib

bling. The cares and comforts of a family reft principally upon their fhoulders; hence it is that there are but few female authors; and the men, knowing how neceffary our attentions are to their happiness, take every opportunity of discouraging literary accomplishments in the fair fex. You hear it echoed from every quarter-My wife cannot make verfes, it is true; but she makes an excellent pudding: fhe can't correct the prefs; but the can correct her children, and scold her fervants with admirable difcretion: fhe can't unravel the intricacies of political economy and federal go vernment; but he can knit charm

Defence of Women and White-Washing.

ing stockings:-and this they call praifing a wife, and doing juftice to her good character, with much nonsense of the like kind. I fay, women generally employ their time to better purpose than fcribbling; other wife this facetious writer had not gone fo long unanswered. We have ladies who fometimes lay down the needle, and take up the pen; I wonder none of them have attempted fome reply. For my part, I do not pretend to be an author. I never appeared in print in my life; but I can no longer forbear faying fomething in anfwer to fuch impertinence. Only confider, Sir, our fituation. Men are naturally inattentive to the decencies of life: but why fhould I be fo complaifant?—I say, they are naturally nafty creatures. If it were not that their connection with the refined fex polifhed their manners, and had a happy influence on the general economy of life, thefe lords of the creation would wallow in filth, and populous cities would infect the atmosphere with their noxious vapours. It is the attention and affiduity of the women that prevent men from degenerating into fwine. How important then are the fervices we render; and yet for these very fervices we are made the fubject of ridicule and fun. Bafe ingratitude-naufeous creatures! Perhaps you may think I am in a paffion. No, Sir, I do affure you I was never more compofed in my life; and yet it is erough to provoke a faint to fee how unreasonably we are treated by the men. Why now, there's my hufband-a good enough fort of a man in the main--but I will give you a fmall fample of him: He comes into the parlour the other day, where, to be fure, I was cutting up a piece of linen. Lord! fays he, what a clutter here is! I can't bear to fee the parlour look like a tailor's fhop; befides, I am going to make fome

97

important philofophical experiments,
and must have fufficient room. You
muft know my husband is one of
your would-be philofophers. Well,
I bundled up my linen as quick as I
could, and began to darn a pair of
ruffles, which took up no room, and
could give no offence. I tho't, how-
ever, I would watch my lord and
master's important business. In a-
bout half an hour the tables were
covered with all manner of trum-
pery; bottles of water, phials of
drugs, pafteboard, paper and cards,
glew, pafte, and gum-arabic; files,
knives, fciffars, and needles; rofin,
wax, filk, thread, rags, jaggs, tags,
books, pamphlets, and papers. Lord
blefs me! I am almost out of breath,
and yet I have not enumerated half
the articles: well, to work he went,
and although I did not understand
the object of his manœuvres, yet I
could fufficiently difcover that he
did not fucceed in any one opera-
tion. I was glad of that, I confefs,
and good reafon too; for, after he
had fatigued himself with mischief,
like a monkey in a china fhop, and
had called the fervants to clear e-
very thing away, I took a view of
the scene my parlour exhibited. I
fhall not even attempt a minute de-
fcription; fuffice it to fay, that he
had overfet his ink-stand, and stain
ed my beft mahogany table with
ink; he had fpilt a quantity of vi-
triol, and burnt a great hole in my
carpet; my marble hearth was all
overfpotted with melted rofin: be-
fides this, he had broken three chi-
na cups, four wine-glaffes, two
tumblers, and one of my handfo-
meft decanters. And, after all, as
I faid before, I perceived that he
had not fucceeded in any one o-
peration. By the bye, tell your
friend, the White-wafh Scribbler,that
this is one means by which our clo.
fets become furnished with "halves
of china bowls, cracked tumblers,
broken wine-glaffes, tops of tea-

Pots,

pots, and stoppers of departed decanters." I fay, I took a view of the dirt and devaftation 'my philofophic husband had occafioned; and there I fat, like Patience on a monument fmiling at Grief: but it worked inwardly; yes, Sir, it worked inwardly. I would almost as foon the melted rofin and vitriol had been in his throat, as on my dear marble hearth and my beautiful carpet. It is not true that women have no power over their own feelings; for, notwithstanding this provocation, I faid nothing, or next to nothing: for I only obferved very pleasantly, that a lady of my acquaintance had told me, that the reason why philofophers are called literary men is, because they make a great litter; not a word more: however, the fervant cleared away, and down fat the philofopher. A friend dropt in foon after-Your fervant, Sir, how do you do? Oh, Lord! I am almoft fatigued to death; I have been all the morning making philofophical experiments. I was now more hardly put to it to fmother a laugh, than I had been juft before to contain my rage: my Frecious went out foon after, and I, as you may fuppofe, mustered all my forces; brushes, buckets, foap, fand, lime-fkins, and cocoa-nut fhells, with all the powers of housewifery were immediately employed. I was certainly the best philofopher of the two for my experiments fucceeded, and his did not-all was well again, except my poor carpet-my vitriolized carpet-which ftill continued a mournful memento of philofophic fury, or rather philofophic folly. This operation was fcarce over, when in came my experiment al philofopher, and told me, with all the indifference in the world, that he had invited fix gentlemen to dine

a

with him at three o'clock. It was then past one; I complained of the fhort notice: Poh, poh, fays he, you can get a leg of mutton and a loin of veal, and a few potatoes, which will do well enough. Heavens ! what a chaos muft the head of philofopher be! a leg of mutton, a loin of veal and potatoes! I was at a lofs whether I fhould laugh or be angry; but there was no time for determining: I had but an hour and a half to do a world of business in. My carpet, which had fuffered in the cause of experimental philofophy in the morning, was destined to be moft fhamefully difhonoured in the afternoon, by a deluge of nafty tobacco juice. Gentlemen fmoakers love fegars better than carpets. Think, Sir, what a woman must endure under fuch cir cumftances, and then, after all, to be reproached with her cleanliness, and to have her white-washings, her fcourings and fcrubbings made the fubject of ridicule-it is more than patience can put up with. What I have now exhibited is but a small fpecimen of the injuries we fustain from the boafted fuperiority of men. But we will not be laughed out of our cleanliness. A woman would rather be called any thing than a fut, as a man would rather be thought a knave than a fool I had a great deal more to fay; but I am called away; we are just preparing to white-wafh, and of course I have a deal of bufinefs on my hands. The white-wash buckets are paraded, the brushes are ready, my hufband is gone off-fo much the bet ter: when one is about a thorough cleaning, the first dirty thing to be removed is one's husband! I am called for again. Adieu.

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An Account of the progress of Population, Agriculture, Manners, and Government in Pennsylvania. In a Letter from a Gentleman in Philadelphia to his Friend in England *.

SIR,

WHA

JHATEVER tends to unfold facts in the history of the human fpecies, must be interesting to a curious inquirer. The manner of fettling a new country exhibits a view of the human mind fo foreign to the views of it which have been taken for many centuries in Europe, that I flatter myself the following account of the progress of population, agriculture, manners, and government in Pennsylvania will be acceptable to you. I have chosen to confine myself in the present letter to Pennsylvania only, that all the information I shall give you may be derived from my own knowledge and obfervation.

The first fettler in the woods is generally a man who has outlived his credit or fortune in the cultivated parts of the State. His time for migrating is in the month of April. His firft object is to build a fmall cabbin of rough logs for himfelf and family. The floor of this cabbin is of earth, the roof is of split logs; the light is received thro' the door, and, in fome instances, thro' a fmall window made of greased paper. A coarfer building adjoining this cabbin affords a fhelter to a cow, and a pair of poor horfes. The labour of erecting thefe buildings is fucceeded by killing the trees on a few acres of ground near his cabbin; this is done by cutting a circle round the trees, two or three feet from the ground. The ground around these trees is then ploughed, and Indian-corn planted in it. The feafon for planting this grain is about the 20th of May. It grows generally on new ground with but little cultivation, and yields, in the month of October following, from

40 to 50 bushels per acre. After the first of September it affords a good deal of nourishment to his family, in its green or unripe state, in the form of what is called roasting ears. His family is fed during the Summer by a fmall quantity of grain which he carries with him, and by fish and game. His cows and horfes feed upon wild grafs, or the fucculent twigs of the woods. For the first year he endures a great deal of diftrefs from hunger, cold, and a variety of accidental caufes, but he feldom complains or finks under them. As he lives in the neighbourhood of Indians, he foon acquires a strong tincture of their manners. His exertions, while they continue, are violent; but they are fucceeded by long intervals of reft. His pleafures confift chiefly in fishing and hunting. He loves fpirituous liquors; and he eats, drinks, and fleeps in dirt and rags in his little cabbin. In his intercourse with the world, he manifefts all the arts which characterize the Indians of our country. In this fituation hẹ paffes two or three years. In proportion as population increases around him, he becomes uneafy and diffatisfied. Formerly his cattle ranged at large; but now his neighbours call upon him to confine them within fences, to prevent their trefpaf fing upon their fields of grain. Formerly he fed his family with wild animals; but thefe, which fly from the face of man, now cease to afford fubfiftence, and he is compelled to raise domestic animals for the fupport of his family. Above all, he revolts against the operation of laws. He cannot bear to furrender up a fingle natural right for all the bene

Said to be written by Dr Ruf.

fits

fits of government, and therefore likewife enlarged; and, in the courfe

he abandons his little fettlement, and feeks a retreat in the woods, where he again fubmits to all the toils which have been mentioned. There are instances of many men who have broken ground on bare creation, not less than four different times in this way, in different and more advanced parts of the State. It has been remarked, that the flight of this class of people is always increased by the preaching of the gofpel. This will not furprise us when we confider how oppofite its precepts are to their licentious manner of living. If our first fettler was the owner of the fpot of land which he began to cultivate, he fells it at a confiderable profit to his fucceffor; but if (as is oftener the cafe) he was the tenant to fome rich landholder, he abandons it in debt; however, the fmall improvements he leaves behind him generally make it an object of immediate demand to a fecond fpecies of fettler.

This fpecies of fettler is generally a man of fome property: he pays one-third or one-fourth part in cafh for his plantation, which confifts of three or four hundred acres, and the reft in gales or inftalments, as it is called here; that is, a certain fum yearly, without intereft, till the whole is paid. The firft object of this fettler is to build an addition to his cabbin; this is done with hewed logs and as faw-mills generally follow fettlements, his floors are made of boards; his roof is made of what are called clapboards, which are a kind of coarfe fhingles, fplit out of fhort oak logs. This houfe is divided by two floors, on each of which are two rooms: under the whale is a cellar walled with ftone. The cabbin ferves as a kitchen to this house. His next object is to clear a little meadow ground, and plant an orchard of two or three hundred apple-trees. His ftable is

of a year or two, he builds a large log-barn, the roof of which is commonly thatched with rye ftraw: he moreover increases the quantity of his arable land; and instead of cultivating Indian corn alone, he raises a quantity of wheat and rye: the latter is cultivated chiefly for the purpose of being diftilled into whifkey. This species of fettler by no means extracts all from the earth which it is able and willing to give. His fields yield but a scanty increase, owing to the ground not being fufficiently ploughed. The hopes of the year are often blafted by his cattle breaking through his half. made fences, and deftroying his grain. His horfes perform but half the labour that might be expected from them if they were better fed; and his cattle often die in the Spring,, from the want of provision, and the delay of grafs. His house, as well as his farm, bear many marks of a weak tone of mind. His windows are unglazed, or, if they have had glafs in them, the ruins of it are fupplied with old hats or pillows. This species of fettler is feldom a good member of civil or religious fociety: with a large portion of a hereditary mechanical kind of religion, he ne glects to contribute fufficiently towards building a church, or maintaining a regular adminiftration of the ordinances of the gofpel: he is equally indifpofed to fupport civil government. With high ideas of liberty, he refufes to bear his proportion of the debt contracted by its establishment in our country: he delights chiefly in company; fometimes drinks fpirituous liquors to excefs, will spend a day or two every week in attending political meetings: and thus he contracts debts, which (if they do not give him a place in the Sheriff's docket) compell him to fell his plantation, generally in the courfe of a few

years,

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