from dusting the great organ in the Boston Music Hall (and how dusty it is!) to sweeping the cobwebs off the sky, be sure that she will try to give you an excellent newspaper, with a perfectly independent platform, with all the latest items you ought to know about, with all the good old principles, and all the new ideas, with no fear or favour shown to anybody nor any anonymous editorials, but with a decent respect "for the powers that be," and a loyal recognition of truth and faithfulness wherever they be found.[1]
The Arts.
But our palace must be beautiful as well as ample, and to make it so we must send also from their housewifery all the gifted feminine artists we have, that they may carve the slender pillar and fling the graceful arch, paint the rich ceilings and inlay the mosaic borders; while the music swells and falls, and the poetesses from their airy towers survey the wide world like the watching sister in the nursery tale, and tell of all the new hopes that appear on the horizon.
Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture.
In co-operative housekeeping we shall all save so much money, and earn so much money, that we shall feel comparatively rich, and will raise our eyes to delights of which now we do not dream. Among others, we shall all want paintings on our walls and frescoes on our ceilings; then we must not let our feminine artists waste themselves on sewing, but persuade them to beautify our homes for us. Such artistic talent as is now buried in housekeeping! Shall I
- ↑ Lest any should take fright at what has just been said, and suppose that co-operative housekeeping would end by making all women doctors, lawyers, etc., I will quiet their fears by saying that by the census of 1850, out of nearly six millions of male citizens, only about two hundred thousand were engaged in professional or other pursuits requiring education. At the very worst, therefore, not more than the same proportion of women would be called to forsake the traditional occupations of their sex.
