And the worse
part of the whole matter is, that they have become so accustomed to it,
it has become so "fashionable," that it seems to have become second
nature, and they really become offended, when it is spoken against.
Among the German, Irish, and other European peasantry who come to this
country, it matters not what they were employed at before and after they
come; just so soon as they can better their condition by keeping shops,
cultivating the soil, the young men and women going to night-schools,
qualifying themselves for usefulness, and learning trades--they do so.
Their first and last care, object and aim is, to better their condition
by raising themselves above the condition that necessity places them in.
We do not say too much, when we say, as an evidence of the deep
degradation of our race, in the United States, that there are those
among us, the wives and daughters, some of the _first ladies_, (and who
dare say they are not the "first," because they belong to the "first
class" and associate where any body among us can?) whose husbands are
industrious, able and willing to support them, who voluntarily leave
home, and become chamber-maids, and stewardesses, upon vessels and
steamboats, in all probability, to enable them to obtain some more fine
or costly article of dress or furniture.
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