SIR,

ANSWER TO THE ABOVE.

IN THE CHARACTER OF A LADY; BUT REALLY BY
THE SAME HAND.

I HAVE lately seen a letter upon the subject of whitewashing, in which that necessary duty of a good housewife is treated with unmerited ridicule. I should probably have forgot the foolish thing by this time; but the season coming on which most women think suitable for cleansing their apartments from smoke and dirt of the winter, I find this saucy author dished up in every family, and his flippant performance quoted wherever a wife attempts to exercise her reasonable prerogative, or execute the duties of her station. Women generally employ their time to better purpose than scribbling. The cares and comforts of a family rest principally upon their shoulders; hence it is that there are but few female authors; and the men, knowing how necessary our attentions are to their happiness, take ́every opportunity of discouraging literary accomplishments in the fair sex. You hear it echoed from every quarter. My wife cannot make verses, it is true; but she makes an excellent pudding; she can't correct the press, but she can correct her children, and scold her servants with admirable discretion: she can't unravel the intricacies of political economy and fderal government; but she can knit charming stockings.' And this they call praising a wife, and doing justice to her character, with much nonsense of the like kind.

I say, women generally employ their time to much better purpose than scribbling; otherwise this facetious writer had not gone so long unanswered. We have ladies who sometimes lay down the needle and take up the pen; I wonder none of them have attempted some 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 saying something in answer to such impertinence, circulate how it may. Only, sir, consider our situation. Men are naturally inattentive to the decencies of life; but why should I be so com plaisant? I say, they are naturally filthy creatures. If it were not that their connexion with the refined sex polished their manners, and had a happy influence on the general economy of life, these lords of the creation would wallow in filth, and populous cities would infect the atmosphere with their noxious vapours. It is the attention and assiduity of the women that prevent men from degenerating into mere swine. How important then are the services we render; and yet for these very services we are made the subject of ridicule and fun. Base ingratitude! Nauseous creatures! Perhaps you may think I am in a passion. No, Sir, I do assure you I never was more composed in my life; and yet it is enough to provoke a saint to see how unreasonably we are treated by the men. Why now, there's my husband -a good enough sort of a man in the main-but I will give you a sample of him. He comes into the parlour the other day, where, to be sure, I was cutting up a piece of linen. Lord!" says he, "what a flutter here is! I can't bear to see the parlour look like a tailor's shop besides, I am going to make some important philosophical experiments, and must have sufficient room." You must know my husband is one of your would-be philosophers. Well, I bundled up my linen as quick as I could, and began to darn a pair of ruf fles, which took no room, and could give no offence. I thought, however, I would watch my lord and master's important business. In about half an hour the tables were covered with all manner of trumpery; bottles of water, phials of drugs, pasteboard, paper and cards, glue, paste, and gum-arabic; files, knives, scissors, negdles, rosin, wax, silk, thread, rags, jags, tags, books, pamphlets, and papers Lord bless me! I am almost

66

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 sufficiently discover that he did not succeed in any one operation. I was glad of that, I confess, and with good reason too: for, after he had fatigued himself with mischief, like a monkey in a china shop, and had called the servants to clear every thing away, I took a view of the scene my parlour exhibited. I shall not even attempt a minute description; suffice it to say, that he had overset his ink-stand, and stained my best mahogany table with ink; he had spilt a quantity of vitriol, and burnt a large hole in my carpet: my marble hearth was all over spotted with melted rosin : besides this, he had broken three china cups, four wine glasses, two tumblers, and one of my handsomest decanters. And, after all, as I said before, I perceived that he had not succeeded in any one operation. By the by, tell your friend, the whitewash scribbler, that this is one means by which our closets become furnished with halves of china bowls, cracked tumblers, broken wine-glasses, tops of teapots, and stoppers of departed decanters.

I

I say, I took a view of the dirt and devastation my philosophic husband had occasioned; and there I sat, like Patience on a monument, smiling at grief; but it worked inwardly. I would almost as soon the melted rosin and vitriol had been in his throat, as on my dear mar ble hearth, and my beautiful carpet. It is not trus that women have no power over their own feelings; for notwithstanding this provocation, I said nothing, or next to nothing: for I only observed, very pleasantly, what a lady of my acquaintance had told me, that the reason why philosophers are called literary men, is be cause they make a great litter: not a word more : however, the servant cleared away, and down sat the phi losopher A friend dropt in soon after-" Your ser ant, Sir, how do you do?" "O Lord! I am almost Bigued to death; I have been all the morning making

philosophical experiments." I was now more hardly put to it to smother a laugh than I had been just before to contain my rage; my precious went out soon after, and I, as you may suppose, mustered all my forces: brushes, buckets, soap, sand, limeskins, and cocoanut shells, with all the powers of housewifery, were immediately employed. I was certainly the best philosopher of the two; for my experiments succeeded, and his did not. All was well again, except my poor carpet-my vitriolized carpet, which still continued a mournful memento of philosophic fury, or rather philosophic folly. The operation was scarce over, when in came my experimental philosopher, and told me, with all the indifference in the world, that he had invited six gentlemen to dine with him at three o'clock. It was then past one. I complained of the short notice; "Poh! poh!" said he, "you can get a leg of mut ton, and a loin of veal, and a few potatoes, which will do well enough." Heavens! what a chaos must the head of a philosopher be! a leg of mutton, a loin of veal, and potatoes! I was at a loss whether I should laugh or be angry; but there was no time for deter mining: I had but an hour and a half to do a world of business in. My carpet, which had suffered in the cause of experimental philosophy in the morning, was destined to be most shamefully dishonoured in the af ternoon by a deluge of nasty tobacco juice. Gentle men smokers love segars better than carpets. Think, Sir, what a woman must endure under such circum stances; and then, after all, to be reproached with her cleanliness, and to have her white-washings, her scour ings, and scrubbings, made the subject of ridicule, it is more than patience can put up with. What I have now exhibited is but a small specimen of the injuries we sustain from the boasted superiority of men. we will not be laughed out of our cleanliness. A wo man would rather be called any thing than a slut, as a man would rather be thought a knave than a fool. I

But

had a great deal more to say, but am called away; we are just preparing to white-wash, and of course I have a deal of business on my hands. The white-wash buckets are paraded, the brushes are ready, my husband is gone off-so much the better; when we are upon a thorough cleaning, the first dirty thing to be removed is one's husband. I am called for again. Adieu.

FINAL SPEECH OF DR. FRANKLIN IN THE LATE FEDERAL CONVENTION.*

MR. PRESIDent,

I CONFESS that I do not entirely approve of this constitution at present; but, Sir, I am not sure I shall never approve it; for having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better in formation or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is, therefore, that the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others. Most men, indeed, as well as most sects in religion, think themselves in possession of all truth, and that whenever others differ from them, it is so far error. Steele, a protestant, in a dedication, tells the pope, that, "the only difference between our two churches, in their opinions of the certainty of their doctrines is, the Romish church is infallible, and the church of England never in the wrong." But, though many private persons think almost as highly of their own in fallibility as that of their sect, few express it so natu rally as a certain French lady, who, in a little dispute

* Our reasons for ascribing this speech to Dr. Franklin are its internal evidence, and its having appeared with his name during his lifetime, uncontradicted, in an American periodical publication.