Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 41.djvu/18

 6 is to understand how easy it is to adore the Madonna, These are the Madonnas we continue to adore. The men of the South clung to their wives. Seldom were the courts asked to make a breach. A divorce was a scandal, and in our social circles no welcome met the divorcee. The twin pillars which upheld the splendid temple of that civilization were the sanctity of the marriage relation and the sanctity of the truth that inspires trust.

A hospitality that every Southerner believed to be at once a privilege and a duty dwelt in these homes and was no exotic there. Hospitality was of the essence of that civilization, as generous as it was universal, as fragrant and as delicate as its own fair flowers. In it were the qualities that warmed the heart of the guest, for it was easy and refined, free from every form of strain. To the South it was of priceless value, for like even* act of unselfish service it left a blessing when it gave a gift. In an atmosphere of kindness the children were reared; meeting with numbers of strangers, their characters were formed while their manners were polished. By no one who has known it can the grace and charm of that hospitality ever be forgotten.

In that old life perhaps nothing has been more misunderstood and misrepresented than the qualities of its women. Occasionally by some traveler were seen the chivalry, the generosity, and from middle life the gravity, of the men of that far-off time, and often to doubting hearers, he bore witness to the facts. These visitors have said that to every respectable stranger the Southern gentleman was a host, to a lady always a knight. But the Southern woman has been represented as a languid, nervous, sickly soul with not sufficient energy to lace her slippers or to comb her hair. She has been represented as living a life of ease that sapped her physical vigor, and of idleness that left her mentally vacuous. On the contrary, plantation life, and the vast majority of the people lived in the country, would have burdened the woman with cares had her energy and ability been less than they were. The Southern wife was not simply a spectator of the responsibility of her husband, she shared it. Hers was the