putterings 161a < 162 > 162a index
a late sense [of] sand, and barnacles still
They were all
[ wives ] year after year pottering only in [ kitchen ]
in a rough, unpolished state; sea-weed, clay,
and nursery, wake up too often to a late sense [of]
sand,
and barnacles still clinging to many [
] hopeless difference in...
—
Antoinette Brown Blackwell, The Island Neighbors : A novel of American life (1871) : 40
same (Harvard) copy, at hathitrust
in part, via this OCR cross-column misread —
here minus scanning noise —
“Sea-faring men are not only often away from home, but they form ties and associations different from their families; and the breach widens every year.” So said a sensible spinster descended from a sailor’s family, who is reported to have herself refused a sea-captain, remaining unmarried to this day; and her low voice of quiet conviction left an impression upon my mind which will not easily wear away.
Men who receive the sharpening and polishing discipline of a wide experience, leaving their wives year after year pottering only in kitchen and nursery, wake up too often to a late sense of hopeless difference in development between those who should have gone hand in hand in all progress; but an enlarging civilization is steadily taking feminine humanity more and more into the counsels of male kindred, and into a practical share of their duties and experiences! Possibly the time may come when more families will accompany their sea-faring relatives on their voyages; the ship becoming more nearly a home where men, women, and children may share largely in common duties and common interests. If that day ever dawns, sailors will be better, nobler, more self-respecting men, and their wives and daughters wiser and stronger women. Meantime, mementos from foreign lands will remain treasured evidences to many that they have not been wholly forgotten by their absent loved ones.
Alfred Brand had a good deal of untrained love for all beautiful things...
—
Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825-1921), writer, (Congregationalist and later Unitarian) preacher, philosopher, proponent of women’s rights
wikipedia.
why “pottering” not “puttering”