Fanny's sentiments on this subject are decidedly contradictory. If one were to read any two of her articles, without a definite knowledge of her circumstances, they would be at a loss to determine whether she is maid or matron. The language of the first article which we shall quote is certainly very _anti_-motherly.
"FOLLY--For girls to expect to be happy without marriage. Every woman was made for a mother, consequently, babies are as necessary to their 'peace of mind,' as health. If you wish to look at melancholy and indigestion, look at an old maid. If you would take a peep at sunshine, look in the face of a young mother."
"Now I _won't stand that_! I'm an old maid myself; and I'm neither melancholy nor indigestible! My 'PIECE _of mind_' I'm going to give you, (in a minute!) and I never want to _touch_ a baby except with a _pair of tongs_! 'Young mothers and sunshine!' Worn to fiddle-strings before they are twenty-five! When an old lover turns up he thinks he sees his grandmother, instead of the dear little Mary who used to make him feel as if he should crawl out of the toes of his boots! Yes! my mind is _quite_ made up about _matrimony;_ but as to the '_babies_,' (sometimes I think, and then again I don't know!) but on _the whole I believe_ I consider 'em a d----ecided humbug! It's a _one-sided_ partnership, this marriage! the _wife casts up all the accounts_!
"'Husband' gets up in the morning and pays his '_devours_' to the looking-glass; curls his fine head of hair; puts on an immaculate shirt-bosom; ties an excruciating cravat; sprinkles his handkerchief with cologne; stows away a French roll, an egg, and a cup of coffee; gets into the omnibus, looks _slantendicular_ at the pretty girls, and makes love between the pauses of business during the forenoon _generally_. Wife must 'hermetically seal' the windows and exclude all the fresh air, (because the baby had the 'snuffles' in the night;) and sits gasping down to the table more dead than alive, to finish her breakfast. Tommy turns a cup of hot coffee down his bosom; Juliana has torn off the string of her school-bonnet; James 'wants his geography covered;' Eliza can't find her satchel; the butcher wants to know if she'd like a joint of mutton; the milkman would like his money; the ice man wants to speak to her 'just a minute;' the baby swallows a bean; husband sends the boy home from the store to say _his partner_ will dine with him; the cook leaves 'all flying,' to go to her 'sister's dead baby's wake,' and husband's thin coat must be ironed before noon. '_Sunshine and young mothers!!_' Where's my smelling-bottle?"