Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Women and Men

[62] best already, before spending time and money in learning something else that you cannot do at all. If you have a particular kind of preserves for which you are famous, see if they are not available in a wider circle; many a household of Southern women made this their main resource after the devastations of the civil war. In the same way the mere possession of a remarkably good receipt for molasses candy was once quite a treasure to a Northern family of my acquaintance during a time of commercial panic. Among non-culinary accomplishments the range is also considerable. In boyhood I learned dancing of an accomplished lady, the daughter of a judge and the sister of a naval officer who was afterwards eminent; being temporarily straitened in circumstances, she tried this means of support, and was only the more respected in consequence. I know another lady of whom the same is true today; she teaches in a private school in the morning, and has five different dancing-classes in the afternoons.

I heard lately of another who had always been accustomed to wealth, but who, on falling suddenly into poverty, called the roll of her acquirements, and found that she knew nothing really well, except whist-playing. She had, therefore, the courage and ingenuity to see if she could not make something out of that. Her proficiency was well known, and