The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1863-05-13
The ManaCinR wOmarf.


neglected, combined with mild, coniding
and loving disposition, has most valuable
treasure; and If his home is not agreeable
and pleasant, he may be assured that tlie'
| fault is with himself, and that he does not
possess the manly and gentlemanly attri-
butes necessary for such partner for life.
We commend the following just and trush-
full remarks to the attention of our rea'
ders:
"The managing woman is pearl among
women; she is one Of the prizes in the
great lottery of life, and the man who draws
her may rejoice for the rest of his days.,
Better than riches, she is fortune in her
self-a gold mine never failing in its yield
"a spring of pleasant waters, whose banks
are fringed with moss and flowers, when
all around is bleached white with sterile
sand The managing woman can do any:
thing; and she does everything vel. Per
ceptive and executive, of quick sight and
steady hand, she always knows exactly
what is wanting, and supplies the deficiency
with tact and cleverness peculiar to her
self. She knows the capabilities of persons
as well as things, for she has an intuitive
knowledge Of character. The managing
woman, if not always patient, is always
energetic, and can never be disappointed
into inacion. Though she has to teach the
! same thing over and over again, and though
| she finds as dense as lockwood, and hands
as inefficient as fishes fins, still she is never
weary of her vocation of arranging and Or
dering, and never less than hopeful Of
favorable result.
''The managing woman is first rate
housekeeper. She has not abandoned those
old traditions Of womanhood which mako
the fit and beautiful dispensing Of bread
Of equal value with the earning thereof; nor
does she hold with any modern theory Of
degradation in household work, or shame
in poverty and the need of contrivancc.-
On the contrary, idleness and extravagance
are the worst shames to herr and woman
who repudiates her natural vocation Of
home adornment, is no woman worthy Of
| the name. 1t is when she is of the poor
genteef class that her special talents como
into fullest play The best manner in which
to organise her household, the wsest appor.
tionment of her income, the most ingenious
| way of sewing up tattered edges, and hiding
unseemly patches, the putting bright face
on her difficulties, and having the credit for
being so NICE when she has had to corr.
trive and think over every possible means
OF making both ends mect-these are the
| delights of true manager-her trophies;
and her triumphs. How proud she is Of
her faculty Of making the best of every
thing! How clever is her mode of yelling
the cloud, and showing only the rose color
ed edges, and the silver Innings, to her
numerous friends.
'The instant you enter house, whether
rich or poor, you know whether it belongs
to clever manager or not. 1t is not in
the kind or amount of property and furni.
ture, it is not in its newness, its grace, or
its intrinsic value, but it is in its disposi-
tioh, in the art with which everything is
made to look its best, and in the case of
our poor gentcel,' the clever hiding of de-
fciencies. What managing woman allows
the world to see her rents and tatters? So
long rs ingenious patching, and still more
ingenious shifting and turning, can conceal
what cannot be denied, the managing woman
lets none, not even the initiated, und erstand
the ragged groundwork underneath. 81 Q
moves her furniture so as to hide the shabby
places; she binds her worn-out books in
simple chintz coverings, clean and gay; she
darns her muslin until it becomes new
fabric, of the nature Of cross barred cob
web, and turns her linen outside in, and
inside out, till every inch is equally worn,
and the whole comes to be the ragged full
tillment Of its destiny. She manages so as
to be never wholly without funds, or short
of holiday provisions, so is never taken at
disadvantage, and let's nothing pass into
the dust-heap until she has extracted all tho
life and marrow out of it. She it is who
keeps the house on those fabulous sums
which drive the more lavish housewives to
despair, and cause a frenzy Of admiration
in their less fortunate possessors, yet who
always has well filed larder and can pro-
duce better supply at moments notice
than many others with double her weekly
al o vance. She it is who, with one maid Of
all-work, gets more done, and is surround
ed with dainter nceties of refinement and
cleanliness than are sometimes to be found
with plush and powder; who, with her
hands full to overfowing, never lets fall the
smallest remnant of duty, and even con-
trives to hold to the skirts of some pl, a.
sures as well; who finds time for everything
she has to do, and proper place for every
thing she has to keep; who is never hurried
and never tagging; never beforehand and
never b .hind-but punctual, timely, ard
exact-never wastes her inmates in need.
less waiting, nor rushes after them hen
lost, in that frantic looseness of life com.
mon to the chasers of time The managing
woman who is not punctual is the glow
worm without its light, the bird without
plumage, an anomaly out of course and
time.
"Thc managing woman has rarely unruly
children. Industrious herself, she compels
others to be industrious as well, and thus
cuts OFT large source of rebellion and dis.
affection. Ii somewhat too prone to dis
cipline, and more inclined to repression
than to freedom, she does not cultivate weeds
or spend her energies in training thorns;
and the souls moulded by her have gener-
ally strength and solidity never to be-
learned from the weakness of indulgence.
On the whole, the managing woman is one
Of the best impersonatIons Of womanhood.
We do not claim for her any ethereal supe.
riority or aesthetic beauty, but she is one of
those healthy, practical, helpful women
who serve to bind the looser particles into
a more solid mass, and to give common
sense tone to what else might degenerate
into mere fine wire-drawn sentimentality.
Whatever she touches she improves, and
she gathers up the ragged threads wherever
she finds them flying. 1t is enough to
have these ragged threads gathered up, and
all the rents darncd over to smooth out the
creases, to hide away the ugliness, to order
and arrange so that every thing shall be at
its best, and every one in their fittest place.
to have the brain that can combine, the eve
that can see, and the hand that can execute.
without demanding those higher spiritual
qualities which are the souls living food.'
VINO ATE THE FIRST OYsrER?-The name
of the courageous individual who ate the
first oyster has not been recorded, but there
is legend concerning him to the following