The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1864-11-15
The Managing Woman.

The managing woman is first-rate
housekeeper. She has not abandoned
those old traditions Of womanhood
which makes the fit and beautiful eds
pensing 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 power
ty and the need of contrivance. On the
contrary, idleness and extravaganza are
the worst shames to her; and woman
who repudiates her natural vocation of
home adornmcnt, is no woman worthy
of the name. Ii is when she of. the
''poor centeel" class that her special
talent comes into fullest play, The best
manner in which to organize her house
hold, the wisest apportionment of her
income, the most ingenious way ofsew
ing up tattered edges, and hiding un-
seemly patches, the putting a bright face
on all her difficulties, and having the
credit of" being so NICE" when she
has to .contrive and think over every
possible means on making both ends
meet-these are the delights of true
manager-her trophies and her tri-
umphs. How proud she is of her fac
ulty of making the lest of everything !!
How clever is her mode of yelling the
cloud, and showing the rose-colored
edges and the silver Innings, to her nu-
merous friends.
The instant you enter house, wheth-
er rich or poor, YOU know whether it
belongs to a clever manager or not Ii
is not in the kind or amount of proper
ty or furniture, it is not its newness,
its grace, or its intrinsic value, but it is
in its disposition, in the art with which
everything is made to look its best, and,
in the case of our "poor gentecl," the
clever hiding of deficiencies. What
manaping woman allows the world to
see her rents and tatters? So long rs
ingenious patching, and still more in
genious shifting and turning, can CON
ceal what cannot be denied, the mana
ging woman lets not even the initiated,
understand the ragged ground under
meath. She moves the furniture so as
to hide the shabby places, she binds
her worn out books with simple chintz
coverings, clean and gay; she darns her
muslin until it becomes new fabric,
of the nature of cross-barred cobweb,
and turns her linen outside in, and in
side out, till every inch is equally worn,
and the whole comes to be the ragged
fulfllment fits destiny. She manages
so as to be never wholly without funds,
or short of holiday provisions, so is
never taken ut disadvantage, and lets
nothing pass into the dust heap until
she has extracted all the life and mar
row out fit. She it is who keeps the
house on those fabulous sums which
drive the more lavish housekeepers to
despair, aud cause frenzy of admira-
ton in their, less fortunate possessors,
yet who always has well filed larder,
and produces better supply at mo-
meits notice, than many others who
double her weekly allowance. She it is
with one maid-of.all- gets more
done, and is surrounded with daintier
niceties, of refinement and cleanliness,
than are sometimes to be found with
plush and powder; who, with her hands
full to overfiowing, never lets fall the
smallest remnant of duty, and even con.
trives to. hold to the skirts of some
pleasures as well who finds time fol
every thing she has to do, and a proper
place for everything she has to keep
who is never hurried and is never lag.
ging; never beforehand and never be.
hind-but punctual, timely and exact
neither wastes her minutes in needless
waiting, nor rushes after them wher
lost, in the frantic looseness oflife com
mon to the chasers Of time. The man
aging woman who is not punctual il
the glow-worm without its light, the
bird without plumagc, an anomaly on
ofcourse and time. ,.l 81 ai.t,f