The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1869-04-21
THE PHILOSOPHY OF DOMESTIC
MISERY.

Kitchen Against ParlOr.
THE WHOLE THING BROUGHT DOWN TO
a SPOT.
From Packard's Monthly, by Olirer Dyer.
LoATERs ARE AT THE BOTTOM OF OUR
TROUBLES.
1t is generally supposed that the do
nestle infelicities and home discom-
fonts which now wiring the hearts of the
American people come through the
kitchen, and are treceable to the short
comings of servants. This is mistake.
For the most part they come through
the parlor, and are usually traceable to
the laziness, or selfshness, or vanity, or
incompetencY Tor all of these comolned)
of the heads of the family.
Not that the kitchen folks are blame
less: they are bad enough; but the par
lor folk are too bad. And the plain
truth of the matter is, that the land Is
filled with loafers of both sexes and all
conditions. The maids servants loaf in
the kitchens; and the mistresses loaf in
the parlors; the men'servants loaf in
the stables, and the masters loaf in the
haunts OF selfish indulgence.
A vulgar loafer is bad enough, in all
conscience; but the genteel lOafer. with
cigar in mouth and cane in hand, is a
far more desplcable being; and when
we descend still lower, even until we
finally reach the fashionable female
loafer in the parlor, we have creature
that smells offensive TO heaven.
1t is this general prevalence OF the
spirit of idleness, this rampant desire
to shirk the duties appertaining unto
ones station in life, which makes ba d
servants and bad employers, and plays
the mischief generally with our do
nestle comfort. And it all comes from
the same source. The servant who
Sights her work, in order that she may
get off to a party, or to street corn er
chat with her beau, or to stroll in the
Bowery, is animated by precisely the
same selfish sediments and the same
lack of principle which lead her mis-
tress to shirk her duties-perhaps to
leave her children to the care OF an in
competent hireling-in order that she
may go to a party, or indulge in de-
basing gossip, or take stroll in Broad
way.
The direct cause of the domestic, that
is to say, the housekeeping discomforts
which pervade the land, is the unwil-
lingness OF married people and their
grown up children to accept and be
content with as much of life as they can
! com fortably pay for.
The young couple-yea, and the old
couple, too-whose income Is only 94Go
year, or less, want to live as though
they had an income of $1,000 or $l,5OO
per annum. They who have $1,000 a
year want to live as though they had
s., 900 or $4,000; they who have s. 600
want to live as though they had $751; 600
or 500, 600; and 80 on, clear to the top OF
the financial ladder:
Wives must indulge in their little
vanities, and so must husbands; and
It is wonderful what myriad forms and
modes those little vanities assume ; and
so precious means are wasted, which, If
properly husbanded, would in few
independence.
The plain truth of the matter is, that
in too many cases. domestic comfort,
and home enjoyment. and mental Gull
ture, and spiritual growth, and worldly
happiness, and eternal life, are all
sacrificed on the himsy altar of nasty
vanity. And this is donein the country
as we'll as in the city, and by men no
less than by women.