Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1869-09-22
Handy TO Have I'm the House.

! hdnul 10 nave Ill the IOuScs
Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, in an
article on 1.-THE Handy Man." in
Hearth and Home, says: A handy
man is so practiced in the regulation
Of the little utilities of the house
he inhabits, that by aslight touch
here and there-a screw turned
here and q screw loosened there
and nail driven in time-he keeps
all working smoothly, and averts
those domestic catastrophes and
breakdowns of which Punch makes
so much capital in his pictures.
The handy man knows how to use
every sort of tool that keeps his house
in order. They are all neatly arrang-
ed, in his own private drawer, sacred
from the meddling of children and
the borrowing Ofthe careless. Ifa pane
of glass is shivered on a cold day, the
unhandy man first stuffS il with a
bundle or pastes it over with a news
paper, and then rushes to a GLACIERS,
who of course is not at home, or who
says he will come end mend it imme-
diately, and doesn't come-meanwhile
the wind blowing in gives the baby a
Group, and the mother a severe cold.
The handy man, on the contrary,
has his diamond, his measuring rule,
his putty, all in readiness at a moments
notice, and the replacing of the pane
of glass is an affair of a quarter of an
hour before he goes to his Office or
store.
There springs a leak in the joint of
hot-water pipe. The handy man
has his soldering tools and kettle, and
it is stopped in moment, while the
unhandy man is running up town for
a plumber.
The handy man has no small bills
to pay to any kind of a mechanic, for
he stops every leak in its commence
ment, and replaces every screw the
moment it is loose.
A piece of veneeIing starts on the
si6e-board door. The handy man has
an invisible brad of precisely the
size to drive in this place-it is done
in a moment. The unhandy man sees
the crack widening day by day, in
imbecile despair. Finally the mould
ing falls off, and leaves a long un-
slightly seam.
There is one screw loose in one Of
the hinges of the wardrobe dOor-the
door will not shut, the difficulty in
creases day by day, until the whole
hinge is loose, and finally the door,
hanging by its whole weight on the
lower hinge, and assisted by the un-
skillful hands of Green Erin, tears off
altogether, with such a wreck and
crush as to make it necessary to send
the wardrobe to the cabinet maker, or
to bring the cabinet maker to the
wardrobe. What journeys and con-
sultations of the hapless, unhappy
man?
In q like manner, there is a leak
in the roOfe of the house,
and every time that it rains, through
this leak, in some mysterious manner,
the water drops down through the
ceiling of the rooms.
The unhandy man is exhorted by
his wife that this ought to be attended
to. He promises to attend to it and
forgets it; he never thinks of it until
it begins to rain and the water begins
to drop, and the pals and tubs are in
requisition to catch the superfluous
moisture. Then, agodized and peni-
tent, he flies to the house carpenter,
who promises to come, and fOTgets it
likewise; and so on through successive
showers and fiOOdings, till finally
there comes an avalanche of plaster
ing which ruins the carpet and furni-
ture underneath, and makes the ques-
ton OF mending the roof no longer
doubtful. Repairs of some $500 have
now to be done on account of a leak
which the handy man would have
in two hours.
The handy man can not only do ali
of these things which properly belong
to mems department, but in cases OF
sickness or other causes that disable
the female part of his household he
can distinguish himself in their pecu-
liar department. He can cook nicely
he can make bread, and bake it so
as thereafter to be enabled to instruct
the cook in many points. He can set
a table and cut bread with a deft nice
ty that has been supposed peculiar to
female hands alone.
We have insisted so far on handi- |
ness in men. As a general thing, |
there is more of this property in wO-
men than in men, but there is very |
great want of cultivation of this fac |
llty among women.
But in the same manner that it is /
desirable that a man should under
standard be able to occasionally do the /
work of a woman, and as he can do 1
It without becoming unmanly, so wo-
men can learn to understand and to
10 many things which pertain to the
work of men, without becoming un-
A woman who lives in the country,
-or example, may sometimes be able
% save life by knowing how to har-
ness or drive a horse. 1t is, of course
not a proper feminine employment,
out it is thing quite easily learned,
md the knowledge of which may
,ome in play in exigencies.
We think it would be an advantage
or women to learn the use of the more
ordinary tools of a carpenter-the
plane, the gimblet, the screw, and the
icrew driver-in which case they
night stop many of the little domes-
ic leaks we have indicated.
1t should be an object, in educating
children of both sexes, to encourage
versatile handiness. If there is a
,hild peculiarly unhandy, the parents
should stimulate that child to endeav-
)r to rectify his defect, to become
,killful and -dexterious. Children
should be encouraged and guided in
my inclination they may have to
construct and to make and TO mend.
Mothers should train boys while they
ire little, to do the work of women,
ly way of giving versatility and dex-
erousness to the use of their hands.
And we think girls might with ad-
learn to do some of the work
If boys, with the view of strengthen
ny their hands. Each sex would be
he better for acquiring little some
hing from the other.
Averaging Expenses.