Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1870-05-06
Men and Mud.

lam no advocate of angel ism in its pop
ular sense, unless of the avenging sort.
| would rather be scolded out of my wits,
or my wits out of me, seven times week,
than always be my dear led from morning
until night. But if ever the meekest of
the meek has her patience tried beyond
cam endurance, it is in the spring of the
ytar, when "the buds begin to put forth
their tiny leaves, and the birds come bach" "
and-the men folks track in mud enough
to stack mountain. There is, really,
notnlng more vexing than to clean the
porshes and floors, and, as soon as dried,
have man, or small army Of men and
boys, come stalking in with muddy boots
anc upset all the labors for cleanliness.
YOl men need not wonder that women
scoid, and follow you around with house
cloth or a mop. If you never expect to
do another act in your life, clean your
boots well before entering clean apart
ment. Don't expect to be greeted with
smiles if you bring in mud. 1t is expect
ing altogether too much. 1t is not min
istration of love that women delight in,
to be eternally cleaning after some care
| less, needless fellow.
Another thing. Tidy housewives re-
joice in well-kept stoves-bright, clean
| looking stoves. All! but what work a
"beast of man will make with one in
| ter minutes; mounting his boots on the
hearth, to thaw off the half frozen mud,
| he makes it look like mud-pond. Some
men have the habit of paving the ashes
out on the hearth, opening the wrong
doors, putting in some huge "chunk
that is altogether too large, which SIM
mers and smokes everybody to distrac-
ton before it settles down into the stoves
comprehension. And then the men who
| spit on the stove, at the stove, in it, and
convert the wood-box into a spittoon !
| Indeed, it is sufficient cause for divorce.
When get to be Judge-in- Chief of the
Divorce Courts, I shall inquire particular
lyinto the splitting habits of the men, and
If they look well to their boots. If their
record in these matters is not clear, there
will be no hope for them. Only woman
can sympathize with woman in such
matters. If you think it "silly thing
foz woman to make such fuss
about such small Matters" you may
take the JUNCTION home to your soul that
you don't know anything about large
mitters. We can get along with stingi-
ness, crabbedness, crossness, all your man
isl egotism, but we can not stand your
careless slovenliness! You must either
Look to your boots, or expect to be ami
! hlated the moment you cross our thresh-
4 old. 1t is great deal easier for you to
leave the mud and straw and gravel out
OF doors, than for us to clean it out after
you. 1t is your duty to provide scrapers
ard brooms, and rugs, sticks, stones and
planks, if need be, to facilitate boot clean.
ing
There I intended at the outset to talk
gently to you about the muddy season.
and with winning words and ways show
you what monsters Of heedlessness you
have hitherto been. But instead, 1 have
scolded like fish woman and unless il
is a new thing to you, you will go on as
heretofore, just the same as if 1 hadn't
lifted up my voice in behalf of clean
stoves and f1oors.-Ruroy Neao Yorker.