The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1870-11-17
HOW MANY WIVES FADE. 2

How many pale, lifeless women you
see in the West, and in the East, too,
as for that matter. Young, fresh
looking women marry, and in five or
ten years you can scarcely recognize
them, while their husbands look as
well as on the day of their wedding.
One cause of this is complicated
housekeeping. When man under
stands business, he finds learned
men ready to assist him; he knows
what there is to do and secures help
accordingly. "A young woman goes
to housekeeping very often without
any help at all, or perhaps with one
awkward girl, like the wife in this re-
spect. There are three meals to get
every day-that means cooking and
then come the dishes to be washed af-
ter each meal. 1t would take about
forty-five pieces for breakfast and
supper, and seventy for dinner for a
family of five-one hundred and six
ty-five pieces to be carried. from the
kitchen to the dining room every day,
washed and carried back. If you
have six rooms in your house there is
one to be thoroughly swept and
cleaned daily, besides brushing up the
Others, making beds, bringing in
wood and carrying in water.
Twice week there is bread-mak-
ing, twice a week yeast making, one
day washing, one day ironing, pam
tries and safes to be washed out once
week, dairy work to be attended to,
besides innumerable jobs in the way
of preserv' ng, jelly-making, picking,
curing hams, pntting down pigs feet,
looking over apples twice in winter,
and making hogshead cheese, mince
meat, thorough house cleaning twice
a year, then sewing on dresses, aprons,
shirts, drawers, gowns ETC., by. the
dozen.
Then supposing the house keeper
has a baby-an average six months
old baby that weighs about eighteen
pounds. Suppose she has this child
in her arms thirty times day "a cross
infant is taken up more frequently
and she is obliged to work with the
right arm whilst carrying the burden
of a baby about with the left. Who
is it that says there is nothing in gym
nastics equal to the endurance of a
mothers arms? Even when the days
labor is accomplished, and she goes to
bed, she still holds her baby and does
not sleep .soundly for fear of rolling
on it orof its getting uncovered !; she
must attend to its wants several times
in the night, and must be in con-
strained condition for fear of disturb
ing il. g ..sria7s.E sass
have heard women say they would
give almost anything for night of
undisturbed sleep, with no care on
the mind. Then in the morning up
and at it again. Don't you see why
women get pale, and why sometimes
little cross, and how their husbands
wonder that their wives don't; look
pretty and dress well, and entertain
them as they did before they were
married.? -......-... .... MD. I'D
The wives don't reason on the mat
ter; they think it all the, mans fault,
and then they turn cross, and SO
things go at skies and sevens, and this
is the place where woman's rights
should be taken hold of. 1 don't
think voting would help that very
much; woman's labor should be made
a study. In the first place, men must
realize that it is a great labor to
keep (. house. A great many women
sink down under the weight; then
everybody says: Poor thing, she al
ways was weakly, good-for-nothing
creature : and the 'poor thing has
been doing more for the past ten years
than two, women ought to have done.
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