Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1871-02-16

1
of dirty cups, saucers and plates, its un-
swept floor, greasy napkins and smoky
atmosphere, was worst of all and Harry
lnwardly admitted that somehow the house
didn't look as usual
4 There was fun next morning making
beds. Tue milkman and baker had vainly
knocked for admittance, and finally retired
in disgust, and the bachelors breakfasted
off the stale bread left from the nights
feast, and coffee black and sweet
EVERY man clean up his own room"
The order was given; each started to
obey. Joe pulled off all the clothes from
his bed, and having laid the bolster and
pillow on, proceeded to put on first a
blanket, next spread, and finally the two
sheets, finishing off the whole by putting
| himself on the top to rest from his tolls
Minnie, after pulling all the clothes off of
one side in trying to tuck them in on the
other, and then correcting the mistake by
tucking them in on the other side and
| pulling them of the first, put his bolster
| on over the pillow and concluded it "would
do" Charley merely smoothed his down,
safely observing that if he pulled the things
off he never could get them on again
Harry and George, who shared the same
room, and having followed Charley's plan,
| put on an extra touch by sweeping their
room and leaving the pile of dust in the
entry. Excelsior
Three days experience convinced them
that bachelors cookery was slow starva-
| ton. Steaks and coffee for breakfast were
followed by coffee and steaks for dinner,
and both for supper. Charley suggested
that they should have their meals sent
from a restaurant
"An men cooks, so we stick to the con-
tract, was his final observation.
| This motion was seconded and carried
| by q unanimous vote.
By this time every dish, plate, napkin,
pot, and pan in the house was dirty, and
joyfully concluding that they wouldn't
want them any more, the gentlemen piled
them up in the kitchen sink, on the floor
and tables, and loft them.
"Harry Ut was Georges voice-"I
haven't got clean shirt"
"Nor l."
| "Nor l."
"Pve got one''
"StopI Two weeks since Susy left, and
no washing day."
There was dead silence.
"Who knows how to wash?"
No answer.
| "I-Ive seen it done," said one faint
voice, owned by Charley. You soap the
things, and then rub them on boald."
"Can any body iron?"
They all thought they could manage
that part
The kitchen was opened for the first
time in ten days. One cry burst from five
| lips. Tables, floors, chairs, dresser, sink,
were one mass of reaches, collected by
the pile of greasy dishes. They overran
| the place.
"Shut the door, Now for itr' cried
George, and dashed at the invaders Bed
lam seemed to have broken loose In
reaching after one of the critters"
Charley upset the table-crash went the
crockery. Screams of laughter, cries of
disgust blows as thick as hail. comments
on the heat, jokes and warnings flew about
for an hour, and then the painting party
ceased from their labors, and viewed
sternly the "cold corpuses" of their foes.
A scream from Minnie:
"There's one down my back"
George cried: "Joe, there is one on
your hair!'
"Don't mention it. Look at that fellow
on your shirt-sleevew
A general stampede for the bathroom
followed.
Lets wash up here"
No sooner said than DONE The soiled
clothes were collected from all the rooms,
and the boards and soap brought up from
| the kitchen.
Joe and Harry washed, blistering hands
and steaming foreheads testifying to their
efforts. Cold water required a great deal
of rubbing, and somehow the things had
a yellow tinge after all, as George re-
marked as he wrung them out Minnie,
objecting to going into the yard, hung
them over the chairs in the dining room
and the banisters in the entry as George
and Charlie wrung them out. Dinner
time came and found them still at work.
Dinner eaten, the dishes carried off by the
waiter from the restaurant, they changed
places, and the washers wrung and hung
while the others washed.
Six o'clock saw the last shirt hanging
in damp limpness over the parlor chande.
lier; the handkerchiefs waved from the
mantel piece, and the stockings dangled
from the bars of the Canterbury
"They always iron the next day, SO
they can dry at night" said Harry.
After another slaughter of reaches in
the morning, the fire was lighted, the irons
put on, and the clothes collected, rough
dry, for the final touches Every man had
visions of smooth, clean linen to repay
him for his unaccustOmed efforts. SUI is
hope!
Charley took the first step. Planting
his iron on the front of a shirt, a smell
|
to behold a large brown mark, the precise
shape of the flat-iron burned on the bosom
of his go-to-meeting" shirt. Minnie's
iron being almost cold, was travelling
briskly up and down his shirt, but pro-
ducing no visible effect
1t was humiliating, but true, that Joe
took an order to gentleman's furnishing
store that morning for supply of linen,
and the washed Clothes" were consign-
ed to the "pot closet" to await Susy's re.
turn.
Susy's return! How can I describe it |!
Every man on that day found he had an
imperative engagement abroad, and the
little maiden found an empty house. She
went first to the parlor. Dust lay in piles.
One curtain was torn from the cornice,
and lay in limp folds against the window
Cigars lay about loose, some whole, some
reduced to mere stump; spittoons were
In every corner; on the center tables three
bottles, two demijOhns, pack of cards,
and about dozen tumblers replaced her
pretty books. The piano bore two
pair OF boots; the Canterbury had a
dish of chicken salad reposing peacefully
upon it; one ottoman supported hat and
cane, another coat; every chair bore
some relic of the departed guests; here a
handkerchief, there a cigar case, on one a
poChC1 COluD, Ou dnOlneI bOOJlplcK.
Susy was dismayed, but like a brave little
woman determined to face all the mass at
once. The kitchen came next. As we
have described it on the eventful ironing
day, so it remained, reaches inclusive The
library came next in order, and it was the
counterpart of the parlor, only more SO !;
dining room and bedrooms to match.
Susy looked at the washboards in the
bath room, the market-basket in the
library. the parlor chairs in the kitchen,
("It was nearest" said Joe, when he
brought them out) the frying-pa in the
best bedroom, (Charlie broke his basin. }
the bread-pan in the spare room, Gor
dirty water, Joe said J the dish-cloths in
, the bedrooms (towels all dirty. She
contemplated the floor unswept for a
month marked the dust, the accumulation
] of a similar time and then went to her own
room, the only orderly, because undis-
J, turbed, place in the house. A little note