Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1872-02-03
Household Service--Boys, Read This

Household Service--Boys, Read This.
Miss JULIA CoLMAN, ~ one Of her
practical and sensible articles on "rhe
Health of cur Women" in Hume and
Hedlh, diScourses thus:
"But suppose there be not won.en
enough in the family to d. the work,
suppose its members be mostly men or
boys Z"
Well, let them work. Who has any
objections? 1t is no disgrace for any
man to wait on himself nor on his fami-
ly, any more than it is for his wife to do
so. Il always appeared to me strange
kind of gallamtry that would allow a
mau to stand b, and See woman bring
in an arm'ul of wood or replenish the
fuel in the stove, or lift "a pail of water,
without springing TO her help. and vet
permitted hiIn to go away into another
room, or take paper and sit down,
vi en- he In W sie was d, ing all this and
much more, and lie doing nothing Ui i'm
portancp. When the family all occupy
one room Tor living an working, all
such pretense usually dies out, and the
wife AID IuOiher works Oh aad Oh, per-
haps for hours, while the men folks do
absolutely nothing. have been struck
with that state Of affairs on Sabbath es-
pecally, when the wife and mother who
has been working all the week must
keep on working still, though she needs
rest as much or more than any other
member of the family, and that, too,
when The work that Is wearing her cut
would be healihinl exercise TO the 9th
ers. Why is this? Is the work that wo-
men do 50 degrading that men cannot
touch it! | have seen them do il, anG
do it gracefully, and honor them tor it,
and they honored themselves by it.
! believe there is no great suffering with
out some wrong, and very often the two
lie very near each other. Surely, it is
one of the simplest and most rational So
luton Of he problem Of women's ex-
cessive household work to have men and
boys 90 some portion OF it. | see no
reason against il, unless iLece is caste in
the work and women are toredoomed to
the drudgery.
1t seems to me that for their own good
| mankind should he taught TO wait upon
themselves in early lie. do not see
why Il boy should not be- taught 10 make
his own bed properly, and keep his room
in order, just as much as girl He
should also be taught 10 do his own
mendng. 1t will save him from morliii-
cation and annoyance a great many
times throughout life, and it would Gel,
tainly prevent his becoming that eguegi-
Gus laughngstock i'll The eyes Of all sens
ible women, the man who justifes him
self III getting up tornado because
some woman has om',tcd 10 sew but
tor on his shir'. if mans equanimity
is at the T.crcy Of such triflss, would
advise LIN by all means to take them in
his own hands and learn how 10 do them
| tor himself 1t is the only security for
serene independence, for absence from
/ home aud accidents of all SORTS will hap
pen. Children will be sick, and wives
and mothers will be sick, and die oil, TOO,
for that matter
Then how much better things would
be at home if on Saturday evening, each
| stalwart son should sew on his own miss
ing buttons, and make good the deticien-
cies OF his own stockings, rather than be
/
the slreet-corners, Or e yawning duti
| fully in the house around the poor tired
mother, who may be obliged to sit up
till midnight to do the aggregate OF this
work for al of them.
| have known cases, too, where a
mother of boys only has, from sheer ne
cessty, selected one 10 help her in her
labors, and reluctantly made him the
"girl-boy" OF the family. But it was al
ways a blessing 10 him. He becomes
commonly the most versatile, the most
gentle, the most successful OF them all
in after life it no prejudice against bis
work has been allowed TO warp his feel
ing. The greatest wrong is in depriying
the others of their share of the advan'
tages.
1t is no small benefit to man TO be
able TO know how TO manage skillfnlly
all the common details of the prepara-
tion of food. 1t may often give him a
comfortable meal when otherwise he
would be half starved somewhere in the
vicssitudes of life, aud no one can tell
what is before him. How many weary
traveller has been thankful for such
knowledge! l know men who pride
themselves, upon il not little, How
many poor soldier III oar hate war has
blessed the fortune, ought To be able
to say blessed the mother, that taught
him! Mothers should teach their boys
all such thiags, aud expect than to prao.
tiee them, both for their own good aud