The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1873-09-23
WASHING DAY.
By sHIRLRY DARE.

| There might be q plessenter topic
Even the moon has two sides, and thi,
horror OF feminine civilization has its
alleviations, nay even its charm, if one
knows where to look for it l dis
tinctly affirm that l for one, am fond
OF washing. There is no more real
pleasure 10 the world than to see soiled
things come clean and white, whether
they are souls or shirts. Before you
set me down for a person Of debased
tastes, listen to what laundry work sug-
gests to me.
Great green fields for bleaching
grounds thick with June grass and
young clover, the shsde Of orchard trees
adrift with rosy-white blossoms, the
passing of glad, anowy clouds. Out oi
doors, on the cool side OF lhe house, a
girl with arms as round as that French
opera-singer's you were so infatuated
about the other night, busy over her
tubs OF white foam, clear, and bluing
water. There is the hearty wrestle
with soiled and grimmed clothes, that
bears witness how little OF debilities and
prostration such girl knows; the
soaping and scalding, and the wiring of
cool, clear waters, grateful to the
heated but not tired toiler who
ever and again dips her brow
, in the clear flood. Then comes the re-
ioicing journey to the bleaching ground,
where all is fragrance, peace and de-
light. = Thelfresh lines spread on the
grass in fair contrast to the green, the
snowy sail Of huge sheets blowing
against the sky, the contentipg purity
OF the "fne things" blanched but
wrinkly, are pleasures to that hearty
girl. The Mondays victory is fresh
and inspiring every week, even when
she must put on mittens and hang up
clothes that freeze before she pins them
on the line. All it is lovely work wash
ing between the greensward and the
sunny sky ell summer long, when your
linen f airly flashes between you and
the light, its stainless :purity just the
relief wanted in the softness Of color
around. It's especially nice If you
have q good view before YOU and can
look away at the blue delectsble hills
and silver Of rivers beyond the margin
OF the tub. 1 don't believe in doing
work in shabby holes and corners, orin
planting the tub in diugy shed. Go
out of doors. and get the aid and slim.
ulus OF the sunshine, not directly on but
around you.
Each country has it's habit of doing
the washing. Canadian women have
heavy wooden paddle, and beat the
clothes instead of rubbing them. This
they call battenipg the clothes, and it is
an effectural way of getting them clean.
The New York farmers wife pounds
her washing out in the time-honored
pounding barrel at least she does when
she hasn't machine. New England
housewives use wsshboards, but rub
with their hands great deal, which is
hardly fair to their knuckles. Mary.
land housekeepers, or their colored
servants for them, call the sun to assist
in curious way. They wet the clothes,
rub soap plentitully on the soiled places
and spread them dripping in the field,
where the hottest sun reaches them.
This answers instead OF rubbing and
boiling, for in an hour or two the things
are taken up washed out of cold water
and rinsed without any steaming over
the boiler, which ia the most disagreea-
bic part Of washing.
l own to speaking from experience
about washing matters, for last sum-
mer didn't find myself in one Of the
loveliest towns OF New England, a ia
vorate resort of city visitors, and not a
washerwoman to be had !or love or
money! Not Yankee girl would do
more than her own washing, though
she would work in a shoe factory
twelve hours day for less than she
could make by laundry work. Some
OF the boarders sent their ruified skirts
and shirts home to Newbedford, hun
dred miles by rail, every week TO have
them washed. But the wife of the
doctor OF divinity-he was in the
Boston Legislature, too-and Mr..
Lang's pupil who played Beethoven for
us and the second cousin OF Beacon
street blue blood-we all did our own
washing on the hillside, and great
fun it was. There were two old women
who sometimes did washing as a
favor and charged more than New
York prices for it, but they wouldn't
go round" among five hundred
people who wanted them. And this is
the state OF things in more than one
village OF intellectual New England.
Since the Mary ABns and Abby Janes
and Eliza Marias are all educated and
gone to teaching, we will have to learn
to do our own washing once in way.
Sma all harm will be too, for our over
wrought nerves cry out for physical ex-
ercise 10 balance and relieve the pres-
sure OF mind. With washing machines
and nringers there is no work ia q
family washing than any woman ought
to be able TO do. Whether she ought
TO do it is another question. But the
exercise for arms and muecles oil the
chest ia what women must have-whst
they suffer for uoawsres. So il any wo-
man finds herself obliged to do ber own
washing let her comfort herself that
she is not deteriorstiDg by it. She has
good recommendation for her work.
Mrs. Whitney has given laundry work
Der recognition by letting her lsdy-like
Holabird girls so into the basement TO
do it, an3 Jean Ingelow shows her
thorough gsntilIty By allowing one Of
her heroines to follow the example Of
her lady grandmother, who used TO "do
up" their linens and muslirs 10 the
shade OF trees on the lawn, while ruffied
aud per:umed gsllants sat on the other
aide Of toe ironing table and gossipped
the afternoon away. Now ! suppose