The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1874-02-12
TAKING IN THE CLOTHES.
An AgOnizing Domestic Experience
How Man Helps His wife.
From the Danbury News.

IAhlNG In IdE CLOI uLo.
An Agonizing Domestic Experience
How II Man Helps His Wife
From the Danbury News.
What a frightful sensation that is
when you have jHst got home of cold
Monday night, and pulled your boots
off, to be told that the weeks washing
is out on the line and must be brought
in. Now, to do this of dewy eve in
summer, with the delicate perfume of
the flowers filling the air, and a brass
band on the next street, is not exactly n
hardship; but to do it in the dead of
winter, with chilling breeze blowing,
and the clothes as stiff as a rolling-pin,
is something no man can contemplate
without Quaking. We don't quite I'M
derstand how it is that man invariably
gets his boots off before the dread sum
mons comes, but the rest of it is plain
enough. There is a sort of rcbellious
feeling in his heart which prompts him
to try to entangle his wife in an argu-
ment, and failing in this, he snatches up
the basket and goes out i'll the yard
with it, rapping it against the sides OF
the door with as much viGor as if it
were not purely accidental. If the
fond wife is any way attentive she can
hear his we'll known voice consignin9
various objects to eternal suffering,
long after he has disappear, There
is no Ievity in line of frozen clothes.
Every article is as frigid as the Cardiff
Giant, and the man who wrenches the
pin off and them holds the basket in eX-
pectation Of seeing the piece drop off
the line of its own accord is too pure
and simple for this world. But our
man isn't Of this nature. He catches
hold of the garment with his chilled
hand and seeks to pull it off, but ii
doesn't come. Then he yanks it up
ward and then downward and then
sideways and when it comes off it main
tains the shape it has been all the after
noon working into, which permits ii
lust as readily to enter the basket as &c
be showed through he key-hole of q
valse. The first articles double uF
with his hands, and there is faint sem,
blance of carefulness in packing them
away: but after that he smNshes them
away into the basket without any cere'
mony, and crowds them down with his
foot He uses the same care i'll taking
down a tiue cambric handkerchief that
he docs in noptnrino sheet. and makes
two handkerchiefs Of every one. Whcl
he gets far from the basket he allows
the articles to multiply in his arms, sc
as to save steps; and when he gets his
arms full of the awkward and miserable
things, whose sharp, icy corners Jat
him in the neck and face, he comes tc
an article that refuses to give way OF
one end. He pulls and shakes desper
ately at it, howling and screaming il
his rage, until he inadvertently steps OF
the dragging end of sheet, and thel
he comes down flat on the frozen snow
but bounds up again, grating his teeth
and hastily depositing the bundle III th'
basket, darts back to the refractor,
member, and, taking hold of it, fierce
ly tugs at it while he fairly Jumps NJ
and down in the extremity OF his ange
and cold. Then it comes unexpectedly
and. with it part of the next article
and he goes over again-this time OF
his back and with violence. With th'
clothes gathered, he takes the basket W
in his livid hands, thus bringing tin
top articles against his already frozel
chin, and, thus tortured, propels M
lifeless limbs into the house. She stand
ready to tell him to close the door, an.
is thoughtful enough to ask him If it
cold work, But if he's wise man h
will make no answer. If he is a wis
man he will silently plant himsel
in front of The stove, and, framing hi
frozen features into an implacable frowr
will preserve that exterior without tn
faintest modification until bedtime.