The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1874-12-31
MATTERS DOMESTIC.
HOUSEHOLD JOYS AND ILLS.
Being Full of Suggestions for the
arrfaEeable and OF Advice for
Those Already Umfted-The Mo
del Housewife Compared with
the Ono Who Is Not a Model.

-
The London Saturday Review chat
about domestic matters in way whicl
is applicable, not in England alone, bu
on this side of the Atlantic. The fol
lowing article is admirable in every way
4 When young professional man mar
ries he often fondly imagines he is actin,
wisely in choosing his wife from a famil,
poorer than his own. He fancies that
young lady brought up with few luxuriei
8 will be simple in her ideas. He calcu
d lates that, having never having money t,
spend, she will be moderate in her ex
a penditures that being a poor man.
4 daughter, she is better fitted for the par
9sOf poor mans wife, and that, having
4 lived in household supported on, say
f400 a year, she will be easily able tc
make ends meet where there is $500
j He could hardly make greater mistake
4 There are brilliant exceptions, no doubt
I,But the girl who has never had money t.
/ spend, and who has never seen money
/ spent, has no idea of how to spend il
lswhen she has it. She thinks $500 year
I a fortune. Her notions of what may be
done with it are perfectly unlimited
i Broughams, little dinners, an occasional
box at Covent garden, Nudes, a maid,
/ lots of new dresses, gloves that need never
| be cleaned or mended-all these and 9TH
er visions float through her mind. She
Is, of course, very soon awakened to re-
alities, and is at first amazed at the ra-
| pidity with which her housekeeping
allowance melts away. The region of
extras is never reached, and it is well
if she does not soon get into debt with
! her weekly bills, or forestall her in
come to pay for something she has or
dered without having counted the cost.
A man with a small income consults his
future comforts to much better purpose
by choosing a wife where there is money,
even if he is not to have any share of it
with her. If she has seen her father
give hundreds of pounds for picture or
horse, she at least knows how. much
such things cost and if, as in most fam
lilies of the kind, the young ladies have a
regular allowance, she is able to tell how
much will be required for dress, and how
impossible it will be to have any of the
things which an inexperienced wife will
wish for and perhaps expect. She has
married happiness really depends upon
such things, and how small is the graft
fication to be obtained from possessing
them. And she probably knows that
extravaganza is just as fatal to $50, 600
year as to $500, and to keep ont of
debt requires management, whatever the
amount of the annual income Accus-
toned to many servants, she knows what
care will be needed to get the work of
even q small house done by two; and so
she helps them as much as possible. will
take share in the busting, especially of
ornaments, will not hesitate to 90 to the
hall door when they are busy. On Sun
day afternoons she will receive the milk
in the orthodox manner through the area
rails, rather than Keep the cook from
performing her devotions or taking a
walk with her sweetheart. Even if she
is not good housekeeper, her servants
have some consideration for her in return;4
and perhaps egen occasionally endeavor
TO be saving and careful in their own de-
partments. But such mistresses are rare
and the man who has one of them for a
wife is fortunate. Too often the young
and inexperienced woman begins married
life with the idea that having servants
and a house of her own means simply
doing just what she likes. She probably
commences with a protracted fit of three
volume novels, the first fruits of her
emancipation from her mother and school
mis- .ress.
She reads them reclining on her sofa,
and often hurts her health by alternately
spending all the day in a close atmos-
phere and taking long walks on damp
afternoons to look in at shop-windows
another pleasure hitherto forbidden. She
is addicted to wearing tight stays and
high-heeled boots, and eats chocolate
between her meals She rises so late
that breakfast is always Il scramble, and
a. she has not remembered to order it
the night before, her husband is often
obliged TO be ii before the eggs or the
ham have been procured. II he is at all
demOnstrative, the chances are that he
goes to his days work leaving the wife of
his bosom in tears, and there are men so
weak that scene in the morning, and a
bad breakfast, Will unhimge them for the
day. But such feelings become blunted
before long, and the husband who does
not die Of having to work almost fasting
survives to make his wife wonder how she
| could have married him.
After breakfast and the departure of
/ her husband she decends to the kitchen
Her temper is already ruffied Her dress,
| owing to the hurry of her toilet, is IN
becoming, and often untidy; andss dis
ordered herself she proceeds to order
/ dinner. Her own condition is admirably
reflected in that of the kitchen and the
cook. Having made no plan beforehand
and having no idea how best to use the
things already in the house, she leaves it
to the cook to suggest what will give her
| the least trouble. and is not sorry when
! her own part of the business is over.
| The air of the kitchen is not so sweet as
| to make it pleasant to stay there long
and she departs with relief when the
invariable mutton and rice pudding has
been proposed by the cook and adopted
by the mistress. No thought of going
out to see what may be had in the market,
no idea of choosing vegetables or meat
ever crosses her mind. She is quite con
/ tent that the green grocer and the butcher
should serve her at their own will, anG
allow her cook, who BY this time should
be busy with thesservants' dinner, to go GU
for what is required, while she herself re
tires to her room.
Her education has only taught her the
necessity of following the fashion, anc
she probably puts off her novel readin;
while she occupies her time with trying
to initiate in cheap materials dress she
has seen on some one else, though it
beauty may have consisted In the Gun
ming cutting out of an experienced HAND
or in the appropriate adjustment of costly
lace. Meanwhile her servants get through
their work as they please, their sfovenly