The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1874-10-29

she usually tries to deserve the name.
She may work with her hands or not lin
the large majority of cases she does work
with her hands,, but it is she who, in
any case, oversees and gives life to
dozen different interests. Her husbands
business, the boys education, the girls
standing in society, the baby's teething,
the sewing and homework for them all ARE
processes which she urges on and which
rasp and fret daily and hourly on her
brain-a very dull, unskilled brain, too
often, but almost always quite willing to
wear itself out for those she loves.
Whether it would be nobler or more
polite in her to shirk this work-hus-
band, babies and housc-and develop
her latent talents as physician, artist
or saleswoman is not the question with
us just now. A few women have done
this. In the cities, too, money can re-
move much of the responsibility from
the mistress of household; but the
great aggregate of wives and mothers in
this country are domestic women who
ask nothing better of fate than that
whatever strength they have Of body
and mind shall be drained for their hus-
bands and children. Now this spirit of
martyrdom is very good thing-when it
Is necessary. For our part we can see no
necessity for it here. We are told that
the women's wards in the insane asylums
in New England are filled with middle
aged wives, mothers driven there by
overwork and anxiety; through the rest
of the country the popular type Of the
woman Of forty is neither fat nor fair,
but sallow, anxious-eyed creature, with
teeth and hair furnished by the shops,
and liver and nerves which long ago
took her work, temper and, we had al
most said, religion out of her control.
This rapid decay of our women may be
owing partly to climatic influence, but it
is much more due to the wear and tear
of their motherhood and anxiety to push
their children forward, added to the in
cessant petty rasping Of inefficient do
nestle service.
A mans work may be heavier, but is
single; it wears on him on one side only !;
he has his hours sacred to business, to
give to his brief, his sermon, his shop;
there is no drain on the rest of his facul-
ties or time. His wife has no hour
sacred to this or to that; he brings his
trouble to her and it is her duty to COM
prehend and aid him, while her brain is
devising how to keep her boy Tom away
from the companions who brought him
home drunk last night; how to give
Jenny another year of music lessons
how to contrive a cloak for the baby out
of her old merino; the burning meat in
the kitchen all the while setting her
nerves in a CULVER" She has not a
power of mind, skill of body which
her daily life does not draw upon. Her
husband comes and goes to his office
| the outdoor air, the stir, the change of
ideas, the passing word for this man or
that, unconsciously refresh and lift him
from the cankering care of the work.
She has the parlor, the dining room, the
kitchen to shut her into it, day after day,
year after year. Women, without sim
gle actual grief in the world, grow NOR
bid and i'll tempered, simply from living
indoors, and resort to prayer to conqler
their crossness, when they only need a
| walk Of a couple of miles, or some whole
some amusement. 1t is natural cray
| ing for this necessity-amusemen
| which drives them to the tea parties and
sewing-circles which men ridicule as
absurd and tedious.
There is no reason why our women,
who are notably rational and shrewd in
he conduct Of the working part of life,
should cut themselves off thus irration-
ally from the necessary relaxation, or
make it either costly or tedious Let
every mother Of a family who reads Serb
ner resolve not to put off her holidays
until old age, but to take them all along
the way, and to bring good share Of
them into this winter. Let her give no
ball, no musical evenings, no hot, perspir-
| ing tea parties, but manage to have her
table always prettily served and comfort
ably provided, and her welcome ready
for any friend who may come to it; let
her set apart an evening, if possible,
when her rooms shall be open to any
pleasant friend who will visit her; the
relreshment to be of the simplest kind
and above all, if the table chance not to
be we'll served, or the friends not agreea-
bic, let her take the mishap as jest, and
meet all difficulties with an easy good
humor. 1t is not necessary to take every
bull of trouble by the horns; If we well
come and nod to them as to cheerful ac-
auaintances they will usually trot by on
the other side Of the road
Let her take our prescription for the
winter, and our word for it the spring
will find frcshcr roses in her checks and
fewer wrinkles in her husbands fore
head" Home and Society,"" IN Scribaers
for Norember