Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1876-03-16
/" Domestic Snams.Y


The subjoined from contributor dwells
, accurately as well as amusiagly upon Ger.
tain Domestic Shams" with which the
reader, no doubt, is acquainted:
Don't lie down on those pillow.
shamsr'
Don't put your feet on the counter
! panen'
Don't lean your head against tat
white knit-tidyr'
That is the way a darling wife talks to
her precious husband, when he comes
home at night tired out with the public
snams, and seeking for domestic realities
while she, poor thing, tiled out with the
domestic realities, seeks to beguile her
mind with social and conventional shams.
Pillow .shams.n Do you know what
they ares Did you ever try to lie down
on them! They are hard, starchy things,
with beautiful monographs embroidered
all over them. They won't fold up, but
rustic and slip off of the bed on the floor
they are always ready for launch out
into some place where they ought no, to
De-. Back of them, as they are pinned on
70 the pillows, You can see the Sing-Sing
stripe Of the vulgar ticking in which the,
imaginary goose feathers are inclosed.
Then, too, there is broad, white, hard
piece OF embroidered linen, which goes
across the bed, with a stiff, large mono
gram on ii. This is also q sham," and
Is always put on when strangers are COM
Ing into the room. 1t looks like piece
OF fancy pie-crust, and the people who
sleep in these beds are supposed to be
like the four and twenty blackbirds of
nursery history, who were baked in pie !;
that is, they were not In the pie because
OF any natural fitness, but simply because
OF the conventional decree of the king be-
fore whom this pretty dish was placed.
Oh, how man hates these shams !;
how he filings them away when he is alone
in the house, and tells the chambermaid
never TO bring them out while the wife
and family are away!
How he remembers the days when he
was al college, and piled up the pillows
under him. and put his feet, at all times
and at all places, on every cubic inch o:
the bed he called his own, and moved the
bed under the light and read himself to
sleep over Henry Esmond" and " Poor
Pendennisr'
But now the " might -lamp" for the baby,
and the pillows by night for fertilization
around his precious arms and legs; and
the pillow-shams" by day for the sake
OF admiring feminine critics, take the lux
urious aroma of life away from the once
idealized domcsticities and the man sub
mits, wondering why ON earth the Crea-
tor put such queer ways into woman's
nature, and then made man SO miserable
without her that, by contrast with this
negative misery, he puts up silently with
quantities Of misery which is positive.
Domestic shams! That Is what these
wretched pillow cases make us men think
about.
Why DO women take such comfort in
themy Why Is the white counterpart so
religiously guarded from the tired man
when he wants 10 lie down, but don't
want to fold up this thick article into its
lawful creases, and put it away in the
closet, and then take off the unmanagea.
bic "shams" and stow them away, and
then inhibition his shoes and lie down,
but mot on the baby's side of the bedS"
Then there are the tides. They are al.
ways coming off on your head and shout
ders. Pick up the tidy, dear." This
is always the last word from madam as
you leave the room.
Don't put your head on the tidy"
This is the booming minute. gun of domes-
tic danger when the cigar is lighted, and
the newspaper is opened, and the home
circle for the evening Is begun.
Then there are the white dresses for
the children. Of course they will play
on their hands and knees, and will get
soiled and maTred with nursery warfare !;
of course the servants will complain of
the big wash, and the quantity Of starched
clothes required for the demands of the
family wardrobe.
"Why not dress the children In col
ored clothes why not put wooden articles
on them such as Mrs. As children
wear ~
"How queer you men talk! Don't you
know that Mrs. A doesn't live on
- street, and doesn't go with our set at
allg How mortified should feel If Mrs.
B should call and see the children
That is the way the talk goes on be-
tween the public realities of bills and the
domestic shams OF embroidered white
dresses.
"It is worse than wicked my dear"
said Punch the other day, representing a
mother speaking 10 her little daughter.
g II is worse than wicked-it is gulgdr."
Silk dresses form another department of
domestic shams. Just watch the cheap
silk counter AT Stewards or Arnold Il Con
stables on a Saturday. Plaids and cash
meres, woolcns and serges, may charm
with look, and texture, and price, never
so wisely-but they are like chaf before
the wind, as they pale before the attract
iveness of the cheap-silk department.
Oh, how these women buyers and their
consulting cabinet of advisers feel and
rustic the silk, and hold 1t up to the light,
and compare Its thickness with that which
IL twenty five cents more yard! How
they rattle over the favorite names Of the
French manufacturers; how the
mild hammered and obsequious men clerks
go over their same stock OF remarks thou
sands and thousands of times! How the
for this article of clothing CON-
pares silk with silk, and searches down
among the roots of things TO find out just
which adviser she can most rely on! And
then the black silk dress IL bought" for
a black silk dress Is always dressy you
know, dear; one always looks well in
black silk dress, doesn't one, Maryg'
Always" says Mary, and on, goes the
money from the husbands pocket book,
and married life is $50 sweet for the
rest Of that day!
Now what, as a man, | maintain about
this phase Of domestic shams il simply
a.. rst.. Ria all .lrncu tJ.a ~ ,,fhtsb