The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1876-05-20
Helping q Husband.

Isn't there a universal groan going up be-
cause ii is so hard to get living? People who
are already rich--especially if they got their
wealth by speculation or by public oflice-put
on airs of wisdom, and assure the poor that no.
body need remain poor. Only let them live
economically; wages are good; by saving a
| little every year any one can soon get rich.-
But the man with growing family can't al
| ways see this. He wants books and papers,
| and music and pictures in his home, and he
| thinks his family has as much need of their
refining influence as any other family. He
loves to see his own wife dressed in good
clothes on Sundays and holidays, and he knows
that she is best pleased with him when he is
well dressed, and both of them wish to give
their children the best opportunities for coed
health and good education. His own wages are
hardly sufficient to cover all these expenses
How can his wife help it? In former times she
did all the work of the family, not only the
cooking and washing and ironing, and sewing
but also the spinning and weaving of cloth,
and oap-making, and fruit preserving, and
candle-dipping Some say that we must go
back to that kind of life. Others tell US that
such retrogression would not pay, even in dol
lars and cents, but they say that now women
are relieved from so many Of the old labors by
the work of factories, they ought to engage IN
the mechanical, mercantile and professional
kinds of business, so that they may not only
FL the family purse after marriage. 1t does
seem best that every young woman should be
prepared to earn her own living, as part of
her education; and that she should support
herself by her own labor if it falls to her lot,
either through necessity, as in the cases of
most working girls, or through natural adap-
tatiou and inclination, as In the case OF Clara
Louise Kellogg, Gail Hamilton, or many an OBJ
scure doer of good work.
But it surely is not the best, as general rule
that wives should be expected to earn money
by any regular business, especially If they are
mothers. There may be circumstances OF SICK
ness, or debt or poverty which make 1t seem
necessary for a mother to do this, but the home
care of her husband and children, is business
enough for the mother of two or more children,
and if the actual labors Of housekeeping are
added to this home making business, and if
both are done we'll, there is certainly not
strength to spare for any other occupation.
man who wants to have good natured wife,
ready, every day, to give him that smiling
weloome-which is the old recipe for keeping
him from making a drunken brute of himself
had better see that his wife has some leisure
and some rest. These remarks apply notonly
to the woman who leaves her children in the
care of strangers, while she goes about the
country delivering lectures, or rides by day or
night to visit sick patients, but quite as much
to the farmers wife who has the care OF but
ter making business imposed upon her by her
husband or who, sick or well, has to work with
might and main through all the hottest season,
to take care of the various kinds OF fruit which
her husband has planted, in the cool expectation
that wemen-folks will do the main part of fruit
picking and preserving, or marketing. If
wife has time and strength to devote to 1t, the
butter-making or fruit making business is a
good one; but wish the conservative" breth-
rem to see that wife and mother, who has to
neglect her real home work, her loving care
and genial companionship as mother and wife,
to help along in what ne calls his business, is
Just as much out of her proper sphere as the
mother who teaches school or delivers lectures.
He had better consider, too, how far this applies
to the business Of taking boarders.
Why need we try to get rich? Why not be-
gin to be rich instead? Instead Of bending
soul and body to the task of getting living,
why not begin to live?-for there is considera-
BILE difference between living and getting a liv
ing. Dwelers in the country have no pressing
need of costly paintings, if they make the most
of their sunrise and sunset views, and there is
a deal of the best of music to be had gratis
Let us rest from our digging and delving lit
tie while every day, and look about US for
something beautiful, and listen for something
musical, and ere long we shall End it in our
own chldrens bright and loving glances and
in their happy voices. Let US have something
to read, and little family treats of one kind or
another in the way yefinnocent diversion, wheth-
er any money goes into the bank not. I
see less reason new a-days for us to worry about
laying up money to send the children to college,
since free schools of every grade are becoming
more and more common, and since the best
libraries are open to the public. The main
point is to make comfortable homes for our lit
tie ones, until they are old enough to look out
for themselves; to keep as sweet and whole
some as we can the little corner where our work
is set, and TO do our daily tasks as faithfully
and cheerfully as we are able, with faith in
that Infinite Goodness which overrules ALL
Faith Rochester.