Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1876-06-08
DOMESTIC SHAMs.
What Distinguished ater- Famil is Thinks OF
Pillow shams, Tides, Silks, Bic.

Appleton's Journal
The sabjoined from a contri utor
dwells accurately, as we'll as anus.
lngiy, upon certain Domestic
Shams,' with which the reader, 10
doubt, is acquainted
| "D0n't lie down on those pillow
shams 70
Don't put your feet on the couu>
terpane !"
Don't lean your head against
that white knit-tidy p
That is the way darling wife talks
to her precious husband when be
comes home at night tired out with
the public shams and seeking for do
nestle realities; while she, poor thingl
| tired out with the domestic realities,
seeks to beguilo her mind with social
and conventional shams.
Pillow shams" Do You know
what they are? DID you ever try
to lie down on them? Trey are hard,
starchy things, with beautiful mono~
grams embroidered all over them.
They won't fold up, but rustic and
slip off the bed on the floor; they are
always ready for launch out into
some place where they ought not to
be. Back of them, as they are pinned
on the pillows, yeu can see the Sing
Sing stripe Of the vulgar ticking in
which the imaginary goose-feathers
are enclosed.
Then, too, there ID a broai, white,
hard peiee of embroidered linen,
which goes across the bed, with q
stiff, large monogram on it. This is
also ''sham," and is always put on
when strangers are coming 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 black birds of
nursery history, who were baked in
pie; that is, they were not in the
pie because of any natural fitness, but
because of the conventional decree of
the king before 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 remem bers the days when
he was at college, and piled up the
pillows under him, and put his feet,
at all times and al al placea, on every
cubic inch Of the bod he called his
own, and moved under the light and
read himself to sleep over Henry
Esmond" and "Poor Pendenis -
But now, the "night-lamp" tor the
baby, and the pillows by night for
fortifcation around his precious arms
and legs; and the "pillow>shams" by
day for the sake of admiring feminine
critics, take the luxurious aroma Of
life away from the once localized do
mesticities and the man submits.
wondering why on earth the Creator
put such queer ways into woman's
nature and then made man so miaer-
able without her, that by contrast
with this negative misery, he puts
up ilantly with quantities Of misery
which is positive. Domestic shams
That is what these wretehed pillow
cases make US men think about.
Why do women take such comfort
in them ? Why is the white counter
pane so reIigiously guarded from the
tired man when he wants to lie down,
but don't want to fold up this thick
article into it's lawful creases, and
pnt it away in the closet, and then
take off tho unmunageabIe ehams"
and stow them away, and then uL-
button his shoes and lie down, but
s'not on baby's side of the bed ?"
Then there are tho tides. They
are always coming off on your head
and shoulders. Pick up the tidy,
dear" This is always the last word
from madame as you leave the room.
"Don't put your head on the IT,
dy /" This is the booming minutes
gun of domestic danger when the
cigar is lighted, and the newspaper
opened and the home circle for tho
evening has 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 marred with nur-
sery warfare; of course the servants
will complain of the big wash, and
the quantities of starched clothes re-
quired 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 do talk !
Don't you know that Mrs. A
doesn't live on - street, and doesn't
go with our set at all ? How morti-
fed [ should feel if Mrs. B should
call and see the children dressed in
differeat way from her own
This is the way the talk COOS on
between the public realities of bills
and the domestic shams of embroid-
cred white dresses.
1t is worse than wicked, my
DEAR" aaid Punch, the other day,
representing a mother speaking to
her little daughter. at is worse than
wicked-it is Unlgar."
Silk dresses form another Depart
ment of domestic shams. Just watch
the cheap-silk counter at Stewards
or Arnold and Constable's on Sat-
urday. Plaid aud cashme-es, WOOL
ems and serges, may charm with look,
and texture, and price, never so
wisely-they are like chaff before
the wind, or they pale before the at
Effectiveness of the cheap-silk depart
ment.
Oh, how these women buyers and
their consulting, cabinet of advisers
feel and rustic the silk, and hold it up
to the light, and compare its thickness
With that which is twenty-five cents
more yard How they rattle over
the favorite names ofthe different
French manufacturers how the mild
hammered and obsequious men clerks