The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-11-15
Wretched Homes.

home wretched, which are usually found
out without the aid of a receipt. But If any
one wishes to know the secret, we ven
ture to give few hints, which may be
useful-not by way of helping our read
ers to reduce them to practice, but rather
with view to their avoidance.
A common proverb makes smoky
chimney and scolding wife the worst
of domestic plaques. But there are worse
than these. A smoky chimney shows
there is fireside, at all events, and If the
chimney smokes it is the builders and
not the housewives fault; and as for
scoding wife, why she may possibly
teach her husband philosophy, as Kan
tippe did Socrates.
A dirty wife is far worse. A wife may
scold, aud yet be clean and thrifty. But
a scolding slattern is terrible nuisance
at home, and very soon will succeed in
making home thoroughly intolerable
for even the most pacific and cOntented
dispositions. If with dirt there be waste,
the acme of discomfort will be reached
Money spent recklessly, and without any
useful product of comfort-what is the
end of this but poverty and vices And
drink, the great cause of waste in poor
mems houses-expenditure on that which
not only wastes mans substance, but
ruins his moral and physical capacities.
and we have reached point of discom-
fort beyond which we cannot go. Drink
is the demon of tens of thousands of
homes, which but for it might be happy.
But there are many minor sources of
discomfort, which worry and fret impa-
tient minds, land render homes thoroughly
uncomfortable. Ill-trained children, un-
accustomed, because untaught by early
discipline, to curb their little tempers,are
a source of discomfort in many homes
The neglect, perhaps the ignorance of
mothers themselves ill-disciplined in
youth, is mainly to be blamed for this.
Ill-coOked meals-here is another
source of ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS small
one; but not so small either. Bad cook
ing is waste; waste of money and loss of
comfort. Whom the church has joined
in matrimony, ill. cooked joints of meat,
and ill-boiled potatoes have often put
asunder. There is, indeed sound econ
omy which may be exercised by. women
in the culinary department, very much
to the saving of the husbands purses as
we'll as tempers. Among the common
things" which educators would teach the
working people, certainly this ought not
to be overlooked. 1t is the cOmmonest
and yet most neglected of the branches
of female education. Perhaps it is even
thought below the dignity of being called
"a branch" of education at all. But cook
ing, which really is the art, when properly
<>f, a
way, is infinitely more valuable ana i'm
portant to the comfort of homes than
tambour work, crochet, netting, or back
stitch--not to speak of music and draw
ing. The art of cooking eclipses them
all in point of value.
An unwholesome house is always uu--
comfortable. The atmosphere is de-
-rrassing to the spirits, and it debilitates
the frame. Its influence may not be felt
or rceptible-excepting by our sense
that of smell-and yet 1t is most power
full. Even the temper becomes peevish
and irritable; and the depression leads to
craving for stimulants, which, in its
turn, leads to an aggravation of the evil.
Children become querulous, sickly and
complaining; how can they be cheerful,
breathing poisoned air, as they often do2
The children cry, poor things, finding
vent in tears and sobs; they are beaten
when they should be sent out in the open
air, or, later in the evening, put to bed.
And thus the home is made very uncom-
Portable.
These unfortunate children-how our
heart pities theml Brought into the
world helpless, they are left amidst the
gloomy association of depravity, dirt,
and disease; and they hang about the sor-
did dwelling an infant brood, imparting
no JOY to the home-only so many gap
ing mouths to be fed-increasing its
squalor and discomfort. Often children
are cuffed and scolded for no fault Of
their own the ill-temper engendered by
dirt and drink is visited severely upon
them. Tolerable tempers are made bad,
and bad tempers are rendered cruel; aud
thus they grow up to mature years with
the stamp of savage life upon them, with
out any idea of the comforts of home;
familiar with the spectacle of daily re-
curing vice. ''s' 's'h'it
In better circles home may be made.
intolerable in other ways. Peevish and
querulous tempers spoil the repose of
many households. "Better is q dinner of
herbs, where peace is, than a stalled OK
with contention" There are people who
are always making fuss, and will not
let you be quiet; these have the knack of
making even dining and drawing-rooms
intolerable. They are as unwhOlesome
az even roOmful of bad air could be.