The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-11-16
Putting to Rights.

uOtiHS w NiShtS"
EVERYBODY breads it, except, per-
haps, the woman who has a mania for
putting things to rights.
The time for it comes round in the
spring and fall, and the weather is gen
orally wet, and foggy, and the whole
house will be damp as a cellar, even
without the atmosphere of soap and
water, which pervades all creation at
the semi-annual house cleaning.
All concerned will be cross; and even
the dog and cat are snappish on such
occasions
The woman of the house rises early
in the morning when she commences
house cleaning, and tucks her hair I'M
der red handkerchief, and hobs up
the skirt of her dress in a wad behind,
rolls up her sleeves and informs her
husband that she is going to do some
thing to-day.
He is hurried out of bed before sun
rise, because the carpet in that room is
coming up, and the bedstead is coming
down, and the curtains are going to be
washed, and "Cain is going to be
raised" generally.
Breakfast is hurried-nobody can
stop to bother over coffee, and to dis
cuss the news when house cleaning has
fairly set in.
By ten o'clock chaos and confusion
reign. Dust fills the air; brooms and
brushes rule the hour, basins of water,
cakes of soap and wet rags, confront
you at every turn and if you turn aside
to avoid them you'll be likely to step
into Il saucer of tacks just out of the
carpet, or on to a bottle of ammonia.
Your wife is transformed from q
household angel into very draggled-
looking scullion, with smut on her
nose, and smudges of dirt on her arms,
and as she scrubs away on that hall
oil-cloth, and screws up her face with
the eXertion of scrubbing, and pushes
the struggling locks of dust-sprinkled
hair out of her eyes, with hands drip
ping with dirty suds, it seems to you
utterly impossible that this is the divin-
ity you courted five years ago, and SER
enaded, and sent bouquets to, and
thought "too pure and good for human
natures daily food"
Everything is upset about the house.
If you want to find anything you had
better 90 to the store and buy it than
to spend the time in hunting for it.
And your wife, who generally acts as
searcher-in-chief for missing articles.
can't attend to anything of the kind
now. She is cleaning
When all the bedsteads are down,
and the beds airing on the wood-shed,
and the quilts soaking in the washtub,
company will arrive, and look astOund-
ed when they find that cleaning is
They have come to stay few DAYS
with you, and they do not relish having
their anticipated comfort destroyed by
soap-suds and scrubbing-brushes.
If your wife is a woman Of spirit, she
will find out a dry spot for them to sit
on, and 60 right on with her cleaning.
She will tell the hired girl, confiden-
TALLY, that ''she is going to clean that
house, even if the Governor comesr'
How she ever gets order restored to
the chaos of confusion is a puzzle to
the uninitiated. The contents of cup
boards, drawers, closets, bags and box
es, are all piled together-the furniture
occupying the center of the floor. the
children climb the tables and bureaus
unmolested, for INA is cleaning
house, and if none of them happen
to break their limbs she does not con-
Germ herself about them.
All the doors and windows are open.
Strange cats prowl through the rooms;
strange boys play marbles on the back
doOr-steps; the next door neighbor goes
by in her new best suit, but the woman
who is cleaning does not notice. She
is putting things to rights!
After about week of distress, quiet
sets in. The house is cleaned.
All the rooms are damp and smell of
soap and whitewash. Everything is so
clean that everybody has to walk tip
toe, and on a crack at that, for fear of
getting something dirty. Everything
you want is packed away. Books and
papers make too much clutter. Old,
easy slippers, true, tried, and valued
friends as you look upon them, have
been burned; no room for rubbish.
The house is in apple-pie order, and
if you want anything you have to ask
the'mistress for it, and if she wants you
to have it, she'll get it for you, and if
she does not, she'll tell you she can't
find it, and you have to believe her.
1t will be nearly six months before
things gets easy and comfortable in
your house, and then it will be time TO
clean again.-Kate Thorn, IN n. =.
Weekly.
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