Stevens County tribune. (Morris, Minn.) 1877-1880, 1879-08-28
Mutual nelpfulness in the Family


rhe requirements Of utilization de-
mand a continuous outlay of strength for
the maintenance Of a Well-ordered house
hold. In most families either on account
of infancy, old age. or invalidism, some
members are preCludel from active par
tiCipatiOn in the general helpfulness,
while those more able double their ex-
ertions. Where there is large family of
sons and daughters the parents may be
spared. and many live life of compare
tive case, as all parents should in their
declin ny years. But it not unfrequently
happens that the heaviest burdens fall
upon the mother, whose store of vitality
may not be equal to the daily expendi-
ture. In such cases wcarying fatigue
must end, sooner or later in permanent Ill
ness or premature death; and the whole
arrangements OF the family ought to be
made with view to prevent 50 great
calamity.
A later writer plthily says: ave ex-
pect too little of our maidens, too much
Of our matrons.1 [ would add to this,
that in a household, where there should
he equality of usefulness, we expect too
little of our boys, and too much Of our
girls, whose strength is frequently quite
inadequate to the demands made upon it.
The cooperative principle in education
is nowhere seen to better advantage than
in the family. The girl Is strengthened
and viyitied by the bat and ball, the oars,
the bow and arrow, or the skate, as much
as is the boy, and she needs, and her fami-
~ needs the sparkling vivacity which
only outdoor amusements can give; but
the girl who has two beds to maze has
not 50 much time for recreation as the
boy who uses, but who makes none. The
care of one room for each ould be a
happier adjustment. At a school which l
lately visited, the boys under the care of
matron, were taught to make the own
beds and to keep cir rooms in order.
They showed no incapacitv for the work.
Their clean beds with white covers were
as we'll made as though done by their
sisters. Neither boots, stockings, jackets,
shirts, nor collars were on the floor for
somebody else to pick up; on the con-
trary. just as much pride IN the appear
aDce OF the room was manifested as
though American boys in general were
accustomed to such duties, and as though
these boys in particular ad always been
trained to it. They were rewarded for
their care by bright strips of carpeting.
which gratihed their taste as much as it
would that of girls. What has been done
by matron with large number ofboys
could be done 10y any mother with her
sons, not only with positive advantage to
them, but with justice to their sisters.
So with other household duties. | shall
never forget the manly pride with which
fine little fellow told me that his moth
er had permitted him to wash her best
china. The pleasure was in being trust
ed TO perform duty reserved for careful
hands only. 1t was q reward as we'll as
delight.
The mother of the distinguished nat
uralist, John K. Townsend, believed it a
duty to prepare her sons as we'll as her
daughters for any emergency in life, and
with this view she taught them the use
Of the needle, and gave them sufficient
know ledge OF cooking, to enable theln at
any time to provide comfortable meal.
How often, when far removed from civil
hzation, and entirely dependent on ! is
own resources, must her naturalist son
have blessed his mother for her wise fore
thought. If all sons had been taught
like these, how seldom would we find
those MEDIEVAL scaIecrows, the shirt but
ton and the darning- forced on the
attention of women. In my young days
l used to hear repeated, as a warning,
some lines sent to a literary lady, who
preferred to mend her pen instead OF her
hose, and who on one occasion permitted
an ominous wear to appear above the top
- hos "a
spake thus:
ITO see lady Of so much taste .
SO slatternly, is shocking;
Your pen and poetry lay by
And learn to mend your stocking"
The disgrace of the poor lady vas so
burned into my mind that | cannot to
this day avoid an uncomfortable sense of
boots, with latent wonder whether all
is right beneath them, even with an out
fit perfectly new; but after this lapse of
time, another thought occurs to me. /
query as to how the gentleman himself
managed. Did he, too, mend his own
stockings, or did he in playful ease dash
off his rhymes whist his mother or sister
sat patiently by the piled-up darning
basket2 --s
Ionce met a young man-blessings on
his memory for that good deed-who,
= wishing to spend his vacation at home in
the society of his mother and sisters, Sc
liberately examined his lose and burned
! every pair with a hole to be mended.
Call it wasteful extravaganza, if you
please. / do not say it was an example
to be commended; some poor person
might have been made happy by the
darnlng: bur the del1gh: 18th which !
learned that a youth cared 50 much more
for his mothers ana sisters companion
ship than he did for their darning nee
dies, was worth to me alone whole gross
of stockings.
.esas / can but hope he has found good
wife, and that he continues lis annual
burnt offeridns, or else that he Is thought
full enough to send out his mending. II
~ men knew what a dread the stocking has.
ket becomes to one person, they would
do one of two or three things-learn t.
darn themselves, buy darnlng machine
or hire the work done by some needy
person. Every small town SHOULD sup
port two or three members. ~
Not long nee met a judlcious moth
er who had resolved to abate the nuisanc,
of careless, wasteful and expensive ser
wants, and, instead, to ask Of each mem
4 Der Of her household. sons and daughter