The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1879-05-31


Our ladies are now busy--in fact they have
been busy for several weeks - ''whitewasb =
ing;" and It is more than possible they will
be busy for several weeks yet 30 come. The
right to whitewash at least once year, Is 50
time. honored as 10 be almost divine 70 the
American housewife, and those husbands, =
fathers or brothers who contemplate rebel
lion against the custom, should bear that i'm
portant fact In mind. To defend the ladies In
this right Is one object ofthis articlei toresign
her ifege lord to his distressful fate is another
object. To prove the antiquity Of the right
we will give some extracts from an article
written over hundred years ago, and attrib-
uted to the pen Of Or. Franklin. Like our
self he desired to defend the ladies in their
right. He says:
"When a couple is about to enter into tho
matrimonial state, a. never failing article tu
the marriage treaty Is, that the lady shall
have and enjoy the free aud unmolested exer-
eises Of the rights of ighifcDashing, with all
its oerem6nials, privileges, and appurten-
ances. A young woman would fnregO the
most advantageous connection, and even dis.
appoint the warmest wishes of her heart
rather than resign the invaluable right.
There is no season of the year IN which tho
lady may not claim her privilege, If she
pleases; but the last OF May is most generally
fixed upon for the purpose. Tue attentive
husband may judge by certain .lrognostirs
when the storm is nigh at hand. When tho
lady is unusually iretlul finds fault with the
servants, is discontcnted with the Children
complains much Of the fiji Illness of everything
about her-these are ominoUs signs. But It,
-. Al.
morning and finds in the yard a wheebarrOw
with a quantity of lime In it, and buckets
Of water withlim dissolved in It, there is no
time to be lost. He may Immediately lock up
his closet or apartment where his papers and
private property are kept, and putting the
key in his pocket, Ietake himself to flight
for husband, however beloved becomes
perfect nuisance during this season of female
rage; his authority is superceded, his com-
mission is suspended, and the very scullion
who cleans the brasses in the kitchen becomes
Of more consequence than he. lie has moth
ing for it but to abdicate, and run from an
evil which he can neither prevent nor moi
n.y."
Thus it is seen that a a hundred years has
made few changes in the prcllmnaries of this
annual house etoating Then as now car
pets were ripped up; prints, pictures, looking
glasses, brackets and other ornaments, to
their peril, were stripped from the walls; cur
tains torn from the testers, and the beds
crammed in the windows chairs and tables,
bedsteads and cradles were hurled into tho
yard, and the garden fences made to groan
under their burden of blankets, cloth, cloaks,
old coats, pants, vests and hats. The kitchen
recesses were made to give up their dead
| gridirons, fryingpans, leaky kettles and wash
boilers, broken pots, jars, spits, rusty shoves
| and pOkers, cracked tumblers, broken wlnc-
| glasses, phials of forgotten physlc, papers Of
unknown powder, seeds ana dried herbs, old
corks tops OF teapots stopples of departed de-
canters, etcetera. In fact the day of final
doom apparently arrives, and the u ensils Of
the household are drag gged forth to Judgment.
The object is to clean everything. and this is
done, at whatever cost or peril to the articles
cleansed.
1t usually takes about a week, and then the
storm subsidies, and tiers assume ther
wonted smoothness, from which. Franklin
very consolingly concludes: "Notwithstand-
ing this (pecuiarity ofthe lades), the women
of America make the most faithful wives and
the most attentive mothers in the world and
I ain sure you will join me in the opinion,th
if n married man is made miserable only one
week in whole year, he will have no great
cause to complain of the matrimonial bond"