Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1880-01-23
The UPizen-Clean" Woman.

ment. It is so great an requirement
that one does not wonder that the sent
ence "Cleanliness is next to Goodness,
was popularity supposed, for an indef-
mite period, to be quotation from the
Bible. Cleanliness is the chief distinc-
ton between the tramp and many mill
ionaires, albeit there have been many
millionaires who could not claim even
this advantage over the tramp. But the
sentence, @Cleanliness is next to God
iness," cannot be found in the BIZ
BILE, nevertheless. You cannot have too
much Goodness; too much temperance,
too much discretion, too much wisdom,
but you can have too much neatness.
There have been overneat men. We
have met one or two in our time. They
always get up in tho night to eat, and
are enemies of sleep as they are of dirt.
But they are not so numerous nor so
pestiferous as the overneat woman.
Who has not met the overneat woman :?
We do not need to describe her. But
we will, Revenge is sweet. She makes
her husband exchange his boots for
slippers on the doorstep. No matter
how low the thermometer or barometer,
the poor fellow must doff his boots in
the porch. Is he wet? He must stay
on the stoop till he has done dripping.
Consumption! What is that compared
with a soiled carpet? The small boy,
what a life he leads with such mother!
Followed about by a dust-pan and
neat woman is always CROSSE all of child
hoods days, he early runs to club
room or beersaloon where no can see
little rubbish and find the luxury Of
dirt. We once knew a lady of this
character who, when lightning provi-
dentially struck her house and killed a
servant, swept up the evidencing dirt
the shock had dislodged before the
Coroner could be called.
These "pizen-clean" women always
hate to have company. "Guests are so
dirty, you know" The parlor is kept
dark and unused from year to year
The carpets would fade and dust would
accrue. We once knew a woman who
refused to open her parlor for the we'd.
ding of her daughter. "The street is
too dusty" she said. She is dust now.
They opened the parlor for the funeral,
and one almost wonders that she did
not turn over in her coffin.
The overneat woman cleans house
twice year. Twice year the uncom-
: Portable husband and children are
made doubly uncomfortable. The weak
ness of the flesh alone deters her from
house-cleaning every moon. The over
neat woman delights to make people
uncomfortable. She is thin, dyspeptic,
has nerves, is troubled with dirt on the
brain. Dirt on the brain is very wear
ing to the constitution, and the hyper
neat woman nearly always dies young.
If she did not all her household would.
Her husband always has another chance.
This is dispensation of Providence.
We write with some feeling on this
subject, although, thank God, we have
only seen the overneat woman afar of
But we have seen the lives of good men
embittered, we have seen boys driven
to ruin, and girls imbued with such
a hatred of cleanliness that they have
become very slatterns, by overneat
wives and mothers. &c. as
All, mother, do you not mind clut-
tered floor, q little gravel or sand on
the carpet, a finger mark on wall-pape,
or mirror. The day may come when a
little dirt spread by baby feet or laid on
by busy baby fingers would be the
gladdest sight in the world.
We wandered sadly round the room,
No relic could We ind; .
No toy Of hers to soothe the gloom
~ '.st She left not one behind, -
But lookl there Is misty trace,
So FAINT, underlined and broken, -
OF fingers on the mirrors face
A desr, though simple token. =
All, friends, how clean such dirt isl