The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1882-06-09
Advice to Ysung Men

Bob BuIdette, has the following in the
Burlington Hawkeye:
Oh, yes, / understand ali that, my son.
have heard much of that before. You
mourn and grieYe over the lack OF true
womanhood among the girls OF your ac-
quaintance. Mere butterflies OF fashion,
you say, who can rattle the keys of o
grand piano, dance like fairies, chatter
nonsense and society nothing by the
hour, and for their lives cannot bake u
loaf of bread. roast q turkey. do . days
washing, or make shirt. You say you
demand the noblest type of useful wo-
manhood in your wife, and you want to
know where you can find the wife you
want? Well, will tell you, my dear
boy. If that is the sort of woman you
want marry Nora Mulligan, your laun-
dress's daughter. She wears cowhide
shoes, is guileless of corsets. never had
sick day in her lie. goes out house
cleaning and cooks for family Of seven
children, her mother and three section
hands who board with her. / don't
think she would marry you, because
Con Ragan, the track walker, is her
style of q man. She is the useful sort
of woman you appear to want. but /
don't think she would look at yon twice.
Let Us just examine into your qualifica-
tlons as a model husband after your own
matrimonial ideals, my boy. Can you
shoulder barrel OF -four and carry it
down the cellar? Ny dear boy quarter
sack of meal would get away with those
chalky fingers and slender arms of
yours. Can you saw and split ten
cords of hickory wood in the fall, so as
TO have ready fuel all winter? Telema-
chus those twenty-three inches of coat
padded ont over sixteen inches of shoul-
ders wouldn't help you a cents worth?
DO You know, my son-look me IN the
eyes-do you know how to measure ten
cords cf wood after the man has piled II in
dve irregular heaps and tells you it is all
there? Do you know how to buy pota-
toes and how TO put them away for win
ter? Do You know how to pick over the
apples after Christmas? Do you know
how to watch the shoeing of your own
horse, if you drive one, and can you tell
timothy from prairie hay when you are
buying il? Can you spade up half an
acre of ground for a kitchen garden?
Do you know what will take the
limy taste out of the new cis-
tern, and can You patch
the little leak In the kitchen roof?
What would you do If hoop fell off
the -four barrel? Suppose the chimney
gets choked up? If the front door binds
at the top? What if a mortise lock gets
out of order? III an extra shelf is wanted
In the pantry? Or two or three little
houses for the hens with broods of
chicks? Can you bring home pane of
glass and wad of putty and repair dam
ages in the sitting room window? Can
you hang some cheap paper on the
kitchen Can you fix the front gate so
it viii not sag Can you help the man
carry the big kitchen stove out In the
summer kitchen? Do you know how to
| fix pump when it chokes? Can you
make two or three boxes for the shade
trees you planted on the sidewalk, if you
knew how to plant them? Can you do
anything about the house that Con Regan
can My dear boy, you see why Nora
| Mulligan will have none of you she wants
higher type of true manhood. You ex.
| pect to hire men to do all the mans
work aboutthe house, but you want your
wife to do everything that any woman
can do. Believe me, my dear son, nine
tenths of the girls who play the piano
and sing so charmingly, who you in your
limited knowledge set down as "mere
butterflies of fashion," are better fitted
for wives than you are for husband
The girls know more about these things
than you do. If you want to marry 4
first-class cook and experienced house
keeper, do your counting in an lntelli
gence Office. Bnt if you want wife
marry the girl you love, with dimplef
hands and face like the sunlight, and he
love will teach her all these things, m,
boy, long before you have learned one
half of your own lesson.