The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1883-05-31


"Ye-es. Doady," said Dora, and so bought
a beautiful little barrel of them, and the man
said they We're very good. But IL am afraid
there's something the matter with them. They
don't seem just right" There were tears in
Dora's eyes.
Upon inspection it was discovered that the
oysters never had been opened; and there was
no oyster-knife in the house; and there was no
one who could have used an oyster-knife if
there had been. So they made their dinner on
mutton; at least they ate what was cooked
enough, and made up with capers. Traddles
even went so far as to express a willingness to
eat plateful of raw meat, but David would
not hear to such an immOlatien on the altar of
friendship, and succeeded in ferreting out some
cold bacon from the larder, with which they
finished their repast.
DAVID DEMONSTRATES.
year and half of this sort of thing. and
after several varieties of experiment. David
and Dora gave up housekeeping as bad job
That is, the house kept itself and they kept
page, whose principal function as retainer
was 10 quarrel with the cook. But after a
prolonged servitude, sandwiched through and
through with deception, theft and swindling,
the page ran away and was locked up by the
police behind the iron bars. Then David felt
called upon to once more admonish Dora as to
her duties and obligations as mistress of the
house. My love-" said he, " it is very painful
10 me to think that our want of system and
management, involves not only ourselves,
(which we have gotten used to- but other peo
pie"
g. You have been silent long time, and now
you are going to be cross" said Dora, in reply"
mo, my dear, indeed! Let me explain to
you what | mean"
a. l think don't want TO know" said Dora.
But L want you to know, my love. Put
Jip down."
Dora put Jip's nose to David's and said,
Boh!' to drive away his seriousness; but
not succeeding she ordered her little pet to his
pagoda, and sat down demurely, with folded
hands and resigned expression.
THE fact is, my dear,n David began, in a
somewhat iguratiye manner, there is conta-
gion in US. We infect everyone about u.s."
But seeing by Dora's face that she was ut
! terly at loss to comprehend his meaning,
I David dropped down to palmer words and con-
! tinued: " 1t is not merely, my pet, that we
/ lose money and comfort and even temper some-
4 times, by not learning to be more careful,
/ bat that we incur the serious responsibility of
/ spelling everyone who comes into our service,
or has any dealing with US. l begin TO be
afraid that the fault is not entirely on one side,
but that these people all turn out i'll because
We don't turn out very well ourselves"
! Despite the fact that Dora was dissolved in
tears; that she miScOnstFued his wise remon-
stranccs; that she called him " a hard-hearted
thing" and "a cruel fellow" David was in
flexible.
My dear Dora" he continued, unless we
/ learn TO do our duty to whom those we employ,
they viii never do their duty to us. l am afraid
we present opportunities to people to do wrong,
that never ought to be presented. Even if we
! We're as lax are, IN all our arrangements,
by choice-which we are not-even if we
| liked 1T, and found it agreeable to be So
which We don't-I am persuaded we should
/ have no right TO go on in this way. We are
positively corrupting people. We are bound to
think of that | can't help thinking of it,
Dora. 1t is reflection l ain unable to dismiss,
| and it sometimes makes me uneasy"
But, all, David Copperiield, why grieve the
child-wife any more! The Little Blossom y
has been too tenderly grown to bear the rough
| winds now Goodbye motherless bride oi
a disappointed lover! Goodbye, forever, to
his dream of snug and cheery home!
THE AMERICAN DORA
But we have no American Dora like this
| English Dora" think hear some one remark
! :" Our American girls are too independent and
full of resources for that"
/ No American Dora like this English Dora,
| forsooth. Whoever says so knows far better.
| They are all around US. You know them; /
know them; we can count them on our fingers
| one two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight
1
We leave of with the little finger of our right
hand and begin again with the little finger OF
the right hand. And SO we count and count
The difference with the American Dora is that
she generally has a mother-a woman who
tolls and struggles TO keep her daughter in lily
| handed idlenesS.
Whenever l see mother and daughter like
these / am reminded of little poem of Heine's
| which l translate from the German for the
girls who read THE TRIBUNE Maybe it will
be some comfort, In accordance with the theory
that misery loves company, to know that even
in industrious and frugal Germany-where
every girl who amounts to anything must
know how to cook and keep house-to know
that even there ara some foolish mothers and
helpless, indolent daughters.
MOTHER AND DAUGHTER.
IT'S Just the dreadfulest weather,
1t rains, II storms and il SHOWS;
My face and the pane together,
/ gaze as the darkness grows.
There. glinmers one wan light only,
Uncertain IL goes and slow;
With her lantern good vie lonely
Gropes over the street below.
1t is flower and eggs take it.
| And butter shes seeking there,
| To stir up cake and bake u
] For her daughter so plump and fair.
In her cushioned chair she is Iolling,
And sieepily blinks IN the light,
Her golden rngleis falling
Over her face 30 bright.
Here is a picture which everyone viii rec
ognize-the mistaken. induIgeut mother, tn.
misguided, foolish daughter What wondel
that so many homes are wrecked, that divorces
multiply, that the whole social fabric is shat
tered and tottering. There is not one girl il
fifty who is taught in the mysteries o
housewiicry when she takes upon hersei
the duties of a wife. Then she either set
ties down into c hopeless and helpless Dora
in a boarding house or an ill-kept un
Wholesome, f0rlorn establishment; or, at the cx
pense of bruised and burnt hands and nultitu
dinous wounds and notifications of the spirit
works out for herself the domestic problem
which, with safe and reliable guide, she Nigh
have learned so simply and with so little wea
and tear Of pride and patience. Experience is
rough mistress. She works according to tn
DarSinian law OF natural selection. So it j
that she so frequently trampies upon ant
crushes out the weak and irrcsolute; and so
IS that our Dora, conscious OF her own weak
nesses, cannot even so much as control ser
want, because, indeed, she knows enough +
know that her N istress E" is a goose"
TIE HOPELESS DORA.
Perhaps the most horeless specimen of Dor
is the girl who prides herself upon her igno
/ rance and ineificiency. i have such a Dora i
mind, who was married recently. She marrie
} a clerk or a small salary, a sensible man
who knew that the proper way for a youn
married pair to begin life was by going t
? housekeeping. Dora would not keep house
but her David insisted