Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1885-01-15
APPROVED FOLLIES.
BY MARY SIDNEY IN FARM JOURNAL.

III NY ldSI dIIlClc my I6IndTkS were
directed more especially to actions of
men. 1t would become me now, per-
haps, to train my batteries upon my
own side of the house, for by going a.
round with doubled barr sled micro
scope, one can detect several things a.
mong our lovely sex that must be call
ed follies, though they do SEEN to meet
with general approval.
There is no class of women, probably,
who have better faculty for making
home uncomfortable than the real nice
woman. They are looked upon as be-
ing most estimable, industrious wc-
men. good hosekeepers. models OF pro-
priety, and stay home ana attend to
their own business in commendable
way indeed they have no time to go
anywhere for the sake of sociability, or
take hand in any work in the interest
of humanity, for the stove wants black
ing, there are some spoons and dippers
awful dirty that must be secured, and
tho back yard has not been cleaned up
for three days, maybe four. To 60 ipto
the house of one of these nice women
makes one feel like miserable slattern;
and in nine cases out of ten, you catch
the complaint, and go home and set to
scrubing and polishing up thirgs, de-
termined that hereafter you will live as
clean as other folks.
One of these patterns in n neighbor-
hood is enough to leaven the whole
batch. Fortunately, their influence Is
confined TO narrow circle; they can
not leave the dish cloth long enough TO
make many acQuaintances; and so there
are many men to-day walking in the
house with their boots on. who would
not be permitted such privilege were
their wives more frequently subjected
to these spotless examples.
once saw woman get up from her
needle-work and 60 with dust-pan and
brush to sweep up the dirt her husband
had just made in trimming and clean
ing his finger nails. Pleasant for man
to see his wife so attentive; but if was
the man l would give her scope for her
industry. would not trim more than
one nail at time, and thus let her
have ten sweeps instead of only one
she would feel more scriptural, more
mindful OF the day of small thin gs than
by such wholesale work as brushing up
after the fingers and thumbs OF two
whole hands at once.
1t is no uncommon. thing to find those
housekeepers who are so excessively
neat and nice in some particulars, just
the reverse, if not to say filthy in 9TH
ers. In houses where dust dare not
settle, nor flies light +; where clothes are
washed before they are dirty, and ey.
erything else done prematurely on the
principle that we eat sometimes to keep
from getting hungry, one often finds
parlors, halls, and spare rooms shut up
tight, with an odor Of must about them;
sunlight and pure air carefully exclud-
ed, indeed every room in the house SO
shaded that it is impossible to draw a
ife-giving breath in them. Houses
should be made without windows for
some women. They know no use for
windows except to wash and hang with
curtains. With them windows are an
invention of Satan to fade carpets, and
they out-wit his majesty by closing
them up. A little more or less typhoid
and malaria in the family will pass for
a dispensation of Providence, that can
be put up with but faded upholstery
will be laid to the housekeeper's bad
management, land she'll haYe none of it.
I have been in houses where bedrooms
and even water closets Were aired from
the inside, instead of out; where it was
deemed sufficiently women to leave
the doors open leading into halls, while
the halls themselves had little or no es-
cape for foul air. This is tidihess with
with a vengeance This, too, from
housekeepers who are apt to be caught
with their cellar steps dirty and a
loose shawl or hat lying around outside.
Yes, there are great many women
who pass for models, but who are really
murderesses. They don't kill with an
assassin's knife or bullet, but by slow
torture. They are not amenable to law,
[they ought to bel nor do they even
know themselves the work they are en-
gagged in, but the fact remains, NEVER
theleSS.
Woman's education embraces every
thing but what she most needs. Does
anyone imagine for moment that
there would be such fearful mortality
among infants if the mothers did their
duty? Does anyone suppose there
would be such an array of puny chill
dren, if they were properly cared for ?
Go into a public school and examine
the,dinner kettles of the children-ple,
cake, doughnuts, &c., tell tale. Go
into boarding school and into the bed
rooms; explore in closets, drawers. SLY
boxes and hidden places, and it will
almost give you the nightmare to con-
template the pickles, sardines, candies,
and general sweet meats that are sent
tLoro h., tl,o door bind nOthora for their