Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-12-26
THE SCIENCE OF NOMINATING
BY LEoRA b. ROBINSON.
| Copuriahked, 1851

lCoDyri0hked, 1851
Not every woman is born to be house
keeper. While the world stands there
will be women TO paint, to sing, to teach,
to write, and women to make crazy
qullts--idle women and women OF bus
mess, wise women and foolish women,
beauties and drudges, old maids and
mothers, and women good for nothing
under the sun. There will be art galleries
and printing shops, schools and factories,
homes and hotels, bathrooms and
churches, theatres and libraries, business
houses and club rooms, houses to suit all
occupations and women to suit all occupa-
tions. The house, the woman and the
work should all fit.
To shut up every woman in q dwelling
house and make OF her an animated broom
ana dustpan is to abuse great many
women and ruin great many houses.
But though woman may hold in her
hand pen tipped with the fire OF genius,
or brush that paints her name IN glory,
or a chisel that carves hSr fame among
the everything great-the woman who
makes her home the perfect home for those
who are OF her family is the one that does
the best thing any woman can do. Work
aud rest are the enforced conditions of
life. Men must work, and home should
be for them above all things a place OF
rest. 1t must be, then, a place of bodily
comforts and mental cheer. 1t must be
place OF order and quietness. IL should
be cleanly place. Scolding and ill-tem-
per and complaining spoil the spirit of
any home. For home is not q substance
thing; ID Is an essence. True house.
keeping consists not only in cleaning
things but in keeping them clean. Still,
there IS such a thing as keeping house
too anXiously. Cleanliness that forbids
freedom Is an evil. There are those who
will not let trees grow about their house
because they shed their leaves. know
woman who calls up the members OF her
family to measure their finger prints
when she detects such marks on her
window glass or wood work. l knew q
man who to his dying day never stepped
| on a door sill, but always carefully over
it, so strong did the impression remain
with him OF his mothers rigid housekeep-
ing.
Homemaking must be cooperative
business. The responsibility of 1t does
not dev0lve entirely on the woman. 1t is
something no woman can do alone. Ii 10
the husband that gives tone to the dwell
ing. A good fatherly man that likes petit
ing ard loves to pet others fills the house
with love. The morose man who scowls
and growls or who wraps himself up in
his seltehness and scares his family
away from him invites into his dwelling
the train OF evil humors that follow his
own Miniature. The mother may try TO do
her part faithfully; but If she has to be n
hypocrlte TO her children in order to
shield her husbands faults, the home is a
mockery and the memory OF 1t pain.
In matters of propriety and manners 1t
is hopeless unless the twain be like
| minded. The woman may urge upon her
! children the observance OF good manners,
| but II their father persists in doing i'll
hammered things every good lesson to the
| children Is repr0ach 10 him. In
material matters as well, no woman can
keep house unless her husband let's her.
defy any woman that has not command
| OF funds TO make home. Ii IL is but half
her husbands income and she has con-
troll of 1t the evidence will be seen in the
beauty of her Housekeeping; but II abe
has to beg like pauper for every dollar
| she will have only contracted view of
| the domestic horizon, and the need of the
moment Will absorb the dollar. Ii the
husband holds the pocketbook snap
under his thumb it will be impossible for
the wife 10 be a good wife. The woman
must be made responsible, she must have
an outlook; she must have a
chance. Solomon gives US a picture of
his ideal woman and she has her hus-
bands financial confidence. She is a
woman With plans and resources and
means to work with. Her husband trusts
her; she plants vineyard; she buys q
field when she has considered it; she
works willingly with her hands but she
does not abuse herself; she makes herself
strong and strengthens her arms. An
honest trader, she looks to see that what
She sells Is good economical, she can afford
to be charitable, and she stretches out her
hand to the poor. She does not wait for
tramps to come begging. She does not
forget her own appearance, but sees to it
that she has the finest Of clothing. Her
husband co-operates with her In the
maintenance OF her state, and he Is known
In the gates and Is himself one of the
dignitaries. Her speech shows wisdom
and the law OF her tongue Is to speak kind
ness; she looks to the ways of her house (;
she is not so busy with her boarding or
sewing, or reading Or dressing, or buying
or selling, that she has not time TO look
after the ways of her husband and chill
dren. Her children bless her In their
hearts and her husband praises her; he
tells her for her sake all women are good
in his eyes but she excels them all.
And Solomon sums 1t all up in the wise
counsel: "Give her of tba fruits of her
hands ana let her own works praise
her."
"Rough on Rats"