Woman's chronicle. (Little Rock, Ark.) 1888-1???, 1888-12-01

ignorance or carelessness Of unskilled labor. 1t
means rather the wise supervision, the careful and
patient teaching, the ability to use the raw mate
rial (some Of it very raw ndeed) in producing the
finished result. 1t means the use Of brains, which
American women possess to an extraordinary de-
gree instead of muscle, which they lack quite as
.conspicuously
But necessity is hard mistress. When help is
scarce, the children numerous, the purse scanty
what can be done?
Thin out the work Decide for yourself what is
needful and what superduous. A large part of our
.so-called necessities are only concessions to our
neighbours. Make the table plain, which does not
mean untidy or with poorly cooked provisions OF
two dishes equally healthy and paatable choose
the one most easily prepared. Use more fruit as
God made it, and not torture it by canning and
jamning and preserving and jellying. True,
wise economy teaches not to waste anything and
the ''little leakages empty the barrel" But when
a woman cans herself with the berries, or dries up
her youth with the strings Of dried apples or eyap-
crates her own life in the sulphur fumes of her
,eyaporatng machine, it is a costly economy.
This thinning process need not stop with the
kitchen Keep clean for the sake Of health and
beauty, but not at the sacrifice of health and CON-
fort. Sometimes shut your eyes to a little HARM
less dust, or an inoffensive cobweb. Cleanliness
is next to goodness" know, but it is only next,
not first
PROCURE HELPS.
Again, if you cannot get help thin out your
work by getting helps. If you live in an age Of
invention improve your opportunity Ii your hus
band cuts his wheat with reaper, dispatches his
al of nd NV
steam provide yourself with a sewing machine,
wrnger, sausage cutter, an apple parer, an egg
beater-I had almost said dish-w washer, but be-
fore that terrible problem the inventive genus of
the age still stands appalled,. These things cost
money, but it is wise expenditure, and it is usu-
ally the wife who hesitates at these expenses partly
because she wants so much in other directions but
largely because of her inventive faculty, by which,
with or without tools, she accomplishes an under
taking while man is trying to prove that it can
not be done.
Thin out your work by making use Of whatever
Others can do for you better or with less outlay OF
strength than you can do for yourself For in
stance, why should a farmers wife make soap any
more than weave cloth? Certainly not for lack Of
knowledge in this age of advertisements that Ivory
soap has cleansing powers This may stand then
as representative Of large class OF employments,
any one of which may be done with ease and sue
cess by the average woman, but all Of which un-
dertaken by one pair Of hands constitutes the bur
den which is breaking down so many of u.s. Thin
them all out by making use of the products Of
others skill. Serve your country and diminish
the cry of overproducton, and be at the same time
better served yourself, with health and strength
and time left for higher purposes.
TRANSATLANTIC.
But how can we apply this process of thinning
to the higher and spiritual part of our work?
What most of us need here is not thinning, but
transplantng, to fill the vacant places But this
is no less an application Of our horticultural les
son. Why does some master Of the profession
prune choice apple tree this year on one side
only? Because he sees that the other side is
dwarfed He checks growth in one direction to