St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-10-21

title by real service. If her housekeep-
ing consists in welding a scepter of
authority and bidding one servant do
this. and another dOthat, the occasional
planning or meals and the criticiSing
the labOrS of those in her employ, the
question as to whether she can be well
dressed and we'll read is scarcely debat-
able. Unfortunately or otherwise,
housekeeping, to large proportion of
women, is a more serious matter and
OneTous responsibility than that. 1t
means late to bed and early to rise. with
no hour for morning. 1t means, in
many cases, no rest through the day
unless one chooses to call it rest to sit
down TO make new garments and repair
old Ones-and no rest in the evening eX-
cepting what one finds in knitting or in
a hasty review of the daily paper. 1t
means nursing the children through
chicken pOx. wuOoping cough, measles
aud other numerous ills that assail
them, and doing it without the services
of a trained nurse, or any Otner help
than that afforded by kind neighbOrS or
relatives. 1t means doing all this with
the added strain of eking out a narrow
income with growing wants as the years
90 by.
This is not the picture of an extreme
case. but is the daily routine of the av
erage woman who is tOlerably happy
(as married women gO) and who does not
acknowledge herself ill-uSed. One eX-
peTiences great admiration, not unmin-
gled with awe, for the New England
woman who taught her boys Latin, and
held with VigOr and skill her side of the
argument in abstruSe, deep problems.
while she sat in the kitchen preparing
al.1 ofbafva-tcp gapaflnr-incr har-
self in household work. She seems an
anomaly or freak of nature. We like
wise occasionally read of woman who
has mastered some vOluminOus
historical work while she was doing the
weekly family lrOnings, or Of
one who learned German verbs
while making cake or kneading bread.
We read of such women. bit who has
seen one. or tasted of the bread and
cake produced amid such intellectual
enVirOnment-indee who would have
the courage to taste it if he could?
Whether the woman who originated the
idea that it requires the sacrifice of
every other aim in life to be a good
hOusekeeDer" was one who found 1t
impossible to be anything but house
keeper. and used this argument to
cover mental deficiencies. she alone can
AClAs put IL ID nOl uuAlhCll thai civ fftAo
a woman with intellectual tendencies,
bound by a sense OF duty to wear her
self out in the mOnOtOnOuS life of busy
housekeeper. | can imagine her doing
her simple home duties in the best man
ner possible. making home where the
the husband liked to stay. and that the
children remembered with pleasure.
Think of her as one who chOked back
her own hunger for mental food and
tOiled that her children might have
what was denied her.
There are few conditions in which a
woman can be placed more deserving Of
sympathy than that of one to whom
household tasks are irksOme, but who
is bound by the iron bands Of cIrcnm-
stance. riveted with firm conscience,
to spend her best years and strength IN
the drudgery of kitchen. Yet how
many women do it without thought of
calling themselves herOinesl Occa-
SiOnaliy a woman with little physical
strength and highly wrought sensi-
bilities rebels against her fate. and,
looking ahead through the long years
that afford no release from what she
chooses to consider her thraidOm, is
crushed in spirit and purpose. l know
of one such. who IN the pain and weak
ness of what proved her last illness,
said: Il hate the farm. l hate house
work. don't want to try TO liYe;" and
she did not try, but cOntentediy slipped
into the arms of deaf
Life is too short and time too preciOns
to be all passed in the kitchen-granted;
but in the present social system there
seems no escape from such a fate for
many women. TOO little credit is
usually accorded Martha of Bethany,
who was troubled about many things.
Ministers of the gospel and philosO-
piers are fond of presenting, as a
character fit for emulation. that OF the
sweet and placid Mary, and casually
dropping a word of rebuke regarding
Martha. forgetting or ignoring the fact
that. if it were not for the MarthaS of
the world. the MaryS would be unable
to live on the spiritual heights. Every
well kept house needs 4 Martha to min
lister TO the material welfare of-its in
mates, be they artists. poets, philOsO-
pliers or what not. Even Emerson had
to decend from the atmosphere of tran
sendalism to eat pie, and theOsOphistS
have to nOJriSh their material bodies
with material substance. Let US be
thankful that there are still some
simple, old-fashioned hOuSekeeperS,
who. though they are not well read and
we'll dressed, are very useful members
of society.
ALICE J. BRONSON.