Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1889-03-01

sive to herself. The dislike of women
for this kind of man is in the main well
grounded. The average man is, unfor-
t~unately. unable to make himself useful
in household work without making
himself, also, more or less a nuisance.
A question of this kind has, however,
many sides.
H WOMEN ARE RESPONSIBLE.
The ONE who are most jealous of
their prerogatives in theskitchen are not
always possessed of the best capacity for
maintaining them; and some of the most
perfect housekeepers the writer has ever
known, easy mistresses of the arts and
systems that make up the various de-
partments of household management
and industy, have been most indulgent
and appreciative of the efforts of hus-
band, son OF brother to help about the
house, eve encouraging original expert
ment along the lines which have brought
into being the scornful epithet above
quoted.
never spitefuliy ordered to LET things
alone" told to Keep out of my way
or requested to "mind their own bust
ness" because, in the first place, the
housewife respected herself too much to
use such expressions or their equivalents,
and because, in the second place, the men
had acquired such familiarity with the
ms and outs of the kitchen that they
were not likely to hinder rather than
help when they had occasion to turn
their hand to this, that or the other mat
ter of homework. This touches the
secret of the whole matter, and a little
thinking along this line will suggest a
query whether women are not, generally
speaking, to blame for the fact that the
average man is a nuisance in the
kitchen.
a mother carefully taught, her sons
many details of work usually considered
the sole province of girls and concerning
whichboys generally grow up in utter
ignorance. They washed and wiped
dishes, learned to prepare plain meals,
had practice in sweeping and busting
and putting to rights, and We're taught
to patch and darn neatly and to sew on
buttons. Some of them learned some
thing of the "higher branches" When
they went out into the world they had
frequent occasion to bless the mother
for these useful accomplishments; and
when they became heads of households,
they had an intelligent practical knowl-
edge OF the details of the work OF which
their wives had charge and were able to
make the burden easy in many ways
where another man would have made it
heavier.
THE REALLY GOOD HUSBAND.
No nan worthy of the name permits
his wife or any woman in his house to
perform the heavy drudgery of carrying
coal and wood, caring for furnaces ard
stoves, moving stoves or heavy furni-
ture, beating carpets, and SO on. But
this need not be the limit of a mans use
~fulness about the. house. There is no
reasonable reason why a man should not
be able to broil a steak, boil or bake POI
tatoes, cook an egg, make coffee or tea
and prepare other articles of food should
an emergency arise to make it desirable
(and such emergencies do often arise),
and do it too without turning the
kitchen and dining room topsy turvy in
the operation. Some men can and dc
accomplish such work, and even make
biscuits, griddle cakes and the like.
A woman whose husband is in the
habit of taking hold" when needed ir
homework has been heard to say thai
she would rather have him to depend OF
in case of indisposition or other emer
gency than any girl that could be hired
He does not interfere when there is NJ
cause for it.. but he saves labor for lii
4 wife and expense for himself, and b,
is not at all ashamed of doing it no
afraid to undertake it. No nan neee
be; rather, any mar should be ashamet
of unwillingness and should regret in
ability to perform any ordinary house
hold task on occasion.
Some men have or profess q horror o
all homework. 1t is often grounded il
~laziness. They will go to great expens
and trouble rather than turn their hand
to anything in the house, ever t 0 maxim,
a fire. The 'Bettys" do not come iron
that class. Neither are they recruite,
from the husbands OF common sense
tact and judgment, who know t'ho@ t
do thinks" and know when t 0 do then
and when to refrain. The genuin
: BETTY" is a genuine meddler, who's
zeal is without knowledge, whose helI
~fulness is without discretion, and who's
o~fficiousness and conceit neutralize wha
might be useful in his make up. Won
ankind is excusable for detesting him
Let her, however, accept these lines as
plea for Withholding the opprobriou
!, title from men who do not deserve il
and for an honest recognition of til
right usefulness of q properly taught an
, sensible nan about the house, and eve
! in the kitchen.-One OF the "Men Folks
/ in Good Housekeeping.
A Clock with Many Faces, b