The Iola register., 1889-09-20
HAPPY HOME LIFE,
A Just Valuation of q woman's Duties and
Responsibilities.

A just Valuation of a Woman's Duties and
Responsibilities.
In the modern fury for culture
there is danger that the good old-fash-
ioned accomplishments. which are the
foundation of all healthy and happy
home life. may fall into disrepute.
This will not happen among women
with broad and evenly developed minds,
although. strangely enough, it is they
who are credited with holding in con-
tempt those duties which nature has
imposed upon womanhood. Fiction is
full of Jellabys, but society can nullify
the satire with an array of homes pre-
sided over by accomplished women.
who look we'll to the ways OF their
households. and yet have time to con-
slider the needs of the ignorant, the
destitute and the unfortunate.
Within the past ten years there has
been profound inquiry into all that per-
tains to correct living. and this en-
bodies wholesome food and simplified
clothing. Ground has been gained
from which the women of the future
will not recede. but from which they
will continue to advance.
This has been accomplished by wom-
en- who have thought and who have
been able to suggest and plan upon a
basis OF personal experience. And
with these the smallest details OF house,
keeping and home making are never
trivial. All the tasks that seem petty
and menial. the scrubbing and scour-
ing, the cooking, the making and
mending, are accepted as necessary
factors in the solution Of the compli-
Gated problem of life. 1t is only the
pretendcr to intellectual superiority
who holds homely responsibilities in
contempt, and who can not realize the
satisfaction which lies in doing the
smallest task as we'll as it possibly can
be done. To be the promoter Of clean
illness and order, to train children to
habits Of punctuality, neatness. faith
fulness and obedience, sending them
into the world to multiply and perpetu-
ate these influences, is to add some-
thing noble and permanent to civiliza-
ton. The intellectual slattern. the
smatterer of French and belle lettres.
naturally sights what she considers
the prosaic routine of housework. But
it is because she is mentally incapable
of realizing and appreciating its dignity
and Importance. 1t is infinitely better
to bake loaf OF wholesome bread than
write trite essay; and Ito sweep
room as by Gods grace" is perform
ance infinitely more praiseworthy
than to grind out dozen
lame and impotent verses. It
will be found that the major
ity OF women who have succeeded in
professions and in literature have sue
ceeded just as fully in that life. seclud-
ed from the world. and OF which it has
only glimpses now and then. And they
themselves do not rank the less famous
success second to that which the public
knows of and has approved. They
realize that in human life nothing Is
valueless; that every act word, thought
or deed has good or evil significance
and results that, whatever they may,
are ineffaceable and imperishable.
Only one in millions is chosen to be
the central figure Of great crisis-the
thinker, the planner. the leader. The
career of the majority, which COM
prises the brilliant, the commonplace,
and the mediocre. the richly and the
meagerly endowed, is made up of or
binary achievements. The real phi
losophy of life lies in accepting this
condition, and making the common
place beautiful and complete in the
manner Of the doing.-Chicago Inter
Ocean.