Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1889-11-14
HoME.MAKlNe INSTINCT.
The Way in Which 1t Is Exemplifed
Town and Country Women.

The Way In Which 1t Is Exemplifed In
Town and Country Women.
There was a pathetic story in an old
school reader of a poor, homesick beaver
that was captured on the shores of his
native stream and carried off to city
by an experimenting naturalist. 1t was
shut up in a room and given piece OF
wood wherewith to amuse itself. Forth
with its natural instinct asserted itself;
it began at once to construct dam out
of the material supplied it, and labored
for days industriously, if in vain. The
world is full of women of this sort, ex-
cept that the outcome of their efforts is
more tangible than that of the animal
intent upon dam-building. The cities,
and even the country, are full of homes
which women have contrived out of the
meagerest materials. Aman on a small
salary accepts the dreary hall bedroom,
fourth floor back, with logged submits
sion, considering his quarters part
and parcel of his hard luck. Its
dinginess grows dingier; old boots,
soiled clothing, crumpled newspapers,
burnt matches, and disreputable pipes
intensity its dreariness, and the smell of
stale tobacco-smoke is over it all. He
looks at the dusty chaos hopelessly. He
knows that every thing is at SKIES and
sevens, but the instinct to adorn and
arrange is not born in him and he can
only be helplessly miserable. Of course
there are exceptions-to be studied on
shlpboard, in army quarters, and else
where where men have absolute sway.
But there the cleanliness and precision
are plainly exact. The general express
sion is not homelike, but reminds one of
the regulated and supervised system
which prevails in benevolent and penal
institutions. The woman, as a rule,
takes possession of her shabby apart
ment and Immediately looks about her
to see what improvements are prac-
ticable. The torn wallpaper is neatly
mended; the carpet is patched or darned
until the bad places hardly show" A
few yards of cretonne furnish pretty
customs, table covers, and curtains for
the cupboard, where her cooking uten-
sils are slowed away, and concealed.
With piece of paSteboard she cOntrives
work basket and paper holder.
The windows are washed and pol
ished until they shine. Her few
poor little treasures, prints and photo
graphs. the bric-a-brac bought at the
cheap counters of the great house-fur-
nishing esta Adjustments are carefully ar
ranged, and the place that before was
dreary and shabby is converted into
something decidedly attractive. 1t be-
came snug, CHEEKY little nest, toward
which the occupant hurries eagerly
after the long day in which She has
stool behind the counter, or piled her
needle in the crowded work-room of a
fashionable dressmaking shop. 1t is
here that she rests, reads and dreams
those day dreams that fill the hearts of
women of all classes and conditions.
The same instinct frequently mani
tests itself in new countries. after the
wife joins her husband in the home to
which he had preceded her. Floors are
secured, windows are neatly curtained,
bright rag carpet is made for the sit
ting-room floor, flowers bloom in the
front yard and vines Chamber over the
front door, touches of sweetness and
homely comfort springing up under her
magical hand. 1t is to labor like this
that women have devoted their minds
and energy, and if their genius has not
yet found expression in the highest
forms of art and science, they have re-
deemed the waste places of the world
and have made the wilderness blossom
as the rose.-Chicago Inter-Ocean.