Thomas County cat., 1890-06-12

S{A = ing everywhere. Was
| not one of our most re-
spected poets either a superficial OBJ
server OF mundane affairs, or else
guilty of willful as we'll as fragrant
anachronism in fixing the melancholy
days in November; for is it not now, in
the bright spring days, when earth,
and air, and sky, and all the innumer-
able voices of rejoicing. animate Gre
alton call upon us to rejoice and Joy
in existence, that the tidy housewife
particularly revels in happiness and
house-cleaning?
If there is lover of his kind who
would deserve the undying remem-
brance and gratitude of generations
unborn, let him invent some way by
which these semi-annual turmoils may
be avoided, and yet that cleanliness,
which is part of and which some
housewives think more of than godi-
ness, be maintained. There is bright
side to every picture, house-cleaning
! not excepted-it is a good time to 60
a-fshing. It is useless, however, to
argue matter that was incontroverti-
BILE countless generations ago, that,
while the general depravity of mani
mate things remains, and misplaced
matter continues to be dirt, house
cleaning is one of the inevitables of
ife-a necessary evil, and sore one
while it lasts. Accepting, then. this
atflctlOn, which Is by no means means
of grace, as inevitable, it only remains
to devise some means of mitigating it,
to discover how hOuse-cleaning may be
accomplished with the least possible
mental, moral, and physical friction.
Habit may become second nature to
us, so that We account the means to an
er1l of more importance than the end
itself. For instance, the childless old
man straining every nerve to scrimp
and save for spendthrift heirs to squan-
der. In his youth he intended, by
hard work and careful boarding of
his earnings--a very laudable ambi-
tion-to become well-to-do, and enjoy
life during its gathering shades; but
with the habit of saving has grown an
impossibility of enjoyment in any 9th
er direction.
In striving to attain the immaculate
ness of our dwellings it is quite pos
sible to allow the labor so to accumu-
late as to be disproportionate to the
end to be gained. In the multitud-
'inous and complex processes of house
wifery, particularly in all its routine in
the country, it is especially easy to
allow the means to an end to over
shadow and swallow up that end.
Our grandmothers used to boast of
their achievements as measured by the
amount of spinning or weaving they
could do; but mind, not muscle, has
invented machinery which ightens
household as we'll as other duties, Civ
ing increased time and opportunities
for leisure, improving the mind, and
pleasure.
Loftier and more ennobling themes
than occupied the minds of our gran
dams should interest and occupy the
feminine mind of this age and century;
but instead there is novel-reading,
house-cleanings, more abundant fancy
work-making holes in cloth and sew
ing them up again-of which l cannot
forbear to say that, if all this wretched
child's play that women call fancy
work could at once be blotted It of
their existence it would be an in, leu
liable blessing our women would have
fewer aches of back and head. and, last
ly, but by no means leastly. less gossip,
the evils of which shall discuss at an
other time-that conversational venom
that blights everything with which it
comes in contact and paralyzes all the
finer sentiments God has so bountlfully
provided for mankind.
Some few weeks ago Twas talking to
lady acquaintance concerning the
legal features of certain acts of her
friend, for whom she was endeavoring
to procure an endowment, when she said
"A fig for legality" And this ex-
preston from a model housewife,
thrifty mother, and, withal, a cute
Yankee as she was told of the
legal aspects of an important business
matter, because of legal formality
having been invalidated. Neverthe-
less she delighted to recount minutely
and by the hour the precise manner in
which she washed her cellar stairs,
and how beautifully they looked when
done, showing the extent to which the
nobler and higher sentiments we're be-
ing developed and what was uppermost
in the mothers mind.
NEW ALBANY Ind