Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-12-28

rise early and 20 to bed late, sit W
a-night to patch Johnnie's trousers, and
| get up ia the morning to give an extra
sweeping to the parlor aud 20 gain a few
minutes to put up the curtains or to clear
out the closets? For che does do al
these things. The great majority of
American women are hardworking
painstaking housekeepsrs, who give
the msslves up after marriage to their
| homes and children In an entire self
sacrificing way. They do all this work
| for the father and children that the
| family may be comfortable aud live
happily together.
Then let the housekeeper pause and
| consider the question as to whether she
| does not sometimes "housekesp'' too
much.
The sitting room is for the comfort
| and delight Of the family. But il the
| sitting room is SO fashionably furnished
or even so pain fully clean and orderly
that the family cannot move or seat
themselves on chair without warnings
to be careful not to disarrange any
thing, what has the housekeeper accom-
pl!shed? She has made the family SO
uncomfortable and unhappy that it were
better for them to sit in the coal cellar
and that the sitting room were cast into
the depths of the sea.
II her mother works early and late to
EN- broider and bedizen Katie's new
dress, so that the child may present q
good appearance before other children,
and when poor Katie in the new dress
wishes to enjoy herself she is continually
snubbed and headed off from all her
pleasure that the new dress may be kept
in fine state, it were better to hang
Katie's dress on a hook and display il to
the company and put the child into a
calico apron.
How often q mother, with the best in
tentions, will turn off the baby who tries
to climb into her lap, because she is so
hard at work finishing an article OF
clothing for him that she has no time to
stop to give him love or attention! And
which will do him the most good? She
will hurry to make cookies or pies, or to
concoct some particularly troublesome
dish for dinner; or she will dust and
clear up the room yet another time be-
fore night, after which the children
have to sit down in careful stiffness, lest
they should "muss it up" again; and it
this extra pains aud trouble only results
in unhappiness aud seedlings and general
discomfort for the children in shrinking
Wv VI thC way HucuCVCE
appears, for fear they should be run
down and chided for being there, what
reward has she? Does the careless and
untidy housekeeper do worse?
Do not vex your soul and ruin your
temper, dear housekesper, by going at q
brsakneck pace all the time in the ever
lastingly vain effort to get Through
You never can "get through '-not I'M
til you get through altogether. There
always is and always will be plenty OF
work-jnst ahead. II is we'll to recog-
nize the fact, and better still to look ct
it honestly, soberly and in the fear of no
man. Do all you can in one day, every
twenty-four hours. Don t try to do to-
morrow's work, too, and take time each
day to make tho day pleneanter one
because you are there. Small comfort
to Johnnie that his hat and coat are I'm
ishsd day sooner than you expected IL
the extra days work remains forever q
memory in grIeved little heart. The
hat and coat may wear out and fade
away.
If the housekeeper could always keep
distinctly in her mind this great truth,
that in the housekeeping-the cooking,
the sweeping and sewing, and even the
house and furniture itself-is only |
means to the grand end, tina. it is meant |
only to contribute to the welfare and |
growth of the family, she would get hold |
of her life aud consider her work in a |
more simple, direct way than many |
housekeepers seem to do. The family |
does not exist for the glorifcation and |
well being of the house; il is the house |
that exists for the well being of the |
family. /. the house and furniture |
efnulH hnrn down tina lifa |
and work would still go on, and the
home could be made as happy and COM
piete somewhere else.