Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-24
WATCH THE KITCHEN.
A Good Place for the Young Mechanic
Who is Hunting a Wife
is SOME RICH MANS BACK FENCE.
The Good Wives Rarely Come From the
Factories and the Stores.
JOYS AND WOES OF Welded LIFE
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH,

WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPATCH.l
Marriage is the summit of the average
girls ambition, and, alas, how often the
ambition is grati6ed at the cost of every
thing that makes life worth living. Desir-
able as 1t may be to be coupled to one of the
''lords of creation" one cannot help peep
ing into some of the homes of poverty. dirt
and squalor, and wondering what there is
about it that max marriage so enhancing.
There are thousands of so-called homes in
this land where women toll from the rising
of the sun to the setting of the same for
naught on earth but their daily bread and
the few rags which cover their attenuated
bodies. Before entering this enchanting
state, many of them scorned the idea of
earning an honest living in domestic life,
with some family where comfort and luxury
even might be theirs. mo indeed; what,
me live out? Never"
Every reader of The DISPATCH will
recognize this picture. Rather stand In
store or work in a factory all through the
weary day, living in cheap lodgings or in
some thread-bare home in back alley, than
take her meals in clean, neat and cheerful
kitchen. 1t is true, "there's no place like
home," and, looking into some of them, I
thank God there isn't.
Brings Out the Sour Side.
Thousands of American girls spend their
days under circumstances which give them
no experience in the culinary art. When
they are married the sour part of the hus-
bands nature soon begins to manifest itself
under the stimulus of ill-cooked food and
slatternly housekeeping. A little while.
and the bloom departs from the cheek, the
brightness from the eye, the ightness from
the step, while puny, unkempt children
make confusion worse confounded. Such q
home has little charm for the average man.
He is apt to make contrasts. in which, if his
wife has no domestic qualifications, or only
such as those described, she suffers by the
comparison.
What is there about domestic work thatit
belittles our young women more than any
other kind of employment? If young men
knew as much before marriage as they find
out after, there would be different state Of
affairs I imagine. If I were a mechanic
and desired to find suitable wife, would
rather try my luck over the area railing of
some rich mans mansion than hang around
a drygoods store or a factory, waiting for a
wan and weary girl whose head is always
aching, and who IL always tired. Rather
the red hand of domestic industry than the
cold and clammy digits of one whose per-
petual round of toll robs life of its brightest
sunshine and saps away Its young vitality.
Which is the most irksome, to stand all the
ive-long day behind a counter, beneath the
argus-eyed gaze of snobbish floor walker,
mn 0f dau hu OF
cratic customers, or to be queen of some
kitchen, where, though not seeing or seen so
much, the work is not so hard, and where
she is preparing to fill some workingman's
home with bright, glad sunbeams?
A Wronged Woman.
There are people who are ever pitying
lonely old maids. 1t is the fashion to Carl
cature them. Many times the facetious
scribbler does q cruel wrong in this direc-
tion.- That there are Grabbed old maids
from whose presence it is not irreverent to
exclaim, "Good Lord, deliver us, do not
deny, but they are few and far between.
Almost every family has its maiden aunt or
sister. Nine times out of ten she is an
angel in disguise, like the blessed Master,
"going about doing good" You will fud
pillows, soothing aching brows and cooling
fevered lips, many a time rocking some
other woman's baby to sleep while she lies
with the shadow of death lowering near.
Think you that such life is purposeless
one, or that heaven does not smile upon her
labors of love? Time out of mind have I
met this character. She is entitled to re-
spect and honor. Denied the intimate COM
panionship of man, knowing not the joys of
motherhood, her hearts best instincts find
their outlet in deeds OF kindly love and self.
sacrifice for the good of others. Which is
the better life, this, or that of the slovenly,
lounging, aimless and insipid wife and
mother whose children advertise her negli-
gence, and whose husband goes to his home
when every other place of resort is closed
against him.
Women on the Farm.
One of our greatest poets has ventured TO
assert that there are circumstances ON earth
which cause the angels in heaven to weep.
While am not sufficiently versed in angel
ology to corroborate or deny such an asser-
tion, am sure that if they can they do weep
when they get glimpse into the homes of
some OF our farmers wives. I am dealing
with exceptions now, and in this case I am
AFRAID tnere are not enough rules to
cover the exceptions. With the rising of
the sun, and often long before, the DAVIS
labor begins. The farmers wife is frequently
the first to arise. Before the gray mist of the
morning clears her lord and master and all
the little lords must have their breakfast.
Amid the fumes of fat and the splutter of
griddle cakes she gets her morning bath of
perspiration. When all other appetites are
satisfied hers frequently is too, although
she has not tasted mouthiul. She has
breathed enough of the breakfast through
her open pores to satisfy natures cravings.
In comes the mornings milk before she has
gulped down a cup of coffee. 1t must be at
tended to. As she strains and fixes it she
hears the melodious voices Of horde of
hungry little pigs crying for their share.
All around the Kitchen door the famishing
chickens are cackling and fighting over
some silly worm that has gotten up too early
in the morning. The children must be
gotten ready for school, and their dinners
packed.
But what is the use of multiplying words?
So it goes all the day, from one years end to
another. This.is the lot of thousands of wo-
men. They delve and work and scheme
and patch and save and darn all through
life, and when, finally, nature gets up re-
bellion and the cold grave receives the NOR
tai remains of the tired wife and mother, it