Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-10-09
In WOMAN'S BEHALF.
WOMAN,S HOME IDEA.

Sometimes Attains.
A woman hovers around the ide;
of home like a moth around candle. /
fixes her with its gaze, as serpent fxe'
bird. She has to be poor indeed-poo
in spirit as we'll as in pocket-if the in
tention to establish home for hersel
does not fit before her, shining nov
with steady light, paling at intervals a!
the prospect grows remote and dim, bu'
never entirely dying out until death re
moves her to that other home, her be
lief in which has possibly sustained heI
in her earthly expectations. 1t is the
| characteristic of such women as car
form no conception of happiness which
they hope against hope. As soon as one
expectation is killed another rises in It's
| place. Or, to vary the smile, hope,
with them, is Argus eyed and Briarean;
you can not render it blind and helpless
at stroke.
What are the attractions of this home,
which is the center of woman's hearth
1t would be foolish to claim that a hus-
band always enters it, for he does not,
although it is true that many husband
is oftener at home in Imagination than
in reality. Home and husband may be
exchangeable terms in the fancies of a
young girl, but we are not talking of the
day-dreams which visit the heart of the
average girl, but of the desire and the
determination so frequently met with in
women of the middle and lower classes
women who very often have to strug-
gle for a living-to create home for
themselves and their children, for their
children more than themselves, where
every comfort and delight shall exist
that can be comprised by their en-
deavor.
What, 1 say, is at the root of this
home idea? In many cases the woman
who cherishes it is compelled by the
slenderness of her resources-or Of her
husbands if she have one-to contem-
plate herself as the chief worker. II
she is not actually the bread-winner, she
is forced, when her home-idea is even
partially carried out, to work just as
hard as though she were, if not harder.
If she is obliged to live in fat, without
though she rise at six in the morning
and retro at ten at night. The good
housewife will tell you that there is
always something to do" and without
that over-zealous pertinacity which
makes some housewives the scourge of
the domain over which they preside. II
she have servant-one of these incap-
able beings who, by mysterious par
adox of language, denominated "help"
she is at once plunged into an inferno
in which the question, SIS life worth
living" might be instantly answered in
the negative. And, as rule, the more
servants she has the worse the inferno
becomes, unless she is exceptionally
lucky. To this dictum nine out of ten
of those women who are brought person
ally into contact with their servants
wealth enables them to interpose .
housewife between them and their do
mestics, they know nothing about it;
and the housewife, if questioned, would
answer that the idea of a home is of
place where the work can be done by
and the word servant is I'M
known.
Are we forced then to conclude that
the reason why woman clings so OBJ
to the home-idea is because it
to her Imagination a realm
where she can rule and reign? Does
she like to think that her word is law
there? Her slightest reflection will
show her that she mistakes. Unless
she is very wonderful woman, or a
woman of very unusual experiences, her
word is not law, either when her hus-
band is there or when he isn't. When
he is at home he is not apt to forget
that his house is his castle-you may
say if you choose that his fiat is his for
tress-and when he is not at home he is
apt to leave the impression of his au-
thority lingering in the air. You can
perceive it, just as you can tell he has
been smoking in the parlor. The bou-
Iuet of masculinity is in the atmos-
phere, just as the flavor of tobacco is in |
the air.
If a woman does not have her way |
with her husband still less does she |
have it with her servants and her chill |
iren. The spirit of our institutions"
IS on the side of hired help in this coun-
Try, and it is the ''help" who have their |
OWN way and not those who pay good |
wages in the despairing hope of getting |
good work. AS for children, when you |
compare the number of well-mannered |
and fairly-obedient children with those |
whose behavior shows not the slightest |
.aste of good breeding, and to whom any |
hing like a decent response for their |
elders would be totally new idea, it is |
'eadily seen that the woman who basks |
n the heavenly idea of home surrounds |
herself with a golden dream which |
has no exact counterpart in |
eality.
But delusive as this dream may be, II |
We dissect it further we shall perhaps |
zee that quality of unselfshness which |
so many of the acts of good |
yoman's life. The differences we have
been making must not be taken in too |
,essimistic and universal sense. There |
ire many homes-many, when taken in |
he lump by themselves, few when con-
rasted with the whole number of homes |
that may fairly be described as happy, |
nd that are made so mainly by the |
of the women who are |
heir comfort. The reason of this hap |
,iness, when it exists, is to be found in |
he usefulness with which this woman |
avs herself out to provide for the hap
,iness Of the others.
In that enterprise no work is too hard |
hat she is able to perform. When she
s mending the clothes that have just
'een laundried-useful work, which |
makes one to say so much in so little