Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-06-17
WOMAN'S HARDER PART.
HER DAILY LIFE coNTRASTED WITH
THAT OF HER HUSBAND.


1t seems to be accepted as fact that wo-
man in contrast with man is far the weak
er The reasons for it are not quite clear,
and perhaps to frequent repetition it owes
its greatest force. In the matter of brute
strength certainly to women must be given
second place, but when it comes to endur-
ance, which is scarcely separable from
strength, in many situations in life she
would most assuredly show herself able to
bear far heavier burdens than man. Prob
ably nowhere else is this truth as apparent
as in the sickroom. There man and woman
meet on an equal footing, neither having
any advantage And it is there that she
proves that instead of being the weaker she
is infinitely the stronger and more endur-
ing.
Let a wife be taken i'll, and for twenty
four hours the husband is untiring in his
devotion, and very likely he scarcely leaves
her bedside. The second day finds him
still at his post but he is beginning to
weaken; even the loss Of one nights sleep
has nearly broken him up" But the
third day he is comparatively a wreck, and
ready to yield his place as nurse to any one
who will fill it.
Not so, however, with the wife when he
is ill. Day after day and night after night
she hangs over him, never for a moment
thinking of intrusting him to the care of
another. If she sleeps, it is in her chair by
his bedside while he doses. She scarcely
lies down, and perhaps for weeks and
weeks only removes her clothes for a
change of linen. And yet she never seems
to tire; and as matter Of fact, many frail
women seem actually to gain strength
when exposed to such hardships. The
world may accept that woman is the
weaker, but no physician who has been
long in practice will be convinced that
such is the case.
MAN AND WIFE COMPARED.
Man compares with woman as does cast
iron with steel. He is strong, and yet is
comparatively easily shattered, whereas
you can bend her, you can put her to tests
which would, figuratively speaking, pull
verize him, and yet you cannot 'break her
up.n Take her outside of the sick room
She is-at least many married women are
up first in the morning. She builds the
fires and makes breakfast ready Before
the table can be Cleared Off her children
must be scrubbed combed etc., for school
With them out of the house, unless there
is baby in the family-and there almost
always is one in the home of every poor,
overworked woman-she has breathing
spell. But it cannot last long, for there
are the dishes to wash, the kitchen to
tidy" the chamber work to do, and when
these and other customary duties are per.
formed it is time to get dinner. That
ought to be off the table and ''things put
away" by 2 or half past 2, and then she has
reached her first opportunity to rest.
But she does not rest, although she may
think she does, for she generally sews until
supper time and returns to her sewing
after supper dishes are cleared away, and
she is not likely to lay aside her needle I'M
til bedtime comes. But this is the routine
work of only about one day in the week
Very likely Monday is washing day, and on
Tuesday there is the ironing to do. We'd
nesday is one of the cooking days with al
most all women. Thursday is the day we
have partially described, and is called the
easy day. Friday the broom must be called
into special service and a general sweeping
takes place. Saturday is one of the hardest
days in the week, while Sunday-the day
of rest for man and beast-fnds the wife
and mother still on duty for the greater
part of it at least.
WE STYLE WOMEN WEAK.
We have given but bare idea of the COM
mon experiences of about three-fourths of
all our women with themit is work, work,
day in and day out, with scarcely mo-
ment which they can call their own in
fact, they work about sixteen hours day
Husbands, on the other hand, consider
even ten hours at bench, at the counter or
desk too long for them, and really only feel
equal to eight hours day. Night finds
them tired and worn, and the evenings
must be spent in recuperating. On half
time on Saturdays, and Sundays there be-
ing absolutely nothing for them to do,
they, somehow or other, manage to pull
themselves together" by Monday, so as to
take up their burdens again. The many
holidays in the year help them out consid
erably; so they are enabled to bear the
strain.
And we style woman weak, while man Is
our ideal of strength. Could anything be
more absurdp Let the average woman
change places with her husband, and she
would be widow in few years. Yet not
only in health does woman show her supe-
riority over man in the way of strength and
endurance, but it is the same in disease
Attacks which man is likely to succumb to
are less likely to prove fatal in woman.
Perhaps in consumption, rs well as any
other malady, is the fact apparent 1t is
safe to say that, take man and woman
in the early stage of lung disease, and if
one attack be of the same severity as the
other the woman will outlast the man by
many months, and possibly by years.
One case which the writer recalls we'll
illustrates this fact. 1t is that of woman
who became consumptive nearly twenty
years ago From that time on she had
small but frequent hemorrhages. They
would weaken her some, but she would
soon regain her usual strength. Ten years
ago she went with friends to Europe and
travelled from place to place for year.
After she returned she failed, but slowly
She often said she was fighting death, and
she certainly seemed to be. IL ever will
power supported person 1t did her. She
became scarcely more than skeleton; she
could eat but little and had long been
stranger to good nights rest. And still
she lived on until about three years ago,
when the little lung left her broke down
and death, which she had resif ! so long,
at last conquered Using a common ex-
preston, that poor woman had endured
enough to kill half a dozen men.-Boston
Herald.
A Clever Game.