Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1891-07-22
USELESS ECONOMY.


There are many methods of econo-
MIXING. Some are to be commended,
others to be discountenanced. Few
people have unlimited command of
money. To the majority there must be
some consideration where the house
hold expenditures are concerned.
Purchases : must be made with
view as to what can be afford
ed and what must be relinquished,
and in the mental and moral education
OF the human being this necessity has
It's uses. But it is a lamentable fact
that economizing among men and wom-
en- both is frequently foolish and futile.
There is worthy gentleman whose
son is wont to say that his father will
walk twenty blocks to save five-cent
car-fare, and the same day throw away
ten dollars upon something that he did
not need, and could well do without.
Among women of limited means
economizing usually takes the form of
doing work themselves TO avoid hiring
1t done. The frail mother of a half
dozen children will dispense with a
waSher-wOman to save her wages; she
will try to do all the cooking, making
and do without servant that the family
may have dantier food or more expen-
slve clothing. Palmer food, well cooked
and well served, would be just as whole
some; and fewer gowns and hats would
not lessen the years average of happi-
ness and comfort.
The results of overwork, of useless
drudgery, are broken heart, shattered
nerves, invalidism, and, in a thousand
instances, premature death. Children
need the sympathy the wise advice, and
those mental and moral aids which the
wise mother alone can give. If all her
strength is expended in looking after
their material wants, food and clothing,
and in providing more luxurious sur
roundings than are necessary, there is
nothing left to devote to the greater es-
sential which are to be derived only
from her intimate companionship
Furthermore, she is in no condition to
be companionable, the overtaxed body,
the strained nerves revenge themselves
in Impotence and irritability and dead
ly WEAKNESS. Life becomes a burden
too heavy to be borne. when with the
exercise of little discrimination it
might be sweetened and frightened day
by day.
It is the duty of every human being,
man or woman. to look over his or her
work, and dispense with every task that
is IN any way unnecessary. This is not
to promote Incidence, but to leave time
and strength for more important duties,
those pertaining to mental and moral
culture, which are foregone when there
is not leisure for all.
Women particularly need this advice
They have not the physical strength of
men to begin with, and they can never
attain it, SO that they should make up
their minds with exactness, admitting
their limitations, and doing only what
they can do well and willingly The
Homework should be studied. more
given out, thereby relieving the house
keeper and aiding others who need the
wages. If this necessitates retrench-
ment, retrench upon pie and pudding,
silk gowns and lace trimmed under
clothing. The balance saved in medi-
cine and doctors fees will more than
pay the hired workwoman. There
would be far fewer peevlsh, feeble, all
ing mothers and children, and the whole
aspect of existence would be changed.
1t is a common remark that there are
few women humorists. The conditions
of life for most women do not tend to
cultivate the faculty of humor. An
ever-present pain, al omnipresent ache,
the weakness that fills them with dread
and foreboding for the future, these are
hardly the materials out of which humor
can be evolved.
Work is necessary and natural; there
can be neither happiness nor content
without it; there should be enough to
occupy the brains and the hands and
keep the physical machinery in good
order. But it does not follow that a
woman must take upon her shoulders
as nine out of ten in the United States
do-the complicated tasks that three
able-bodied men could scarcely perform.
-Inter-Ocean.