Arizona republican., 1891-03-05

woman of faculty" I saw Der last year in the incurable ward of . madhouse. From sunrise rr,- til dark, except when forced to take her meals, she stood at one window and poll ished one pane with her apron, plait like trepch between her puckered brows, her mouth pursed into an an- guished knot, her hollow eyes drearily anxious--the saddest picture I ever be- held, most awfully sad because she was the type of a class. Some men--and they are not all igno. rant men--are beginning to be alarmed at the press of women into other--I had almost said any other---avenues of labor than that of housewifery. Eagerness to break up housekeeping and try boarding for while, in order to get rested out, is not confined to the incompetent and the indolent. Nor is it altogether tho result of the national discomfort with "the greatest plague of hfe"-servants. American women from high to low keep house too hard because too ambi- tiously. ..
 It is, furthermore, ambition without knowledge; hence misdireeted. We have the most indifferent domestic service ill the world, but we employ as rule too few servants, such as they are. 1t is considered altogether sensible and be- coming for the mechanics wifo to do her own homework as bride and as matron of years. Unless her husband prospers rapidly she is accounted ''shiftless" should she hire washerwoman, while to "keep girl" is extrayagance, or 6 significant stride toward gentihty. The wife of the English joiner or mason or small farmer, if brisk, notable and healthy, may dispense with the stated service of a maid of all work, but she calls in a oharwoman on certain days, and is content to live as becomes the sta- tion of housewife who must be her own domestic staff.
 Here is the root of the difference. In 6 climate that keeps the pulses in full leap and the nerves tense we call upon pride to lash on the quivering body and spirit to run the unrighteous race, the goal of which is to seem richer than we are, and make "smartness" (American srnartness) cover the want of capital. Having created false standards of respect ability we crowd insane asylums and cemeteries in trying to live up to them.
 The tradesman who begins to ac- knowledge the probability that he will become rich citizen, and whose wife has feelings on the subject of liv- ing as her neighbors do, takes the con- ventional step toward asserting himself and gratifying her aspirations by lnov- ing into bigger house than that which has satisfied him up to now, and fur nishing it well--that is, smartly, accord ing to the English acceptance of the word.
 Silks and moquette harInonize as well as calico and ingrain once did. A three story-and-a-half-with-a-high.stoop house without piano in the back parlor, and long mirror between the front parlor windows, would be foriorn contradic- ton of the genius of American prog ress. As flat denial would be the en- deavor to live without what an old Lady once described to me as pair of par lors." The stereotyped brace are sense less and ugly, but one of the necessaries of life to our ambitious housewife. She would scout as vulgar the homely cheer fulness of the middle class Englishrnan's single "parlor," where the table is spread and the family receives visitors.
 Having saddled himself with a house too big for his family, and stocked the show rooms with plushings so fine that the family are afraid to use them unless when there is company, the prudent citi- zen satisfies the economic side of him by making menials of wife and daughters, without thought of the opposing circum- stance that he has practically indorsed their intention to make fine ladies of themselves. Neither he nor the chief slave of her own gentility, the wife, who will maintain her reputation for "facul- ty" or perish in the attempt, has sus- picion that the strain to make meet the ends of frugality and pretension is pal pably and criminaily absurd. By keep ing up a certain appearance of afhuence and fashion they assume tho obligation to employ servants enough to carry out the design, yet in nine hundred and ninety nine times out of every thousand they ignore the duty.
 admit without demur that as Amer ican domestics go they are burden, an expense and & yexation. Notwithstand- ing all these drawbacks, she who will not risk them should not live in such a way that she must make use of such in- struments or overwork herself physically and mentally.
 The entire social and domestic system of American communities calls loudly for the reform of simplicity and congru- ity. We begin to build and are not able to finish. Our economies are false and mischievous. our aims are petty and meretricious. The web of our daily hy- ing is not round and even threaded. The homes which are constructed upon the foundations of deranged, dying and dead women are mockery of the holy name. Our houses should be planned and kept for those who are to live in them, not for those who tarry within the doors for night or an hour. When housekeeping becomes an intolerable care there is sin somewhere and danger everywhere. MARION KIRKLAND.
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 Southern Women in Kew York.