The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-07-12

reputation for being good takers, but very
few retain their influence over others as
speakers, and an interest In affairs, after they
have passed the age Of seventy years, as Mrs.
Mary A. Livermore has At Glen Echo a few
mornings ago a HERALD reporter sought an
interview with this versatile woman--desiring
to ascertain her views on some social ques
tions. The first question asked was, "What
do you think the effect of socialism would be
upon the lives of women could it become
generally practicable?"
"It has been tested, experimentally, at
Guise, near Paris,n Mrs. Livermore replied
"When l was last in Europe / made that
place a special visit because l have long
thought that some kind of domestic CO.
operation would relieve my country women
from much OF the household care they now
groan under, such as wash day, baking day,
and serving meals all days Of the week three
times each. Therefore, / wanted to see the new
system work. You will remember that
Monsieur Godin loaned the money to start
this institution and that the members
of the various households therein per-
formed all the domestic service in
common but it is so divided up
that no woman works over five hours a day in
any of the departments. Each family has q
suite of apartments of its own, in which they
can have their meals served if they prefer, or
they can be taken in the dining-room or out
OF doors with others, as is the Paris custom
of dining. Each family is charged only for
what 1t costs that family in the bill of ex-
penses, and Monsieur Godin's loan has long
since been repaid with interest, if he would
have taken any, which he did not. 1 was very
favorably impressed with the management
and the results. In q smaller way many
persons, mostly women of the professional or
clerical classes, in Boston and New York,
have set up cooperative housekeeping, and
now enjoy some Of the comforts of home life
at less expense than they formerly did in
boarding houses, hotels, or individual homes.
Most women have a domestic vein in their
dispositions, and since all cannot be wives
and mothers, especially in New England,
where the excess of women over men is so
great, they can make home and solve the old
question of domestic drudgery and waste for
themselves without the presence of a man.
save as to some of their visiting relatives or
the minister of the church when making pas
toral calls. Fifty years ago such a state of
affairs would have been voted impractcable
by the Oldest thinkers, and women undertak-
ing 1t set down as man-haters or reformers of
the first water as exeerable in public opinion
as the cranks of this day. l regard it
good thing for q man or woman to have
hobby. They generally amount to something
who ride it with steady hand on the rein.
speaking of the waste of the present time
am convinced that in my household with all
the modern appliances and very good manage
ment on the part of valued relative who
acts as housekeeper. enough coal is consumed
dailyin my kitchen to cook as well for seventy
souls as for household of a dozen people,
And it is just so of my approved laundry The
same appliances used, comparatively, would
serve hundred persons as well as they serve
me and mine, and at the cost of one-sixth the
domestics now employed by half a dozen
different families.
~ would not like any improvements that
interfered with the sacredness of family life
for believe in the developing and educating
infinlnnn nd nncfia tn,
children and their almost divine power in the
development of mems and women's character.
But with all that can see how much better
off and happier even the children are; how
much cheaper if you will, with that co-opera-
tive education which begins with the kinder
garten and goes on in the public school and
college than under the governess or tutor
system of the olden times. Oh, yes, the
world is growing better all the time, every
thing which lessons woman's domestic labors
without curtaiiing the comforts or privileges
OF home life is, in my opinion, good thing.
"This brings me to a thought [ would like
to express of certain books that some men and
women are writing these days and that other
men and women are reading and saying amen
to. refer to the kind of book that is coming
to us in shoals, such as is This Your Son, My
Lord" and The KreutZer Sonata Those
books voice something that is in the minds of
men and women and express kind of con-
tempt for existing social relations and evils
patience. Even while feeling that they ex-
press horrible condition of possible things,
there is large class Of men and women to
whom such pictures are impossible, inconceiv-
able, to whom the revelation seems almost un-
necessary. My opinion is that such stories are
neither novels nor literature. l am some
times puzzled (as Others are) as to how single
women, or women Of pure lives, come to such
knowledge. Now, believe the way out of
social evils will be largely through home teach
ing and wise mothers influence. When will
mothers begin to teach their sons the laws OF
life, physically and morally, and that all
bodies-male and femae-are temples of the
Lord, to be kept equally pure for the others
sake, so that when marriage comes sensualitY
may not follow that divine institution, with Its
hideous blight, into home life? Let mothers
teach their sons that sensuality leads to the
murder of all that is most sacred to manhood
and truth which is more than the body
Murder has more than once capped
the climax of unbndled license even
while passionate protestations of love
were scarce cold on the victim or preparatory
lips. Human passions unbridled are sharE
swords with scarce sheath to cover them
Swords ready to leap out at touch to violat,
all the laws of life or civil authority
There is the work for mothers to do
scentioue, faithful mothers, are bette
teachers of domestic morals than such tales
however, we'll told, think.
''Oncoming to Washington" /" Mrs. LiVermor
continued 81 always feel return of the pail
tugging at my heartstrings in memory OF tn
visits made 1T on so many sad errands dur
ing our late war. And on arriving at thes
gates, and seeing so many tents felt it NOR
than ever. 1t looked TO me like battle camp
kipd of shock which qmOti0l