The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-09-17
CLEANLINESS REIGNS.
WHERE EVERY WOMAN YIELDS
BRUSH WITH SOAP AND SAND.

cleaning Is DOne-Dutch Housemaids
the RECONCILIATION Of Tidiness.
In Holland, where cleanliness has found
its highest example, the people seem to be
both godly and good; terms not always
synonymous. Whether it is really the in
| fluence of their piety and sobriety that
| causes the excessive cleanliness of these
| honest Hollanders, or only the juxtapost-
| ton of so much clear water, is not easy to
decide. The temptation to scrub" is GER
! tainly great in a country where streams OF
| fresh water cross every dooryard, define
every street, traverse every field and bor-
der every country road.
With beguiling murmurs these water
ways seem to beckon to the women TO come
and dip from their cool depths, wash their
linen in the ripples. scour pots, pans and
brooms on their Drinks, and carry pailful
| after pailful away with which to food their
! dwellings inside and drench them outside
for houses In Holland are not content
| with being internally clean, but must have
external baths also. Many and many a
time the writer has seen the very stones in
the street washed, and even secured with
the same care that is given to the spotless
floors of houses.
This frenzy of cleanliness extends from
the humblest PEASANTS cottage in the
country to the most splendid mansion in
town; but In the town mansion the scrub
bling and rubbing and beating are carried
on by maids, and in the humber cottage
it is done by the housewife herself. Let no
man who hates the chaos of housekeeping
go to Holland to live, for the splash of the
l. h,,,e nj ba oh af dl1
cloth never cease from the beginning till
the end of the year.
No day of the week is free from these
sounds of cleansing except Sunday, and to
make amends for that one day of idleness
usual fury on Saturday and with redoubled
force again on Monday.
EVERYTHING sPoTLEss AND SHINING.
Woe TO lurking specks of dust in out-of-
the-way cornersl They are brought to the
surface by small bellows, which are blown
into every crevice of door and wall and
woodwork; carpets, rugs and mats are
taken to the open air and beaten over a
sort of wooden frame which is peculiar to
Holland; floors are scrubbed and sanded;
every nail head every knob of brass, every
bit of copper or pewter or tin is polished
into brilliancy by energetic fingers; beds
are beaten and aired and purified, and cur
tains are shaken with an energy that might
almost tear them into pieces, and then the
good wife, with absolutely nothing else
left to cleanse, spends the remainder of the
day in holding up warning finger to the
intruder who might bring in a speck of
dusk or spot of mud.
The inhabitants of the villages are too
well trained 10 be thus carel g; the small
est child is taught to leave it's wooden pat
tens at the threshold before entering one
of these clean little domiciles, and passer-
by can usually judge of the number of in
habitants inside by counting the wooden
shoes at the doorsill
Driving past little house one morning
where it was necessary to pay toll, neat
young girl heard the noise of our wheels |
and ran to the door, her feet clad only in |
the thick black wooden stockings which the |
people wear indoors. She paused an instant |
at the threshold to slip on her waiting
pattens before coming into the road to
take the money, slipped them off again
while running indoors for change, put |
them on again in coming to the carriage, |
took them off again in going into the house |
to find out the time of day, and once more |
went through the same quick process OF |
putting on and taking off in returning
Not all the haste necessary in this rapid |
running to and fro could make this Dutch |
girl forget for one moment to remove her |
pattens 4fore that altar of cleanliness
her tiny DIV ling.
'TY DUTCH GIRLS.
Many of houses are poor and bare Of
furniture, not one in the smallest,
darkest, owest lane but boasts its
snowy foo and shining panes and gleam
ing tins, and not one housewife, however
poor, but can show you such an array of
brooms, brushes, mops, soaps, sands, pol
ishing powder and various paraphernalia
for cleaning as will make you stare
But it is, after all, to the pretty Holland
housemaids that one turns with most
pleasure. Nowhere in the world can maids
so trim, so clean, so entirely spotless, be
found From north to south they are clad
in blue and white prints, the cleanest, stiff
est. most smoothly ironed frocks imagina-
bic, and so are the large, snowy aprons
that cover them, and the thin, white mus
lin caps that quite envelope the hair, the
thick ruche of which forms a most becom-
ing white halo to faces that are often
pretty, always rosy and fresh. The figures
of these girls are usually sturdy, with
broad backs and well defined hip curves,
over which the blue and white print skirts
fall not ungracefully. Beneath are seen
the feet, clad in black hose and pattens Of
white, implanted wood.
But the most puzzling, and at the same
time the most admirable thing about these
maids was that, see them when we would,
IN the early morning washing windows
and door fronts with foods of water or
securing steps and floors with bushels of
sand, or later in the day vigorously beat
ing carpets and rugs or shaking feather
beds, or even emptying cans of ashes, they
seemed never to get a drop of water, or
spot of sand, or speck of dust upon the
primitive freshness of their dress. Hol-
and has taught US that soiled bingham |
aprons, red arms and wet feet are not nee
.ssary accompaniment to ''scrubbing
lay"
And then the nerve with which these
yirls labOr What abandon, what rivalry, |
What enthusiasm! They seem to scrub for
oCre love of IL, and with a wonderful in
crest in this humble work which is usual
y considered so demeaning.-New York !
Recorder
Here's a Good Plan.
There is one bright girl here in New
fork who Is earning a comfortable living