Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1891-03-20
A SERMON ON MUD.


49, ~ 'Oh5 pioyCh tsp ~ w NNA'iNN7obN VN''il-
ing meeting n lady addressed the AL
mighty, Offering, as we are prone to do,
various criticisms. Among tho counts
in her Indictment was one upon which
she arraigned Providence with great
severity. 1t was that no saw fit TO imlict
upon the community so much mud. Her
words ran something like this: mo
matter how much | may clean, my house
is continually tracked with mud; my
porches are kept in filthy condition;
my carpets are filled with dust that spoils
them and l can't keep my house neat.
It's nothing but mud, mud, mud!" When
she had finished several other of the good
ladies present gave voice to fervent
"Amensn' But before the meeting was
dismissed the pastor rose and remarked:
II cannot close this meeting without
saying that God is not responsible for the
mud. If there were no men there would
be no mud, and there need be none even
now that there are men. In Portland,
| Ore, where it rains six months in the
year, there is no mud, for the simple
reason that the men who live there know
enough to use tho intelligence God has
given them in building good roads"
That pastor was right 1t is man and
not God that makes the mud. The sooner
| tho women whose houses are kept in
filthy condition and whose backs always
ache from constant but futile efforts TO
| keep those houses tidy, realize this fact
the sooner will tho remedy be applied.
If the wives, instead Of asking the Lord
at the Wednesday night prayer meetings
to dry up the mud, would hold little
meeting i'll the family sitting room every
night, and preach q short sermon to their
! husbands on tho necessities Of road i'm
provenent and the evils Of mud, results
would soon begin TO appear. The Lord
helps those who help themselves!
Mud 'grinded in" the carpets does
moro to wear those carpets out than the
patter of dozen generations of tiny
fest. And it wears out the patience and
health of the housewife quicker than it
does the carpets. She may sweep and
brush and scrub until she sweeps holes
in the carpets, scrubs the paint off tho
floors, and alasl sweeps and brushes and
scrubs the bloom off her cheeks, the
brightness out of her eyes and the hap
piness out of her heart, but she will
never get that mud out OF the carpet I'M
til she puts a shovel into her husbands
hands and makes him go and use it on
the roads, and by intelligent work strike
at the root of the evil by making them
30 hard and smooth that they won't gen
erate the mud in the first place.
Nor is the house the only place where
mud engulfs the happiness Of the farm
er's wife. She is as much interested
in its adjustment from the roads as she
is in It's exile from the parlor, and would
be, even if the two were not connected
by an endless chain Of footsteps. For
four months in the year Il woman living
in the country might as well be locked
in prison with her family, so far as
seeing new faces or having any social
intercourse is concerned" said one. And
ii is true. Who is tho jailer? Mud.
What woman, after trying days work
the countless things which keep the
country housewife busy, would not be
glad for an opportunity to drive to
neighbor's or to an entertainment in the
nearest village. 1t would certainly be
welcome relaxation and a beneficial va
ration Of the grinding mOnOtony of life in
farm house kitchen. But what woman
would not rather do without the relaxa-
ton and allow the monotony to go IN
broke nan to feel that when she asked
her husband to crafty her wish she was
asking him to undertake really forIni-
dable task.
To "harness up" and drive for a mile
or two ON pleasant spring evening over
clean, hard roads would be pleasure to
both husband and wife. But when the
roads are SO muddy that the jaded horses
can barely pull the wagon along; when
with every step the horses take their
hoofs 90 splash into a river of mud and
send blotchcs Of it flying over everything
in the vicinity, including the people they
arr drawing with SO much difficulty, and
when a drive Of a few miles means an
hour or two on the road instead of a few
minutes, then the experience is robbed
Of its pleasure The chances are that
by the time the farmer and his wife
have arrived at their destination they
will be exasperated with the roads, with
themselves and with life. The con-
vensation with host and hostess will
be half hearted. When the time comes
to return home, and tho farmer thinks
OF tho half hour or hour ho VIII
have to spend rubbing the dirt off his
horses before he can go to bed. AM the
wife, moro tired than cheered by tie
visit, thinks of her life in a sea Of mad, it
is more than probable that they who IT,
ally love and honor each other viii not
try very hard to keep back the i'll natured
words suggested by their general depres-
sion. Mud is great promoter OF family
jars.
But if instead Of quaIreling with each
othor because the roads were muddy, the
farmer AID his wife would logically look
into tho situation, they would soon see
the real state of affairs. They would see
that if the money and labor expended on
the roads TO make them muddy We're in
telhgently applied, with tine object in
view Of making thon dry, the object
/ Could he very casilV AccamDb shed and