Los Angeles herald., 1891-08-07
AS THE WOMEN SEE YOU.
MEN AND BRETHREN, HERE is A
SWEEPING INDICTMENT.
Christine Terhune Herrick Is Moved to
Protest Against Those Masculine HUI
man Individuals Who will Not BE Or
derly About Their Own Homes.

Protest Against Those Masculine HUI
man individuals Who Will Not BE Or
derly About Their Own Homes.
Especial Correspondence
PoMPToN, N. j., June 22.-"Don't talk
to me about labor saving machines" ex-
claimed an energetic little woman. "What
would be worth more than all of them to
me would be labor saving manP'
Yes" she continued, in reply to an in
terrogative exclamation from her auditor,
another housekeeper II mean just what
say man about the house who did
not make more litter every time he walked
through room than woman could clear
up in half an hour would save more time
and toll in the household economy than all
the washing machines, clothes wringers,
patent eggbeaters and meat choppers i
ever saw. ~
"Now, there is my husbandl He is the
best, most considerate man | know. Yet,
when he comes in he throws his hat and
coat on the hall table instead of hanging
them in the closet; leaves his newspapers
scattered all over the drawing room; never,
by any chance, restores a book he has taken
from the shelves to its proper place; spills
cigar ashes on the floor and drops burned
matches all over the house. spend third
of the morning clearing up the mess he
has made over night. He always leaves his
soiled clothes in a heap in the middle of
the floor instead of putting them in the
basket where they belong, and just wish
you could see his bureau drawersl"
The other member of the small confer
ence laughed and sighed together.
my husband does pick up his soiled
Clothes" she said. And with the occa-
sional setting to rights I give them he
manages to keep the drawers of his bureau
in tolerable order. But when he comes in
on wet days he invariably kicks off his
muddy overshoes in the middle of the
hall and leaves his umbrella to drip ON the
carpet. Of course that obliges servant
to come and clear up the traces of both"
A great poet has immortalized in a
phrase mans inhumanity to man. When
will arise the bard who will embody in an
epigram mans inconsiderateness of wom-
an in the single item of carelessness with
respect to making dirt and litter about a
house?
This criticism, be it promised, is not
aimed at those men who have royal dis
regard for woman's work and worries, who
minify her burdens and make no exertion
to ease them, or to that class of brutes who
seem to take perverse pleasure in adding
to the tolls of the overworked household
drudge. There are such creatures who
walk upright upon two legs and call them
selves men, who would even resent q slur
cast upon their pretensions to being con-
sidered gentlemen. With them gentle
argument has no effect, and the only way
to cure them of their porcine characteris-.
tics is by the radical remedy of decapita-
tion or the application of a current of
thousand or so volts from an electric bat
terry.
But there are men whose chief aim is to
make life easy and pleasant for their wives,
who are generous providers of everything
needed for the household who cheerfully
supply extra servants when they are
needed, and who are in most other respects
models of consideration. Yet these men,
all unwittingly, often nearly double the
work their wives have to do. Such care
lessness as that related by the two women
whose remarks head this letter is pain
fully common, and it is shown by the teihi=
derest and most loving of husbands AID
sons ~ F''4sfs 1ts4e---1, !,
One of the latter, a model in nearly all
respects, cannot be trained to strike q
match on his boot heel or on a match safe.
When he lights the gas or his cigar the
match is struck on whatever happens to be
most ,convenient-the back of chair, the
leg of a table, the side post of the door, or
at best on the under part of the mantel
shelf, where the mark is plainly visible to
any one seated near the fireplace. In vain
does his mother protest and urge that she
or some one else will have to go to the
trouble of washing off the ugly streak
The offenders only reply will be laugh
ing apology and hasty promise of amend
ment, forgotten the next time occasion
tempts him to repeat the offense. He is
not a child, to be sharply reprimanded or
punished for his fault, but man grown,
who cannot be schooled and scolded into
obedience.
What woman who is the mistress of
country house during the summer cannot
recall struggles to keep in order the parts
of the house frequented by the boys and
men of the home? What endeavors has
she not made to induce them to keep the
flies out by having the blinds shut on hot
midsummer moons? What entreaties has
she not uttered that caps, blazers, rackets,
bats and balls may be kept in the places
assigned for them, instead of being sown
broadcast over the family living room?
Can she not recall the books that have
been left on the porch or lawn over night
anu Decu lOuuu III Cne morning, ruined Dy
heavy dew or an unexpected shower; the
hammock and chair and boat cushions
which have met similar fate? What
house mistress, either in town or country,
does not daily gather together, groaningly,
the newspapers and magazines which the
father and sons of the house have cast
aside on floor or chairs when they had fin
ished with them?
Hardly man can be found who has not
some pet carelessness of which it is almost
impossible to break him. One young man
persists in keeping his soiled collars and
cuffs in a heap on the right side of his
bureau and the clean ones in correspond
ing pile on the left, although small laun-
dry bag hangs close at hand for the recep-
ton of the one and handsome collar box
awaits the accommodation of the other.
Another man cannot be persuaded to use
his shoe bag, and although his lang suffer-
ing wife regularly picks up the slippers,
pumps and shoes she finds kicking about
the floor and puts them in the receptacle
provided for them, she does it with the full
knowledge that she will have to repeat the
operation the next time her husband
changes his footgear.
Nothing need be said about the agonies
of mind undergone by neat housewives