The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-03-13

honest people and willing hands, but
trained servants one cannot expect to
find out of the great centers of life And
on considering what has been expected of
Ahe American woman, has she not done
father we'll? That she must be first
servant trainer, then housekeeper, wife,
mother and conversationalist, that she
must keep up with the always advancing
spirit of the times, know how to read,
write and cipher, to be beautifully dressed,
to play the pis no, to make the wilderness
blossom as the rose, to be charitable,
thoughtful and good, to put the mind at
its ease, to strive to learn how to do all
things in the best way-all this is expected
OF her. To be a student of good taste and
good manners, to make house luxurious,
ornamental, cheerful and restful, to have
an inspired sense of the fitness of things,
that she should dress and entertain in
perfect accord with he station, her means
and her husbands ambition, that she
should master, unassisted, all the ms ana
y outs of the noble 'Art of Entertaining"
has not this something of the nature of
large contract? She has taken the con-
tract and filled it.
She must go to the cooking lecture, come
>
telligence office, keeping her hand on all
three. She must be the mind, while the
Naggies and Bridgets furnish the hands.
she must never be fussy never grotesque.
She must steer her ship through stormy
seas, and she must also learn to enjoy
Wagner's music, ETC. There is proverbially
no sea so rough to swim in as that tumul-
tuous one of a new, illy-regulated pros
nd ,1,a a4,,l tnfy
nature of American fortunes, an Ameri-
can woman must be ready to meet any
fste. And Judging from many specimens
Whom we have seen, may We not claim
that the American woman must be
stamped with an especial distinction?
Has she not conquered her fate?
And curlously enough fashion and good
taste seem to Iackev to the American
woman. no matter where she was born or
where educated. In spite of all draw
backs and the counter currents of destiny,
she is almost universally well-bred and
tasteful woman. No matter what the
American woman has to fight against,
poverty or lack of opportunities, she is
apt, If she is called upon to do so, to adj
minister gracefully the Inequalities of the
White House, or to fill the difficult role of
have bad taste, perhaps. What is good
taste but an instantaneous ready appre-
Citation of the fitness of things2" TO most
Of us who observe it IN others it seems TO
be an instinct. We envy those few who
are always well dressed, who never buy I'M
becoming stufis, who have the gift to make
/ Simply blossomed out of their
soms ont of its calyx Some
Women always dress their hair becom-
ingly, Others, even if handsome, look like
beautiful frights, some wear their cl othes
as if they had been hurled at them by
tornado and remind one of the poor hus-
band S remark, Il feel as if had married
/ hurricane" And the same exceptions,
which only prove the rule because YOU no.
| tee them, may extend to the housewives
| who aim nj more than they can accom-
| plish, who make their house an anguish
to look at. pretentious without beauty,
overloaded or incorrect, who have not
Vet, who say the awkward thing. Such
people exist, sometimes SHINING from is-
norance. but they are decidedly in tn
| minority. The American woman Is gem
| orally "a success" She has fought hard
| battle, but she has won. She has hid her
l cetelts, however.
Who does not remember the failure of
| that arst dinner party? When the baby
began 10 cry SO persistently, when the
| hostess was not dressed when the bell
rang; when the cook spilled tGe soup all
over the range and tilled the house with
bad odor; when the waitress, usually so
COO. lost all her presence of mind ana tell
on the basement stairs, breaking all the
4 Plates; when one failure succeeded an
Netheg until the husband looked reproach-
NO!iy al his wife. who, poor creature, had
eeen working day and night 10 get up
Mls dinner. who Is responsible for none
o. ITS failures. and who has an attack Of
neuralgia afterwards which lasts all