The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1892-01-28
THE HOME CORNER.

the one who gives up ner llIe W ~ "hu
has no ambition and no sympathy
outside of that. People who do this
are not so rare as one might suppose.
If all the hours which go into the en-
broidering of lambrequins and Tides
were given to improving the mlndY
knowledge would begin to increase at
the very place where it is needed
most-in the home. If all the energy
and patience which are put into GRO
Chef and fancy knitting were turned
into some channel for alleviating sut-
fering, this world would soon blossom
as the rose under the glad sunlight OF
| happiness, and prosperity. Yet lis
woman at whom this sermon is cd
will devote long and patient hrs
every day to turning linen thread Into
an intricate croCheted pattern, and
will announce triumphantly that she
can make a whole yard of such tim
ming in tAree days, by attending
strictly to business! One-third of a
yard of trimming to show for a days
patient WORK! And she could go to
to any store and buy trimming as
wide, as pretty and as durable at so
cents a yard Does it not seem that
she is putting low estimate on her
time, if one counts it by the day, or on
her life, if one counts it as the sum of
all her days? Was this woman created
living soul that she might sit in an
easy chair and do fancy work? Was
any woman created for such purpose?
/ Can any woman afford to do
fancy work? The Home Corner has
but one answer to all these questions,
and it is deep and unmistakable No!
~
The next sermon is not quite a SER
mon, either. There is not the slightest
use in preaching to the woman who
lacks common sense, and that is just
the woman one would like to reach
with sermon, too. Though thou en-
trance the world with thine eloquence
and dazzle it with thy wit, thou art
nothing but a sounding brass and o
tinkling cymbal. If one car get q
gift from the Gods by asking, end can
ask but once, let him call on them to
give him common sense. their best
gift to man. The woman who has it
walks jewelless, rather than wear
paste, when she is not able to buy
jewels. If she is poor she makes no
REPRESENTATION does she make any
pretenses if she is rich Rich or poor,
she is her own, genuine, unaffected
self, and being so, is better than any
imitation she could devise. She knows
how to keep some of the petty annoy
ances that enter into her own life in
the background, so that they will not
annoy those she loves as well. Her
pleasures she always insists on divid-
ing, but when she has a Nexation she
keeps it to herself, so far as possible
Ii there should be family skeleton
in the house, she locks it in the closet
and throws away the key. Never by
her hand is the door unlocked and the
thing brought forth to shake
Its rafting bones and murder sleep in
any weary and heavy heart. She NAV
know nothing of Greek, iambics and
Latin hexameters, but thank Heaven.
she knows now to greet trouble with
brave and hopeful smile, to
with warm and 'S Steadv
handclasp. She may not be a mem
Der OF Sorosis, or a bright Chautau-
luan, or in any way gifted or dis
Ting uished, but she knows how to saw
the right thing at the light time, and
how to keep silent when silence is bet
Ter than speech. And Just the orpo-
site, IN every respect, is the woman
VINO lacks common sense-the woman
against whom this sermon would have
been directed, if it would have done
any good.
Nv
Then there is the housekeeping
woman whose waking
hours are one long battle against dirt,
and when she sleeps dirt S the hor-
rible nightmare that rohs her of her
rest. No speck of dust is ever so
small as to elude her eagle eyes. Car
pets and curtains, furniture and books.
railing and wainscOt walls and cell.
ing, these absorb her thou ghts, and to
Them belong all her time. She NAV
nave a husband and children and
may manage to suhsist some wav hut
heaven pity the wretched victims who
i've IN a house that is not a home no.
Jause his mistress is a hOlsekeeper
Nooluson CruSoe on his desert island
was prince compared with the chill
lfen reared in such an atnosnhern
No wonder the boys resolve fo RIM
away and be pirates as soon as thew.
ire old enough. No wonder the iris
marry as soon as possible and get into.
ZONES OF their own, where thev can
, nave ali a Little breathing space with
Iu6 somebody shouting TO them
hat they mustn't touch the
4 gai,l'tI or tread over The carpets,
, nomestly, 90 you suppose women.
we're created merely as housel eenerS.
O. Keep furniture bright and ,caT p"lS,
resi-, and to make continual 49, "l pe.s
ne dust? Or were these thing.s 70 I bn
u6ordinate, while ones own {m n NJ W.
anne frs, ~ w. Claims OF ones family
ford to devota ii any woman really
housekeeping? '0e 0'1er 10
~ ...e
AND taken altogether, there is bpt
ne conclusion 30 all of these sermons
, olnen nave too great a tendency to
i'e themselves up to trivial thinos