The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-12-11

whether this wholesale abandonment of
husbands by wives is wholesome let those
who know the beauties of the Anglo-In-
dian system settle for themselves.
That both men and women need rest
very badly q glance At the crowded hotel
the foreigner who has not been taught that
fuss and worry are IN Themselves honor
able wishes sometimes he could put the
whole unrestful crowd to sleep for seven
teen hours q day. / have inquired of not
less than 500 men and women in various
parts of the states why they broke down
and looked so cash. And the men said:
''If you don't keep up with the pro-
cession in America you are left" and
the women smiled an evil smile and an
swered that no outsider yet had discov
cred the real cause OF their worry and
strain, or why their lives were arranged to
work with the largest amount of friction
in the shortest given time. Now, the
men can be left to their own folly,
but the cause of the women's trouble
has been revealed to me. 1t is
the thing called "help,' which is no
help. In the multitude Of presents that
the American man has given to the Amer
can woman flor details see daily papers)
he has forgotten or is unable to give her
good servants, and that sordld trouble
runs equally through the household OF the
millionaire or the fiat of the small city
man. Yes, it's easy enough 10 laugh,
said one woman, passionateiy. 1--WE are
worn out, and our children are worn out,
too, and we're always worrying. L know It.
What can we do? Ifyou stay here you'll
know that this is the land OF all the lux
uries. If you can pay for them, and none
of the necessities. You'll know, and then
you won't laugh. You'll know why
women are said to take their husbands to
boarding houses and never have homes.
You'll know what an Irish Catholic means.
The men won't get up and attend to these
things, but we would. Ii We had female
suffrage we'd shut the door to all the Irish
and throw it open to all the Chinese, and let
the women have q little protection. 1t
was the cry of a soul worn thin with ex-
asperation but it was truth. Today 1 do
not laugh any more at the race that de-
ponds on inefficient helot races for its in
efficient service. When next you, house
keeping in England. differ with the
respectful. amiable, industrious sixteen
pound maid, who wears a cap and says
.Ma'am," remember the pauper labor of
America-.he wives of the SO, 900, 900 kings
who have no subjects. No man could
get thorough knowledge of the
problem in one lifetime, but he could
guess at the size and the import of it after
he had descended into the arena and
wrestled with the Swede and the Dane and
Then he perceiyes how good for the breed
It must be that man should thresh him.
self to pieces in naked competition with
his neighbor while his wife struggles I'M
ceasingly over primitive sayagery in the
kitchen. In India, sometimes, when
a famine is at hand, the life OF
the land starts up before your
eyes in all It's baroness and bitter
stress. Here, in spite of the trimmings
and the Fittings, it refuses to be suDdued,
and the clamor and the CHATTER of it are
loud above all other sounds-as sometimes
the thunder Of disorganized engines stops
conversation along the decks of a liner.
and in the inquiring eyes OF the passengers
you read the question: This thing is
made and paid to bear us to port quietly.
Why does il not do SOL" Only here
the rattle of the badly put together
machine is always IN the ears, though
men and women run about with labor
saving appliances and gospels Of
power through repose, tinkering
and oiling and making more noise. The
machine is new. Some day it is going to
be the finest machine in all the world. To
the ranks of the amateur artificers, there
fore, are added men with notebooks tap
ping at every nut and bolthead, fiddling
with the glands. registering revolutions.
and crying ont from time to time that
this or that is not ''distinctively Amer
unnecessarily in the wheels, and they are
said to have fallen ''in the battle of life"
The God who sees us all die knows that
there 10 far too much of that battle, but we
do not, and SO continue worshipping the
knife that cuts and the wheel that breaks
us As biindly as the outcast sweeper wor-
ships Lal-Beg, the Glorified Broom, that is
the incarnation of his craft. But the
sweeper has sense enough not to kill him
self, and be proud Of it, with sweeping.
A foreigner can do little good by talking
OF these things, for the same lean, dry
blood that breeds the fever of unrest
breeds also the savage parochial pride that
squeals under . steady stare or pointed
finger. Among themselves the people of
the Eastern cities admit that they and
their womenfolk overwork grievously
that the consequences for the young
stock are unpleasant indeed: out before
the stranger they prefer to talk about the
future of their mighty continent (which
has nothing to do with the case) and to
call aloud on Baal of the Dollars--to cata-
iogue their lines, mines, telephones. banks
and cities and all the other shells. buttons
and counters that have made gods over
them. Now, a nation does not progress
upon its brain pan. as some books would
have us believe. but upon its belly, as did
the serpent Of old and in the very long
run the work OF the brain comes TO be
gathered in by q slow-footed breed that
have the unimaginative stomach and the
nerves that know their place.
All this is truly consoiing from the
aliens point of view. He perceIves with
great comfort that out OF strain is bred inn
patience in the shape of a young bundle of
nerves, who is about as undisciplined an
imp as the earth can show. Out of Impa-
thence. grown up. habituated to violent
and ugly talk, aud the impatience and
recklessness of his neighbors, is begot-
ten lawiessneSs. encouraged by lazi-
ness and suppressed by violence when 1t
becomes insupportable. Out OF lawless-
ness is bred rebellion land that fruit has
been tasted once already. and out of re-
heilion comes profit to those who wait
lie hears OF the power of the people who
through rank sloveniiuess. neglect to see
that their laws are soberly enforced from
the beginning; and these people. not once
or twice III year. but many times within
month, go out III the open streets and
with maximum waste of power and
shouting strange other people with ropes.
They are, he is told law-abidiug citizens
which is as though a man should leave
his papers unsorted for a year, and then
smash his desk with an SIX, crying, Gam
not orderiyP" lie hears LAWYERS. other
wise sane and matured, defend this pig
jobbIng murder on the grounds that "the
people stand behind the law''-the law
that they never administered lie sees q
right. at present only haif-but still half
conceded TO anticipate the law in
ones own interests; and nervous i'm
patience talwaNs ncryoust fpreiuIriu,