Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-03-06
HOUSEHOLD.

sIs the game worth the candle7" is a
question houselzeepers might put with
profit oftener than they do. In these days
OF electric light the old-fashioned candle
and the quiet life of women are alike rele-
gated to the past.
Admitted that it is very wise to have
ones house Immediately clean from cellar
to garrett, to have the pantry shelves filed
with the products of woman's industry
and the wardrobe of the family in perfect
order, if this is the actual work of one
woman, hasn't there been waste of
candle9
Granted that the field of philanthropy
is broad and that for its working women
are pre-eminently adapted. If woman
rushes into it, tolls and frets her life away
in vain effort for the reformation of all
abuses under the sun, and finally becomes
a nervous wreck, burden to herself and
her friends, is there not room for sus-
picion that the candle has been burning too
fast?
Conceded that women are always in the
advance along the narrow path that
leads away from worldliness, that in
the going about doing good the
church has in her a most admirable
adiutant, when she makes flannel shirts
for the little Africans to the neglect of her
own offspring and looks more frequently
after the ways of the church than after
the ways of her own household; is here not
occasion for the querJ as to the game and
the candlel
All this labor is proper, but proper only
in moderation, and it is the drive-whee! in
modern life that is increasing the number
of insane women and Of women who are
physically wrecked. There is no place
where women waste themselves more
rapidly than in homework.
The first rapid burning is in want of
system. 1t is a woman's duty to save her
strength, and if she is worker, the only
way is to systematic her work, and to regu-
late the number of her social, religious and
philanthropic duties.
Another waste is in what is misunder-
stood economy. Put a man in woman's
place and in less than a month he would
have labor-saving inventions by the score.
He would not consider the money spent to
secure them as wasted. Sinew, muscle and
nerve count for quite as much as tins,
wooden vessels, patent sweepers and con-
veniences for supplying fuel and water
that will avert their waste. If the man
does not so regard these things, try to con-
vert him If by no other means get sick and
let him put himself in your place.
There is no reason why the farmers
wife, nor the wife of the man of small
income, should be broken down at forty, and
at least if it is so she has herself largely to
blame. The fact is, she has worked too
much too fast, too constantly and in too
many fields She has neglected system,
systematic rest, and has re-
duced herself TO the state of the treadmin
horse who plods hopeless through his daily
tasks.
The nervous, restless energy of woman in
these days is hard to estimate, and the end
to her is always the same. Her vital energy
is as surely and inevitably Slapped by tlreless
ambition for social distinction, display in
dress or housekeeping, as by severe mental
strain in any field of intellectual achieve
ment, and the game, if won. never compen-
safes her for the waste of the candle Of
her life