The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-08-11

| ado you want to know of a fraud
which ought to be exposed?" said a GER
tain bright little woman the other day.
'sOf course.
swell, I'm it."
, "Youo''
eyes, I'm a whited sepulcher. I'm a
popular fallacy. I'm a delusion and .
snare and q false prophet"
Nonsense! What do you mean?"
"Well, am supposed to be mistress
of fine house, with money. and serv-
ants to do everything for me, am 1
not? Of course, am. And you think
my life is one long, lazy, luxurious
round of doing as please? Precisely.
knew you did. And you envy me.
And when You think of me it is with
capitals, as a happy housewife? just
so. Well, now tell me, do you ever lie
awake nights wishing you were my
cook? All. you do not. Nor my wait
ress? No. Nor my maid? Not even
that. Well, just let me inform you
that you are deceived. l am not
happy housewife. / don't think such Il
thing exists. I'm a slave. A miser-
able, abused, dowrtrodden, fettered
slave! If you want to enjoy life that
is as free as the ocean wave, as full of
solid satisfaction as it is empty of re-
sponsibility, become a cook or domestic
servant OF some sort. Any day in the
year good cook may take her choice
of good homes, fat living and substan-
tiai incomes. Once ensconced, she has
her regular work, her regular hours,
with ample compensation. She does
not have to rise early nor remain up
late. Her mind is not distracted by
multiplicity of duties. She is able to
plan her engagements weeks ahead, for
she knows just when she will be free.
But, greatest of all privileges. if
the cook wearies of the fare, or doesn't
like her mattress, or thinks she doesn't
get enough breeze in her room, she can
drop it all at o moments notice. If
she is tired of New York and thinks
she viii try Newport she needs only to
make up her mind to that effect. If
Newport pals upon her she can HE her.
self 20 the Pier; or if she pines for re-
igious advantages her weeks wages
will quickly transport her to Ocean
Grove. In fact. she can roam the wide
world DER and there is no one to say
her nay. She can save enough money
in the winter to take her back to the
'ould country for the summer, and
she doesn't leave furniture behind for
moth and rust to corrupt, nor a house
where thieves may break in and steal.
Sha &c n1cnl1,4.,ir- 20; Of HrIinCr
good home with a salary at whatever
time and place the fancy or the neces-
sity comes.
Now, look at me! Responsibility
hangs upon me like the Old Man of the
Sea on Sinbad's shoulders. l must be
cook, waitress, housemaid, health in
spector, nurse, seanstress, justice OF
the peace, teacher, confessor, adviser
and Judge of my own household. That
is enough to try the resources of any
human being. But in addition I must
decide on the wardrobes of myself,
my children and my servants,
in so far as they appear
in my household affairs. l must
be tortured by dressmakers; must
wear myself out in perfunctory social
duties: must hear and attend to the
calls of charity: must cultivate music,
art. literature; be up on the latest nov
el, opera, exhibition: must identify my
self with my church work, and must
entertain people who will rend my per-
sonality and my acts in tatters after
they descend the front steps. Suppose
] am tired and want to throw off the
care of all these duties. Can !? Hard
~. am chained TO them. The chill
dren must be fed, clothed and trained
The house-and that is the bugbear of
half the women living-the house must
be kept going"
"Why don't you just close it up and
go away?'
Close it up. That shows that you
don't know anything about it. If /
closed it up the moths would get in and
eat up the chairs and carpets: the
thieves carry off the silver and bric-a-
bracll; mere burglars cut up the lead
pipes, and the water floods the house:
must and dust take possession except
where they are routed by mold, and
weeks of work will not make the place
habitabl again. Then. too, if l have
servants who are satisfactory, dare
not let them go lest l may never see
their like again. N. Y. Sun.
Vegetable Growth in Water Mains