The herald., 1894-08-27
WOMEN ANDTHEIR WORK
A LETTER THAT CONTAINS SOME
GOOD ADVICE.
A Feature of the Saturday Night Train
to tho bsaside-A Lesion for
Housekeepers From
Campers Lives.

Monica Saturday evenings, Inc pleas
ant expectancy depicted on the faces OF
the crowds as they scramble good
humoredly for seat 10 very contagious.
Even the tired business. man, who has
paid his fare and is entitled to seat,
stands uncomplainingly at the door.
lie has heavy book under one arm and
large package uu der the other, but he
is going to his wife and children, and he
feels himself already enveloped in tn 9
atmosphere of home. and breathes in
fancy the bracing air from the ocean.
lie is not in an aggressive frame OF mind
and he looks more than cheerful in the
face OF q fellow-paesenger who has
bought but one ticket, but VINO compla-
Gently takes possession of two seats, one
for his lordly self and another for his
overcoat and packages. Our genial un-
known smiles admiringly at q small,
curly-hesded boy under 5 years, who sits
bv his mother, while she, pleased at the
attention of the stranger, gazss fondly at
her offspring. quite oblivious to the fact
that she has but one ticket to show,
though che and the child and his cart
occupy three seats, and gentle man
who has the legal and moral right to be
sitting down is standing up. Everybody
seems satisfied though, and so happy
and jolly that one feels almost like jump
ing up and shaking hands with that
selfless man who is content to endure
discomfort rather than disturb the gen.
eral harmony by insisting on his rights.
The scene at the station as the train
stops is an animated and pleasing one.
1t looks as il the town and all their
cousins and aunts had come to meet
their friends, and eager, smiling faces
are seen and cordial greetings heard on
all sides.
The crowd rapidly disperses, and is
soon absorbed by the hotels, boarding
houses, cottages, etc. Not the least to
be envied by any means are those sum
mer visitors who have chosen the mod
est tents and cottages on the South
Beach. They are to be congratulated
that the edict that banished them from
the North Beach did not exclude them
from the shore on the other side, which
is q veritable paradise for children.
Here society does not demand of them
that they be dressed up, and they can
be wet and sandy all day long to their
hearts, content, and to that OF their
mothers, too. This returning to a more
primitive life ought to be a vertable
object lesson to tired women. A couple
of rooms covered with mating are soon
swept; where there are no oonveniences
for washing the clothes must perforce
be dark and not easily eoiled, and a
small gasoline or coal oil stove is not
conducive to elaborate menus. The
household duties are reduced to a mini
mum, and when, at the end of TWO
weeks, a mother finds that the family
has flourished in closer quarters in
palmer clothes and on simpler and less
variety OF food, and that she herself 10
refreshed in body and mind, should it
not set her to rejecting upon the advsa.
bility of carrying the lesson back to her
home and making it her object to SIM
plify the family life. in order that all of
her time may not be consumed by
drudgery and that she may have more
of her spiritual self to give to her hus.
band and children? l have never
believed that the way to a
mans heart ia through his
stomach. The majority of men
could be brought to appreciate the ad-
vantages OF . plain, simple meal and a
rested vile, over q eumptuous repast
with a companion wearied in body and
mind. 1t goes without saying that
every family should be provided with
wholesome, palatable food, but il is a
nice point and one worthy OF woman's
steel to determine what are the real
''must-haves" of home. Pies and
cake and desserts which take go much
time aud thought and are an unneces-
sary sxpenss, would hardly be classed
in the category. In this connection 1
always think of that German music
teacher of very moderate income whose
family lived in the nimplest manner
possible. One OF his wealthy pupils
was greatly surprised to see him one
evening with his wife and two grown
daughters at q fine concert where the
tickets cost 50 apiece. Music was the
"must-have" of that family, and who
will say that the domestic atmosphere
WAS not made purer and better by the
simple economies practiced with the
object of securing more elevating
pleasures than those afforded by mere
outward show or the qualification of
material desires? II q woman could
only realize that her greatest power in
a home rests upon the preservation OF
her mental and spiritual balance and
that she cannot keep these when her body
is constantly over.fatigued, she would be
continually studying how to economic
her physical strength and make the
heigher aims the "must.hRves" of her
household.
Light housekeeping 10 one OF the
hopeful signs of the times, Mary Bisland
to the contrary Notwithstanding. 1t is
perhaps the unconscious protest, but
the protest nevertheless against the de-
msuds that society makes upon a wom-
en- who cannot afford to keep help and
who literally wears herself out trying to
discharge the manifold duties which
have seemed indispensable in the con-
ventional home. Light housekeeping
and delicacy stores are stages in the
evolution of household economics which
are to be greatly simplifed in the flu
ture.
"And what will there be left for
women to do when the drudgery Of
housswork is partially removed? ?"
hear the croakers cay. Ask any think
ing mother if there is day that passes
that her children do not ask her ques-
tions about the living world about them
that ought to be answered satisfactorily,
but that would require thought and
study on her part and are more often
LETT unanswered for lack of time. When
women shall have leisure to look up
these questions and do their part in the
intellectual development of their chill
dren. we shall be approaching the ideal
home where palmer living will mean
l. ;Uk k,iD