Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-01-19

never minding the boiling flicks of fat that
fly out on your hands, arms and face. On
the second round this process destroyed
my belief in the depravity of the devil
ners-my word for it, if Mr.. Mephistopheles
had not the endurance of a saint he would
ages back have ceased to be at all.
Naturally, when the head of the house
arrived, it was regarded as great joke
that / was doing the work, and l was ex-
pected to laugh hal haI' while l went
hobbling around on already tired feet,
blowing cold breath on my bliStered arms
when nobody was looking.
Oh. how was beginning to choke on the
words l had often spoken 10 the hired girl:
you should not look pleasant about your
work. If everybody had life as easy as
you do, they might thank their stars
So they might. on the principle that It's
lucky eel that escapes shirning.
Dinner over. there was nothing to be
done but clear it away and wash the
dishes-nothing but that
1t has often seemed to be only decent
ana becoming civilized human beings that
eating should be performed in private
That we should make parade of eating
biting, chewing. swallowing many things
IN the most oStenSibe manner compatible
with our means, thereby dirtying loads of
dishes it's beastly-that's all; beastly. If
you doubt me. wash dishes. Thrust your
hands into the unknown depths of scumnly,
grease-Smelling, stomach Sickening water,
grasp a meat-gun1med plate and mop 1T
with a rag that is muShy with Suds and
scraps of everything, frcm soup to cheese
and coffee grounds. Plunge nobly to the
bottom of the pan for the small spoon you
have heard scraping there and clutch-oh.
goodness, that j should live to do and tell
it--clu.ch slippery. suds-mutilated oyster
between two fingers, and between two 9TH
ers bring up bit of onion, garnshed with
leaf of celery and daub of mashed po-
tatoes The horrors that accumulate in
dishwater to fasten on woman's flesh
ka r MI dali nv
contrast have taught me why dogs are
to be preferred before men. They lick
their dishes clean.
WOman's Natural Work.
Two mortal hours was I washing up the
dinner dishes, an experience that went
some way to explain what had often be-
fore caused me to marvel how it Is the
hired girl gets no time evenings to darn
her stockings and sew the binding on the
bottom of her dress. AS I crept humbly
back to the bosom of my family 1 also
&C mprehended that tho higher aims of wo-
man are not more destructive of domestic
harmony and family unity than is ashing
dishes. I'd been working in wcman's I'M
disputed sphere the whole evening, and my
family had been left alone to the wiles of
the tempter quite hopelessly as If / had
been off making stump speech or writing
editorials Moreover, L understood perfect
ly how woman might be borne on the
waves of dish water plump into politics,
and remembering from what she had
emerged. really feel good and clean throw
ing mud in lively campaign. l want you
to know, too-Im going to tell you this in
strict conference.-the loving man who is
always worried to death lest the least
newspaper work be too much for my frail-
ty- maniike, accepted so unquestioningly
that houSework is natural and easy for a
woman when the dishes were DONE he
never dreamed of asking me if L was tired
The next morning l to arise at
he OIL ri
easily and happily L would accomplish this
feat of which she often makes a fluke |
took one of those loud-voiced. bargain
counter alarm clocks into my room, that
there might be no mistake about the time
4 Convenient Sore Throat.
Tick, took, tick, took; got to get up got
to get up" that miserable cheap invention
shouted at me until 1 Topped out of bed,
wrapped it tight in a towel and smolhered
it with pillow. But 1t was not named
Desdemona. I could not kill it thus. All
through the night, and likewise through the
towel and pillow. the hideouS tick. tock''
had ME getting up every hour from 10
o'clock till q.
At l was just about to turn out, when
swallowed-could it be? 1 swallowed
aga Yes. for fact, heaven be praised!
l had sore throat.
Well, you know, that settled it. OF course
1 couldn't think of getting up on a cold
morning and starting fires with a sore
throat. 1t would never do to die, young
and valuable as 1 am-never. When I had
demonstrated how successfully a sore
throat may be used in getting somebody
else to do the work without in the least
creating suspicion of ones honesty Of pur-
pose l could not understand, nor can I
now, why hired girls do not contract chron-
ic quinsy or diphtheria that will permit
them to work just so many days are
absolutely essential to drawing their wages.
BY noon l bad swallowed down the last
n
wise precautionary measure to continue
in bed until the dinner dishes were wash
ed. when 1 convalesced sufficiently to arise
and wash down a golden buck with a pint
OF Hofbrau.
This was all 1 did wash. however. the
chatting dish and accompanying utensils,
en- my orders, being washed by the man
who used them.
Dish-WashinG Devices.
If this simple rule of washing his own
dishes were sold with every chatting dish,
the thousand or two automatic devices for
washing dishes low recorded in the patent
office would speedily be Increased and pos
Silly made practical.
/ spent the day following going over the
DISTINGUISHING inventions in existence, all
Of which, SO far as my inexperienced do
nestle eye can determine, look like any
thing from a storm on the Atlantic to a
train of cars. Doubtless the inventor of
each of these fearfully and wonderfully de-
signed dish washers saw how they might
be used to good purpose, but before I'd try
one on the dog l would get the animal in
TO the kitchen and try him on the dishes
with his own original and simple method
Of cleaning them.
The fourth day the enthusiasm of do
nestle reformer was still at such low ebb
within my sothful soul that / was unable
to stir myself until after breakfast.
Then i sailed In. 1t was Saturday. 1
spake net a word, thought not a word
about all the homework upstairs and down.
stairs that the maid-of-all-work has to
turn off in addition to the kitchen work
Sufficient unto me was the task of washing
dishes, making bread and cake and cook
ing the meals.
I had never made a loaf of bread In my
life, and began with a cook book, the cook
standing by to interpret
dissolve the yeast cake in a quarter of
a cup of warm water and add to 1T pint
of arm water" 1 read. and the cook, with
the pernicious activity she had before dis
played, quickly handed me a quantity of
water, saying: Put in your yeast cake.
This is the quarter of cup and pint Of
water.
BlOOmers in the Kitchen.
/ dropped in the yeast cake. Then with
higher education and higher aims sticking