The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-07-07

pcIiSse IL - gong from pad 10 worse 4
! keeping OF our grandmothers. but the house
keeping Of their granddaughter Is a thou
DO you really believe fhaty' I asked.
simply this. that il we don't put a
put a stop to the external womanly."
Il suppose We should hate that"
Yes. Il would be bad. II would be very
oyer. IN my mind and studying out a rem
THE highest type of philosopher turns a
else study out a remedy"
Yes. 1 4 know. I feel that / may be wrong
right in my results. The reason why our
grandmothers could be such good house
keepers without danger Of putting a stop
so few things TO look after in their houses
Life was indefinitely simpler with. them.
have m %nifIpi h%Rr fSs eares of Of T Heu ssR sasm;
without subtracting it's burdens as they
were expected TO do. Every novel conven-
and luxury, every mans OF refinement and
enjoyment in our houses. has been so much
the gr~anddaughters have inherited from the
grandmothers an undiminished conscience
against rust and the moth. which will not
suffer them to forget the least duty they
owe to the naughtiest of their superfiui-
YES. I see what you mean.." I said. This
80 WhaN Oht oAI6 49, ONC 1N-s
not quite know what another is driving at;
but in this case 1 really did know. or
science is a very curious thing. especially
IN our eternal womanly. / suppose that
the North American conscience was evolved
from the rudimental European conscience
and was more or less religious ard econom-
ical in its origin. But with the advance OF
the. conscience seems to be simply consci-
%entious, or. if it is otherwise. il Is social.
IN eternal womanly continues along the
old lines OF housekeeping from an atavistic
impulse. and no one woman can stop be-
cause all the other women are going on.
the blood. perhaps it is something in BOTH
Yes" said my friend. quite as / had said
before. II see what you mean But | think
was in Paris. about his time last year.
perhaps because l was the only thing In
my house that had not been sTadhed lii IN
draw-strings. or rolled up with moth-balis
and put away in chests: AT any rate l
York carefully tagging three WORKOUT
feather busters, and putting them in a pill
low case, and tagging 1t. and putting the
pillow-caSe into a camphorated selt-sealing
paper sack. and sealing it.: and another
day I was in Paris. dining at the home of
a lady whom 1 asked how she managed
with the things in her house when she
Leave them just as they are, SAID she.
But what about the dust and the moths.
LII lii Iuct lii III 4Altc JIG ooiA-
why, the things would have TO be all gone
over when / came back in the autumn,
aanyway; and why should give We myself ayde
even roll anything up and put 1t away in
closets, and she said: oh, you mean that
old american horror or getting Teady 10
home. too. but / shouldn't dream of 1t here.
In the first place. there are no closets in
away If I wanted to. And really nothing
happens. l scatter some Persian powder
along the edges of things. and under the
1 pull down the shades. When / come back
In the fall 1 have the powder swept out
and the shades pulled up and begin living
and the moths have nibbled a little here
and there? The whole damage would not
s amount to half snd the cost sv Of Putting sa sve ny,
to speak Of the weeks of discomfort and
the wear and tear of spirit. No. thank
America I asked her. But if you went
back? and she gave a sigh, and said: Il
suppose 1 should go back to that. along
So you see." my friend concluded, fits in
the air, rather than in the blood"
Then your famous specific Is that our
eternal womanly. should go and live in
"Oh. dear, nor said my friend. Nothing
so drastic as all that. Merely the. extinc-
ton of household property"
"T see what you mean I said. But
what do you mean?"
Simply that hired houses. such as most
of us live in, shall all be furnished houses,
and that the landlord shall own every
stick in them, and every appliance down
to the last spoon and ultimate towel; There
must be no compromise, by which the ten
ant agrees TO provide his own linen and
silver: that would neutralize the effect I
intend by the appropriation OF the personal
proprietor, if that says what / mean. 1t
must be in the lease, with severe penalties
against the tenant in case. OF violation,
that the landlord Is TO furnish everything
In varfaof or1or uhap tho Tenant 0omoc In
and is to put everything in perfect order
when the tenant goes out, and the tenant is
not to touch anything, to siean IT, or dust
away in chests. All is to be sacredly and
inalienably the property of the landlord
that 1t shall constitute a KIND or trespass If
the summer or to open IT Tor the winter in
the usual way hat houses are now closed
be measurably vitiated."
'well?"
''Some years ago." my friend went on.
when we came home from Europe, We left
our furniture in storage for a time, while
we rather drifted about, and did not settle
anywhere in particular. During that inter-
val my wife opened and closed five fur
And she has lived to tell the tale?"
"She has lived to tell 1t a great many
it yet. But it IS my belief that although
she brought to the work all the anguish
OF q Qulckencu COuSCicHtcs uu1cf TIE Iiu
ence OF the American conditions she had
returned to, she suffered far less in her
encounters with either of those furnished
houses than she now does with our own
furniture when she shuts up our house in
the summer and opens Ii for the winter.
But IL there had been a clause in the lease,
as there should have been, ~forbidding her to
put those houses in order when she left
them, life would have been simply a rap
ture. Why, in Europe custom almost sup
piles the place of statute in such cases, and
you come and go so lightly in and out of
furnished houses that you do not mind
taking them for a month, or a few weeks.
We are very far behind in this matter, but
I have no doubt that il we once came to Ii
on any. extended scale, we should do 1t,
as We do everything else we attempt, more
perfectly than any other people in the
world. You see what ! mean?'
II am not sure that / do. But go IN"
az would invert the whole Henry George
principle. and l would tax personal property
of tire household kind so heavily that it
would necessarily pass out of private hands;
l would make its tenure so costly that it
would be impossible to any but the very
rich, who are also the very wicked, and
ought to suffer-
"Oh, come now"
81 refer you TO the Testament. In the
end all household property would pass into
the hands of the State"
Aren't you getting worse and worse?'
Oh. I'm not supposing there won't be a
long interval when household property will
be in the hands OF powerful monopolies,
and many millions VIII be made by letting
IL out 20 middle-class tenants like you and