The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-10-06
HOUSEHOLD PRECEDENT,
BIO Usages " hich Interfere with Mode
Convenience.

o,d Csages " hich Interfere with Mod~-n
Convenience.
Nothing is so dependent upon prece-
dent as housekeeping. Each family
has its canons, its established methods
Of work and thought as iuviolate as
The famous laws of the Medes and Per
sians. These laws and customs are de-
ecended from grandmothers and great
Erardmothers. They begin with the his
tory of the family. They have been
handed down from generations. They
hre inculcated from infancy TO maturi-
ty until they become as much part
ef the individuality as a characteristic
feature of the face. Members of a GER
lain family become known as easy
going fhousekeepers, whose meals are
seldom on time, but whose tempers are
seldom ruffied. Nothing short of a rev.
olution will compel one of the daugh-
.ers of this race to depart from the
slack, comfortable methods of her an
eestors. As easy and as graceless as an
old shoe, they remain until some one is
finally born who establishes new line,
which recognizes order az heavens
first law. Another family is as sternly
conservative and allows neither rest
aor assistance in the merciless pursuit
of an ideal order. The precedent of
by-gone generations has a strong hold
On everyone of us. The desire TO adhere
70 a certain course because some one
of our own kin has gone through sim
liar task and come out triumphant is
usually stronger than any inducement
30 depart therefrom.
There isR satisfaction in laying all re-
s,,onsi5jHty on those who have gone
before. and been honorably gathered to
Lneir fathers. 1t is easy to argue that
What has been successful will ever be.
1t is useless to recall the fact that
time changes all things; that the weap-
Dns OF one generation often become
harmless piaythings to another. The
average woman is not governed by rea-
son. She is governed by emotion. Love
end reference for the old, for the ira
Estions and customs of her ancestors,
l. one of her strongest emotions. She
fears the new. There is to her mind
revolution and probable disaster in
every change All the conditions that
lie about a conscientious woman's life
make her conservative. 1t is not hers
to lead amiss or to institute radical
changes in social methods. She is nat
uraly timid at changes, even in the linn
tied kingdom Of the household. 1t was
great innovation when the lucifeI
match was finally introduced in the
household in place of the old flint. For
yeats certain persons held on to the
old method and avoided the dangers
that were supposed to Turk in the new.
1t was but few generations ago when
people were baking their biscuit on
the ashes and boiling their kettles on
the old-fashioned crane that hung in
the open fireplace. 1t took household
and many were the tales told of the
dangers with which this innovation
WAS fraught. Middle-aged people Of
the present generation can remember
that certain old ladies refused to take
the risk. and continued until their
death to swing their tea-kettles from
the inconvenient though picturesque
crane and bake their biscuit in the dust
engendering ashes, just as their moth
ers and grandmothers had done before
them.
Let an unprecedented person enter one
Of these households and suggest more
convenient methods, and she must be
the most tactful and persuasive person
in the world TO meet anything but jeal-
GUS opposition. The argument that
mother always did so" is usually con-
elusive and admits of no further dis
cussion. With the broadening of wom-
ans experience and thoughts there
must inevitably be a broadening of
household methods. Slavish adher-
ence to precedent and custom must be
superseded by an Intelligent desire to
''prove all things and hold fast to that
which is good."-N. Y. Tribune.