The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-11-21
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she should keep her family we'll,
comfortable and good. Nothing
more vital is required of any worker
in any field, and nothing demanding
more brains, self sacrifice and hero
ism. The successful home maker
must have the talents of the great
general. Her sphere is small, but it
must be remembered that her cam
paign is never intermitted for day.
To come down to the homely de-
tails of her work, we must remind
ourselves that health cannot be
maintained in family without
high degree of cleanliness in every
department, including provision for
proper and regular bathing of the
family, good cooking methodical
meals; careful clothing; proper sleep
ing habits and facilities; and ade-
quate ventilation. Almost any good
| physician will admit that at least
two thirds of the illness in families
arises from improper attention on
the part of the home maker to some
of these particulars, although the
immediate occasion of any special
attack may have been unavoidable.
Let any one reflect for a moment
upon any home in which he is
freely admitted, and he will remem
Der that there are few in which the
plainest principles of healthfulness
are observed-even if they are under
stood, which they often are not, even
in fairly intelligent circles. Most
mothers allow their children to eat
between meals ad libituna; or they
are allowed to sit up too late at night;
or their diet is too rich, or not we'll
cooked; or their houses are kept too
cold or too hot; or the girls are
dressed too tightly; or they or their
brothers are not made to wear rub
bers out doors on rainy days, or are
not made to take them off when in
doors; or other similar matters are
neglected among the apparently trv-
ial but really mighty details of home
making. Consequently, oftrecurring
indispositions or semi-occasional at
tacks of hard illness are continually
occurring among the inmates.
The comfort of family demands
quiet, order, peace. The very words
convey a sense of pleasure. Human
beings like them and what they
stand for. Mothers who themselves
conduct their work in noisy and
unsystematic way, or let their chill
dren make more noise than is nece :
sary Though good deal must be
allowed), or permit their servants to
slam the doors or bang about dishes
and furniture, violate an important
condition of home making. II they
are frequently torn up by changes
among the servants, often the result
of stubborn and fatuous manage
ment, or if the mother has no faculty
at regulating social demands upon
herself and her loved ones, or if she
disregards, or allows the rest to dis
regard the feelings of each other las
when a certain mother always made
her daughters life miserable by
trimming her dresses in way the
poor girl did not like)-then the
home maker is failure, and should
either study her business more close
ly, or else give it up, and hire some
body to do it for her.
The habits and the ideals of the
home should be so elevated and so
strenuously insisted upon, that even
the most perverse and i'll born child
should, after years of patient toll on
the part of the parents, succumb to
them. There must be exceptions, but
the great mass of the children in our
homes should reach mature years
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and these so immutably established
in their minds that no marked devia-
ton from them will be possible. Do
most of our home makers realize that
the main object of the home is de-
feated when they allow ignorant, half
moral, uniformed beings Though they
may have faultless manners and I'm
derstand the art of dressing) to go
forth from it into the world, upon at
tanning manhood and womanhood7
1t is not alone upon the mother,
whom we regard as primarily the
home maker, that the responsibility
for the moral tone of the household
is laid. The hand-drudgery of the
father is usually devoted to the fam
lily support; the hand-drudgery of
the mother goes to establish the
mechanical order and perfection of
the home; but the moral and intel
lectual development of the children
should devolve equally upon both