The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1897-02-18
HOUSEWORK AS A BEAUTIFIER,
Done Under Proper Conditions 1t Is Good
for the Health

Done Under Proper Conditions 1t Is Good
for the Health.
1t is not portable that anything can
be said which will make homework
popular. The drudgery and LONELINESS
of sweeping, busting, dish-washing and
cooking have little in common with the
aesthetic tendencies of the age Even
when attired in the daintiest fabrics
which can appropriately be worn, with
all modern appliances at command, and
with hands neatly gloved, a woman do
ing houseworll, though she may be do
ing it for pleasure or from principle
rather than from necessity, is too apt to
feel herself degraded. The reproach of
''hitchen knaye," which Lynette flung
back to GareIh, has chung, since time
hogan, to the household worker. A
genuinely intelligent woman, who, los
ing her property, was obliged to serve
her household with her own hands,
complained bitterly of the horrible hui
Initiation and ignominy which she suf-
fered. New England is the stronghold
of independent labor, where women
IllOlu DlCtN anu lCSil IDI'N' Ellll at INC
same time, and it is probable that more
real ladies do their homework there
than in any other quarter of the globe;
yet even there, in spite of cooking
schools and domestic associations"
tie observer detects a growing dislike
to housework. Girls will go into mills
or shops, or will almost starve, before
they will enter domestic service. 1t is
the exception to find in any large town
a woman who, with the means to en-
ploy a servant, fails to do it. Having
thus saddled their household duties
upon another, these women proceed to
search outside for the physical exercise
which they acknowledge is necessary
to keep themselves in good condition.
They ride, they play tennis, they spin
OFT on bicycles, patronize gymnasiums,
and devise all sorts of artificial substi-
tutes for the healthful activities CT
their home, which had also behind them
economy and family comfort to recon-
mend them.
James Russell Lowell says somewhere
of this natural development, as dis
played in a WOrkingman: How much
more admirable is this tawny vigor, the
fruit of downright toll, than the crop
of early muscle which heads out under
the glass Of the gymnasium
y similar superiority is clearly shown
in the woman who, while not oycrworE-
ing, has still pursued a round of house
hold duties in her home. There is
nothing like regular homework for
strengthening the muscles and develop
ing the figure. The variety of posture
and the rapid changes required promote
roundncss and plumpness without fab
biness. No amount of tennis nor prac-
tee on the parallel bars will produce
the vigOr and grace which result from
two or three hours of homework each
day. It's hard and confining to attempt
to do all the labor for family every day
in the year Such life mean that and
nothing more. Women are not TO blame
for trying to escape from it. But there
is no need of giving up all housework
because a part must be relinquished.
The woman who will spend three hours
of each morning in sweeping, bed MAX
ing, and dish washing, and will then
rest and read or sew at her leisure for
two or three hours more, will excel all
others at outdoor sports in the after
noon.
But" it viii be objected, ''no maid
will do these daily duties if the mistress
or her daughters once assume them. If
one of the family undertakes the care
of the parlors, she is bound to do that,
or else hire an extra maid to under
take it if she attempts to break her
bonds for a single day. And then, the
hands! Washing dishes reddens and
roughens the hands-for one cannot do
it all with dish mop, and gloves
amount to little in that sort of work.
a woman with red. rough hands finds
it hard to take her place in society"
In households where two or three
servants are kept the problem usually
becomes harder instead of easier. 1t
increases, in fact, with the completely
of the household arrangements and So
cial responsibilities. The contention
is doubtless a useless one, but it may
still be truthfully asserted that for
healthfulness (Which almost always
means clearness of compleXion), for
beauty of figure, and for genuine, whole
some satisfaction with life, there is
nothing like housework, if it be done
under proper conditions - Leslie's
Weekly.