The times., 1897-04-25

Women seldom mean harm-they Just do
1t. That is the only way can account for
the wrong things we are forever commit
ting with the very best intentions in the
world. For one thing, there's our market
ing. Why cannot we attend to it with
the regularity with which men go about
their daily duties? 1t is all very fine and
pathetic for us to have our weeps and
walls over the delinquencies of the specie
man, but while we are about it, it would
be only fair to remember that We have
dear little delinquencies of our own.
Ordinarily man is condemned for life
to some desk or stuffy shop, and he keeps
TO his beaten track of work with the plod-
ding patience OF .an Anacostia car horse,
but wei We are like that intermittent
small girl with the curl on her forehead:
When we are good, We are very good, in
deed, and when We are bad, we are horrid.
one of our horrid tricks is thatif we don't
feel like going to market we send the hired
girl, and she, being wise in her day and
generation, knows that a housekeepcr who
is too lazy to attend to her own buying is
too lazy TO take any vital interest in the
quality of food or in the way it is prepared
for the table. OF course, there are eXcep-
tions. a cock may know MOI about market
ing than her mistress, or there may be cir
cumStances which prevent the mistress
from affording the time that going to
market consumes. Then, again, there may
be reliable huckster who calls regularly
or a grocer on whom she can depend, but
even setting these cases aside there is no
going back on the fact that there are
swarms of women in this Washington OF
ours-women with husbands on small sal
aries and not a cent saved-who Will trust
their marketing to any scrap OF servant
they chance to have in their kitchen rather
than do 1t themselves.
They don't realize, of course, that they
are letting go OF their end of life's respon-
sibilitieS-that is. one of the astonishing
things about human ma ture, we have mag
nifying eyes for our neighboT's mistakes
while bind as a bat to our own. Apart
from the money involved, by going to
market Instead Of sending, we can see on
the stands any number of suggestions for
varying our daily menu. Eating three
times a day for three score years and
ten, is monotonous work, at the best-we
can at least show our love and apprecia-
tion for the man who works as long of
his breakfasts and his dinners and his
suppers, the best that our money can buy.
There is progressive idea in the air
that the old-fashioned housewife was a
slave and that woman, 10 be happy must
be free. 1t sounds prodigiously fine, but
1t seems to me that q man has just as
much right to freedom and happiness as
we have, and when he has to slave" foI
Us. it is only Just and loyal in us To take
our share of the burden-even il comes To
Shaving, in turn.
True, we were not cursed TO labor by
the sweat of our brow, dear sisters, but
we must not overlook the fact that mans
condemnation came through Mother Eve.
Naturally, it wouldn't do for us all to he
made in the same mould, like tallow
candles, but I do wish the disconnected
woman had been omitted from natures
| scheme. / ran across a sample of that
| type yesterday, and one OF the cheerful
remarks she had to make was that She
| could never rest satisfied in her present
| home She said her soul Craved space
| 1t is very nice little house with electric
| buttons. stained glass yesubule, and a bay
| window running to the roof. 1t is being
paid for by her husband, a postal clerk
! whose life is in danger every hour. every
| minute of the day. Before they were mar
ried she cleTked way up Seventh street, and
| now her soul Graves space. l wonder If she
would be satisfied with a mansion in the
/ skies?
| Fame and Fortune live in big houses
| but Happiness Just as often lodges in rooms
| If your home is small, il makes the cleaning
| easier. Your table cannot be as fine, but
with cheap. pretty glass and china YOU
can make It as tasty as the traditional
| groaning boards of the rich.
| You cannot bar your door from trouble
| whatever your home may be. but You can
| always open it to let in blessed content
| That was not an idle story about tn,
| virgins and the lamps, and / do believe
| that sometime some where you will be
made glad If you keep yours burning
| brightly on the altars of your homes. II
| you live in a fine, big house, be thankful
and oh, my dears, If ii is only shabby
| little spot with lots of work, be Thankful
/ all the same. Take the word of homeless
| woman: There's no place like home.
MARY LANDER