Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-10-09
THAT CAME TO OUR ALTON CORES
roxDExr.
WOES OF POVERTY.
THE
sarah Jane and the Organ-A Frac-
Teal suggestion-The Departure
of Summer Vfsitors-Ars They
Nursed Notes.
corre,pondence of the Dispatch.)


but somehow 1 doubt II George Herbert
ever swept room, and l am sure he
never cooked All this is apropos OF
mournful letter before me which begins
II lead very monotonous existence; am
little more than a household drudge. Pow
erty makes farm life very unlike that OF
the old plantation" with many other
dirges in the same key.
The writer is one of the many women
who can say with Miss Broughton's he
rome: This is an up-py and down-y
world" Being married, she is not afraid
to air her happier recollections from that
remote period commonly known as .befo
de wah." Then In the South only 'po
white folks" did their own house-work
and the household OF a wealthy planter,
with its overstock Of servants, was, ac-
cording to Thackeray, Suggestive Of a
| light carriage drawn by team of ele-
| plants at that. l know that
| southern men-reconstructed editors, poll
| ticians, ct als.-will have it that this new
| state of affairs is better than the old, but
| no more than did the dear old poet quoted
above do they ever sweep rooms or cook
meals-especially the editors. However,
not TO tune a regular jeremiad, this over
work Of women whom farmers have
vowed themselves to cherish is really no
new thing. In old New England the life
or farmers wife was one of incessant
| toll. The second wife walked in the first
wife's footsteps. and the third wife sang
| a requiem to her predecessors. This is
statistical. at least in Vermont, where the
rocky soil and the working wife gave out
| t0OafhGr a. uruc lo,x.
cultural State. 1t may ever be that from
this cause the first "strong minded fe-
male" evolved. and this thought draws
] from my heart an indulgence I have not
| been wont TO feel for the species.
ALL WORK; NO JOY.
| Lunacy reports tell us that II is these
overwhelmed women who crowd the in
sane asylums the reason being that for
too long a period 1t has been all work
and no joy with them. l guess II was
| some poor soul Of this sort of whom
Mother Goose sang:
There was an old woman-and what do
you think?
She lived upon nothing but victuals and
drink"
o. stony diet! crushing every hone,
Blocking all the outlets to a higher life,
Victuals and drink-and nothing else?
one OF the most horrid things in this
mental fast is that women will not help
themselves. This l know. They are too
smart Personally. / have a holy horror
OF smart woman-in the American
sense of the word. Where she excuses
herself with: I'D rather do the work
myself than be bothered with servant"
which too often means I'D rather save
the servants wages-$10O or sl20 a year
10 spend In dress, or get an organ for
Sarah Jane"
1t is true she. doesn't have much time
to wear dress If she gets one, and
Sarah Jane would much better run her
ehromatic scales upon the stove If her
mother is in the kitchen.
What Is TO be done about IL? Is II not
Tor this that country boys and girls have
often such wild longings for a city life
because at home they live upon nothing
but victuals and drink?
The life Of a man may be large and
dramatic, even in failure. 1t is in the
seemingly little things that the life of a
woman, here as everywhere, is made up
a badly-cooked dinner, a careless washer
woman, wind that tears the nerves.
child with something the matter with it
which the doctor doesn't understand"
and the best friend" cannot relieve. The
little shocks which come unawares, the
appointments, failures, and want Of
completeness in anything harrow a wo-
mans soul. Too often these little fox
es" make her forget that she has a soul.
and is not back in the age wherein she
was not supposed TO be troubled by such
luxury.
IT is In the midst OF this practical, pro-
sale life, during these first warm days of
autumn, that languid feeling possesses
us. To-day nothing on earth seems so
delicious as to sit with idle hands, eve
lids dropping, and ears listening, only 20
the low voices of nature-to feel, wher
half the world is dying, that we have a
right to be restign also.
A GATHERING QUIET.
All through the light and heat and sun
stepped glory of these fieeting days there
is a gathering quiet-a faint Fremont
ton Of change, and within us there is a
longing 10 be still-to be idle, careless,
drifting on with the slow-moving clouds.
This will not dol Winter is coming, Are
there not a thousand and one things to
be done? Leaving out the small matter
of clothes, upon which hearts feminine
are supposed TO be eternally exercised,
is not the whole house, of town or coun-
try, 10 be completely changed? This will
take lots of work and pounds and pounds
of patience, along with the hammer and
the tacks.
But this is womens work. What great
err pleasure can be given the wife and
mother than in making comfortable the
home-nest for her beloved? To the NO.
man Of ingenuity and taste, there is an
esthetic side in housefurnshing and
cleaning that appeals TO the love OF the
beautiful within her soul and Is restful
Summer visitors are fitting homeward |
Crowdng the railway platform, or rush |
ing by with smiling. healthful faces at
the car windows, I wonder of how MANY |
there is going to be either a genuine thrill |
of regret or the utmost Indifference and |
possibly. relief, felt at their departure
once heard a lady remark that she |
liked to know, when she left place. that |
some one would feel sorry TO have her
go. How easy it Is TO creep in quiet |
way into some heart needing sympathy. |
A bit OF pecuniary aid, that does not |
mean much to you, or a little package |
OF sweetmeats, will sometimes do won
ders. The poor old "aunty' down the |
road. bereaved, as perhaps you once have
been. will bless you all her remaining |
DAYS II only with a heartfelt now that |
was hard" or dear, dear, how much |
you have endured" you listen to the long |
recital OF her woes. AS like as not she
will repeat lovingly to herself the phrases
IL cost you so little TO say.
The fiattering words OF the rich nor the
compliments of whilom friends are not |
nearly SO desirable as the spontaneous,
hearty thanks for helpful deeds given to
the lowly and dependant. and so soon
forgotten by the doer.