Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1898-02-04
And with all this woman's troubles

WING uaOASs eHdU WdSs BIG uuu COLL
pany to dinner. For what house.
keeper ever saw the time when the
bread and butter was short and no
time to prepare anything for dessert
but what some one would drop in at
the last minute. Now, no doubt, some
OF yon are thinking that woman de-
served a great deal of sympathy, and
used to agree with you, but after a
few years of experience and observa-
ton have made up my mind it was
all her own fault; if she had baked a
good supply of bread on Saturday,
she would not have had to stop wash
ing to get it ready for the oven.
If she had churned when she
should her cream would not have
been getting sour on Monday morn
ing. If Bob's waist had been mended
and put away in good repair when
the last weeks ironing was done, he
would not have had to wait for his
buttons to be sewed on before he
could go to school, and rs to her
husband telling her about his
mothers kitchen and his mothers
cooking, do not blame him one bit,
and would advise him to keep right
on telling her about it every day I'M
til she would straiyhten up her
kitchen and get his meals ON time. Il
THU there can be nothing more
annoying to man than to come
from the field tired aud hungry at
twelve O'clock, and have TO wait a.
quarter or half an hour before dinner
Is ready, and if he scolds and frets,
who is to blame? We all know there
are days when the best of house.
keepers, by some unforeseen him
drance will be few minutes late,
and very few husbands will complain,
but l have been in homes where this
was an everyday occurrence; the wife
always behind time with her work,
hurrying, fretting, and for this
reason accomplishing little, wasting
her own time and that of everyone
who was obliged to wait for her. In
such homes as this is where you will
find the overworked woman, and a
little observation will convince any,
one that it is not u case of OvERwORK
but simply u case of POOR MANAGE.
MENT. Aud to all young house-keep-
ers | would say; if you wish to
manage your home in such a way
that you may enjoy life yourself and
allow all around you to do the same,
do not put everything off until the
last possible moment, if you do
trouble will surely follow. 1t takes
no longer to put the meat to cook in
good season, than to wait until it has
to be brought to the table in an un-
palatable condition. If you have
vegetables to prepare for dinner it
takes no longer at nine or ten O'Clock
than to walt until eleven, then have
the book agent, the washing machine
man drop IN and stay a few minutes,
or the pigs get into the garden or any
of hundred and one things that
always seem to happen at the busiest
moment. Then you must rush to the
kitchen, hurriedly pare few potatoes
and get them into the kettle just in
time to see your husband arrive at
the barn. A late dinner, and proba-
bly, clouds in the domestic sky, when
this could all have been avoided if
the potatoes had been ready just a
little while before they were needed.
l sincerely believe procrastination to
be the main fault with the woman
who claims to be so terribly hurried
all the time. The small things that
seem SO trivial as to be scarcely
worth doing at all, if not attended to
J at the proper time, accumulate into
/ mountains of disorder.
| do not believe any woman can
take real pleasure in housekeeping,
who is not systematic. There must
be special time for everything; not
only a certain day of the week, but a
particular time of the day. What
| would we think of farmer who
would undertake to milk the COWS,
feed the pigs, and get the horses
ready for work in the field at the
same time, running hither and
thither, and yet we actually see
women managing their work on this
very plan, trying to do everything;
never accomplishing anything. Is it
any wonder when the day closes they
are completely worn out and ready
Ito complain OF their hard lot? 1 think
when the housekeeper begins to pre-
pare her breakfast, she should have
in her mind full outline of the days
work.
Then do everything in the easiest
possible way that will allow of it be-
ing we'll done. l believe a general
fault with us is we are apt to contin-
ne in the same old old way in which
our mothers and grand-mothers did
their work-by main strength, instead
of adopting the many improved meth
DDS which would save us hours of
hard labor. Now as to the charge Of
these husbands Of ours expecting US
to work so much harder than they do
while they pocket the money. Did
you ever stay all night on the farm?
If so, think who in the morning built
/ L.