Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1898-01-12

go out to the cemetery and you VIII
see that the tombstones all read beau
tifully poetic; but if those tombstones
would speak the truth, thousands OF
them would say: Here lies a woman
killed by too much mending, and sew
ing, and baking, and scrubbing, and
securing; the weapon with which she
was slain was a broom, or sewing
machine, or ladle." You think, o
man of the world. that you have all the
cares and anxieties. If the cares and
anxieties of the household should come
upon you for one week, you would be
MT for the insane asylum. The half
rested housekeeper arises in the morn
Ing. he must have the morning repast
prepared at an irrevocable hour. What
If the fire will not light; what IL the
marketing did not come; what If the
clock has stopped-no matter, she must
have the morning repast at an irrevoc-
able hour. Then the children must be
got of to school. What IL their gar
ments are torn; what If they do not
know their lessons; what if they have
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Then you have all the diet Of the day.
and perhaps Of several days, to plan;
but what if the butcher has sent meat
unmasticable, or the grocer has sent
articles OF food adulterated, and what
II some piece of silver be gone, or some
favorite chalice be cracked, or the roof
leak, or the plumbing fail. or any one
OF thousand things occur-you must
be ready. pring weather comes. and
there must be revolution in the fam
be ready. Spring weather comes, and
you must shut out the northern blast;
but what If the moth has preceded you
to the chest; what If, during the year,
the children have outgrown the apparel
OF last year; what If the fashions have
changed. Your house must be an
apothecary's shop; it must be dis
pensary; there must be medicines for
all sorts of misunderstanding to
loosen the Group, something to cool the
burn, something to poultice the inflam-
nation, something to silence the jump
Ing tooth. something to soothe the ear
ache. You must be in nalf dozen
places at the same time, or you must
attempt to be. If, under all this wear
and tear Of life, Martha makes an i'm
patient rush upon the library or draw
ing-room. be patient, be lenient! oh,
woman, though / may fail to stir up an
appreciation in the souls of others in
regard to your household tolls, let me
assure you, from the kindness with
which Jesus Christ met Martha, that
he appreciates all your work from gar
ret to cellar; and that the God of De-
borah, and Hannah, and Abigail, and
Grandmother Lois, and Elizabeth Fry,
and Hannah More is the God of the
housekeeper! Jesus was never mar
ried, that he might be the especial
friend and confidant of whole world
of troubled womanhood. blunder;
Christ was married. The Bible says
that the Church is the Lambs wife,
and that makes me know that all
Christian women have a right to go
to Christ and tell him of their annoy
ances and troubles, since by his oath
of conjugal fidelity he is sworn to SYM
pathize. George Herbert, the Christian
poet, wrote two or three verses on this
subject:
THE servant by this clause
Makes drudgery divine:
Who sweeps a room, as for Thy laws,
Makes this the action fine
A young woman Of brilliant educa-
ton and prosperous circumstances was
called downstairs to help in the kitch-
en- in the absence of the servants. The
door-bell ringing, she went to open 1t
and found gentleman friend, who
said as he came in: Il thought heard
music; was 1t on this piano or on this
harp?" She answered: mo; was
playing on a grid-iron, with frying-pan
accompaniment. The servants are
gone, and l am learning how to do
this work." Well done! When will
women in all circles find out that it is
honorable to do anything that ought
to be done?
How great are the responsibilities of
housekeepers! Sometimes an indiges-
tible article Of food, by it's effect upon
a king, has overthrown an empire. A
distinguished statistician says of one
thousand unmarried men there are
thirty-eight criminals, and of enc
thousand married men only eighteen
are criminals. What a suggestion of
home influences! Let the most be
made of them. Housekeepers by the
food they provide, by the touches they
spread. by the books they introduce, by
the influences they bring around their
home, are deciding the physical, intel
lectual, moral, eternal destiny of the
race. You say your life is one of sac
rifice. I know it. But my sisters, tina.
is the only life worth living. That was
Florence Nightingale's life; that was
Payson's life; that was Christ's life.
We admire it in others; but how very
hard it is for us to exercise it our
selves! When In Brooklyn. young DR..