The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1899-02-15


they were 40. The fallen at Chalons
and Austerlitz and Gettysburg and Wa
terloo are a small number in compLr-
ison with those who have gone down
under the Armageddon of the kitchen.
Go out to the country and look over
the epitaphs on the tombstones. They
are all beautiful and poetic, but If the
tombstones could tell the truth thou
sands of them would say: Here lies
woman who was killed by too much
mending and sewing and baking and
securing and scrubbing," and the weap-
on with which she was killed was a
broom or sewing machine or ladle.
The housewife rises in the morning
half rested. At an irrevocable hour she
must have the morning repast ready.
What if the fire will not burn? What
if the clock stop? What if the mar
keting has not been sent in? No mat
ter that; it must be ready at the ir-
revocable hour. Then the children
must be got ready for school. But what
if the garments be torn? What if they
do not know their lessons? What if
the hat or sash is lost? They must
be ready. Then you have the duty of
the day or perhaps several days 10 plan
out. But what if the butcher sends
meat unmasticabe? What if the gro
Ger furnishes you articles of food adul-
terated? What if the piece of silver be
lost. or favorite chalice be broken,
or the roof leak, or the plumbing fail,
or any one of thousand things oc-
cur? No matter. Everything must be
ready. The spring is coming. and there
must be revolution in the family ward
robe. or the autumn is at hand, and you
must shut out the northern blast. But
how If the moth has preceded you TO
the chest? How if the garments of the
last year do not fit the children now?
What if all the fashions have changed?
The house must be an eXtempolized
apothecary sshopor dispensary. There
must be relief for all styles of ailments
| something to loosen the Group, some
thing TO cool the burn. something to
poultice the inflammation. something
to silence the jumping tooth, some
thing to soothe the earache. o man of
business, if you had as many cares as
that you would be fit candidate for
an insane asylum! IfMartha make un-
der such circumstances an impatient
rush on the library or the drawing
room, be patient, be lenient. Oh. my
sister, though my words may not
arouse in many souls any appreciation
of your toll. let me assure you from the
kindliness with which Jesus Christ met
Martha that he appreciates all your
trials from garret to cellar and the God
OF Deborah and Miriam and Abigail is
the God of the housekeepers! Christ
never married, that He might be the
especial friend and confidant of whole
world of troubled 'womanhood blum
dered. Christ was married. The Bible
says the church is 1.-The Bride, the
Lambs wife," and that makes me know
that a woman has right to go to
Christ with all her annoyances and per-
pleXities and fatigues, for by his oath
of conjugal fidelity He hath sworn to
sympathize. George Herbert put the
thought in three or four verses, quaint
end peculiar, but strong, and in one
verse saying:
Thy servant by this clause makes drudgery
divine;
Who sweeps room as for thy laws makes
this and the action fine.
A young woman of brilliant educa.
tion and prosperous surroundings was
called downstairs to help in the alb
sence of the servant and there was q
ring at the bell, and she went to the
door, and an admirer entered. He said: /:
II thought heard music in the house
Was it on the piano or the harp?" She
said: Neither; it was frying pan
accompaniment to a gridiron! In
other words, was called downstairs
to help. ] suppose some time l shall
have to learn, and have begun now
When will the world learn that every
kind of work that is right is honor
i able?
But, oh, the Joy for the weary feet
when they step into the celestial equip
age. and, oh, the joy of those to whom
home was martyrdom on earth when
they go into that home where they will
never have to do anything that they dc
not want to do! What change from
the time she put down the rolling pin
TO the time she took up the scepterl
If Chatsworth park and the Vanderbilt
mansion were lifted into the Celestial
City, they would be looked at as unin-
habitable rookeries, and Lazarus him
self would be ashamed to be seen going
in or out of them, so great are the pal
aces awaiting all Gods dear children,
and SO much grander the Heavenly
! architecture than the earthly. 1t is
often not only the toll of the house
keeping, but it is the sickness and the
sorrow that go along. 1t is simple
fact that one-half of the women of the
land are invalids. The mountain lass
who has never had an ache nor pain
may consider household work of no
very great weariness, and at the even
tide may skip out to the fields and
drive the cattle home, and until ten
o'clock at night may fill the cabin with
| laughing racket, but, oh, to do the hard
work of the household with shattered
constitution-after six weeks whoop-
ing cough has ragged in the household,
making the nights as sleepless as the