The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-06-11
WOMAN 5 v ORLD

When YOU meet "A WOAAdh INV dud =
--so looks worn and weary. you know
.,t.bout being told, says Dorothy Dix in
,be New orleans Picayune. that she is
ling through the trying ordeal of getting
adv for her summer outing, and you
wonder if the game is worth the candle,
and if any subsequent pleasure can pay,
c,- so much present trouble.
.Oh. dear" said one of these victims
GENTLY to a group of women who were
discussing the summer exodus question,
.ob dear. isn't it awful? Every year
If drives me into a spell of nervous pros
ration. 1 think might have health and
strength to stand going off for the sum-
msr if l didn't have TO get ready, or I
might be able to get ready if 1 didn't
have TO go, and could stay at home and
rest uEs after the labors of preparation,
but 4he two combined are too much for
me And what do we get out of it? It's
like going through death on the hopes
of heaven, and then, nine times out Of
zen. finding we have struck the other
pace
To begin with, there is the agony of
making up ones mind where to go, ana
irving to decide between a quiet farm
house with freedom and flies and ice
Joled out like it was diamonds, and the
regulation summer hotel, where you
sleep in a closet and display your gowns
for the criticism of your sex. And which
ever you choose, you will be dead sure
10 wish you had taken the other. Then,
there are weeks of misery. in which you
haunt dressmakers and PROSTATE your
self before them, and when seamstresses
harry the life out of you by doing those
things to the children's clothes that
should not he done, and leaving undone
the things that should have been done.
In addition, your house has TO be gotten
in order to shut up and you lie awake
Of night wondering what on earth you
can do with the cat. and are haunted by
a conviction that your husband will leave
the windows open SO it can rain in on
the new wall paper and ruin the mat
tings. So you worry along until finally,
10 sheer despair, you commend your
house to the protection of fate, and your
husband to the mercy of Providence. and
pack your trunk and leave without being
ready
"Of course, we always say we don't
like to keep the children in town in hot
weather, and go away for their sake.
If one has a summer cottage of ones
own that may be well enough, but if one
hasn't, il seems to me that il is time TO
be honest with ourselves and admit what
We all know. and that is that there is
no other spot on earth worse for child
than a summer hotei. Just recall what
We have all seen thousand times. Pert
Htue girls hanging around a group of
sossiping and andal-talking women. and
hearing things that blast their white in
uocence like a hot wind scorches up the
Petals of a lily. Don't you recall mere
girl babies who were already making
eyes at men, and who were pitiless lit
lie snobs, valuing and estimating other
children by their clothes? Think of how
made you shudder, and wonder what
their mothers could be thinking about.
when you saw the persistence with which
the little boys hung around the barroom
and poolroom, and you ina gined the
coarse stories and jokes they must be
hearing? II is just as possible to touch
pitch and not be def1led, as it is to keep
child interrupted in such an atmos-
pierre"
Well" put in another woman, "hav-
ing a cottage of your own is another fall
lacy too as far as any pleasure and rest
10 the woman is concerned. OF course it
sounds attractive, but in reality it means
that the mistress has to install a new
nome, and get it cleaned, and furnished.
and furnished up. She has to bride and
cajole her old servants into going with
her, and be down on her knees in graft
tude to them. or else she has all of the
agony in breaking in new ones. Heaven
knows housekeeping is trying enough in
town, where you have all sorts of con-
Neniences, and markets and corner gro
ceries on every block, but it has a million
unforeseen complications when you are ten
niles from a lemon, and have to think
Rhead and provide like the commissary
bf an army; and then things always give
(out at the critical moment. In town you
| entertain when you want and whom you
| want. In your summer home visitors
come down like the wolf on the fold and
people rise up from the dead 10 come to
see you. 1t is a season of work and wor-
ry, and the idea of regarding it as a va
ation' for the mistress is an exquisite
and delightful piece of sarcasm"
You don't go away often in the summer
do you, Mrs. Blank?" asked one of the
women, turning to the matron of the
party.
No she replied, 81 got a little lesson
on that subject once that l have never
forgotten l had always been by way of
going, you know, and, like the rest, at
the beginning of summer I proceeded to
get the house into proper shape for leav-
ing. l stripped it of carpets and rugs and
draperies and curtains, I pinned sheets
over the pictures, and tissue paper over
the chandeliers, and put covers over the
furniture. until everything looked as hid
eous and awful. and unhomelike as flu
neral. 1t positively never struck me how
asterly selfish II was not to leave a single
comfort or thing of beauty for my hus-
o7nd to enjoy while 1 was disporting my
self at summer resorts, and that, in eff
rect, was making him stay at home just
as miserable as was in my power. Being
man, John never complained of what
he endured. and year after year / went
hsAt-heartedly off, leaving him to live
IN one room and eat what the cook chose
10 give him
II might have gone on that way 10 the
END of the chapter, except that one day
had a warnng-nothing tangible, but
just that feeling that a woman has, and
that tells you something is wrong. 7
wrestled with ii through one long night
and then I took the next train for home
got in carly one morning, and John was
pathetically glad to see me. He was