Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-12
The HOUSEHOLD DISRUPTED
A Days Labor for a PitifuIIy Small
Saving.
THE BUTCHERS RECEPTION

generally one ana the same WOfndH anu SIZE
| has done more to burden the industrial
| progress of the world than any other single,
small thing 1 know. while as for breaking
| up friendship between husbands and wives
| my experience is this woman is more to be
| feared than Gree or Cleopatra.
This is the way she does it-alienates your
| husbands affections. She happens in about
! the first of the month, just when bills due
are naturally making man feel that bad
| as it is for a man to live alone, being mar
| ried isn't an unmixed benefit. The cost OF
| living is pretty apt to come up as top-c
| of conversation, and the woman who al
ways goes to Center market asks. Where
do you go for your marketing?
~ don't go. order"
| A little Shrek of virtuous horror greets
| this But that's dreadfuly expensive
Ones husband pricks up his ears ana 10 KS
| suspicious, if it's the first time this sort OF
| thing happens. If he's heard 1t before the
gloom of his countenance only deepens, and
he shoots a glance at his upward-tendinS,
intellectual wife which says without WORDS:
Just as I tell You. Keep on, keep on
You'll bring us to the poorhouse eventually
| However, personally I'm nothing II not
| determined to die hard for my principles,
among which are economic principles, SO |
| grid myself and reply resolutely, Il count
| the time and energy spend IN gong "
market as worth something, and / think the
difference between what ] pay ordering ny
telephone, or from the salesman who comes
| to my door, is offset by what save IN my
| own labor.
TO this she shifts, that simply maddening
| sniff with which women who spend their
| life energy ''fiufTing' their house and their
| children and doing fancy work, and visit
| ing always sniff at a woman who sets
| herself up at doing serious work ana peii's
paid for it.
"Oh, of course, my time and energy aren't
| worth anything, so that doesh count III
| the cost of my marketing
| This is said with such pretty mock ap-
pearance of humility, SO becoming hs
| is instantly touched by it, You can see, ana
| in his heart is saying: Now, that the
| kind of woman man ought to marry-nice,
| humble little thing. who doesn't attach any
J Importance to herself to get in the way of
/ a mans prosperity" He signs, so do you,
and the diabolcal creature, who always
goes to Center market, continues:
How much do you pay for roast beer!
OF course, nobody's going to lie to save
| 3 cents a pound on reputation for economy,
| SO though 1 know precisely what Is COM
| ing 1 answer, Eighteen cents
| Again that pretty Shrek of Virtuous nor
| ror at your Ubiquitous extravaganza Il
pay only 10, and get the loveiiest roasts
| for that you ever saw. Eighteen cents.
| On, dear' How can you do it? How much
| Go you pay for chickens?
1 begin to get reckless now. I don't care
| if tell all the truth there is in me.
| "Oh | get a nice pair for dinner for 73c.
A sui ceSSlon Oh SnTlekS DIT ilils. " NY
| get b-e-a-utiful chickens for Goc. pair
enough for a dinner and croquettes for
lunch next day"
want to say something about the differ
ence in size of our respective families en-.
tering into this comparison. but she doesn' I
give me chance, She is fairly warmed to
| her unholy task Of getting me sentenced
! ard hanged for criminal extravaganza, so
| she presses breathessly ahead.
"Wh;t do you pay for corn
Fifteen"
81 get it for 10 at market. And melons?'
| The Damage is Done.
Before I can open my mouth her wicked
| design is accomplished. Diplomatic rela-
lions in my family are suspended, and the
| head of the house is to the front with such
| emphatic assertion that he is cheated, lied
| to, robbed-all but murdered-by the up
| town market where my cruel extravaganza
persists in dealing, that of course 1 get
| mad, and l go to Center market the 1ol-
| lowing Saturday.
l know just what fool I am to do it. l
! know Just the whole truth about the mar
ket statistics the economical domestic lady
has given me. l heard Commissioner of
| Labor Wright say once, setting forth the
! danger of making deductions from mere
| figures: There are lies. there are ID
| lies, and then there are statistics.
This language doesn't begin to be strong
enough to describe the unreliability of the
statistics of economy given out by the Wo-
men who without reference to circumstance
or condition go to Center market and figure
| your wastefulness, whatever else you do.
! l know perfectly well that in taking adj
vantage of modern invention, the telephone
| or the convenlences made possible by cap
| ital in trade. and getting my marketing
either by ordering over an electric wire or
through the accommodating young man
who comes daily to my door l am doing
what any reasonable being would do-above
all things, I'm doing what man would do
DO fyoH yNtt,rr Iyrrt han Ian
sure, I'm not a reasonable being-only in
moments. I'm a woman. Moreover. a
man isn't keeping house. He, undeseryedly
blessed lord of creation that he is-he just
does the easy part-pays the bills, while l.
poor, weak, silly, down-trodGen woman-I
do all the absurd, petty, pestiferous, soul
consuming. iesh-depravng labor that of all
industries is most despised and worst paid
l keep house. Consistent with all this
though absolutely Illogical and uneconomi-
cal, / go to Center market.
The fact that I'm ten miles from Center
market, that in order to get there accord
ing to the schedule which the popular eco
nomcal domestic lady has fixed as proper
for going to market l must arise at 6
a. H. to tub, dress, mix the babys food
swallow my breakfast whole and walk
over the frame of everybody in the house,
catching an 800 car-this all but impossi-
bic situation has no bearing on the purely
domestic lady, arithmetic by which figur-
ing is done to show the saving of going to
market. l don't carry a basket-oh, no!
The woman I'm with is an old hand at
marketing, and she knows what butchers
at Center market are for. But that is a
chapter to follow
Going to Market.
The car is filled with women bound for
| market They have come from Kensington,
Chevy Chase, Grant road, Pierce Mill road.
I Swell the number with the Cleveland
Park contingent and as we whiz by the
Zoo without stopping I sigh, enviously
thinking of the lady tiger lady lion, lady
elephant who do not have to go to Center
market to be good. Alas, why was 1 born
a domestic animal!
Every one of US has on a market face A
bicycle face is a maSque for sweet idleness
compared with the tense expression through
which Is the ugly CLEAN of sordid soul
that marks a woman's countenance going
to market. We are all victims of the vice
of Martha-"troubled and worried about
| many things" 1 should say we were! We
are going to spend on an average as much
as three or four dollars apiece, and we are
going to divide this among at least twenty
| five articles to be bought. We're going to
fight to save cent or two on every one of
| these two dozen things, and If we succeed
were going 10 buy ice cream soda and some
bargains in organdy. We know in advance