The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-02-24
THE HOUSEHOLD DRUDGE.
One Sufferer Says Some Dreadful
Things About Mnn.

rs il any wonder" walls a woman In
the Detroit Free Press that a woman
dlslikes homework when nobody-save
some overworked drudge like herself
sets a just value on her. toll? One great
reason for her dislike Is because men do
not appreciate what she does. Men think
q woman's work doeeH't amount to much
They have such an insufferabie conceit OF
themselves that they think nob0dy's work
counts but their own. II you had
TO get out and hustle like / Co. now,' they
are fond of remarking when their wives
complain of too much to Co All the count
less things women find TO do are done be-
cause the silly creatures like to fuss. not
because there's any earthly need OF doing
them. Men accept the sum total rendered
him in ease and comfort and neatness and
good taste. and think il comes like the
gentle rain from heaven, without price or
labor. Keeping house, from a mans
point Of view, means three meals a day
and the beds made. All the rest is merely
chasing dirt
Men prove their lack of appreciation of
women's work by the fact that her wages
are her keep. He. work being of no p&r-
ticular significance 1t is amply paid for il
the man feeds and clothes her
THE cheapest labor in the world Is the
woman's and cheapest of the cheap is the
housekeeper's. Makers of cheap grades of
artificial flowers in New York can earn
three cents an hour. Plenty ot>housekeep-
ers work more than ten hours day and
don't cost their husbands $50 a year for
clothes. That is, they don't earn even
8 cents an hour. Yet If all the under
paid housekeepers should go on strike the
whole Industrial force of the country could
not step in to do the work that would be
left undone
"A man doesn't appreciate his wife's
work till she's dead. When he begins
hunting for hired girl and parts with ten
or twelve dollars a month for her wages
he begins TO dimiy comprehend that a
womans work has money value. He's a
surprised and an astonished man for
awhile; then he begins to have visions of
the poorhouse, and finally concludes it
will be cheaper to marry again. Prob
ably he proposes to the girl She, poor
fool surrenders her 1920 per year in good
hard cash for $50 worth of clothing and
the ti,le of Mrs, and works harder and
serves her master more than she did
when she was 'giri'-not to mention moth
ering' a job lot of secondhand children
and having a few of her own. Lord knows
what she does it for. I'm sure l don't.
"A great many women dislike house
work. Who blames them? 1t is an IN
ennlnS round OF Worrying WearylnS cares
The dishes domestic woman washes in
her lifetime would make a monument as
high as the Eiffel tower; the stitches she
sets would run into leagues; the food she
cooks would aggregate tons. But when
she comes to her last day OF life very
likely she's out of bread and the cookie
Jar is empty. and the neighbors come in
and wonder how she got along with so
few sheets and pillowcases. All her un-
ceasing toll has failed to make an impress
sion, and the utmost that is said of her
is that Really. the cellar stairs in that
house were something dreadful She's
| judged by what she failed to do; not by
what she did.
Not till just value is set on woman's
domestic labor by those for whom it is
executed; not till man recognizes his
wife as his partner and ceases to feel
warm round the heart thinking how gen.
erous he is because he gives her things
not till then will the women of today be
ready to give up their independence and
their independent incomes in order TO
practice the domestic virtues"