The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-12-25
WHO STOLE THE WORK {
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 By Lydia Kingsmill Commander.

By Lydia k1ngsmlll Commander.
 The new woman is criticised for every thing. from riding bicycle and wanting to vote, to buying her bread and talking in meetin."
 But indignation rises to white heat when some man who lacks a job sees woman in possession of that luxury. In wrathful tones he denounces her. declares she is stealing mans work, and demands that she return home, where she belongs, and attend to her own business.
 Not so long ago there was no need for such an injunction. The woman staid at home. without being told. because she never had time to get away from it. It was her workshop, and the whole house was built with that Idea in view.
 The old-fashioned kitchen was quite the most important room in the house. In the "sanctity of the home" was firmly lodged. The bedrooms were slightly en- larged grocery-boxes, m which the mem bers of the family breathed carbonic-acid gas mildly diluted with oxygen. The paflor was the abode of starched cur tains, crochet tidies, the big Bible, and & musty odor. It was only opened on state occasions or for very special company.
 But the kitchen was large, light, and airy, for it was the real home. In it the family lived and ate, and there the wo- man reigned supreme over pots, pans and dishcloths, proud queen of a cook-stove throne"
 Nor was her attention confined to three meals a day, baking bread, cake. and pie, roasting, boiling, and steaming to provide for the needs of the inner man.
 She had also. for a light diversion, the caraing and spinning of wool. which she next knit into hose, mittens, and muf- flers, or wove into the honest home spun in which the hero of the rural mel odrama Is invariably clad.
 To preserve herself from attacks of ennui, she also made the clothing of the family, from the baby's undergarments to fathers best suit. In her leisure hours she renewed the household supplies. the pillows, strawticks, and patchwork quilts or tore and sewed pounds Of rags, from which, in more of her spare time, she wove a new carpet or made hooked mats. At odd times when there was nothing else to occupy her. she strung applies for drying. made pickles or jellies, tried lard tand the family olfactories), boiled soap churned, washed, ironed, darned, patched, papered walls. whitewashed ceilings and cellars. weeded the garden. looked after the chickens. dried herbs for the family dosing, made cheese, did about seven hundred other things, and in the mean- time raised at least seven children and went to church on Sundays.
 In return she had enough to eat, three calico dresses year. and q deep. 3oid- ing sense of gratitude to her husband for so kindly supporting" her and saving her from the eXertion of working for a living.
 So woman had her sphere and her work, which all the world considered God-ap- pointed
 There came a day, however, when, af- ter much deep thought, the man quietly slipped into the house, grasped the loom and carried it off to the factory. The woman looked surprised, but relieved as we'll. It was easier to buy cloth than to make it.
 Presently back came the man and took the spinning wheel .I will make the yarn. as we'll as weave the cloth" he re- marked, and to complete his task he tucked the carders under his arm.
 Ever since he has been visiting the house. and each time he has carried away some kind of work. Now 1t was the bread-making, again 1t was the launder- ing, and another time the shirt-making. On each occasion he offered to bring back the finished product. better and cheaper, because it had been made in quantities and by scientific methods.
 The first visit pleased the woman, but soon she found time hang heavily on her once busy hands. After centuries and ages of toll she could not be idle and happy. So she rose. and left her home, and went to the factory.
 There were protests, then. that she was trying to get mans work, though she had spun for so long that it had given her sex A name. Who ever heard of man being called "spinster?''
 As her work disappeared, she continued to follow it. demanding always something for her willing hand and brain to do. But at every turn she was opposed by the man who boldly assured her that the work was his and told her to go home and labor there as she always had done.
 At last one day she went home. deter mined to investigate and to seriously con- slider the matter. This is what she found {: On the windows. instead of the cotton shades, which formerly she made, were patent rollers, manufactured and put in place by men. The curtains were made in factories owned by men and were hung by men.
 Instead of the barreI-armchairs and bOx-dressers was furniture made by men. The rag-carpet of her own weaving was supplanted by a Brussels, made by men. cut and sewed by men. and tackled down by men.
 She rushed to her old sanctum, the kitchen, once the important part of the house, because the center of industry. Behold, it had shrunk almost to the size of a mere closet! The day of it's glory was past and the contents of the pantry told why.
 She didn't need the kitchen for baking as MT Bunn's men did that; nor for washing and ironing as Starcher &s Co. attended to that; nor for preserving or pickling, as it was done by canning com- panfes; for for making head-chcese or sausages. because Chop the butcher. did that; nor for drying apples or stoning raisins or making cake or roasting cof- fee or grinding spices or mixing mustard or making jelly, for all those things were better done outside the house by men.
 Not even the thought of house-cleaning could reassure her. She recalled that when that essentially Feminine occupa- tion was in progress, men kalsomined the ceilings and papered the walls. cleaned the carpets and dyed the hangings. In- deed they did everything except tie up their heads in towels to keep the dust off.
 The woman turned to her wardrobe. Surely the needle, her age-long imple- ment. remained to her. But her lingerie was factory made, her shirt-waists bore masculine name. and her tailor plainly lacked the affiX "ess." Even her milliner was man.
 Finding that all the work once called hers was now done by men and that noth- ing was left in the house for her to do
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