Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1901-03-22
(By Mrs. G. H. scott.)

The following paper was read before
the recent meeting of the Watertown
Farmers Institute:
There are two things that the woman
at the head of the household must
realize. Housekeeping is science:
housework is = trade. Let us consider
first, the housekeeping. How aid you
learn it? How does any one learn it?
Why it just comes like gay hair, one
woman has said. Yes, and n many
cases, not until gray hair comes, does
the struggling housewife fully under
stand all it's principles. We DO things
in housekeeping because our mothers
did them as a rule and perhaps do not
take into account as much as w should
the changed times which have altered
every other condition of life. Girls
who attend college or take up soue Of
flee work after leaving school when
they marry, have the hardest tine of
all at this same housekeeping. They
find by trying experience, that it is
not en- instinct that develops when
wanted, like teeth in babe. 1t is no
wonder that in the first week at run
ming their own home, they should order
two dollars worth of yeast, and six
yards of Macaroni | do not mean to
say that a girl should be educated in
no other direction than the principles
pertaining to housework, but a girl
may have fine education if she so de-
sires and at the same time become an
efficient housekeeper. There is no bet
ter training for business than that
which a girl rightly learned, can get
from household and domestic duties of
all kinds including serving. The work
of every business is made up of details
To be able to manage these details so
as to bring about a profitable result, is
to be successful in business. The girl
who thoroughly understands the de-
tails of housekeeping, its buying, saw
ing, and use of materials, and then
manages these details so as to bring
about a harmonious home, is becoming
an expert in complex business.
Should it become necessary for her to
exert herself in some other occupation
in any business she takes up, that the
mastery over the one enterprise, will
be of great help to her in any other.
The girl to whom bread making is an
exact science, who cooks by weights
and measures, who never leaves any
needed thing from the dinner table
when she lays it, the girl who knows
all about buying and making her own
wardrobe, this girl will never find it
hard if her common school education
has not been neglected, to become use
full in almost any business. In every
business, punctuality, neatness and
prompt attention are of great import
ance, than by the performance of house
houd duties for length of time suffi-
cient to make the daily routine habit
To almost any girl the pleasure alone
of working for those she loves, is suffi-
cient to make housework attractive.
do not believe that anyone could be
continuously enthusiastic over the daily
routine of household duties for strang-
ers, but to provide happy home for a
father, to relieve a tired out mother,
and provide time for her to enjoy the
things she most wants to turn her at
tention to, or to contrive simple pleas
ures for brothers, sisters. and friends.
these things every girl knows to be
worth while. Not only will this exper-
ience fit one for the business affairs of
life. but It will also enable them to a
sponsible Of positions, viz: that of be-
ing good home-keeper and home
maker You have all heard of the
spinster who said that half the men
worried their wives to death and for
her part she would rather be living and
single, than married and dead" No
uOuDb NOliN hlliSb Dul VIC Stc ilO Itd-
son why this should be the case, in
well regulated home where everything
is harmonious for woman is most her
self and most useful and happy when
the affairs of her home occupy chiefly
her mind and heart. In the contract of
marriage it is only just, that the wom-
an shall furnish the family with exact
knowledge of her business of home
making. in other words. if the husband
has the ability to provide the money
the wife should have the ability to dis
pense it to the best advantage of both
partners in the firm. The woman has
one full half in the work of economy.
Man earns the money, women spend il.
is the way we usually hear it stated
but the true position is that both are
producers. He furnishes the raw mat
erial. he builds the house and supplies
II xyifh furnftupa I,,t