The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1902-09-20

WHEKE IS 3 lot OF laN aOO10 ""'"o-o #
wv ure, and of a fact we do not see many ideal families.
The yoke of matrimony often bears heavily, one or
both that wear it chatting under its burden. A lit
asT4|%cV tie observation shows that the sweetness and light
EEH#&H3H of the honeymoon wanes fast, and that domestic bur-
Eb dens speedily darken what should be to the end a
fairly illuminated expanse.
ogtames the fault lies with the husbands selfshness; %ofttimes
with the wies foolish ignorance. We shall concern ourselves with
the hhcr, as it in itself is of sufficient bigness.
TIE IGNORANCE BELONGS 70 NO ONE CLASS, it is
not only the poor w~orkingman that is the sufferer in this matter.
From marble palace down to humble wayside cottage there are few
homes where the household machinery runs smoothly. Rich and
poor and middle class do not see to it, in these degenerate days OF
higher education for women" that their girls have training in the
art of housekeeping; and as a result SO many of our homes are not
'keEtf" THEY FALL TO PIECES.
It seems to me we never can go back on the family idea. No
matter how enlightened and irreverent we may become, we always
shall held to Our faith in the family. And anything that disturbs a
home should be studied as an evil to be rooted out. To-day, col
lege professor, ~socoogist, economist lawyer and lawgiver, preach
er and physician, all, are assaihng the inadequate education our girls
are receiving; are telling us, vocary and by printed word, that on the
frdl feminines capacity for homemaking rests much of the peace and
order of the state.
Dr.. c. Stanley Hall says as to the practical part Of the home
making: Every girl should cook, sew, clean, polish, and perhaps
wash4have something to do with flowers, develop some domestic
taste and pride, in place of the shame SO often felt by high school girls
for Their lowly homes for which their education often breeds distaste."
l wonder, then, how many girls do what they should"
Precious few, | fear. The poor girls spoil and waste food mate
rial earned by hard labor, the servant girls Of the rich ones do like
wise with what is furnished by the "provider" in the higher walks Of
life. As to sewing, the poor girl buys miserable ready-made gar
ments, the rich one travels from pillar to post in search of a salts
factory d%ressnaker. AS to cleaning and polishing, THEY ARE
LARGELY LEFT UNDONE.
Men, however little they may take part in keeping up tidness,
really are fond Of order and cleanliness. That is one of the reasons
they marry; they want some one to look alter things" And when
they find things not looked after, disorder added to disorder, the
mate neither faithful nor competent as steward, in 90 cases out Of 100
there is grumbing thereat. The wife does not like il, Of course, and
the breach begins.
Poor thing, she cannot learn in a day what she should have been
learning all her life. AS experience is not a kindly teacher, she gets
~disphited, and, in the parlance of the day, the finish lis in sight. Real
ly what is entered on the books as "incompatiblty' is often just an
other Aame for incompetence. The husband that earns the flour and
the slo$a and the soap has a wife that can't make the bread or the
clothes " can't put the soap to good use. And SO the two. worn
out with their attempt at housekeeping, decide to give it up.
Or they live along some way or other, in a house kept some
way or other. In the course of time, when they have got more or
less indifferent to things in general, there may be seen a little inn
provment in the affairs Of the menage; lessons have been learned in
the long school of experience. But the lessons have been hard, very
hard, for the wife, we see traces OF the difficulties in her worried face,
her nervous manner. And it is too bad, since the fault lies in her
bringing up rather than in any waywardness of her own.
EDUCATION IN DOMESTIC AFFAIRS SHOULD BE
COMPULSORY o GIRLS.
Kaza~~4 MA