The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1904-02-12

The woman who attempts to hold her
own has her work cut out for her. A
man may, if he is in luck, have a certain
unity about his occupations. A woman
who tries to keep up with the times is
Pooh Bah in petticoats. She is num-
Der of things in succession and never
any one, thing long. She fills position
on one Side of the stage and then goes
to the other side in a fresh capacity.
Unlike the original Pooh Bah, she does
not draw salary for each pursuit. In
stead of this, she usually has the privi-
lege of finding virtue its own and only
reward.
The woman who does not keep up with
the times, drifts easily into monotony.
This is blunder.
Never should you let yourself get into
rut, my friend the housekeeper. 1t
does not pay. Perhaps it may seem to
tighten labour to have the wheels run
in groove, but in the long run,-and
often in the short run, too,-it will be
found to be a mistake. If it is your
sense of duty that puts you and keeps
you there, go to work to try to remodel
your perception of what constitutes
duty. If you have New England con-
science of the varient type, take chic
reform and have it extracted. Some
times the roots go too deep for this, and
then the only thing that will help is
constant treatment.
The woman who means to hold her
own should consider seriously what her
own is. First and foremost, she will
probably tell you, are those who belong
to her household They must be cared
for, fed and clothed. Granted. But men
likewise women and children-do not
live by bread alone, and life is more than
raiment. We all of us know homes where
the bodies of the inmates are fed and the
souls and spirits go starved.
Once upon a time 1 knew home where
everyone was happy. 1t was badly
kept house,-from one point of view.
The mother was no housekeeper and she
knew it. There were holes in the linen,
Sits in the window shades, frayed spots
in the carpets. The service of the ia
BILE could only be described as higgledy-
piggledy. Yet 1 have never known a
more united family. There may have
been cracks in the china, but there was
none in the domestic unity. The chill
dren were loving and obedient, the father
and mother were companionable and
charming.
Of course, it was not because the
house was in rags and splatters. 1t
might have been patched and the family
peace still unbroken. But anyone who
had to choose between living in such a
home and in domain presided over by
the kind of gorgon known as nasty
particular" housekeeper would not have
hesitated for moment. He would have
preferred goodness to cleanliness and
taken it at the first offer.
Either of these illustrations is an ex-
treme and this is what the woman who
holds her own strives. to avoid. The
middle course that has been described
as golden in the end for her efforts.
In order to win this she should lay to
heart the truth that something must be
crowded out. One woman, with one head,
one back, one set of nerves, hands and
feet, cannot accomplish everything. If
she does, there is very little left of the
woman but lot of assorted fragments
and the memory of strenuous life.
There are better things than these to
put into the family collection. When