The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1905-04-14
SPRING CLEANING IS
NOW APPROACHING
Time for housekeeping Is
When Husband Has to
Go Away

This is the time that the annual
spring housekeeping must be under
taken if the good housekeeper wishes
to live up to her reputation. Men hate
the process and stay away from home
until it is over, but it is a strange man
who will not prefer the appearance of
the house when it is over. Naturally
a woman does not enjoy houseclean-
ing: it is a time of stress, anxiety, of
hard work and aching backs. But it
pays. and it must be done if one would
live in a clean house.
The accumulation of dust and dirt
that gathers is hardly to be believed
until one comes to take down pictures
and curtains and pull up carpets. An
other feature of the spring cleaning is
the surprises that it reveals. All win
ter long the houSekeeper is putting
things away in boxes and drawers, and
when she comes to clean them out she
finds all manner of odds and ends that
she had forgotten belonged to her. One
such cleaning resulted recently in the
discovery of several pieces of dress
goods and a hat that the owner had
entirely forgotten. Another house
keeper has certain drawers where she
keeps the things she says she knows
she will never use, but cannot part
with. We all know by actual expert
less things we hate to part with are
kept long enough the day may come
when one can work them into some
thing.
A good plan is to have a large draw
er in which one puts just such things
as these: Pieces of silk, hat trimmings.
ribbons, flowers, feathers, old linen and
other things too numerous to mention,
the use for which one cannot see at
the time. The day will surely come
when one will find that drawer full of
odds and ends, invaluable, if not for
ones self, for somebody, if only to
make doll clothes for a child. These
things which no one wants often come
in play years afterwards.
Once in a while a woman will lay
aside a gown which she does not care
to wear out, and if she keeps it long
enough the particular style in which it
is made Will come in again and she can
make it over. This thing is happening
now almost daily, for since the big
sleeves have come in-and they are be-
coming larger and larger-many a
frock put away ten years ago needs but
little alteration to become the present
mode
So while housekeeping is full Of
horror to -the man who wants every
thing left In the identical spot it has
lain for years, it is often rich in re-
she has tucked away. But a house
cleaning is more than the annual
brushing up of furniture and carpets;
1T has a moral effect, and when 1t is
over the members of the household are
apt to try to live up to the freshness
which surrounds them.
But how a man suffers during the
process! For a day or two his usually
angelic disposition is all awry, he
Growls at everyone, scolds the children
and makes frequent unpleasant re-
marks to his poor, tired wife about the
futility and absurdity of the annual
event. Nothing of his is where it ever
was before when the affair is over, and
the missing of various things which it
never occurred to him to want unless
they are out of sight becomes text
for sermon which no one listens to or
cares anything about. A wife often has
TO practice smiling Sweetly at her lord
and master and thinking of something
else while he is holding forth about
her mistakes. To listen would be to
answer back and that would be fatal.
Nothing ends an argument quicker
than smiling assent. And nothing, by
the way, so enrages the arguer If a
woman cannot always agree with her
husbands opinions, there is nothing in
the constitution, or even in the by
laws, which obliges her to say so.
Smile Sweetly, let him talk and every
thing will be smooth. If possible, how
ever, choose the time when he has to
be away for a week to do the sDring
housekeeping.