Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-08
Making Home
Pleasant for Men
BY MAReAREr E. sANGsrER.

Copyright. 1906, by Joseph 3. Bowles.)
WV HEN man stays at home from
w because he is taking a holiday, he
business, either because he is i'll or
Is very apt to remark benignantiy, that
his wife has a great deal OF time on her
hands. Should the man be Il retired mer-
chant, broker or professional person who
has decided that he has had enough of
money making and that he is entitled to
enjoy himself for the rest of his days his
wife is very likely to hear a good deal
about the ease in which she has spent the
years that have been to him b eeaseless
round of grubbing. In the latter case the
wife is fortunate if she does not often have
occasion to wish that her lord would again
betake himself to the counting room or the
office.
A man IN the house is very pleasant
companion in the space legitimately his
own One likes to see him eat his dinner:
unless one is q determined ascetic, one is
not averse to the scent of his pipe or cigar;
and ones evenings at home are much hap
pier when the man of the house is domestic
and does not rush off to see another man
or to spend the time at his club.
In brief there are times and seasons when
men understand women and women un-
derstand men, but an unoccupied man
adrift in the home all day long is sure to
be something of discipline to his wife and
daughters. If he does not interfere and
interrupt and give advice and criticse and
inspect the marketing and the accounts he
probably Sits about ostentatioUsly with
magazine or newspaper, yawns, ffdgets
and wonders how under the women
endure the monotony of their existence.
We will suppose that woman, neither
more nor less busy than women In general,
goes away for an outing and leaves her
husband detached from other business to
keep house and take care of the children
in her absence On her return she will dis
cover that the house has lost a portion of
its immaculate and shining tidiness: that
the children have degenerated into chronic
il-behavior, and that the maids are only
withheld from giving warning by their
loyalty to her. The man, in his turn If
he be frank. will admit that his wife's
routine of duties. obligations and econo-
mics, varied by incessant interruptions
from the door bell, is enough to fairly
swamp the energies of the average man.
The woman who is not busy Is so rare
that she ought to be labeled and exhibited
| in museum as an obsolete specimen of
the daughters of Eve. The woman who is
! at once busy and fussy, who makes a point
Of exploiting the fact that she can never
| catch up with her work, who is hurried,
worried and preoccupied because she Is
! numbered with care, is to be met in al
| most every house on our block. The ex-
| her frets and cares in the background,
! who is serene and tranquil and accom-
| plishes things without haste and without
| waste, is the finest type of American wom-
| anhood. When we meet her we acknowl-
! edge that we are in the presence of q
| queen regnant She manages her affairs
| they do not manage her. She may some
| times be tired, but she is tired to good
| purpose and has earned the sleep that re-
| freshes the toiler
man may inquire What are women
| busy about?" Some Of them 1t may be
| replied are very busy in making men com
| Portable We are not now discussing those
! independent bachelors who have establish
| ed themselves in apartments of somewhat
! forlorn luxury aloof from womans touch
and presence, but of the great majority
of men who go to business every morning
| and come home every night. They are
| fathers husbands, sons and brothers, and
| their clothing is brushed and repaired, their
| rooms are swept and busted, their beds
| are made and their tables are spread for
them by the provident hands Of the women
! they love
| They go out and come in and the inter-
vening hours are interesting and exciting
| and sometimes are anxious, but they go
| with the wave of a womans hand to cheer
| them and they come back a the kiss