Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1908-10-08
Does Homework Coarsen?

Evening Wisconsin: Does it coar-
sen a woman to perform the house
work in her own home? In the drama
of American life, paid in FULL"
which holds the boards at the David
son this week MRS. Brooks" rebukes
her husband because his income does
not suffice to provide her with ''help."
Getting the meals and washing the
dishes and sweeping, she is convinced
are causing her to lose her delicacy
and refinement. So Mr.. Brooks be-
comes thief that his wife may avoid
the drudgery of household work.
"Do'st like the picture?"
A morning newspaper seeking to
sound the opinions of Milwaukee
women on this important subject, Of
fered prizes for the best brief essays.
Mrs. Effie Hand Martin, whose thesis
was awarded the first prize, is to be
congratulated on the beautiful ex-
preston which she has given to a
wholesome thought. Her essay in full
is as follows;
"A dream OF heaven upon earth takes pos
session or every man some time during his
life-time-that home.
Memories of his boyhood home in the
midst of his sOrdil business are flashed on
his mind by perhaps the perfume OF flower
the blue OF the sky, the smell OF all nature
after a shower. or countless subtle things,
and this remembrance grows none the less
Incomes nj
lost in the thoughts and desire of another
home-the home he is to help make.
ITO help make; for he sees the woman
stand framed in that doorway in perfect
harmony with his dreams: in perfect har-
mony with the hOneysuckles creeping up be-
side her. She smiles as robin breaks into
song, her timid eyes gaze out searChingly un-
til they fall upon the man, standing in the
pathway-that pathway that leads straight
up to her
Involuntary she stretches out her hands
then, covered with bushes shrinks in mod
esty, praying that the vines might suddenly
grow thicker, but he steps forward, craps her
hands. and together they enter that portal
sanCtifed by love to make that home. And
some one suggests that the making Of that
home will COarsen her?
Her babyhood days were revelS in dolls
and doll houses; pretending mother and
playing house; the rapture of dishes or
patty tins Later, womanhood and dreams
OF her own that by some soft breeze were
waited into the mans pipe dream and be-
came his, then theirs, then home. This can
never cOarssn woman It's only the fullness
OF womanhOod as plannedby God
Mrs. G. H. Thompson, the winner
of the second prize, showed how a
husband who lacks high ideals and
sympathtic nature may cast a blight
upon home in which the wife is will
ing to perform her tasks without COM
plant. Catherine Luck, winner of
the third prize, went directly to the
point, her answer to the question,
Can a woman do her own hOusew ork
without losing any touch of refinement
or gentility or attractiveness?" being
couched in these six words, ANY
woman can if she will"
Mrs, Thompson asks a pertinent
question when she inquiries, "Were
the fine, strong helpmates of the vail
ant Pilgrims and of many generations
after them ever discouraged because
! housewOrk fell to their lot?'' There
are physicians who attribute to the
lack of occupation and exercise the
increased tendency to neurastheuia
among American women. Surely the
hard-worked wives of the pioneers of
Milwaukee were healthier and happier
than modern women who have all the
Injuries and leisure that money can
buy, but find it necessary to spend
much of their time in the sanitarium.