The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-26

oHl peTIeCJ SlRnI, I've been house-cleaning the entire week7'
 imagined as much," I said as I arose to Shake hands with her and pre- cipitated myself on a perfectly good Turkish rug and was gently cata- quilted against the opposite wall, show ing that the process had been eminent ly successful as to the waxing of floors and dusting of rugs.
 Don't you remember since the time when you could remember at all" said my friend upon whom I was calling. as we safely deposited ourselves in the newly rubbed chairs, ''how you looked house. cleaning timesw
 Yes. but when our grandmothers used to go through this performance, friendship was great asset in such emergencies, and neighbors meant more than merely the name. For in stance, can't you recall when a mes sage would be sent from one house to another saying:
 Will Mrs. Jones be kind enough to lend Mrs Brown her curtain stretchersY'
 Or please to return our hammer as w NiS 6oltiH5 iCdQy lO lay the new mat ting"
 "Ors please let the man who Is beating your carpets take them to a vacant lot as the dust is running our brand new wall paper and our windows which have Just been cleaned"
 "Of course I do." replied my friend. And nobody ever got angry. No mat ter if the mother of the family felt a momentary irritation if neighbor want ed to borrow scrubbing brush at the psychological moment that it was needed at the house by her own servants, she always had sufficient hold upon her self possession to send it with a suave mes sage that she was, of course, quite willing to wait until the others were through with it.'
 "Dsmantling a house at any time is bad enough l remarked, "but think of the many new methods of cleaning and get ting rid of trash nowadays, in compari- son to those of thelsfong ago. The little vaccum cleaner wagon can settle itself right in front of your door, and clean the paper on the wall, and the curtains at the window almost while you wait"
 That is true, but it doesn't obviate the 'cussins' that the men folk of my family indulge in at this particular time. said my friend. Last night John came in and there were no lights in the hall- way and the first thing that happened he took header over the parIor rugs and descended ignomously into A. buc ket of water which the maid unintention- ally left Then he railed out at me be- cause I didn't have a danger signal out and I quietly told him that if in these parlous times he couldn't feel his own way about his death be on his head-and besides had he stopped to consider me-"
 I suggested trying to change the current of conversation.
 One glorious thing about the house. keeper of today is that she doesn't allow all sorts of articles to collect and have trunks full of old relics which have ab- solutely no intrinsic value to weed out each season."
 Merely because" replied my friend. that the modern apartment or house is not built according to plans and speclf- cations for such nuisances. Even with that eliminated it takes full week each spring and fall to get things strengthened out. Now, my house by Saturday even ing will be in apple-pie order, and yet John fusses and fumes about 1t like the wild man from Bonero. Heaven knows, none of the work falls upon him. He doesn't even offer to hang the pictures for me. and yet resents 1t terribly If his meals are served in the library and he has to sleep in the dining room for two or three nights Then he quarrels about not being able to find his things as if anybody expected to find their things during house cleaning times. Aren't men unreasonable any way2 It was too bad, to be sure. about his silk hat, but the painter, when he turned over his bucket on it, while he was doing the man. tie upstairs, really was terribly sorry, and apologized profusely, but that didn't keep John from grumbltng."
 Ut does seem as if almost any human creature could manage to put up with a little inconvenience,' I answered, flor tho sake of SO much cleanliness that fol- lows and even if mere man has to bump his head and fall over things, his wife upon finding him a mangled mass, sur reptitiously Investigating his bruises, can console him with the fact that every other man in town Is probably going through the same sort of experience which Is something. since misery dearly loves company"