Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1909-07-23
Sinking Household Tasks.


A Woman Worker in the National Re-
view, London.
Where can the fine and complicated art
of housekeeping be learned as we'll as In
the houses of the rich, where there is
leisure, and need for every kind OF house
hold skill from the highest to the lowest?
But women have long ago forgotten that
they might afford in their own domain
a training given by the danes OF a former
day to damsels OF varying degree as well
as to serving maids, a training which In
cluded much ministering to and care OF
the poor. as well as valuable personal i'm
tercourse between different ranks, In the
deepest sense this is the day OF the ma
chine-made household; the old Christian,
personal relationships have been abolished.
William Morris spent a magnificent life-
time in one long fruitless endeavor to re-
call men to a sense of the beauty of the
old order, and the waves Of time have
closed over him. What is there left to
show that anyone understood? Are we to
suppose that all his grain has been thrown
overheard, and the husks carefully cher
ished, the tradition of beautiful decoration
only that ministers to the qualification Of
the rich Women have practiced as well
as preached their contempt for art and
craft within their own walls until the
contagion has spread from uppe to low
er class, Ready as they have shown
themselves to undergo the severe techni-
cal training required of one who aspires
to earn an income as a hired laborer in
the market, they will not train In the
same way to work in the home, neither
Will they consent to earn that income, as
they easily could. In their own home. 1T
Is to be observed that although they will
submit to long hours Of close work and
even to severe discipline outside, anything
of the kline is regarded as uncomfortable in
justice and hardship once the necessity
for 1t Is asserted under their own roof
tree.
What is II that makes women so ayerse
from remaining within the sheltering
walls OF home, that makes the very poor
herd into bleak factories, where the pay
is w~retchedly poor, where hard living re-
places the comparatively soft living of the
private house, and apply for any arduous
unhealthy task IN the rough outside
world, rather han face the chilly atmos-
phere OF woman governed domesticity? Is
IT not really that women have, in very
truth. ceased TO govern: they have relin-
quished their household task to any one
who can be found for pay TO perform it.
The boredom OF personal supervision will
never be endured by the luxurious modern
woman. And other not minor evils have
crept in. 1t seems not only that the up
per class women are fast losing the trick
of ~homemaking, that mistresses nave
shirked the difficulties there are In the
relations between those who serve and
those who are served Qhere must always
be difficulties, though these should not be
insuperable even in his complex age OF
ours. by keeping at a distarce and Inn
posing a rule of speechlessness on their
dependents, but that there must be, some
how. where women are the dominant fac
tor, some lack OF gentleness, OF respect
for the individuality and personality OF
the governed, which makes so many
women impatient of household control,
not TO be coaxed or coerced from their
refusal TO stay at home In the houses
from which the man goes forth In the
morning only TO return at nightfaIl. What
ever explanation lies at the root OF the
poorer women's preference for factory life
over household service, for their trans
ference to careers In which the acquisi-
ton OF household skill is impossible to
them. It Is this disastrous want OF house.
hold training which accounts for so much
is depiorable today in the lives OF
the very poor.
~ "Ntb Il