Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1909-07-22
Sinking Household Tasks.
man Worker In the National Re
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Where can the fine and complicated art
of housekeeping be learned 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 former
day to damsels of varying degree as we'll
as to serving maids. a training which In
cluded much minstering to and care OF
tho poor. as we'll as valuable personal In
tercourse between different ranks. In the
deepest sense this Is tho day of the ma
chine made households: tho old Christian.
personal relationships have been abolished.
William Morris spent magnificent life
time In one long fruitless endeAvor to re-
call men to sense of the beauty OF the
old order, and the waves of time have
closed over him What is thegs left to
show that anyone understood? Are we to
suppose that all his grain has been thrown
overheard, and the husks carefully cher
lshed, the tradition of beautiful decoration
only that ministers to the qualification OF
the rich. Women have practlced as we'll
as preached their contempt for art and
craft within their own walls until the
contagion has spread from upper to low
er class Rendy as they have shown
themselves to undergo the severe techni-
cal training required of one who aspres
to earn an income as hired laborer In
tho 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 tho kind Is regarded as unendulable in
| justice and hardship once the necessity
| for it Is asserted under their own roof
| tree.
hat is 1t that makes women SO averse
| from remaining within the shelterins
| walls Of home that makes tho very poor
| herd into bleak factories, where the pay
| Is wretchedly poor. where hard living re-
| places the comparatively soft living Of the
| private house, and apply for any arduons
unhealthy task In the rough outside
| world. rather than face the chilly atmos-
| phere of woman governed donlesticity? Is
| 1t not really that women have, in very
| truth, ceased to govern; they have relin-
| ouished their household task to any one
| who can be found for pay to perform 1t.
| The boredom OF personal supervision will
never be endured by the luxurious modern
woman. And other not minor evils have
crept in. II seems not only that the up
| per class women are fast losing the trick
of honemaking. that mistresses have
| 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
nsuperable even In this complex age of
| ours) by keeping at distance and Inn
posing 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 nighteall. 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 acqusi
ton of household skill is impossible Il
them, 1t is this disastrous want of house
hold training which accounts for SO mucl
that is deplorable today In the lives o
the very poor.