The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1915-05-06
Mainland the Home.

4 DNOI OIL Time Cnere was man who
thought his wife made dreadful ''fuss"
over the homework and the care of the baby
and the meals, and all the other little things
that go to make up woman's work, and he
told her he thought she didn't give the matters
the proportion Of management that thew
called for.
This happened in the old fashioned DAYS.
when young wives used to get up In the morn
Ing and have hot breakfasts for the head Of
the house, and the husband used to bring his
wages or his salary home, and discuss with
the wife how it would be ''laid out" And
the women Of small incomes used to look after
their own babies (these kind of people al
ways had baby or two). And there wasn't
such thing as bridge clubs, and boudoir caps.
and hygienic housekeeping according to rules
laid down by editors of papers,
In other words, this happened long time
ago, though the woman who figured in it is
still young enough to enjoy new hat or dress
But-the man decided he would let his wife
go off for holiday, and he would not take a
vacation, but spend it at home. looking after
the baby, and running the house according to
his ideas of the way house should be run.
Fortunately, the child was a boy, and his
health would permit of his being fed in the
haphaZard way a man would feed child,
and the mother went, with little worry about
the outcome. They didn't have gas ranges in
those days and she didn't have to worry about
the house being blown up from that source,
While she was honest enough to admit that
the rest hadn't been as delightful as she had
planned, she felt that the lessons she and her
husband learned were worth the experiment,
but the man went further; he declared that
no man could take the place of a woman in the
home, and that home life did not simply con-
sist Of a series of meals. clean clothes and
clean bed to sleep IA.
1t would be fine thing if some other people
could try that experiment now, and be entirely
dependent on their own efforts to keep the
home running, while the experiment was go
ing on.
There is no reason why keeping house
should be made drudgery for any one. and the
only women who really are in need of SYM
pathy, are the women who live in the coun-
q try, and who are married to men who do re-
gard home as simply a place where a series
of meals is to be had in due time, where clean
clothes are to be Forthcoming, even if the wife
must break her back over tub to get them,
and where children are regarded more or
less necessary evil.
Woman's qualifications as the home-maker
and the home-keeper were given her at the be-
ginning of time, and the fact that she has
fallen down on the job Of late years, is hay
ing a most disastrous effect on Man. He, too,
is becoming dissatisfied with his part, and
while woman has gone card crazy and dress
crazy, and vote crazy, and rights" crazy,
man is right close up to the band wagon, and
is clamoring for some rights, too. He is ex-
ercising the right to cast off or ignore his
wife, once she has begun to show signs of
wear and tear; he is claiming the right to rig
himself up in dinlzy little hats, fussy coats,
collars that resemble the whitewashed fences
of the rural communities; chose" that leave
po+bin0 +O tbn ina 0inotion &C tO the color Of