The Washington herald., 1919-02-03

It's queer how our standards Of
values change. even in wifely virtues.
In our Erandmother's time the high
est praise that YOU could bestOw upon
a married woman was to say that she
was Stay-at-homc body.
For q woman never to stiI. beyond
her own DOORSTEP. and to have no in
toreSt in the oUtsid, world vas sup
posed to indicate her supreme de,O-
tinn to her faTlly. and that she was
a model wife and mother. A WON
ans place is in the home" every
body cried and every body felt the
closer prisoner 4 woman was kept in
the home the better for her and the
world.
Nowadays We have come TO see that
the snail with its house on its back
lisnI the most elevated object in ma
ture, and that there is no reason why
a woman should emulate it. We have
also come to S,." that the woman who
is an Alice Sit-hy -the-Fire. and who
knows nothing and secs nothing "N-
Cept the thinrS that happen i'm her
own nursery and door ward. makes a
very GulI and UniuSpiring companion.
little Of whose society goes Ions
Nav.
ltOltlt- stay III. y OlNtt@ lltlNN 'N't
humcIy Wit" Siys tn, old proycrb,
aud the same cause ana effect have
tho same results with wives. NothIu-
uarrowS an individual down as does
living in ruj In order 10 broaden
out We must have room in which To
expand. The brightest mind grows
dun iC It is not lrp, polished ly :u".
bine up against other bright mIn6 :.
To keep fresh W" must have n con
stant COw OF n'W ideas and thoughts
from the outside.
\ great deal Of III" mOrhiducsS. the
ilritnbility and tn" bad health from
which women suffer. and which they
in turn inIhCt on their helpless fami-
lies. is due to this old superstition
that a woman should stay put in her
house, and that she is somehow not
doing her duty unless she Is working
out her life sentence within It's walls.
1t is the women who have no va
Ticty in their lives. no fresh interests,
no change, who l.cCOme ObscsSed win
OIL, idea. who lose their perspective
and who make mountains out OF mole
hills. 1t iS these women who grow
peeViSh and irritable and who are tull
of complaints and tears. sometimes
they even go insane. There are many
tales of these Housekeeping women,
especially country women. VINO sat
, in their kitchens and rocked IN the
same place in their chairs until they
wore grooves in tn" ilOol and were
finally taken away to insane asylums.
The trouble with work around the
house il that it gives Il woman too
much time to think about herself.
Sewing. sweepiug. making beds and
{ ., ,,,aahrnisa1 asks that
Cupy only the hands and leave the
mind free to go round and round the
same old treadmill, threshing over the
same old straw and garnering the
same old harvest.
Therein lies the danger of intensive
dcmesticity. A woman's thoughts
u.ust be busy with something as she
sewS long Frams and goes about her
household tasks, and if she has moth
inE else to thing about she begins to
think about herself and her husband.
Now it is inevitable that no one
can turn searchlight upon their
own lot in life without finding in II
million fIaws. and that fate has
not given them a fair deal. 1t is
still moro inevitable that any Woman
who Euts her husband under the
! microscope will discover that he
isn't the hero Of her romantic
dreams, and that she is poor,
persecuted, unappreCiated martyr
and a domestic slave.
There are millions of disgruntled,
disillusioned fretful wives. There
dre also millions of husbands of
such women, who wonder what ails
their wives that they are not salts
fled with anything, and neither one
of them has sense enough to know
that fhe trouble Is too much home
staying on the woman's part, and
! the remedy il for her to go out.
All she needs is a change. To
| get out of her own house and get
| something to think, about besides
herself To get some fresh ideas.
Have some new experiences, to see
how other people live, and find out
that the troubles that she thinks
are ira gedies are pin priGks COM
pared to the sorrows that others
| endure.
If men only realized this, and that
a woman's place in the home should
be Intermittent and not continuous,
it would do more to take the curse
off of matrimony than anything else
in the world. If husbands would
SPEND more money on theater tickets
| FOR their wives they would have
fewer doctpr bills to pay. Many a