The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-12-16
Dorothy Dix Tails
efficiency, Real and Theoretic-2.
M DOROTHY OH
WsE1a's Highest Paid Woman WFisas

EfIic1cDcy, Iteal ana I0eOreuc-S.
Now, / contend that the amiable
theorists who have chopped a woman's
day into this sort of mincemeat frag-
ments. each minute of which has its
appointed task, know nothing about
either women or housekeeping. In
the first place, housekeeping is one of
the occupations that cannot be run
upon any cast-iron schedule, because
the very essence of it is its uncertain
ty. Sick. -, birth, death. all the
whole drama of life are pitted against
any routine in it.
You can't go on with your little
cut-and-dried program when a new
life is coming across the threshold. or
your hearts beloved is being borne
out of the door; or all the joy bells
are ringing for you, or black despair
has paralyzed you with horror,
And, for another thing, women are
not creatures of routine. They are
simply not built that way. They are
temperamental They have to put
their heart in their work to do good
work, and they can only do this upon
impulse.
You might as we'll expect a poet to
compose a -matchless sonnet because
it is nine o'clock and the time has
come for him to write a sonnet, as
for a woman to be able to break her
record at darning, or ke-making,
just because she has reached L e darn
Ing or cake-making minute on her
schedule. Every woman will tell you
that IL she waits until she feels in the
mood for sewing, or cooking, or wakes
up some morning with her hands Itch
ing for the dustpan and the broom
she can do more work in an hour than
she can in whole day if she forces
herself at the task when she has an
inward shrinking from it.
OF course in every business there
has to be some sortjof orderly routine.
This is true also of housekeeping,
where meals must be served on time.
and beds made, and floors swept, but
II is one Of the consultations of house
work that it gives woman more lee
way than any other occupation.
This is well, because it is the most
monotonous work in the world. 1t is
the labor with the fewest thrills to it,
Other occupations bring to the worker
at least companionship with others.
Housewerk is mostly solitary. and be-
cause a woman does walk the tread
mill all alone, is the more reason why
she should not let herself be made the
slave of system.
If she knows days, and months, and
years beforehand just exactly what
She Is gong TO DO every minute or the
time, she will find her task unendura-
BILE. Who could bear to know that at
o'clock on every Wednesday, as long
as they live. they will be washing
dishes? They will tell you in New
England that it Is the methodical coun-
try housewives who have washed on
Mondays ironed on Tuesdays, cleaned
up on Fridays, baked on Saturdays,
and rocked in the same place in their
chairs until they have worn grooves in
the floor who fill the asylums.
None of us want to do the same
things at the same time every day. We
even feel like biting the people we
have to kiss every day, so l urge
housewives to chuck the system theory
out of their windows Get as much
variety into your work as you can by
doing it at different times and in diff
ferent ways, Go on cooking orgies,
and cleaning bats. and have resting
spells. and do them all when you feel
an inward urge that way.
The real test of efficiency is, getting
things done. 1t doesn't matter how
or when, you do a thing, so you do it
properly.
iCopyriGht. 1890. by the Wheeler Eypdlcata
Incl