The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-10-28
Dorothy Dix Tails

How the Other Half Liyes-2.
WHEY would give ten years of her
life to see her husband try to get
breakfast with crying baby in his
arms. while another fodder chung to
his coat tails, and the other children
fought underfoot, and called to him
every second to tie hair ribbons, and
find caps, and help with belated les
sons. Shed like to see how much
time he had even to read the paper
with dishes to wash, floors to be
cleaned, laundry to be done, beds to be
made, clothes to be mended and made,
and always and eterpally the cry for
father" interrupting his tasks.
She'd love to see how long he could
keep money in his purse with the end
less demands of a family that has to
be fed and clothed made upon it. She
would just like to see him with her
job so that he could find out what
nerve wearing, slave driven labor
means, for there's no eight hour day
for mother. Her shift is never ending,
but she never gets to see what hus-
band would do unless the poor, tired
ghosts of the women who have worked
themselves to death for their families
are vouchsafed glimpse of their hus-
bands trying to run their homes and
care for the children in the first day
OF widowerhood. And this glimpse
must be brief, for when a man finds
out what an army of cooks and clean
erS, and wash women, and gOYerneSSes
it takes to do what his wife did, he
decides he had better marry again.
Now when men "poohi peoh!"
their wives work. and groan over the
money they spend on the housekeep-
ing, it is not because they are either
Intentionally mean or unjust. It's just
ignorance. They have never cooked
meal in their lives, and they have
no conception of the number of steps
it takes, or the labor involved. They
have never kept a house clean, and
they do not know that orderliness is
the result of perpetual vigilance, and
that woman literally spends her life
going behind her family, picking up
after them, and cleaning up the trash
they leave behind them.
He doesn't know what it> costs to
buy meat and groceries, and the thou
sand little things it takes to cook even
| modest dinner He doesn't know
how children kick out shoes, and wear
out clothes, and SO he accuses his wife
OF extravaganza when he should be
| honoFing her as a wizard of finance
for nine women out of ten can get far
| more out of dollar than their hus.
| bands could.
Hence it is great pity that men can
| not be, in some way, made to under
study their wives in the home, and
| find out by actual experience how
AI1QCll WOTh, HOW Inucn planning,
and wise expenditure it takes to make
| a happy, healthy home, and keep a
family. a going concern. It would
| give them an added respect for the
| women who handle the job SO expertly
| that the men who see them daily at
their task are left under the impress
| sion that 1t is play.
And it would make husbands give
their wives a sympathy and under
standing that the women Eore1y need
and would greatly appreciates. Fol
while no right thinking woman wants
to be regarded as a martyr because
she has to take care of her home and
titled to the encomium well. done
thou good and faithful servant from
her husband instead of having him
regard her toll a picnic:
OF course many women undePYalus
their husbands work, also thru
| ignorance of it. This is why the wo
man who has been in business nearly
always makes good, eensiderate, ane
| frugal wife. She has learned thru
| experience how hard money is earned
What the strain is that man live:
under, how weary and nerve-raeket
he is at the end of a day. and SO sht
makes many allowances for her hus
band that the woman never makes
who pictures her husband going dowI
| to his office as a sort of pleasan
diversion, filled with luncheon ant
good stories, and meeting interesting
people.
The old saw "one-half of the worlt
does not know how the other hal
lives" is certainly applicable to matri
mony. If husbands and wives rea1l!
know how the other one lived the!
would be filled with great sympath,
each other forbearance they nov
lack.