The Mena weekly star., 1922-03-02
Cooperative
 Homemaking

In the days of scarcity of domestic help, and the almost prohibitlve cost of such help when it can be obtained, l it devolves upon thousands of the American people, many of whom for merly employed help, to find way to | live happily and in comfort tho econ omically. It is necessary to preserve self-respect by living within our re- sources. In some ways this necessity | is & blessing in disguise for 1t brings the family into closer sympathy, to be engaged in similar tasks Each learns to better appreciate the work of the others. I will not employ the term the middle class" often the wealthy of one generation are obliged to earn their support by manual labor in the next, sc really the term is a mis-nomer, when conditions so read fly change.
 All should become acquainted at first hand with the work of conduct ing a home. The husband who helps his wife when his time permits, sell dom is seen applying for a divorce, and the happy wife of such husband is equally contented.
 I once heard a lecture from a state agricultural school say to the farm ers' wives: "You waste so much time in washing your dishes three times day. You should do so but once day" But his hearers were greatly impressed by this piece of wisdom. Images of all the cooking utensils, milk pans and pails and numberless other dishes to be washed, as well as the quantities of new ones to be bought s..~ al +o fknt fraHc is, however, one germ of truth to be found here, viz, that when the family is small, the night dishes may be left to be washed with the breakfast things in the morning.
 This plan would allow the wife to wear her prettiest dress in which to spend the evening with her husband in the home or elsewhere. A man dis likes to find his wife scrubbing or cleaning all the time in dirty dress, even tho she keep the home immacu- late.
 Home-making includes the keeping | up the former talents of the mistress, music, painting, reading aloud, or whatever may add to the happiness of the home. If there are children they should be encouraged to contribute their share of the entertainment.
 The Children in the Home
 It is important that work is con- sidered so often simply as a means of getting a living, instead as a means 1 for fine Misunderstanding Children will be busy and if not well-employed will drift away from the industries of the home, into occupations and amuse- ments which lend to evil
 Investigation in New York City once revealed the astonishing fact that of two thousand fallen women eighteen hundred had been brought up to do not useful work. Boys, equally with girls, are in danger from lack of right employment As the wealthy and the poor so often change places in our country, the old Jewish plan of giving each boy a useful trade, is a good one.
 There are many things boy can do in the home to add to the comfort of the family. The training given the Boy Scout is good Boys are just as handy and capable, often, as girls, in what is considered the work of girls, and helping mother greatly endears the boy to his mother and his home.
 There is an old but true saying that what we do with our children, en- dears us more to them than what we do for them" This applies equally to our sharing their amusements.
 Plan Your Work, Then Work Your
 Plan.
 The above motto once saw in a friends kitchen.
 The household plan like many oth- IL. s.Ie t1 Al init of emergencies, yet if we have a good plan, we will surely accomplish more than if we work with no ystem. The plan must fit the requirements of the family and their ability to execute it. One plan will not do for all homes. The American is said to be the best husband in the world. We have often deprived him of a share in the home work which he would have enjoyed and that would have frightened the la bors of the house mother. One of the pleasantest as we'll as sacred du- ties of the father should be that of helping dress or undress the little ones, of hearing their sweet prayers at his knee. This, the father might enjoy as much as the mother, tho poetry and tradition usually picture the mother thus with her little ones. The American man may just as well be the best father in the world also, and the father who romps and plays with his children has seldom need to use the birch.
 Comradeship-P Partnership.
 The father and mother. or the hus- band and wife when there are no chil- dren, should be comrades. They should consult together about the plan for work, and the financial plans Let no wife think that in order to hold her husbands love she must al- ways be dressed in handsome clothes Most men love to see a woman in fresh, clean house dresses or aprons perhaps in the morning with her hair in a neat morning cap, if there is lit tie time. How would he like to be obliged to arrange yards and bales of hair before beginning the morning work.
 l recall a story l once read of g wife whose age was little more thar that of her husband. She so feared to lose his love that she tried to be al ways dressed up, with an elaborate coiifure. Even with all her precau- tions. she felt that her husband was gradually slipping away from her Their only child became very sick ana together they watched by his bedside Tn her anxiety for the child, and the necessity of neglecting her lovely at- tire. she was surprised to find the love of her husband had been regained won by her self elf-fOrgetfulnesS which