The Washington times., 1923-03-18

spun and sewed and wove > trousseau for
lis sons bridei
While he wove, often, for such IS
feminine nature, he bride and her
mother inspected his work. Toward the
end, the groom's father called in his
friends, other men his own age, who
gathered in sort Of quilting party,
working together on the trousseau like.
busy little bees
Then, after weeks, the bride and her
mother came again They didn't bother
10 bring father Poor old papa vas only
8 man, you see: and he was needed back
home, 1t the apartment, to watch over
the brides little brothers and sisters, to
keep them from falling on tie veranda
down into the court below. The bride,
dressed ii her white robes, inside ready
by papa-in-Iaw. Then she and the groom
and the brides mother went home. Il
Is easy to imagine various little bits Of
motherly advice Mamma, the Matriarch.
gave her daughter, II those early weeks
Of the honeymoon while he groom was
being tested under mothers rooftree.
'If you don't really love him, daughter
DEAR" mother probably said, ..why just
tell me, and we'll put his boots out, one
night. Remember, dearest, this marriage
is serious business too serious for q
woman to spend her life with somebody
who doesn't just suit"
And in some cases, in that early society
where divorce was easy, the daughter re-
piled:
Mother, Red Feather isn't all he
seemed to me. ! don't nke the way he
handles his reindeer bones IS he eats his
luncheon. He gets on my nerves, mamma.
Besides, he doesn't weave the fine white
blankets that like TO wear at clan cere-
monies"
t'That settles it," said Mamma, the
Matriarch 'T'll put that feIIer's sandals
outside the apartment door tonight"
And she did. Putting sandals outside
the door was signal Tor son-in-law to
go home to mother in disgrace. To go
home as one who had been called, but
found wanting. In other words, he was
divorced-absOlute> decree. The daughter
tried again. II more pleased this slime
she. told her mother 30. Then in this
way AItVtttcI REUU0U1y SNSWS1SU.
All right, my dear. your happiness in
life is all that want. III Purple Feather
suits you better than Red, why, I'll get
right to work I'll build you nice one
room apartment, right next TO my own
where / keep your father and the
youngsters. And you shall have two nice
dark rooms behind your apartment to
store corn and roots in against . famine
season, just like mother has in her fiat"
That was the way they managed the
in those Indian settlements of
long ago; when women led religious
dances, praying for rain, for the corn,
for peace, for their homes and good hunt
ing, for their men when they sent them
forth to hunt. For then men did the hunt
ing. And though mother built the walls,
she also built the stew. Because in those
days the wise old women knew how inn
portant to the health of those babies of
theirs was the proper cooking.
That they were peaceful, living to-
gether quietly In comfort, and that
hey cannily stored up enough grain each
year TO do them over fainines should
fanines come, 10 probably where the
modern feminist win rub her hands in
again.
"Ah, yes" she may say, very pleased.
'ah, yes! Because then it was =
You see-no war, no starva-
ion since women managed things then.
For then, of course, it was mother ruled
The roost."
When Columbus discovered America
his particular apartment house then had
been ruins for at least thousand years:
Maybe, so say, other scientists, they had
,een ruins for five times thousand years.