Year: 1873




I trust | shall not be deemed wanting
in proper respect for wise saying if I
question the exact rank which cleanli-
ness occupies among Christian virtues.
To dispute the value of a cleanly house
would be to invite the deserved censure
of all respectable people. dislike to
enter parlor where everything feels
gritty. and where you can write your
name upon every polished surface which
presents itself, while dirt which is half
concealed or swept into corner arouses
desire to lecture the individual who
thus attempts to practice deception.
Whenever hear Mrs. Smilax call Win
fired with tie injunction "bring your
dust-pan," l know that her keen eye has
detected Winnie, and that the culprit
will receive practical lesson which
ought to be lasting, though | regret to
say that these lessons are bestowed upon
Winnie so frequently, that | sometimes
wish Mrs. Smilax was less lynx-eyed
than she is. When | demonstrate with
Mrs. S., and suggest that it isn't worth
while to make Winnie come up two
flights to remove few crumbs and a
raveling which she has tucked away un-
der mat, | am told that it is done for
that girls good. 1t is one of the bless
ings of being near sighted. that exemp-
tion from sights which disturb model
housewives is secured to those who can
not see. The windows and the mirrors
always appear cleanly to my eyes. Mrs.
Smilax wonders that | don't see the
finger marks; my own eyeglasses are
always bright as crystals, but Mrs. S.
will insist that she cannot understand
how can see anything on account Of
their awful condition. | am sometimes
thankful that | cannot see as we'll as my
wife, for if there were two of us engaged
in dust hunting, what would become Of
Winnie?


Winnie has no antipathy to dust.
think she was born with an idea that il
is against natural laws to disturb dust
at least more than once a week. She
will not use silk duster; she prefers g
feather duster. [ have seen that re-
markable girl go through the process o.
starting the dust in a parlor. She en-
ters with duster in hand and looks
around. She then dashes at the mantel
and with few energetic sweeps, polish
es the ornaments and gives the feathers
shake. She 1ushes at the couch ant
by revolving movement of her righ
arm raises miniature cyclone, and i
there IS daily paper at hand, she fall
into a rocking chair and reads while tn
dust settles. Then she has anothe
round with the chairs and piano, AM
generally retires to the kitchen to tel
the cook about the last horrid murde
which she. had just been reading. Mrs
Smilax frcts about Winnie, but Winni
was born just as we find her and sh
cannot help it. Her bump of antipath


to dust does not exist Mrs. Smila


has the most prominent bump of thi
kind ever known. She would dust


sunbeam if she owned one.


I sympathize with Winnie, for sh
would pass tolerable kind Of existenc
were it not for dust in one form c
another. She has been fighting dus


since she was ten years Of age, and sh
! will continue the struggle until the tim


shall come when into dust she shall n


turn. With the exception of the tin


when she is sleeping or eating, has gon


to church, she keeps up her warfal
r with dust. If it were not for dust VIII;
n a happy time the second girl would hav
Whenever yea see things that wal
q wiping, wipe en- was an injunctic
t bestowed upon her few days sine
: The result of this was evident. 81
e wiped the picture frames with hot W
: ter, and the effect was not gratifyin
it and judge that she wiped my silk h
e with warm cloth, for it had the appea


ance of having been out in six houl