Year: 1872

Household Service. boys, Read This.


Miss Julia Colman, in one of her
practical and sensible articles on 1.-THE


Health of our Women" in Home and


Health, discourses thus:


"But suppose there be not women
enough in a family to do the work,
suppose its members be mostly men


or boys ?n .....


Well, let them work. Who has any
objections 1t is no disgrace for any
man TO wait on himself nor on his


family, any more than it is for his
wife to do so. It always appeared to
me a strange kind of gallantry that
would allow a man to stand by and
see a woman bring in an armful of


wood, or replenish the fuel in the
stove, or lift a pail of water without
springing to her help, and yet permit
ted him to go away into another room,
or to take paper and sit down, when
he knew she was doing all this and
much more, and he doing nothing Of
importance. When the family all
occupy one room for living and work.
ing, all such pretense usually dies out,
and the wife and mother works on
and on. perhaps for hours, while the
men folks do absolutely nothing. /
have been struck with that state Of
affairs on Sabbath especially, when
the wife and mother who has been
working all the week must keep on
working still, though she needs rest
as much or more than any other mem.
Der of the family, and that, too, when
the work that is wearing her out
would be healthful exercise to the
others. Why is this? is the work
that women do so degrading that men
can not touch it? / have seen them
do it, and do il gracefully, and HON
ored them for it, and they honored
themselves by it. l believe there is
no great suffering without some
wrong, and very often the two lie
very near each other. Surely 1t IS
one of the simplest and most rational
solutions of the problem of women's
excessive household work to have
men and boys do some portion OF 1t.
/ see no reason against it, unless there
Is caste in WORK and women are fore
doomed to the drudgery.


1t seems to me that for their own
good men-kind should be taught to
wait upon themselves in early life. /
do not see why a boy should not be
taught to make his own bed properly,
and keep his room in order, just as
much as q girl. He should also be
taught to do his own mendimg- It
will save him from modification and
annoyance a great many times
throughout life, and it would certain
ly prevent his becoming that egregi-
GUS laughingstock in the eyes of all
sensible women, the man who justi-
fies himself in getting up q tornado
because some woman has omitted to
sew a button on his shirt. If mans
equanimity is at the mercy of such
trifies, I would advise him by all
means to take them in his own hands
and learn how to do them for himself.
1t is the only security for serene in
dependence, for absence from home
and accidents of all sorts will happen.
Children will be sick, and wives and
mothers will be sick, and die off, too,
for that matter.


Then how much better things would
be at home if on Saturday evening
each stalwart son should sew on his
own missing buttons, and make good
the deficiencies of his own stockings,
rather than TO be gossiping at the tav-
ern, or loafing on the street-corners,
or even yawning dutifully in the
house around the poor tired mother,
who may be obliged to cit uphill mid
night to do the aggregate of this work
for all Of them.


/ have known cases, too, where a
mother of boys only has, from sheer
necessity, selected one to help her in
her labors, and reluctantly made him
the 'girl-bOy'h of the family. But it
is always a blessing to him. He be-
comes commonly the most versatile,
the most gentle, the most successful
of them all in after life If no prejudice
against his work has been allowed to
warp his feelings. The greatest
wrong is in depriving the Others of
their share of the advantages.


1t is no small benefit to a man to be
able to know how to manage skillfully
all the common details of the prepara-
tiOn of food. 1t may often give him
a comfortable meal when otherwise
he would be half starved somewhere
in the Vicissitudes of life, and no one
can tell what is befere him. How
many a weary traveller has been
thankful for such knowledgei /
know men who pride themselves upon
it not little. How many poor
soldier in our late war has blessed the
fortune, I ought to be able to say
blessed the mother, that taught him
Mothers should teach their boys all
such things. and expect them to pIac-
tice them, both for their own good
and the good of all the family, so long
ne they'Temain at home. ..-...-..


When they are married their wiyes
may pet ana wait upon them to their
hearts content; but in case Of any
slight illness, and no help st hand,
what a delightful independence it
gives a man to be able to get his own
breakfast and put things neatly away,
and leave the wife nothing to do but |
10 take care of herself and get well |
again. Il is bad enough to have the
wife sick; but any civilized man who !
has experienced in addition the utter |
iesolation OF having the house in /
confusion, and everything I
1t loose ends, without being able 10 I
tectify it, ought to appreciate little |
practical training in that directiOn,-l
The service that the boys would per-
iorm in the meantime, so long as they /
remain at home. would relieve a wo-
mans work of many extra tasks, and |
Jftel render the remaining work en-
lurable. for there is 10 fear put that /
here will he work enough left to keep
busy all the day long.