rjr tw" M$, -
The Commoner.
VOLUME 3, NUMBER X.
8
Po5t-Nuiiilnl.
We used to walk togotlicr In the twi
light, Ho whispering tender words so
hwocL and low,
!As down the green lanes, when the
dews wcro falling,
And thro' tho woodlands whore the
birds woro calling,
We wandered in thoso hours so
long ago.
But now no more wo walk in purple
gloaming
A down tho lanes my love and I
ah, mo!
Tho tlmo is past for such romantic
roaming
Io holds tho baby while I'm getting
tea.
Wo used to sit with lamp turned low
togothor,
And talk of love, and Its dtvino ef
fects, When nights woro long and wintry
was the woollier;
Far nobler ho than knight of prince
ly feather,
And I, to him, tho lovoliest of my
sox.
Now, oft when wintry winds' howl
round the gable,
ImmorRod in smoke, ho pores o'er
gold and stocks,
Tho fact ignoring that across tho
tablo,
"Tho loveliest of her sex" sits darn
ing socks.
Oft whon orrayod to please my horo'o
fancy,
I tripped to meet his welcome
call,
lie looked unutterable things his
dark oyos glowing,
In fond approval of my outward show
ing His tnsto Hi laces, drosses, jewels
all. Now if perchance we leave the house
together,
When friends Invite, or prima don
na sings,
lie scans my robes (bought new for
tho occasion),
AiuMoots tho hills and looks un-
uttorable things.
Selected.
tho shores of its native stream and
carried away into captivity by an ex
perimenting naturalist. Shut up in
a room and given some sticks of
wood to play with, its natural instinct
asserted itself, and tho poor, home
sick animal labored Industriously, if
vainly, to construct a dam as best it
could from tho material supplied it.
Tho world is full of women, in what
ever station of life they may bo found,
who, like the poor beaver, are Intent
on building a homo pf tho scantiest
material. Set them down in uncon
genial environments, and their first
impulso is to bottei- them; a touch
horo, a little pulling there, a
straightening of this and a resetting
of that, a'nd though tho poverty may
still bo there, yet the home-touch has
imparted an oxpression of. care and
comfort It could not otherwise have
possessed.
The llomo-Maklnji Instinct
I do not hold, as do some others,
that every woman was intended for a
housekeopor, in tho sonso in which
tho torm is used today; tho wretchod
failures wo see about us refuto that
idoa, but 1 do bellovo that away down
in tho heart of ovory woman every
"mother's daughtor of us" there lies
a dream of home. In every woman's
soul thoro lives a deslro, more or
less intense, to have and to keop a
homo of our very own; and with' this
desire thoro is also tho ability, in
greater or less degroe, to ovolvo this
Idoa as successfully as circumstances
will allow.
In tho coarsest, the roughest, tho
fominino instinct dominates, too often
in a depraved sense, and tho idea may
bo crude and coarse, like tho brain
through which it works, but it is
there. Often it is but tho mere ani
mal instinct of seeking a placo of
rest of shelter and security, where
ono may find a bod of leaves and a
hidden bone, but tho homo-feeling in
tho poor heart sanctifies it, and it is
to her what no othor place can be.
You have all heard tho pathetic
Btuu ui uie om beaver, captured o
Tho instinct to arrange and adorn
is born in all women, and the world
is full of homes made from the scan
tiest and most unpromising material.
Ignorance and poverty may have kept
tho tastes crude and coarse, and the
hands rough and unskilled, while tho
ideas of cleanliness may bo of tho
dullest, but in some thing tho woman
shows her pride of adornment of or
namentation, and if approached in the
right spirit, much can bo done to
givo her better ideas of lifo through
her lovo of homo. Floors will be
scoured, windows washed, tho torn
wall paper neatly patched, clean pa
pers put on her shelves, her fow
dishes washed and sot away, her fow
cooking utonsils huig up; wonderful
contrivances and receptacles are made
of pastbard, a few .cheap prints aro
hung on tho walls, while her lew
poor little treasures are pridefully ar
ranged on somo sholf or table, and
from tho foul hovel of a short timo
bofore, it has become a cleanly, cosy
nest to which the family hurry after
tho day is done, as honestly nroud of
their one-room homo as their richer
sisters are of their wonderful man
sions. As wo go higher in tho social scale,
we find tho same spirit ruling; with
larger opportunities and greater ad
vantages, wo find a higher grade of
ornamentation and arrangement, and
homes grow moro beautiful as means
to tho end are given; but through it
all, wo seo only tho inborn home-making
instinct which God has implanted
in tho breast of every woman, bo she
savago or civilized.
Misfit House.
Not long ago, I heard a farmer's
wife say that she had spent weeks of
timo carrying every drop of waste
water through the kitchen and over
tho entire lehgth of a long porch to
throw it into a drain. It would have
cost three or four dollars to run a
pipe from the kitchen sink, under
tho porch, to tho drain, but this was
deemed an unnecessary expense, so
this woman had walked a distance of
over thirty feet and back from the
kitchen sink to the drain on an aver
ago of eighteen to twenty times ev
ery day, and in summer weather even
oftener than this, that the fow dol
lars might bo saved.
Tho loss of time and strength this
Involved, whether the worker be mis
tress or -maid, meant just so much
takon from tho things that toll on
the immediate comfort of the family
Think of the miles this woman
walked, uselessly. Who was to blame?
In many houses, and especially farm
houses, there seems to have been espe
cial pains taken to arrange the rooms
as inconveniently as possible, and to
so place the well, cistern and out
houses as to make as many steps as
possible necessary, on the part of tho
house-workers. In many 'quite large
houses there will be found no closets,
and in those found, there will be
neither hooks nor shelves. The kitch
en is generally one' big, bare room,
with no wall cupboards, dish-closets,
sinks or drain pipes, the windows all
on ono side and the stove, cook-table
and work bench necessarily on the
other, or dark, side.
In many houses, too, will be found
a door in ovory corner of the room,
and if not a door, then a window;
and in such rooms it is impossiblo to
arrange furniture with any sort of
comfort or convenience. Where a
small hall might have readily se
cured privacy to one or more bed
rooms, the one room must be passe
through in order to reach the other,
and in one house I know of, three
rooms have to be passed through in
order to reach the fourth.
If farmers, when contemplating
building a now dwelling, Would con
sult the wife's taste and ideas of ar
rangement, they would more often
than not find a very great improve
ment on their own plannings. There
should be more closets, if smaller
rooms, riot necessarily, as one old man
said, "tp hide dirt in," but to keep
articles of wearing apparel, etc., out
of tho reach of dust, and to protect
other articles from the ravages of ver
min. One cannot keep a room loolc-
.?3S5.9S3e$2S.
5L
8
Question Box.
Tho conductor of tho Homo Do-
partment will bo glnd to answer
quostions concerning matters of &
interest to Housekeepers. Make fy
your quostions ns brief as possible )
and address all communications $
to "Homo Dfinnrfmonf. 'Vhn n.v, ii
moner, Lincoln, Nobr."' " W.
i
:e6cS$33S3&$3$.
ing neat and orderly where "things"
must be piled on chairs or thrown on
the floors, and clothing hung about
openly on the walls never looks neat
when oil tho person; besides, tho odor
of cooking often renders the presence
of the wearer offensive to delicate ol
factories, when tho clothing worn has
been hanging on the kitchen walls, to
say nothing of the dust and smoke
that have discolored the fabric.
In building even one room, space
may bo planned for a closet in which
may bo stored clothing, extra bed
clothing, newspapers, and many
things which, if left lying about would
not only become damaged, but would
give to the room an appearance of
disorder which no amount of work on
the housewife's part could overcome.
Just the Same.
A correspondent writes;
"No right-thinking, high-minded
oi mv.1Uj iui u iuumeni, occupy the
) menial position of a hired servant so
If You Are Sick
Don't Wait Longer Write For. l,
My Book.
You see this offer everywhere all
the time and every week thousands.
accept it Don't you know that I must
bo curing those thousands, else the
offer would ruin me?
Will you lot me cure you, too? "
I will mail you an order-ood at
any drug store for six bottles Dr. ;
Shoop's Restorative. You may take i
it a month on trial. If it succeeds, the "
cost is $5.50. If it fails, I will pay tho
druggist myself and your mero word
shall decide it -."''
"u uitiLici auuui ;uui UUUULB.
You i.t least must know that I have -faith
in my treatment, when I make'
an offer like that.
I know what the remedy will do,
and you don't. For your own sake, -let
me convince you. Then if it fails, '
let me pay.
My success comes from strengthen
ing the inside nerves, which alone ,
operate the vital organs. I have spent '
my lifo in learning how to do it A
weak organ means weak nerve power.
It is like a weak engine that needs.. '
xuvjio oieuui. iu doctor tne organ is
useless; what it needs is power to
act My Restorative alone brings back
that power, and in most of these dis
eases no other way can cure. ""
My book will tell you whv.
Dimply 8tato which
book you want, and
V
.9
.
3k
address Dr. Shonn
Box 515 Bucini.. WiV
SZ6s,$&'fS$2$S: a b'
rMT Wrt . rtW Vwaihwa.a.
tOCK. NO. i ON THE HEART.
EOOK NO. ON THE KIPKKT8.
COOK NO. 4 TOR TVOWIN.
COOK NO. 4 FOR WIN. iuM
'" nw. u a 11UJEU.MAT.SM
long as anything higher could be
reached. Not that housework is de-
grading, but there is all the difference -in
the world between doing the work ' '
of ones own household even doing '-
the work with one's own hands-and -going
into the kitchen of some one"
else as a paid servant, compelled to
execute whatever task is assigned you
and to comply with the demands of a
capricious and exacting mistress; if
one should summon courage to com- '
Plain of some injustice and protest '
agamst some task, she is told that 'V
hZ 2S?22 P d if she is -.
--- ., iu uo tne work required
othefho,.'5 at "berty t0 " -"
NOW T rlr. -nrnnirt.. m 1.1.
Etw1" llfde:stand e when I ten
her that is just exactly the, case in --lr'
any work whini. W"J case n &
tomnf i ,,Z " "r.""" "x: 'en at-
f3 v
W il.i. or ." We are ail
v ocl vams, wnether we call oiir-
work a "profession" or a iwd!-W
"wages ''WWSoerV fr a sala orradfor
wages. We are expected to do the :'
S tofdnT d lt just " '
d ctates of nr lt accordinS to the. r
EJ 0l our employer; it is 1i '
aMh0, Strict faitlness In lying "
naid0toUlWJ!fVVe are h,red to do--
paid to do that enables the employ''-.
In any industry to hold his or her' :
Place against competition - -
she meas in a soclafsnse. ' iTSrt - '
SS li ttleW emPly, nor 1 - -" .
21'' th0 cnPloye expects com- ' .
panlonahtp as part ot tho contract
t-o oe so much work for so mnMi .-i-
pay," and tho Pormanency of ?he em.
plovment (lonomic i,r. "ime .om v
.oil and how wlmngtrthrwUTa- ,
or h0 does 80, regardless of the . "bo- '
cial standing" which goes with the-
3
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t t.l
y"
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