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Entered at Second Class Postage Rates.
WOMAN’S WORK,
A MAGAZINE OF
LITERATURE AND DOMESTIC SCIENCE,
PUBLISHED MONTHLY, AT ATHENS, GEORGIA.
ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR. TEN CENTS PER COPY.
EDITED KATE GARbAND,
Assisted bv the Best Talent.
Home Every year we hear persons remark: “Oh, I suppose I will
o . have to go somewhere this summer, but I don’t want to!”
jweei A n d i always wonder why anyone who “doesn’t want to”
Home, should go off pleasure (?) seeking! Doesn’t sound much
like pleasure, does it? These deluded creatures must go off “for a
change” and for “rest,” and then they must come back home to re
cuperate —to recover from the general bad effects of the change. Why
don’t they stay at home and rest in the first place, so they wont have
to come back and counteract the unpleasant results of absence? And
the strangest part of it all is the fact that this performance is repeat
ed year after year. We might account for such lack of judgment one
time, but then —on the principle that ‘‘a burnt child dreads the fire”
—we expect to hear the familiar “never again!”
The sad truth is that very few of us feel an adequate appreciation
of our homes. We imagine that other people have better ones, and
we wish to go and see for ourselves. Perhapi we find many that are
more expensive, more pretentious, but if we are candid we usually
ewe back with something of the feeling that our own home possesses
peculiar charms that we do not find elsewhere; we find that home is
what we make it —that it is a matter of love and congeniality and un
selfishness, rather than of lavish furnishings or unusual values. Per
haps a recognition of this fact is worth all the expense and fatigue of
the fashionable summer outing, but it would seem unreasonable that
the lesson must be so often repeated.
Blessed is the man or woman who is endowed with the true spirit
of homemaking and who assiduously cultivates this happy faculty, for
it is better than great riches —yea, than much fine gold! Blessed are
they whose first purpose in life is to create a genial, wholesome home
atmosphere, for I know of no surer road to religion and happiness
and usefulness. Thrice blessed are they who fully appreciate the pos
session of such home and the opportunity to contribute to such home
like atmosphere, for these are really contented ones in this life: to
them it is a higher privilege to stay at home and enjoy it than to prove
to the world that they have the few dollars necessary to go away and
pay for a stuffy room, a meager share of boarding house hash, a scant
bathing suit, and a genuine case of mental and physical weariness.
Do you know a healthy woman* Sad to say they are not
H if u > numerous in this day of pleasure loving and fashion wor
nealtny s hip. Perhaps this is one reason for the prevailing idea of
Woman, health-seeking by change of climate and escape from
home surroundings. A woman worn in body is apt to be weary in
mind, and her inclination is to feel that any sort of change will bring
improvement over existing conditions. But we need to seek further;
we need to find the cause of the trouble and to apply remedies more
effectual. Is there any use to write about it? So much valuable time
and so much expensive printed matter has been devoted to the cause
of impressing truths on our women and inducing them to live more
in accordance with the laws of nature—and all this effort has been
expended to so little purpose—that it seems almost useless to con
tinue writing or talking on these subjects. And yet, I believe some
good must ccme of such labors: reforms must sooner or later be in
augurated, and there is nothing for us to do but keep on talking and
writing and living our protest and our pleadings until tangible im
provements come.
How can we reasonably expect a healthful and wholesome home
atmosphere when all our home-makers are invalids, and most of our
home-methods are based on erroneous ideas of living? I can imagine
no greater blessing that could come to present and future generations
(so far as physical comfort and development and health are concerned)
than for every corset on earth to be destroyed, likewise every substi
tute for a corset, and never another to be made so long as we need
these physical bodies —after which I think there would be no serious
danger of the corset-wearing custom being revived! But doctors have
protested and advised for lo! these many jears, without so much as
even slight thanks for their interest in human health. Mothers and
daughters continue to feel that our Allwise Creator did not know how
to make woman, so they proceed to destroy her and her children by
stays and contractions and obstructions without reasonable limit —
anything to please the designers and manufacturers of “fashionable”
apparel!
No woman can enjoy health and strength, and long continue to
enjoy it, unless her entire body is unfettered. Then, with wholesome
exercise, deep breathing, regular hours of sleep, well-ventilated sleep
ing apartments, nourishing food, and general regard for the simple
laws of common sense, a strong womanhood —physically, mentally
and spiritually—will come to be the rule rather than the exception.
The Sill uot wrou ß or an y mall or woman to dress in reason
e able accordance with his or her financial worth. We
frequently hear the advice: “Dress in keeping with your
DreSS. B ocial or professional station in life,” but I do not sub
scribe to such view of our duty to self and society, for there are a
great many persons who are not financially able to take such advice..
Many men and women of small means imagine that their social posi
tion is very high, and the effort to adopt the suggestion above quoted
Woman’s Work.
is giving our bankruptcy courts more than a fair share of business.
Yea, more: it is increasing the numbers in our penitentiaries, to say
nothing of the great majority of fashion’s and folly’s victims who
struggle on under debts and difficulties, awaiting the one agency that
finally levels all things human and material.
Some —very many—of these sufferers from extravagance are hon
est, conscientious persons who are simply misled into making obliga
tions beyond their ability to meet, believing that such course is
practically unavoidable, and hoping for some good fortune to come
to their rescue before it is too late. Alas, that we have not yet reach
ed that higher stage of mental and social independence that rises
above false ideas, and attains to the plane of a greater and better
pride which demands of each and every one of us that we shall live
within our means and do unto our creditors as we would have them
do to us—avoid imposing on them and subjecting them to loss.
I know of few greater mistakes than for parents to allow children
to form a love for display in dress, and it always hurts me to hear
remarks calculated to encourage that spirit—remarks to little ones
about “such a pretty dress,’’ “such fine new shoes,” etc., etc. —fo* I
think of dangerous consequences in the years to come. How many a,
girl and young woman has allowed her love for fine clothes to lead
her into wrong—even into lifelong disgrace and misery—all as the
result of influences that were innocently exerted,away back in child
hood, possibly beginning almost in babyhood!
Let me plead with you, dear mothers and fathers, to guard, well
your children, and be sure that they escape such influences on your
part or on the part of others: let me beg you to remember the over
powering weight of example. Adopt for yourself at all times a simple,,
comfortable, sensible style of dress: it will mean health for you, and 1
sooner or later it is likely to mean physical health (and far more
than physical health) for your children—for their children and their
children’s children down the coming generations.
your
Daughter’s
Accomplishments,
dancer? By unusual skill
at social functions? Are these and similar interests the ones best
calculated to develop highest purposes of worthy womanhood? If so,
they should be made prominent in the education and training of our
daughters; but if there are other accomplishments that mean more
to them and to the world, then we should consider these, try to de
termine the ones of greatest and most lasting benefit, and exert every
possible effort to arouse ambition and to encourage proficiency in
these better aims.
The prime object in the lives of many men and women seems to
be the achievement of prominence in society. I wonder why! Was it
ever known to bring any great and lasting blessing to the world or to
anyone in the world? If so, the facts should be widely published for
the encouragement of the many who are in pursuit of pleas
ures and benefits along that line: if not, the truth should be told as
a warning against such sacrifice of time and ability and strength.
So far as my knowledge goes, the truly great or useful or happy ones
of this world have devoted their attention to such causes as promise
in some way to enlighten or to uplift humanity. This may not mean
humanity as a whole, except as all are in some degree affected by that
which concerns a part. You and I may be able to reach and to di
rectly influence very few persons in this life, but if we make even one
other human being better and happier, we shall not have lived in vain.
The probability is that you can teach your daughter no lesson
more important than that of the far-reaching effect of individual in
fluence. Please be sure that you teach her wholesome lessons of life
—that you teach her accomplishments that are really worthy the
name. Help her to recognize and appreciate the fact that what we gain,
for others is of far more importance than what we gain for ourselves.
Help her to know that superficial display brings no lasting benefits
to anyone—that the things tending to substantially benefit the ordi
nary men and women about us are the truly worthy problems for our
consideration: these things may seem of little individual moment,
but in the aggregate this world’s greatest benefits must come from
so-called little things.
• • •
The Efforts
of
bittie Folios.
sured that if there is proper character-training through infancy and
childhood, there need be few misgivings or anxieties as to the grade
of manhood and womanhood that will follow. Some may ask if I
class child-training above the individual problems of our own man,
tai and moral and spiritual interests, but I hold that all these are
directly involved in parental responsibility. No parent can ade
quately perform his or her duty to a child save by consistent example •
growing out of proper views of life and unvarying adherence thereto.
I deem precept of very light importance if it emanates from some -
father or mother who in daily practice entirely disregards the princi
ple sought to be inculcated. The drunkard may be prepared to appro--
ciate many of the evils of strong drink, but he can not impress either r
young or old as a consistent preacher of temperance. The habitual
user of tobacco must first conquer this useless habit before he or she
can reasonably demand that others shall shnn this disgustingly un
clean, unhealthful and expensive practice. I have known fathers and
mothers to severely punish children for disobedience or for fits of
temper that were nothing to compare with the clouds of inconsistency /
and spasms of anger which were kept before those little ones in the
daily lives of their parents. But, alas! I have never yet known any
good results to come from reminding parents of these things: correc- •
» • •
You are naturally interested that your
daughter shall be an accomplished woman,
well equipped for a life of happiness and*
usefulness. How? By being a graceful
in card-playing, so that she may win prizes.
The most far-reaching problem that ever con
fronts a man or woman in this life is the training
of children. We hear a great deal about train
ing young men and women, but we may feel as-
MAY, 1909