WOMAN'S UNNECESSARY WORK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7782, 30 October 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

WOMAN'S UNNECESSARY WORK.

WOMEN WHO BECOME HOUSEHOLD DtiUDGKS. A sensible writer in the exchange says — am convinced that at least one-quarter of the work performed by women is unnecessary, and that the world would get along quite as well without it. lam inclined to go further still and put it; at one-half. " I never find time to read," said a lady at whose house I was calling, and at the same time she sadly threaded a needle with chenille, and remark' ing that soma people had so much leisure, she continued her work of embroidering impossible yellow peaches on a red plush mantel scarf. It had not even the merit of economy, for the materials were as expensive as they were hideous. Any work that serves to make home a charming and lovable plaoe is a sacred duty to a wife and mother, but that which contributes to no comfort or enjoyment, frightful fancy work, that has not even any artistic merit, is indeed a waste of time and energy— *' busy idleness." Husbands undoubtedly like to feel that their wives are good housekeepers ; but husbands are very human, and once let a woman sink the wife in the housekeeper, and her husband will very likely fall into the same error. The " over clean" woman is a nuisance to her family and friends. I once overheard a conversation between two gentle, men in a car, whose wives belonged to the above class, and though estimable women, were about as close to godliness as cleanliness could take them. It was during the season of that annual horror " house cleaning," and they were condoling with each other upon its miseries. They both voted it an entirely unnecessary evil, and one of them said that during its progress at his house everything was so wet that be always felt as if there was an incipient flood, while his friend said he could endure the water it was the smell of yellow soap he objected to.

A woman should never allow herself to become a mere household drudge, and when she finds that she has no time to read an occasional good book, to write a letter to a friend, to read a story to the children, or to walk or talk with her husband, she may conclude there is something wrong somewhere in her domestic economy, and the quicker she recognizes and remedies the evil, the better it will be for herself and family. If she is obliged to do her own family sewing, every tuck or ruffle that she puts on her ; children's olothes is a crimo. The hour or hours spent in making an elaborate dress that baby will look lovely " in, is a waste of energy that a mother who does her own work cannot afford. Baby will look quite as lovely in her eyes in a plain slip, and if he has only his elaborate dresses to recommend him to the eyes of others, he might rather pass unnoticed. Give the matter serious thought, oh, tired housekeeper, and see if you do not daily take many unnecessary steps,, and do much that you might, without injury to anyone, leave undone. Rest your body and improve your mind, keeping your face and heart as fresh as possible, as you value the love of your husband and children. Since this is a chapter of quotations, I wil end it with a remark made by a sarcastic gentleman. "Women seem to me to be divided into two classesthe 'over-indus-trious and the over-indolent, and of the two evils I would chose the latter as being the lesser."