WHO SHOULD WIPE DISHES.

Southern Cross, Volume 8, Issue 20, 18 August 1900, Page 6

WHO SHOULD WIPE DISHES.

‘ Don’t you think, Minerva,’ said Mr Backenstots, anxiously, as he tied the strings of the kitchen apron round his waist, and tucked his whiskers carefully behind the bib to keep thftjn out of the dishwater, ‘ don't you think that we are carrying this idea of co-operation in domestic matters to the extreme F I have been washing dishes for a week now, and between times I have been doing a little scriptural reading, and I can’t find in the Bible any authority for men, doing kitchen work; on the other hand, women are frequently spoken of in this connection. ‘ S&e looketh well to the ways of her household,’ ‘ she worketh willingly with, her hands,’ ‘ she riseth whilst it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household.’ These quotations, Minerva, would seem to warrant the conclusion that household duties should properly be assigned to the woman.’ ‘My dear,’ replied his wife, ‘ like the rest of your sex, you are adapted to thorough research, but are painfully superficial. If you will pursue your studies further, you will find in Kings, 21st, these words : ‘ I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.’ This conclusively proves that you are nobly, though quietly and unobtrusively, doing the work designed for you by Providence. When you are through be sure and wash the towels clean, rinse them, shake them, and hang them straight on the rack. Death, you know, George Henry, lurks in the dishcloth.’ And Mrs Backenstots tied her bonnet - strings in a butterfly bow and went out to attend a meeting of the Society for the Extinction of the Microbe by Means of Electrocution. —Mary Kelly.