MAN “TIDYING-UP.”

Southern Cross, Volume 12, Issue 15, 9 July 1904, Page 3

MAN “TIDYING-UP.”

Is there anything more trying on this earth than a “tidy” husband—that is to say, a man who thinks himself the very pink of perfection as far as neatness goes, and yet who has absolutely no idea of orderliness? His own belongings—clothes, pipes, books, etc.—are allowed to lie about all over the house, and any attempt to put those in their right places brings down a torrent of grumbling on his wife. “ Why cannot she mind her own business? Is nothing safe from a woman’s prying and curiosity? Let her confine herself to her own duties, which would certainly be unproved by a little more care,” etc. But other people’s untidiness —ah! that is a theme upon which he is never weary of talking, and periodically he has fits of tidying up at home, where life for those in the house is on© long weariness. Then, nothing is private from his prying and curiosity; books and papers are carefully sorted out and put back in their wrong places; those which his wife has ©specially laid by for future reference are either tied up with the waste-paper to be sold, or sent out to the kitchen to be burned; letters are torn up indiscriminately, whether they are answered or not; the cupboard shelves are packed with a lot of rubbish which is really useless, and which was only waiting an opportunity to be got rid of; and for the next few weeks confusion reigns supreme; nothing can be found when it is wanted, because everything has been put just where it shouldn’t be. When he has tired of making himself thoroughly objectionable downstairs, he goes upstairs and turns out all hia boxes and drawers, and—leaves them, for his fit of tidiness does not last sufficiently long to allow of his reducing the muddle he has made to neatness—that is for his wife to do later on. With a duster he goes about flicking up imaginary particles of dust which don’t exist, and a piece of string or a reel of cotton out of place apparently causes him agony, and is the subject of a long homily on “the amount of rubbish which is allowed to accumulate unless there is somebody to take an interest in the house.”