MAmE STATE SOCIETY. 47 



Since the -world has moved on for some time under these rigid 

 rules without any great improvement, we trust that another method 

 may he tried, and that the time will come when instead of each 

 housekeeper's being obliged to attend to a little here, and a little 

 there, from Monday morning till Saturday night, almost dividing 

 her brains into small pieces, along with her work that is "never 

 done," she will find the toil and drudgery so taken out of her house, 

 that her time can (a portion of it, at least) be given to some pro- 

 ductive work for wbich Nature has peculiarly fitted kcr^ and which 

 the community willingly accepts, in exchange for that which she 

 dislikes, and cannot perform with success. Why should she feel 

 social mortification at making such an exchange, any more than the 

 doctors who make pills, and the lawyers who make writs, feel it, in 

 exchanging their work ? Every one knows that some women are 

 skillful with the needle, and others with the wash-tub ; some find 

 bread and cofiee-making easy, others can better starch and iron; 

 some enjoy putting rooms, closets, windows, mirrors, stoves, &c., in 

 perfect and brilliant array, while others like better to show their 

 skill in providing for a luxurious table. Some snatch every moment 

 to adorn the person of themselves or family, with a tasteful and well 

 arranged toilet, others are refractory to allrules^ and wUItq^^ books, 

 good or bad. Since all these things have a place in our civilization, 

 and no preaching will put them down, let us find a method that will 

 take a portion of this toil out of the overburdened housekeeper's 

 hands, and give it to separate trades. Of the many things novf 

 done in the house, which might be taken out, and pursued as trades, 

 we will mention a few. First, the washing, ironing, starching, and 

 ordinary mending of clothes. We do not propose here, to go into 

 the details of a systematic laundry, which it is said the Chinese 

 have carried to great perfection ; but only to assert, that the waste 

 of time, fuel, human strength, starch, soap and water, now incurred 

 by washing once a week in every family, should, under the advan- 

 tages which a trade might obtain, with labor-saving machines, ready 

 access to water, room for drying, and so on, enable us all to have our 

 clothes taken from the house when soiled, and returhed ready to 

 wear, much cheaper than they are now done at home, and still amply 

 reward the trade. Coffee roasting and grinding should be done by 

 machinery, and in quantities, and we hope a way may be discovered 



