76 ILLIKOIS DAIRYMEK'S ASSOCIATION. 



it, we should yet, upon careful inquiry, be able to find but few healthfully 

 dressed women and children. There is really considerable enlightenment at 

 the present time in regard to this matter, but it is not sufficient to overcome 

 carelessness, neglect and the long effects of habit. It is almost as impossible 

 for woman to chaDge her habit of dress as it is for the leopard to change his 

 spots, except as regards the mere externalities of fashion. She is thus the 

 slave both of habit and of change. 



Thus far in our investigation of homes we have had in mind only that 

 which is practical and essential in its nature. But we want to find our 

 housekeeper something more than this practical manager we have been seek- 

 ing. We want to find that to a thorough knowledge of practical and essen- 

 tial matters she has added the graces and refinements of household science. 

 We want to find that she has a cultivated, esthetic taste, that she has made 

 beauty a study, and understands the principles of correct form, harmony of 

 colors and graceful proportion. As we walk through the yard we want to 

 find that she has managed it with reference to beauty of landscape, that she 

 has perhaps hidden a neighboring stable by a clump of bushes, while she has 

 left exposed to view the gothic roof and spire of some distant church or has 

 preserved for the eye the glimpse of a river, or some fine stretch of land- 

 scape. 



As we enter the rooms we want to find in the tapestries selected that she 

 has studied the rich colorings of Oriental nations ; in the furniture used we 

 want to see that she understands the principles of wood and metal construc- 

 tion ; in the decoration of articles of furniture that she has acquainted her- 

 self with the Egyptian, Greek and Moorish elements of decoration ; in the 

 pictures, statuary and vases which meet our eye, that she has read the his- 

 tory and made a study of classic and medieval art ; and in the arrangement 

 of all that she has obtained a quiet, restful, pleasing effect, not the striking, 

 overcrowded and confusing effects presented by so many rooms. The study 

 of the esthetics of the household could not fail to interest every woman, and 

 a very little time given to the perusal of such books as Dresser's Principles 

 of Design, Owen Jones' Grammar of Ornament, Yon Falke's Art in the 

 House, would produce decided changes and improvements in the method of 

 furnishing our homes. 



It may be urged that we are picturing something ideal and impossible to 

 be attained. We would answer that it is not to be expected that a complete 

 and universal reform in the management of houses can be at once obtained, 

 but this should not hinder us from taking forward steps in the slow, toil- 

 some path of reform. The reform is needed. He who has thought upon 

 this subject but the few minutes during the reading of this paper must be 

 convinced that there needs to be a better practice of drainage ; that there 

 needs to be better planning of dwellings ; that there needs to be better heat- 

 ing and ventilation ; that there needs to be purer food demanded and better 

 cooking; better dressing of women and children ; and a better understanding 

 of the beautiful and appropriate in the management of yards, the treatment 

 of the exterior of houses, and the furnishing of interiors. There must be 

 more knowledge and thought upon these subjects before reform can be 

 reached. It is woman who ought to be most interested in this matter. We 

 look to her as the maker and keeper of our homes and to her we must look to 



