NOr£ AND COMMENT. 
\Vk shall consider the Sunday dinner soon. How 
may it be served so as to give satisfaction to the family 
and yet allow the housewife the rest so much needed ? 
? § ? 
“ Man and Woman,” by Havelock Ellis, contains the 
following : 
The respecttye htnesa of men and women for any kind of work or 
any kind of privilege, can only be ascertained by actual open experi¬ 
ment • • * An exaggerated anxiety lest natural law be over¬ 
thrown Is misplaced. 7 he world is not, so insecurely poised. 
That assurance ought to be comforting to that part of 
humanity who are very much worried lest the world 
be turned upside down And it can be relied upon ; 
so if the worst comes to the worst, and woman’s suf¬ 
frage be granted, remember that the world is perfectly 
able to maintain its equilibrium. The inequality of 
privileges hitherto accorded to men and women is 
about as unbalanced a condition as is possible. 
THE WOMAN’S MONEY. 
LET EACH ONE HAVE WHAT HE EABNS. 
HE subject has been under discussion, “ How 
shall a woman earn her spending money ?” I 
shall speak of the married woman, especially, as the 
unmarried are not usually confined at home, but are 
at liberty to go out and seek employment, if not 
needed at home. If they are needed at home, they 
should be paid for their work just as any other laborer 
is. I believe fully that the “ laborer is worthy of 
his hire” whether man, woman or child. The first 
thought that comes to me is, should they be obliged to 
go outside of their household duties ? Does the man 
have to earn the extra dollars that he spends on him¬ 
self outside of his regular work or does it not come out 
of the common fund ? And is the wife or daughter 
not already earning in doing the work for which hired 
help would be paid from S2.50 to $4 a week ? Is 
she who does the work not entitled to a share of its 
worth ? 
It makes me think of a neighbor’s little boy, who 
said to one of those penniless mothers : “Why did you 
not get the garment you said you needed ?” The re¬ 
ply was, “I had no money.” (Mary, the hired girl, 
had just bought quite a bill) “ Well, why don’t you 
have money ? Does pa give it all to Mary ?” “ No, he 
gives it to her to pay for her work.” “ Well, don’t 
you work too?”* The persistency of childhood. I 
think their intuitions are generally correct unless they 
have been outraged by unwise treatment. 
The Source of Heartaches. 
I think there is nothing that causes the wife more 
heartache than the money question. The husband 
carries the pocket-book, often without a thought that 
she would like to carry one too, or have a common 
one that she had the privilege of going to as needed. 
She has learned to go without, in a great measure, as 
far as her own personal necessities are concerned. 
It seems to her like begging to have to ask for what 
she needs. To a woman that earned her own living 
either by teaching or other ways, before she was 
“ endowed with all her husband’s worldly goods,” 
it is a degradation to ask for what is hers by right. 
The solution that I would suggest would be to let 
every woman have the handling of the household ex¬ 
penses. She knows better what is wanted. She 
would not buy meat enough in hot weather to last a 
week, when the butcher comes every other day, ne¬ 
cessitating warming over and over. What she saves 
should be hers, and she should have a certain sum 
every month for her personal expenses, the amount 
to be according to the income. 
I would also give each child an allowance. The 
wife’s should be spent as she chooses ; the children’s 
to be looked after at first that they spend wisely, so as 
to learn habits of economy. If now and then a pig, 
calf or lamb be given them, let it not be theirs now 
and father’s when it is grown up. Many a child has 
been taught to be dishonest in that way. I have in 
mind three families; two gave stated sums to their 
children for spending money, and if their lamb was 
grown to a sheep, or their pig to a hog, and they 
were sold, what the children did not want to invest 
in other ways, the father would retain and give them 
his note for it, bearing interest, and it was sacredly 
paid when due. Every one of those children, girls in¬ 
cluded, had an eye to business. The other family 
thought it did not make any difference ; it would all 
be theirs anyway, sometime. The oldest boy, when 
12 or 14 years old, after helping his father all that he 
needed, would drive on the reaper or mower for a 
neighbor who had no boys old enough. One day he 
brought home a couple of lambs, expecting to have 
them as his “ very own.” They were called his while 
young; but wnen there got to be a dozen or so the 
father sold them and pocketed the money—some $40. 
If he had given him half of it, or his note for half, it 
would have been satisfactory; but not a cent for what 
he had got, cared for and built hopes on. The father 
was not a hard man, only slack; he had been treated 
in the same way, probably, and did not realize what 
the outcome would be. The boy felt it to be unjust, 
and that it was no worse for him to get it back from 
his father than for his father to take it from him in 
that way. We have always felt that the boy did not 
make the man he would have been if he had been 
treated differently. 
Encourage the Children. 
The way of looking at children as yours, body and 
soul, and that all they earn is yours by right, until 
they are of age, is wrong. How are they ever to 
learn to do business or stand alone if brought up 
that way ? It is no wonder we have so few capable, 
efiicient men and women; let them have a share, 
and teach them how to use it. Children want en¬ 
couragement as well as older persons, and something 
to look forward to in part pay for the exertions they 
have put forth. How long would a man work with¬ 
out a hope that he would better his condition ? It 
would soon become a treadmill to him. How much 
more so to the child. 
My experience has been that women have been only 
too glad to earn their part of the expense of the 
family wherever and whenever they have the oppor¬ 
tunity, and are so unselfish that the first thought would 
be of the husband and child. There is a real pleasure 
in having money in your pocket that you can spend 
without giving an account of. Some will raise poul¬ 
try ; but what if, after all your hard work, the poultry 
buyer conges along and they are sold, and the money 
pocketed without saying, by your leave ? Or the 
honey is carried off and sold without any return to 
you, only the pleasure of eating your share with the 
rest ? Do you wonder there is heartache in many 
homes on account of “ man’s inhumanity to man,” 
or woman as the case may be ? 
In this age of the world, woman should understand 
what her position is to be in the home before she enters 
it. If she has no right but the right of service, she 
would do well to serve outside of home, where there 
would be a money consideration with which she could 
do good to others. I visited in one family where the 
man said he always put his pocketbook in the stand 
drawer by the bed, and it was just as free to the wife 
as to himself. Of course, the wife understood her 
husband’s business as every wife should. If there were 
bills to pay, that was laid aside. I would commend 
that way to others. c. 
THE PROBLEM OF THE WASHING. 
ANOTHER ADVOCATE OF KEROSENE. 
OW wash day may be made easier, and a more 
enjoyable part of housework, is the one great 
problem which confronts every housewife throughout 
the land, and more especially the farmer’s wife. 
Monday, or “ blue Monday,” as it is more frequently 
termed, is generally dreaded and looked forward to 
as a day of general household disturbance by each 
member of the family. But this may be entirely 
avoided by taking Tuesday for wash day, and by a 
liberal use of kerosene and soap instead of main 
strength in performing this most necessary task. 
Monday may be a preparation day in which the house 
is set in order, the larder replenished; for Sun¬ 
day, with all its rest and quietness, leaves the house 
in more or less confusion, and a general setting in 
order is quite necessary, which in addition to the 
weekly washing is quite too much of an undertaking 
for one day. Monday evening or early Tuesday morn¬ 
ing let some male member of the family draw the 
water. They should also empty the tubs, and during 
cold or rainy weather hang out the clothes as well, 
and have on hand a good supply of dry wood. 
With me kerosene and good soap are the two great 
labor-saving factors. Dis¬ 
solve one half bar of soap 
and one tablespoonful of 
kerosene for every two 
gallons of water (if tue 
water is hard it shou’d 
first be cleansed by the 
use of washing soda), and 
one tablespoonful of wash¬ 
ing powder. This must 
be boiled together until 
thoroughly blended, in 
one gallon of water, either 
the evening before or dur- 
iug breakfast. Fill the boiler two-thirds full of water, 
and when boiling hot put in the finer white clothes first, 
which have previously been soaked for an hour, at least, 
in cold water. Rub a little soap on the more soiled por¬ 
tions of each piece. Let them boil for 15 or 20 min¬ 
utes, stirring frequently. Have two tubs side by side 
on a good solid wash bench, high enough to prevent 
too much stooping, one filled with cold water slightly 
blued, and the other partly filled with warm water. 
Remove the clothes from the boiler to the tub con¬ 
taining warm water, rub each piece on the wash¬ 
board, and my word for it, they will not re quire much 
rubbing. Rinse through the blue water, which may 
be slightly warmed. Starch such pieces as require it, 
and hang on the line. In summer I always spread the 
white clothes on the grass and they always look much 
whiter for it. Towels and dishtowels should first be 
rubbed in the water in which they have been soaked 
and made ready to put into the boiler as soon as the 
white clothes are removed. The men’s socks should 
be soaked in water having a little kerosene, and rub¬ 
bed a little before boiling, as should their colored 
shirts and the children’s dresses and aprons. The 
colored clothes should be rinsed in two waters. The 
starch should be made while the clothes are boiling. 
I prefer fiour starch for all colored clothes; a heaping 
tablespoonful of salt added while stirring the fiour 
will make it smooth and free from lumps, and gives 
the clothes a glossy appearance. One should have a 
large wash apron made of ticking or brown denim, 
with a large pocket at the right side for holding the 
clothespins when hanging out the clothes. This kind 
of apron prevents the dress from becoming soiled 
or wet. In this way a large family wash may be done 
easily by the housewife alone and the tubs and boilers 
all dried and put away before 11 o’clock, giving plenty 
of time for preparing the dinner. 
I have not had much experience with washing 
machines, but believe that it still remains for some 
fortunate inventor to make a fortune by inventing a 
washing machine that will do a large washing, with 
less labor and wear on the clothes and more clean^ 
liness than by this method. If I could have things 
just as I wanted them I would never wash at all, but 
have it done by some one who would think more of 
the remunerative part of the washing and less of the 
labor though it be done in the easiest way possible. 
Washington. f. a. h. 
A Man at the Tubs. 
As I wrestle with the washing for a family of seven, 
perhaps my experience would be worth considering, 
as I have been at it for 13 years. An invalid wife at 
the beginning of my washing career was what set me at 
it. At first I hired the washing done; but this was 
very unsatisfactory, as it was almost as much trouble 
taking it to the laundry, and bringing it home as it 
was to do it myself. It was awkward work for me at 
first, but now I can do a big washi ng as quickly and as 
well as almost any one can by hand. 
I put on the boiler before breakfast early Monday 
morning, filling it with soft water if I have it, if not, 
with hard water, which I “break” with sal soda. 
After breakfast I put on the stove another boiler two- 
thirds full of water, a little sal soda and a few shavings 
of soap. When the first boiler of water is boiling, 
I empty it into a Western washer, with two-thirds 
of a bar of soap shaved thin. I first put in the finest 
clothes, such as white table linen and fine handker¬ 
chiefs, and follow with the coarser clothes. As soon 
as the first are out of the washing machine I put them 
into the boiler and by the time I have finished the 
coarse clothes in the washer, the first clothes are 
boiled sufficiently. They are put in a sudsing water 
and from that into the rinsing water, blued with 
“paddle” blueing. I say “paddle” blueing because 
it is handy, always ready, cheap, and never makes the 
clothes streaked. 
I usually complete my washing for seven, in four 
hours. Of course, if I could do as one of your cor¬ 
respondents says, it would be quite easy for me, viz., 
“ With plenty of boiling suds, a man (some other man) 
Highest of all in Leavening Power.—Latest U. S. Gov’t Report 
ABSOLUTELY PUBE 
