Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 236, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 October 1913 — he Temptations of Housewives [ARTICLE]

he Temptations of Housewives

DOES A MAN know that from ths time'his wife says goodby to him In the morning till she opens the door to let him in at night she is constantly assailed by temptation T He imagines she is secure and safe in hei home, little dreaming that she is surrounded by temptations as irresistible as those which Burround the drinking man. when he enters a saloon, and that these longings attack her at every turn in her household duties. She decides to clean the pantry, and after removing all the china, spreads a newspaper to put- on the shelves, and her eyes are attracted by a love story. “ ‘Oh, Lillian, Lillian,’ Cynthia* low, rick voice shook with emotion. Birney Gates turned his head in he* direction and met her eyes, Curious gold green eyes they were, shadowed by long black lashes —languorous and enticing. For one mom&nt he gazed as if under a sudden spell. Later the girl dropped her fan and he stooped to pick it up. As he handed it back his fingers touched hers and the contact thrilled him strangely.” Isn’t that more"’ tempting than wiping off sugar bowls, soup plates and porridge pots, and is it any wonder that everything is forgotten while the reader perches on the stepladder, or the pantry shelf, or the handle of the broom if it is more convenient, and follows the fortunes of Cynthia to the end? She decides to dust the parlor, and picks up a magazine, and fifteen minutes later she wouldn’t know it if the fire department passed the house, for she is engrossed in the sufferings of some pale maid whose father is compelling her to marry a man she doesn’t love. If she is what foolish young women regard these dayß as well read, she is pursuing at least ten continued stories through the newspapers and magazines, and her brain is filled with romantic hash. Once a week her anxiety is relieved regarding the fate of Araminta, or the safety of the yacht-with Louise and- her millionaire lover on board, and likewise, but multiplied, she Is carrying the romatlc career of a dozen monthly magazine heroes and heroines in her head. She strings the beans thirty minuts late because she Just had to find out If Alexander stayed in Paris with Maude, or went to London with Agnes, and the potatoes are not put over according to the time table because a love scene In Rome was more thrilling. If she gets too much pepper in the peas, she was thinking of a man who has Imogens in his power when she shook the box, and all through the day everything that is delayed, or overdone, or underdone, or not done at all, owes its origin to her enthralling interest in a love story, for love not only makes the world go ’round, but the reading of it turns things topsy-turvy. When she has read every Instalment in the eight or ten serials with which she is clogging up her brain, what has she gained? Perhaps she has temporarily forgotten the heat pr some kindred worry, hut she has put nothing In her head that will last or that will do It any good. She has done nothing but kill time, the greatest of all crimes, since life is short and there Is so much to accomplish and so much to learn. She is living her own' love story, and doesn’t realize that when she wastes time in reading of Reginalds and CJhaunoeys and duxes and lords, the Is anything hut the brave, strong woman she demands her book heroines to be, and that she Is wronging her hero In real life by'-Ailing her brain with false standards, And making hdm waft for dinner because It took three pages for Lionel to propose. She can’t read and oome back to household duties with sstitnetion with her life, for when ' a woman reads a love story Involuntarily she puts herself in the heroine's plaoe, and her pantry shelf becomes a seat on a yacht or a throne and her kitchen drees assumes the texture of that of the girt In the book. She forgets soap, starch, pies and brooms. She forgets so much that Is practical and useful that the serial love story should be quarantined against unless the woman who reads is strong enough to resist the temptation to read it when more important things wwatt. MUTTON STEW.—Use the breast of mutton tor stew; have the bones •awed In several places tn order to oat In convenient lengths. Maze a thin gravy with one tableapooutfnl of drippings and two tableepoontuls of flour browned together, salt and pepper to taste and add one quart of water. To this add the meat and simmer gently for an hour. Add two onions, out fine, one cupful of diced white turnips and one cupful of diced carrots. Half an hour before serving add one pint of diced and parboiled potatoes." When in the serving dish sprinkle over the top one tablespoonful of finely obopped passkor.