Freedom’s Champion
[Atchison, Kansas] Saturday, March 15, 1862
KITCHEN
MEMORANDA.—Potatoes to be washed—meat to be put to soak—lamps to fill—knives to
scour—furniture to be dusted—silver to be polished—front entry to be
washed—beds to be made—apples to pare—flour to sift—shirts to be ironed—dishes
to be washed—beets to be cleaned—carpets to be swept—fires to be tended—dinner
to get—pig to be fed—pudding to be made—a runt to the store—front door to
tend—children to be waited on—baby’s frock to be washed—stockings to be
darned—buttons to be sewed on the shirts—shirts to be done up—tea to
get—griddle cakes—dough nuts—custards—ginger-bread—preserves—dishes to clear
away—company—evening meetings—bed time.
What merchant, politician, or
president has a longer list of daily avocations than the good wife; and yet how
little they are considered. The hard and constant fatigue of the mother should
elicit a deeper sympathy and a more strenuous effort to lessen her burden.
Daily Evening
Bulletin [San
Francisco, CA] Friday, May 8, 1863
RULES OF HEALTH FOR
MARRIED LADIES.—Here is some advice which married ladies can bet high on:
Get up at three o’clock in the
morning, clean out the stoves, take up the ashes, sweep the front sidewalk, and
scrub the front steps, nurse the baby, put things to warm, see the shirt aired,
broil the mackerel, settle the coffee, set the table, rouse the house, carry up
some hot water for shaving to that brute of a lazy husband, and dry the morning
paper. By this time you will have an appetite for breakfast. Hold the baby
during the meal, as you like your breakfast cold.
After breakfast, wash the dishes,
nurse the baby, dust everything, wash the windows, wash and dress the
baby—(that pantry wants cleaning out and scrubbing)—nurse the baby, draw the
baby in his wagon five or six miles for the benefit of his health: nurse him
when you return; put on the potatoes and
the cabbage (nurse the baby) sweep everything; take up the dinner, set the
table, fill the castors, change the table cloth, (there’s that baby wants
nursing.) Eat your dinner cold again, and—nurse the baby.
After dinner, wash the dishes,
gather up all the dirty clothes and put them to soak, nurse baby every half
hour; receive a dozen calls, interspersed with nursing the baby; drag
the baby a mile or two; hurry home; make biscuits, pick up some codfish, cut
some dried beef, Catnip tea for baby’s internal disarrangements: hold the baby
and hour or two to quiet him; put some alcohol in the meter; baby a specimen of
perpetual motion: tea ready; take your cold, as usual.
After tea, wash up the dishes; put
some fish to soak; chop some hash; send for more sugar, (gracious how the sugar
does go—and 20 cents a pound,) get down the stockings and darn them: (keep on
nursing the baby;) wait up till 12 o’clock nursing the baby, till husband comes
with a double shuffle on the front steps, a decided difficulty in finding the
stairway, and determination to sleep in the backyard. Drag him up stairs to
bed: then nurse the baby and go to sleep.
Women in delicate health will find
that the above practice will either kill or cure them.
No comments:
Post a Comment