The Fort Dodge Messenger: March 16, 1906
Housecleaning Time at Hand
Carpet Beating and Similar Scenes Will Soon Appear.
Cafes Will Do Rushing Business While Family Man Stays away From Home.
Symptoms
If your wife is growing restless, if she tentatively tugs
At the dingy window curtains; if she studies all the rugs;
If she talks about wall paper, if she views the window panes
With an eye that sees them tarnished by a lot of streaks and stains,
Then you may as well be patient and as quiet as a mouse,
For no feeble man can stop her –
she will
soon
clean
house.
You had better plan for boarding somewhere else a day or two,
For the changes are she’ll start it with a rustling, bustling crew
Of scrub women and of dusters, and the chairs will block the hall
And a lot of dainty china will be put where it will fall –
And an aproned, towsled, draggled sight will say she is your spouse
For the signs of spring are potent –
she will
soon
clean
house.
You will eat upon the ice box, you will sleep upon the stove,
You will slip upon a box of soap and down the stairs will rove;
You will find your valued volumes mixed with kitchen pans and pots;
For the time you’ll be an alien – you and all your little tots –
And there’ll be a time of trouble, time of shake, and dust, and douse,
Till the fever has subsided – she will
soon
clean
house.
-W.D. Nesbitt
|
The above verse seems singularly appropriate to the season which will soon be fairly launched upon the populace. House cleaning time with all its sorrows, labors and exasperations will soon descend upon the public, to the public (sic), to the unutterable disgust and uncomfort (sic) of the long suffering family man, and the hard working housewife. Only the laboring woman and the professional carpet beater will rejoice and “Everybody will work, but Father,” who will take his meals down town while the household is uptorn; to the profit of the cafe and the restaurant keep keeper (sic).
Tags: 1906
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