HIS UNAPPRECIATED GENIUS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1016, 4 January 1911, Page 10

HIS UNAPPRECIATED GENIUS.

MEN AS HOUSEKEEPERS. There is one position in life which every man above tho ago of 21 feels competent to fill, says a writer in the "Evening Standard." He may not consider that he carries tho baton of tho marechalo under his subaltern's sleeve. Ho-may not feel capable in 'his innermost heart of defending a case with tho ability of a K.C., navigating a warship, or building a'telescope, lie feels, however, confident that be can keei> a house. It is not as if the reins were never 'placed in his hands, and that he has not —as he thinks'—guided the family coach successfully round- some awkward turns of tho road, when chance, illness, or a longer holiday has kept his wife away from home or deprived him—as a bachelor—of his sister's or his housekeeper's care. Ho has done all this at times, and has, of course, congratulated himself warmly on his success. During the couple, of days or the week which he has been bereft of his wonienkind lie probably feels that he has', been living in a kind of domestic Valhalla.

When one compares a man's with a woman's criterion of comfort, it is very disconcerting to think of the misery in which the average man who does not fre-quent-tho backwoods'must live under feminine government. The two ideals of domestic Bliss—a man's and a woman's— will not, in fact, bear 'comparison. In theory, a man's housekeeping is like making a dictionary. Everything must be logical, tabulated, precise. This is • his opinion when he criticises his wife's management. He would like, to drill his kitchenniaid and 'tweeny like privates. He would certainlv make his wife's maid and his cook work for'■ their corporal stripes. Certainly, his domestic .staff should lie ready to serve him his meals hot and cooked to a turn, whenever he wants them, and 1)0 prepared to ; wait upon him when the spirit moves hiin to got up, eat, smoke or walk. With tho ordinary man of average talents and lesser temperament, however, his castle, needs' better governing. Ho naturally, when, ho is in charge, boasts no servant ever gives notice. Observe, he says, my excellent housekeeping. There are no ructions, no insubordinations, no preposterous demands for afternoons and evenings, no cold suppers and chilly baths. ' Whether the maids would continue were his generalship to. go on is, however, a question which he does not consider. It is, in fact, the same, with the fraying of domestic frills in the ordinary routine. What servant ever thinks of imposing the tale iof tho butcher's iniquities or ,tho linderhouscmaid's delinquencies with tho feather brush or grato polish' on the master of the house? These arc matters which are always held over until their mistress's rdturn. All the little disagreements of the kitchen, the need for plumber and gasfitter, tho' troubles with the range or the kitchen sink, the question of wages and holidays, are matters which 'have"to"Vffit;-. "'"'"""'.'! : '--V-i , H•" , ; It is always a question-for debate whether a man's authority in the house is of his own or his wife's making. Most women hold their' husbands up to the servants as "men of wrath." Theirs .is always the final word. Ecfractory servants, like troublesome, disobedient children, are threatened with his authority although he may bo the mildest of men. His ultimatum is referred to with regard to the plumbers' bill-if they have over-charged more than usual. 'The butcher is told it is the master of tho house who has decided that the last tough steak loses him his custom. It is Be who disputes the gas bill and detects tho'staleness of .tho. cooking eggs, not the patient woman who calls daily-to order the meat and' pay tho woekly books. - - Do tho servant?, tho tradesmen, tho milkmen, and tho newspaper boys really at heart believe in the fierce nature, of the householder? One inclines to think that the' austerity and the firmness of tho man in authority are one of those pleasant fictions which wo should not % for worlds disturb. . Thero must bo a lords veto in every house, and in whoso hands 6hould it rest but the nominal' head?