Page:Meta Stern Lilienthal - From Fireside to Factory (c. 1916).djvu/11

 cheerfully lighted room. The colonial housekeeper often contented herself with sitting by the fire in a room lighted only by the red glow from the hearth. But if she had work to do or wished to read, she would light a candle. This candle, again, was the product of her own handicraft. Every home was supplied with large pots for candle-making and with candle-molds, and to manufacture candles of beef-tallow was part of the regular household routine. Only rich households owned lamps filled with lard oil or sperm oil, but even in these the lamps were only lit upon special occasions, owing to the cost of oil.

The difference between modern housekeeping and colonial housekeeping appears more striking still when we consider the subject of clothes. The modern woman rightly considers herself very skillful if she is able to make her own dresses and trim her own hats. For unless she is very skillful, she may learn that it is better and cheaper in the end to buy her clothes ready-made. The colonial woman had to make all her own and her children's clothes and often those of her husband as well, and before she could begin to cut and sew the garments she had to produce the material; she had to spin the yarn and weave and dye the cloth that was to be turned into suits and dresses. If the modern woman chooses to make her own clothes, it is because she has the time, inclination and ability to do so, but not because she has to. For to-day every article of clothing is produced outside the home, and if every woman would refrain from making clothes for herself and her family, the world would still be clothed. But it was not so in colonial days. If the old-time housekeeper had refused to spin and weave, to cut and sew, her family would have had no clothes. In the same way they would have had no food if she had refused to cook, pickle, preserve, milk, churn, bake and brew. Industry was a domestic function and rested mainly in the hands of women. The colonial housekeeper was not only a consumer, but also a producer. She was not supported, in the modern sense of the word, but helped to support the family and—indirectly—to support society, by her productive labor.

There is still another noteworthy distinction between the modern and the ancient housekeeper. In modern