they don't, they find
another shop, that's all. Suppose this case: A manufacturer of jewelry
reasons as you do. He says: 'I cannot keep my hands satisfied unless I
give them free access to my stock of gold, silver, and diamonds. I must
throw open my tool drawers, so that they can help themselves; and I must
not ask how much material this or that manufactured article has taken to
make.' That man would have to shut up shop in a year, even if he were
not robbed of a dollar. Now, I ask, is it fair to expect the husband to
be orderly, systematic, and business-like, and to superintend his
business himself, while the wife surrenders her legitimate affairs to
the hands of ignorant and irresponsible subordinates?

But the female partner of the shrewd man of business, or the plodding,
hardworking mechanic, may be inclined to say, 'I hate business,' and to
think it hard that she should be called upon to regulate her household
affairs upon any such severe and rigid rules. But, my dear madam, apart
from the clear fact that it is your duty to manage your household wisely
and prudently, which we have seen cannot be done without business
system, of which you must be the head, I assure you that such a system
is neither intricate nor vexatious. It does not necessarily entail upon
you the least participation in the actual _labor_ of the family. It does
not absolutely require your personal presence at the scene of those
labors, although the woman who considers it beneath her dignity to go
into her kitchen, has no more business to undertake to keep house than
the master mechanic, who is too proud to enter his workshop, has to try
to carry on a shop. The absolutely _essential_ thing is that yours
should be the directing and controlling mind, and that to you _every one
in your employ should be held rigorously responsible_. Now don't tell me
that such a system cannot be introduced with the present race of
servants; that you would be left half the time without anybody to do
your work; that until mistresses can combine to lay down rules for the
better regulation of domestic service, you must submit to the present
evils. You are not justified in assuming any of these things to be so,
until you have honestly and thoroughly tried the experiment in your
single household. To make such a system work, it is of course necessary
that your servants should be made to understand perfectly certain facts,
which you should take pains distinctly to announce to