CHAPTER VII.

SOME HINTS AND A KICK.

"And now, Elizabeth, let me suggest something. Punch up the _men_ a
little in the matter of cultivating cleanly habits, etc. Women are
preached to eternally on these matters and the men wholly neglected. It
would be a 'new thought' to take to the men a little and might assist in
making more of them fit companions for the sweet and cleanly women they
delight in associating with. The absolute neglect of the masculine sex
by writers on these subjects causes them to think that nothing in the
way of the aesthetic is expected of them. It is a wrong to the men not
to en-me and make me his chum as well as his wife. Help courage them to
aspire to a common plane with woman in the matters of purity and
cleanliness. Cleanliness is next to Godliness, but no more so in the
case of woman than of man. It is time for equality to be recognized in
this matter as in all others." Carrie.

It is funny how many women squirm when reminded that it is they who set
the pace in the home! We are always longing for power and a field of
effort, and then when a 20th century prophetess arises and tells us we
_are_ all but almighty, and shows us how to direct our almightiness to
accomplish results, we--well, we squirm. One would think some of us are
a little bit ashamed of the pace we have been setting, of the things we
have been accomplishing with our almightiness! You know, our first
impulse when we see an error in our own selves is to sound the trumpet
and charge upon the error in the other fellow. Is this why Carrie wants