and all are bright, energetic, sparkling. The basis of club life is the
monotony of the home; man uses the saloon, the clubroom, the pool room,
the street corner, the lodge meeting, as an escape from the
unstimulating atmosphere of wife and family,--the hearth. But for the
housewife there is usually no escape, though she needs it more than her
husband does.

Furthermore the non-domestic type, the woman with especial ability, the
woman who has been courted, petted, and sought for before marriage is
the one who reacts most to the monotony of the home. There are plenty of
women who consider the home a refuge from a world they find more
strenuous, more fatiguing than they can stand, or who find in housework
a consecration to their ordained duty. Which type is the better woman
depends upon the point of view, but it is safe to say that feminism and
the industrial world are making it harder and harder for an increasing
number of women to settle down to home-keeping.

The housewife is _par excellence_ a sedentary creature. She goes to work
when she gets up in the morning, within doors. She goes to bed at night,
very frequently without having stirred from the home. A great many
women, especially those who have no help and have children, find it next
to impossible to get out of doors except for such incidental matters as
hanging out the clothes or going to the grocery.

It is true that some women so situated get out each day. But they are
possessed either of greater energy or skill or else own a less urgent
conscience. At least for many women it gets to be a habit to stay in. If
there is a moment of leisure, a chair or a couch, and a book or paper,
seem the logical way of resting up.