Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1861-04-16
Farmers and Farmers wives.

Society commences with the individual.
becomes family, grows into neighbOr
hood-a nation. Ii is organized COR mutu-
al protection, for moral culture, for mental
Improvement, for social happiness, for reli :
gious enjoyment Each individual mems
Der Of society is expected to contribute
something to sustain it Has he the gift Of
tongues, let him speak, for all who are not
deaf have talent enough to hear. Has he
q taste for trade, let him follow the pur-
suits of commerce. Has he skill with
instruments Of mechanism, let him work in
wood, brass, iron, and ivory. Docs he ad-
mire and appreciate nature, let him work
in. the garden fields and forests Is he a
philosopher, let his idea become an institu.
tiou, or let him stereotype into statues the
thoughts Of others. He must be industri>
ous-for incidence is crime, when the
world is white with harvest, and the crop
perishes for lack Of labor. The ignorant
must be taught, the destitute must be cared
for, the vicious must be restrained. He
who carries the had, and keeps the bricks
outside his faded hat, helps tn build
monument to his memory. You are a
plebeian," said an ancient snob TO Cicero.
/" Yes" replied the Roman orator, "the
yours will end with you"
Labor is honor, aud he who scorns the
laborer need not envy the d nkey its redun
dancy Of ear. Let uS look at this subject
phi.osophically. While it is true that the
farmers are the most independent claes of
workers in the world, it is also true that
they labor more hours and harder than
most class Of men. They usually rise be.
l. a. 10, 4. -
until evening let's her curtain down, and
pins it with star" Not a few voIuutari
ly make slaves of themselves until thew
employed machinery, which has no aching
bones, no nervous energy to be exhausted,
and is never Frustrated by fatigue. Even
now, vast multtudes Of farmers work top
much they do so because there is 50 much
to be done-because so many persons shirk
the yoke Of labor, and seek ignoble ease in
kid gloves and silk stockings, and the task
of toll falls unequally upon the industrious.
1t is a common saying, crysta,lized into
proverb, that the work Of women Is never
done. Half the women in the world are
household drudges. We are paradoxical
creatures. One class Of men make dolls of
their daughters, and seem to think the
chief object of lite is to teach them how to
il the millennium Of their worsted work !;
another class run to the opposite extreme,
and, to use the mildest form of speech,
permit them to make slaves Of themselves
On Monday the women must wash, and
draw the water from deep well or distant
spring, when o few dollars would put a
pump in the house. On Tuesday she must
iron, on Wednesday she must churn, on
Thursday she must bake, on Friday she
must sew, on Saturday she must patch,
and on Sunday she must stay at home and
take care of the children. Now, these
labors must be performed by somebody,
but they can be lightened and abridged So
that the labor will be pleasure as well as
q duty--so that "toil will evolve happi-
ness, as flower exhales perfume" Let
the ornamental and the useful be united in
the education of girls. Let them play on
the wash tub and the piano, thread the
meadows and the needle. make beds Of flow
ers as well as beds Of feathers. Let the heads
of families--the men-provide a. place for
everything and put everything in place. A
plankover amiry plth,a scraper at the door,
a cisternin the cellar,a wood shed under shell
er,stoves, tubs, lines in readiness, woull les
sen the work of woman, and give her leis-
ure for Intellectual culture. A dirty, SLOW.
eEly, careless man or boy may soil and
tear his garments, litter the house with
dirt, put things out of their places, and
thus double the work of the housekeep-
err.
We hold thar there is room. for reform,
in some respects, in city and in country
life, and we are thankful that the star Of
woman is in the ascendant, 1t is univer-
sally conceded that, while home is the em>
pire Of woman and she is the queen of the
domestic circle, that she is not to be con-
sidered doll in the drawing room nor a
drudge in the kitchen. She is destined To
do something more than mere flirting, dress
sing, waltzing, orwrestling vita kettles and
keelers; she Is destined t. lift up the race to
a.g 'orious N MOOD. Whatever she can do
without the sacrifice Of her womanlv ma
ture and delicacy and honor, is nroper for
her to do. If she can write a Paradise
Lost" with her Paradise is found again.
1t she can read Princip as, and write them,
not earth alone, but heaven, is her sphere
Life Illustrated