Wyoming democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Wyoming Co., Pa.) 1867-1940, 1868-03-11
OUR FARMERS WIVES.

times, indeed, the terms are synonymous.-
Raising children and chickens, adiufnitum
making butter, cheese, bread, and the omni-
present pie cutting, making and mendirg
the clothes fora whole house hold, not to
speak Of doing their washing and ironing
taking care of the pigs and the vegetable gard
en-, making winter apple sauce by the barrel,
and picking myriads of cucumbers ; drying
fruit and herbs putting all the twins thro'
the measles, whooping cough, mumps, scarlet
ever and chicken pox besides keeping
perpetual river Of hot grease on the kitchen
table in which to float potatoes carrots, on
ions and turnips for the ravenous maws of
the farm hands
No wonder that the poor things look bar
rassed, jaded and toil-worn long before they
arrive at middle-age. No wonder that life
so hard and angular should obliterate all the
graces Of femininity-when no margin is left
year after year, for those little reinements
which woman under any pressure of cir
cumstances naturally and rightly desires, and
lacking which, she is as inevitably unhappy
and coarsened.
Now your farmer is round, stalwart, com
Portable animal There is no baby wailing
at his paniloons while he plows or makes
fences He lies down under the nearest tree
and rests, OF sleeps, when he can no longer
work with profit. He comes unto his dinner
with the appetite cf hyena and the diges..
tion of rhin"ceros, and goes forth again TO
the hay field I'LL called home to supper
There is his wife and TOO often with the same
frowsy head with which she rose in the
morning. dartIng hither and thIrher for what
ever is wanted, or helping the hungry child
ren or the farm hands. After the supper ia
finished comes the dish washing, and the
thought for to morrow's breakfast, and then
perhaps all night she sleeps with an eye open
for baby or a sick child, and rises again to
pursue the same unreleved, treadmiIl, wear
ing round the next day.
Eow,th uppermost idea in the minds Of too
many farmers is, how 10 get the greatest pos
sibe amount of work out of taeIr wives.
poorer policy than this can scarcely be. They
treat their cattle better If they are about
to be presented with fine calf or colt, they
take pains that the prospective mother is
well cared for both before and after the event
The farmer who would not do this would be
considered very short sighted. The cattle
are not allowed TO be oyerworked or under
fed, or abused in any way. Now, pray, is
not farmers wife as valuable an animal as
COW or horse, even looking at the practical
side oft? Is it not as important to have
sound, healthy mother Of children, as to have
healthy mare or COW ? You may say that
no woman should marry farmer who does
not expect to work. | say in reply, that a
woman was never intended TO split or carry
wood, or to carry heavy pals or buckets of
water. And yet how many farmers can We
count who never think of the women of the
house, in regard to the distance or proximity
of the wood or water in relation to the kitch-
en- ? While too many grudge to these over
worked women that labor saving apparatus
in every department Of their work which
would prolong their wives care for years to
family of growing children. .....g. e..
Then, to grudge such an industrious wife,
decent raiment wherewith to make herself
and her children comfoi table, is a shame
To oblige such a woman to plead like beg
gar for the dollars she could have earned
thousand times over in any family but his
own. should make him blush. Look at our
farmers wives all over the land, and see if,
with rare exceptions their tOiwOrn .harnessed
faces do not endorse MY statement. Every
mother should have time to talk with their
children acquaint herself with their souls as
well rs their bodieS-to do something be-
sides wash their face and clothes. And how
are these hurried weary women to find it 3
OF what avail is it to children who come up,
but who are not brought up, that another
meadow, or another barn, be added to the
family inheritance when the grass waves over
tho mothers tombstone before their child
hood and youth ale past or when they can
remember her only as fretted, qaerulous,
care burdened, overtasked creature, who was
always iostling them out Of the way to catch
nv some burden which she dare not drop
though she drop by the way herself 2-Fan-
nv Fern