The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1870-03-31
Farmers Wives and Daughters.

WILL you allow one who has learned
by experience and observation the lesson
he would teach, to speak a word to hus-
bands, brothers and sons, Of the over
worked women of our American farm
houses? | do not speak of those who
"toil not, neither do they spin," but for
those who wash and clean, cook and
mend, knit and SEWN a word, those
who keep house" and do both the think
ing and working incident thereto. | be-
lieve that nine out of ten of our farmers
wives and daughters have far more ambi-
ton than strength. Their love of neat
ness and desire to please, lead them to
undertake many things which exhaust
their strength before the task is COM
pleted. I need not particularize. The
history of these things is written where
we can read it in sunken cheeks and
languid eyes, in forms prematurely
shrunken and bowed, and on tombstones
where the record tells of years sadly
short of three score and ten.
Are we of the sterner sex at all respon-
| sible for these effects? Can we help re-
move the causes? think we can. How ?
Where there's will there's a way. Don't
think you must have harvester, but your
wife can get along without sewing ma
chine. Don't think grain drill or sulky
rake necessary for the farm, while washers
| and WringerS are for those who have more
money than you. If you have an incon-
venient dwelling, especially the kitchen,
don't wait until your barns are made
| larger, and your horses and cattle are pro-
vlded with the most comfortable stables
! before you consider how you can improve
the place where your wives and daugh-
tiers spend most of their waking hours
You believe in driving your own work
see to it that if necessary few days extra
help for sewing or cleaning is provided al
| the proper time. You need not cook, but
| you can try to be satisfied with what you
| get, and praise where it is called for. on
can be within call, ready to lend helping
hand on extra occasions, where strength as
well as skill is required.
| All this will cost some time and money
| but it will pay even in dollars and cents
1t costs far more for doctors bills than
| for extra help and conveniences, and often
the skill of the medical man comes toe
| late, and then you will find that you must
needs go more miles for domestics than
you ever did in taking your wife to see
| her friends-that you will see enough
wasted and destroyed to have purchased
many things to make home pleasant
| Very likely you will find your domestics
harder to please than ever your wife OF
sister was, and worst of all, your home is
not and can not be to you what it was
and your children will feel, if not say,
"What is home without a mother ~
There are, however, far higher considera-
tons which should weigh with every true
man. Duty and pleasure both point the
same way. Love and kindness beget the
same. Holy Writ assures us that faith
without works is dead" and the same
might truly be said of love. 1 would say
to every man, help your wife, mother or
sister, as you have opportunity, and if no
other good result came, you would be
better prepared to appreciate their labors.
The writer has probably spent more
time in household employments than the
most of men, and many of the pleasant
recollections of life are of hours passed in
this way, while some of the keenest re-
grets are for opportunities unimproved,
and which can never return.-Cor. Coun-
{,u /IaOLe3,l171