The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-27
A,TALE OF ANCIENT WRONG.
From the NJ y. Nation

CUBS the subject OF DOhru, anu 10
receive letters about it from that large class
of dwellers in cities to whom the expensive
ioys of Newport and Saratoga and Sharon
are forbidden, but who, nevertheless, want to
get to the country with their families during
the hot weather, and, partly for the sake of
seclusion and plain clothes, and partly for the
sake of economy, resort to the farm-houses.
The number of farm-houses which now re-
ceive city families in July and August is
practically unlimited. The boarders, how
ever, generally come back to town feeling
swindled, attenuated, badly bitten, and some
what run down in digestion, and possiblywlth
the seeds of disease implanted in the children
bypoor fare, vowing, if not swearing, that they
have had the last of country board" By the
time the summer comes again, however, the
memory of last years woes has grown faint,
and the grass and foliage become tempting,
and the streets look hot, and dusty, and
lonely, and the children look pale, and
another trial is made; and so on from year to
year, till some people are lashed into fury by
the mere sight of farmer, and think OF
farm-hous as den in which strangers are
starved and cheated under the pretense of
being fattened and strengthened; and their
indignation is favored by the press, which, in
May and June, demonstrates savagely with the
agricultural population upon its beds, its beef,
its butter and milk, and, indeed, its whole
manner of life.
We are not so vain as to suppose that any
thing we can say can bring the parties in this
controversy to an understanding. There are
some woes which nothing but the consola-
tions of religion can assuage, as the lady said
apropos of the expensive clothes OF her next
door neighbors daughters, and we are far
from fattering ourselves that we can pluck
from anybody's brain the bitter memories of
saleratus bread, and boiled pork, rancid but
ter, SKINNED milk or other country delica-
Il nn,xya
why city family of moderate means and
average fortitude should accept the existing
condition of country living with at least as
much resignation as it accepts the narrowness
of fortune, or the dust of the cars, or the
dulness of trade, or the weight of taxation.
In other words, we think there is more to be
said for the farmer and his wife than this
pair of badly fed extortioners are likely to say
for themselves, partly, no doubt, owing to
their callousness, but somewhat to their de-
fective literary training.
In the first place, we think the ideas of
farmhouse life formed by city people are
greatly colored either by boyish recollections
of the enjoyment of things only enjoyable
when one is very young, very poor, and very
inexperienced, or by the literary view of
country life derived from magazines and
novels. According to the novelists and maya
zine writer's, the farm is real Arcadia
flooded, however, with the light of modern
thought. The air is ever heavy with the
scent of the flowers and the blossoms and the
new-mown hay; the orchards are laden with
golden fruit; the barn-yard swarms with ten
der chickens, and the shelves of the dairy
groan under the cream-pans and the cheese;
and of these nothing goes to market till the
family have had their fill. The farmer him
self is jolly and open-handed man. full of
wise saws and modern instances, and his wife,
an Industrious, bustling, efficient person,
with her head full of receipts for dainty
dishes, which it is her special delight to pre-
pare, and which she revels in seeing other
people eat. The picture of the daughters,
too, is well calculated to fire the dullest i'm
agination. They make their own clothes, of
plain, sensible materials, it is true, but cut
on patterns furnished by HG,per'S Bazar, so
that, as far as externals go, they are not dis
tinguishable from really good city girls.
They do nearly all the work of the house, and
delight in tin fact, consider it ''fun"-with-
out even soiling their dresses, and almost
without soiling their fingers, and hate the
sight of Irish ''helps." They take a
Robinson Crusoe-like pleasure" in the
chores. Every morning ''they give the cof-
fee pot ration of fragrant beaten paste-the
brown kernels mixed with an egg" into one
frying-pan ''they set the milk for the brewis,
into which, when it boils up white and drift
ing, 90 the sweet fresh butter and the salt,
light, delicate, savory bread-porridge, to eat
daintily with fork, and be thankful for
In the other pan ''are the fried eggs and the
sprinkle of salt and pepper" and ''over il
stands Barbara, with a tin-spoon, to toss ur
and turn till the whole is just curdled with
the heat into white and yellow flakes, not one Of
which is raw nor one dry" When the break
fast is on the table, Rosamond puts tea-rose
in glass vase at the edge of the white waiter
napkin, and through the three cool west win.
dows the morning breeze comes in, and
''overbears the remembrance of the
cooking and the reminder OF
the stove" After breakfast, ''Ruth
picks up the dishes, and it is something deli
cate to see her scrape them clean with plian
knife, as painter might cleanse his palette
and then they are set before mother in file!
and groups on the Pembroke table. She sit!
in her raised armchair, as she might si
making tea for company, and has her little
mop and three long, soft, clean towels beside
her." We need hardly say they also con
tribute to the Atlantic and GALAXY, and reaC
Emerson. When they propose to take few
boarders in summer, what wonder if peopl,
from the city fly to them, and smack thei
lips over the prospect of the coffee and tn,
brewis and the scrambled eggs, and sniff il
anticipation the aroma of the tea-rose?
The unvarnished truth-the horrid truth
is, however, that farm-lfe in the Unite
States, as in all countries in which labor j
scarce and dear, is very hard coarse, mono
tonous life. The lovely farm-houses of tn
poets and novelists are places in which ser
wants abound in which stout dairy maids mil
the early COW and make the fragrant butter
and stout cooks serve the delicious coffe
and the savory brewis and the perfect scran