The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1872-07-06
Farmers Wives.

One of the most important helps in
managing Il farm successfully, is /,
housewife who thoroughly appreciates
all the efforts put forth to make the
farm pay. Such wife is, indeed, u
blessing to her husband. But wife
who is not in sympathy with him who
Is striving to make the broad acres
bring forth Il proper return for the Ia
Dor expended, is not only useless but
is positive injury both to her hu,s-
band and the noble calling OF agricul-
ture. Our lady readers will say it is
easy enough for us to find fault with
their farmers wife, but we have no
idea ofWriting one word that shall re-
fleet on the fair sex. Every farmers
wife, knows that there is Il very large
number of farmers who have failed to
interest their wives in their pursuits.
Failed to intcrcst-thcse are the words
we use, and this, i'll our mind, is where
most of the difficulty lies. Farmers do
not understand educating their wives
so that they may become useful in
managing the ftrm. Some may take
exceptions to this view of the case, but
it is the truth nevertheless, for in these
days girls arc brought up with an idea
of becoming tho wife OF some man who
is not obliged to be Il farmer, but alas,
many fall far short of their cNprcta-
tions, and ut last their lot is cast with
some honest toiler OF the soil. They
may be able to put up with the man
of the choice but they are not in SYM
pathy with his calling; simply because
they have all their sweet lives been
made to believe that farming is one of
the least among the many pursuits of
Industry. Now, If this is true, and it
is more than half true, we all know
there is something wrong ut the fire
side. Tho farmer, as u general rule,
lacks enthusiasm; too many are only
half way in earnest and fail to inspire
the family with confidence in their
operations. Often the father of the
family is found repining over his lot,
while he laments that he did not, in
days gone by, embrace opportunities
which, in Imagination at least, might
have placed him in as comfortable Il
position as a or B, who went to the
same school with him. This train of
thought, if expressed aloud, must affect
wife and children. They behold his
garments, and the mother
resolves that her children shall be
placed in the path that leads to gold
and luxury, and in this free country
who may not aspire to these things for
their children? This is why there arc
SO many wives who do not interest
in the farm. They come
by their dislikcs honestly; for if they
been taught to dcspisc the
calling of their fathers they have never
been taught to respect it. This is why
they become wives with no ideas as to
their duties to themselves or to their
husbands, and this it is that causes
us to say that farmers must educate
their wives after they marry them.
A farmers wife, if she does not sympa-
Lhize fully with her husbands calling,
must by force of interest herself, for
in no other way can she do her whole
luty. She must bring up her children
in such Il manner as to impress the
ruth firmly on their minds, and that
ruth is that, after all, the farmer is the
only true noblenian, '1or he cats not
he bread OF idlencss,' and his family
'may enjoy the fat of the land.'-fiu1n
md -EIrcsitle.