The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1872-06-12
Farmers Wives.

One of the most important helps in
managing a farm successfully is a
housewife who thoroughly appreciates
all the efforts put forth to make the
farm paw. Such wife is. indeed. a
blessing to her husband. But a wife
who is not in sympathy with him who
! is striving to make the broad acres
bring forth proper return for the Ia
Dor expended, is not only useless but
is a positive injury both to her hus-
band and the noble calling of agricul-
turc, Our lady readers will say it is
easy enough for Us to find fault with
the farmers wife, but we wish to be
understood on this point, for we have
an idea of writing one word that
shall reflect on the fair sex. Every
farmers wife knows that there is a
very large number of farmers who
have failed TO interest their wives in
their pursuits Failed to interest
these are the words we use, and this,
in our mind, is where most of the diff
ficulty lies. Farmers do not under
stand educating their wives so that
they may become useful in manage
ing the farm. Some may take exccp-
tions to this view of the case, but it is
the truth nevertheless, for in these
days girls are broughtup with an idea
of becoming the wife of some man
who is not Obiidged to be farmer.
but, alas, many fall, far short of their
expectations, and at last their lot is
cast with some honest tiller of the
soil, They may be able to put up
with the man of their choice but they
are not in sympathy 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 at the fireside. The farmer,
as a general rule, lacks enthusiasm
too many are only half way in earnest
and fail to inspire the family with con-
fidence 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 hy embrace
opportunities which, in immagination
at least, might have placed INN in as
comfortable aposition 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 toil-staned garments.
and the mother resolves that her
children shall be placed in the path
that leads to gold and luxury, aud in
this free country who may not aspire
to these things for their children?
This is why 1t is there are so many
wives who do not interest themselves
in the farm. They come by their dis
likes honestly; for if they have not
been taught to despise 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 ed
ucate their wives after they marry
them. A farmers wife, if she does
not sympathize fully with her hus-
bands calling, must by force of will,
interest herself, for in no other way
can she do her whole duty. She must
bring up her children in such a man
ner as to impress the truth firmly on
their minds, and that truth is, that,
after all, the farmer is the only true
nobleman, for he "eats not the bread
of idleness," and his family may en-
Joy the fat of the land. F"