The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1873-10-31
Woman's Rights.

That women have certain rights that
even the lords Of the soil will not deny
is proposition that admits of no ques-
tiOn. II is of these rights that we talk.
II is a woman's right to be supplied with
labor-saving appliances to assist her in
the labor Of the house. The husband
purchases q mower at the expense OF
several hundred dollars, while he ex-
poets the good wife to make his shirts,
the boys pants and girls dresses, in the
old fashioned way with a needle and
thread, when q sewing machine can be
bought that girl of nine years can run
for $50. If such purchase is mentioned
she is told that the corn in the east lot
is poor, and the oats across the way will
hardly pay for cutting, and the whole
matter was treated as if luxury that
could easily be dispensed with was
asked for. This spring new horse-rake
was bought for the farm that cost per-
haps Sl25; but who thought of buying
a knitting-machine that cost S25. And
yet socks wear out and old needles must
be run each evening the year round to
keep the family in socks, while with
one Of those machines q years supply
for the family might be prepared by
one of the youngsters in n few after
moons. y cultivator comes home in
new wagon, but the old wash-board is
brought out regularly every Monday
morning, and no washing machine is
ever thought of. A threshing-machine
is hired to do the work of fail, but at
tbs cisteTn the old hook is good enough
for the "women folks' to draw the wa
ter with, when for Sc good iron pump
could be provided that, with proper
usage, would last for years. And so it
goes, one year after another, and the
wife becomes old and wrinkled, and the
girls register VOWS that they will never
live on farm.
Ii is true the money is often hard to
get, to purchase many OF these conven-
fences, but it is better to go without
some unnecessary things that are bought
until they can be procured. If they can
not be procured any other way, set aside
some small resource for which a small
income is derived, aud let il be devoted
to the purchase of those labOr-saving
implements. Let the hens pay for them;
instead of swapping the eggs for sugar
or gingham enough for an apron, lay
aside the cash they bring for this pur-
pose. Give one of the girls q pig and
let her fat and sell it, and if she knows
that the price of that porker is to be de-
voted to the purchase of something to
lessen the drudgery of housekeeping, it
is altogether probable that it will be the
heaviest pig in the pen in the fall.
Aside from the help these things are
to women on the farm, there is another
and grander reason why they should be
in every farmers home, and that is the
effect they have, incidentally, on the
farmers family. What boy can retain
very lofty feelings OF reference or re-
spect for his mother when the moment
she sits down after tea she falls asleep
in her chair, exhausted by the labors
of the day He may pity her, but
what interest does he feel i'm telling her
what he had read, when he knows she
does not geta respite from her household
drudgery to look in a book from one
years end TO another? How much
pleasure does he take i'm drawing his
chair beside her, when her dress-that
she has not had time to change-smells
of soft soap and the kitchen ? Let
mothers think Of this.
a woman has right to be human, if
not to vote; to have the time to read if
not to run for Congress; to rest aud rec
reatiOn, if not to run for President. Ma
chimes do the drudgery i'm the bayfield,,
and why not at the wash-tub? They
rake and pitch the hay, and why not
knit the stockings? They hoe the corn,
and why not sew the shirts? If any one
can find an answer to these queries, let
them be published.