Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-11-10
When night comes. tho fam,

= When night comes, the farmer
eats his supper, and smokes his pipe
on the cool piazza and rests himself!
If his wife, who has worked quite rs
hard through the day as he has,
should ask him to bring an armful
of wood or pailful Of water to for
ward her in getting the after supper
work done, he would deem himself
wronged and swindled out of his
rights. What does man have
home for but to rest, and take his
comfort? And he generally adds
that he is tired, and he wishes the
women had to work as hard as the
men do; he guesses they'd be glad to
sit down when il came night. And
we guess they would anyway.
In all probability, while the farm
er's wife is washing the dishes, and
straining the milk, and scalding the
churn for the mornings churning,
she will be called by her tired(9
husband to bring the booGack and
find the newspaper, and stop the ba-
by from wilmington he can't read
with such noise in the house. It
does seem as if woman might try
and keep a baby from yelling all the
| time!
1t will be ten o'clock before the
poor woman can go to bed, and then
her sleep is troubled, and haunted
by visions of to-lmorrow's baking,
and churning, and cleaning, and
company coming to tea.
She IS very much less fortu-
nate than her husband, in that she
has to work in an impure atmosphere.
The kitchen is us hot as the tropics,
and the steamlng cookstove. with its
kettles of cooking viands, and its
rocking fumes Of cabbage, and on
ions, and corned beef, is not, to say
the least, 4 health promoter.
The farmer has the benefit Of all
the air there is, and it is fresh, and
pure and invigorating.
SO it generally happens that his
wife fails and breaks down long be-
fore he is middle aged; ana at her
funeral everybody Will. feel so sorry,
and wonder chow it should happen
that poor dear Mrs. Smith should lose
her health SO young, when she had
such an easy time, and her husband
so kind to her!"
And Mr.. Smith is condoled with,
and pitied; and all the girls and
spinsters are quite ready to take his
wife's place when proper length of
time has elapsed to allow of such a
proceeding beng decorous.
We have drawn no fancy picture.
There are, alas! too many such pain
full realities. More farmers wives
die of overwork than of disease
Their husbands, perhaps, do not
realize this, because they have been
accustomed to seeing women per-
form these hard tasks, and they do
not give the subject the thought and
attention it deserves.
Besides, were they ever so well
intentioned in the matter, domestic
help is scarce and difficult to be had,
and SO long as their wives make no
complaint, they do not feel called up
on to put forth the extra exertion
which might be necessary to secure
good help.
But it is every farmers duty to see
to it that his wife is not worked
harder than his oxen and horses, and
he should never wait until her pale
face and tagging footsteps assure
him that she is wearing out" before
securing for her such assistance as
she needs. a hundred dollars spent
in paying a Strong kitchen girl
through the hot season, will be much
more real benefit to the farmers ia
ded wife than the same sum invested
in monument to commemorate
her virtues after she has worked her.
self to death. N. Y. Weekly.