The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-08-28
COUNTRY HOMES.
The Poverty Of the Toilins Wives Of
-Dilapidated Houses--Over-
Taxed Women, and Disconten-
ted Boys aud Girls.
MARY H. Krout in Kokomound.) .)rribune.l

best exchanges, may be overdrawn in
many particulars, but it must be admitted
that there is too much cause for the COM
plants here made.
The wives OF many wealthy, wellto-do
farmers are practically paupers. They
work as hard as their husbands for scanty
clothing; of pleasures that cost money
they are deprived. Their life is long,
monotonous routine of work without re-
ward. Beyond the little they manage to
hoard up by the sale of butter and egg,
they have no money, and no chance to
earn 1t. To this poverty may be traced
the cause of much of the squalor of many
of the country homes, for love OF order,
cleanliness and beauty are the character
istics of most women.
The barn, an ambitious structure glar-
ing with red paint, surmounted by a gilt
weather cock, must have a whole roof,
strong doors and windows, for it shelters
horses and grain that have market value.
There are troughs out of which the sleek
cattle slake their thirst, out of which they
leisurely and contentedly eat the whole
some food which has been provided for
them.
At the same time, the house in which
the farmer resides with his children and
over worked wife grows more and more
dilapidated. The doors refuse to shut;
the knobs are broken and lost; old hats,
old clothes and paper supply missing win
dow panes, the her-boarding warps
and comes of,and the last vestige of paint
disappears; the porch is venerable ruin;
chimneys crumble and fall, and door steps
become snare to the feet of the unwary.
Within there may be a pretentous"best
room" But thick green shades exclude
the light, which perhaps is well, as its
rays would only reveal a carpet of hide.
GUS ugliness; splint bottom chairs ranged
sthy around the wall; table strewn
with masonic literature and family photo
graphs, ,and hanging side by, side, a framed
hair wreath and the inevitable and all per
vading "Wide Awake and East Asleep"
OF the good taste that costs nothing
and can make the most inexpensive room
look attractive, there is not a trace-no
pretty prints, no books, none of the orna-
mental things that women's fingers devise,
no plants, that, with little care and sun
shine, could convert that domestic desert
into blossoming bower
The chambers are close, badly ventila.
ted and smell OF feathers. The kitchen
approaches the climax of dilapdation.
There the family "most do congregate."
Here among chaos of pots, pans, kettles,
churns and tubs, they sit down three
times day to the table, where the guam
tity of food does not make up for the shah.
by manner in which it is served.
The yard about the house is equally
dirty and disorderly.
The fences are broken, the gates are
propped up-their only fastenings pieces
ol rusty chain or knotty rope.
~The "buildng spot, TO use. a provin.
cialism-has been selected because the
sterlity Of soil has rendered it unfit eor
the cultivation of wheat and or And
though lovely forests -,r.tcb away on
every ''''' VIVA aying boughs beneath
, which III summer lie soft, cool shadows
tleecked with patches of yellow sunshine,
haunted by birds and squirrels and all the
gentle spirits that love the solitude, yet
the house must stand on level tract
unshaded by any tree save perhaps tu-
neral pine or cedar. There are no walks,
save narrow, beaten paths, half oblitcra'
ted by long grass and rank plantain
Here and there are clumps of peonies OF
snov ball bushes
The front yard is strewn with wisps
of hay and straw, agricultural implement:
that have served their time, and possibly
a wagon bed or two.
There may be horse block by tht
front gate. If there is, there is also or ha
been wood pile near it, for a mysterious
3 friendship seems TO exist between the two
: and where one is the other is almost Ger
e tain to be found. Here the family fue
e has been prepared for years. and the de
cayed and decaying chips, chunks and log
o are we'll scattered over the ground.
c If the front view is unattractive, hoy
: utterly dreary is the back yard. Back
! yards, even in orderly families, are place
that are screened from public view b
= lattices or impervious walls.
g In country homes like these the ev
u genius that presides over the back var
holds undisputed possession, and reve
in offensive sights and odors. There al
'. neither sinks nor drains to carry away tt
n floods of dish water, whose only missio
y is to convert the solid ground into reel
' ing swamp. Old barrels, ash -hoppers, o
. bones, bleaching skeletons of fowls, featl
ers, disabled rakes, hoes and spades, br'
" " ken crockery, mud in winter and dust
" summer offend the sight and ones sem
a of smell Through this wild spot wand
IN droves of fowls, Shanghai chickens, wit
amazing scratching powers; ducks ar
r geese, that spatter about with their broi
O bills and large webbed feet Friend
a. swine crawl through convenient crevic
Of and hob-nob with shabby looking cats.
We Big, gaunt dogs divide their time actil
ne as scavengers in chief, barking at passel
D; by, or doing on porches, or under L
a kitchen stove or table, swapping at flies
ct gnats, if it is summer, with loud, expl
s. sive noise that would sicken one, If t
fy sight of their moist mouths would n,