Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1880-12-22

Mrs. Clara COlby, OF Nebraska, In
paper read before the womrn's congress
at Boston on the ills which attend the life
of the turner's wife, spoke of early mar
riage as fruitful of many troubles. She
said:
Matrimony is easily undertaken In rural
life, and the country girl assumes the
cares of a household and matrimony at
an age when city and village girls are
still at school. Her health is likely to
break down in consequence, her nerves to
become shattered, and the hardships which
severe poverty dds to the many which
are necessarily incident to farm life in its
beginning make her Old prematurely, and
she may add another TO 1.-THE long list of
farmers wives who are found in our in
sane asylums.'
When the country boy thinks of start
ing out for himself in life, his first care is
to look out for wife among the neighbor-
ing girls. Perhaps there are not many
competitors to interfere with him, and if
be is likely young fellow, he is not apt
to find it hard to win a helpmate. He is
not after money, nor a fine social alliance.
AL. he wants is u wife, and because he has
nothing to offer but his heart the girl is
none the less ready to accept him. World
lv considerations do not affect her choice
of husband.
She receives COW and feather bed as
her dowry, and he gets team from his
father as his capital 10 business, after
having given his work under parental
authority up 10 the age of twenty one.
This, Mrs. Colby says, i the common
custom throughout the region of which
she knows, and it is substantially the
same as that prevalent in the old states.
The couple may begin housekeeping on
n rented farm, ono-third of the produce of
which comes to them for their toll. If
they get more than q bare subsistence, it
must be an tptionaly good year for
crops and prices. Perhaps some of the
young men may be able to buy their own
farms, or make Il first payment on them.
In the east the oldest and in the west the
youngest son generally stays at the home
stead, but the life is apt to be irksome to
him, and at last he plucks up courage and
goes after his brother to new fields in the
west
The most eastern states for these pio-
neers now Il days are Iowa and Minnesota,
but the chief objective points are Dakota.
Nebraska, Kansas and Texas. Dugouts,
unhealthy and gloomy at the best, may be
their first habitation, and even when
houses are built they are small, inconven-
lent, and finished only by degrees. The
womeD's work in them is peculiarly try
ing. mo one only familiar with the
comfortable homesteads of the east, can
form any conception of what farming is
10 the western woman. The fuel is not
under cover, the water is hard to draw
When the land is bought, and not home
steaded, there are the payments to be met ;
and until the land is clear the farmer feels
that nothing must be expended for com
forts in the house.
Debt and poverty rest over these homes,
overwork breaks down the women, who
may rebel against the hardships of their
lives, and seek to change them by escap-
ing from the bonds of matrimonv
" Divorces are frightfully common among
the farmers of the west"
And even when the farmers wife sees
her husband gaining in prosperity she
finds no lessening of her arduous labors
They may rather increase More stock,
more grain and fruit. more help to the
farmer, all these mean more work to the
woman. She can seldom. procure help
+ for such as there is naturally seeks tho
town" Besides taking care of the hous,
} and children, she must look after tn;
e poultry, and her husband having no time
to potter" in the garden, she must plant
Q hoe, and gather such vegetables as sh,
1 needs for the table. She is cook, nurse
r washmald, chore boy, gardener, all in one
i She loses regard for her personal appear
ance, and perhaps becomes an untid
drudge, careless of beauty in herself o
her surroundings. Anything will do IA
: home or is good enough for the family
+ They live, rs they tell you, II dogs life O
i it, but without thought that hev are i,
9 any way responsible for their wretched
! ness"
i They do not even have the diversion
1 and excitement of buying their owl
i clothes. LAS II rule, the husband make
=, the purchases. even to procuring hi
4 wife's dresses. while she rarely or neve
! has control of dollar. The wife re
mains a child in finance, and if she i
ever ntrusled with the shopping, she doe
, il awkwardly and unwisely." She ma
get to II town twice a year; her penres
neighber may be miles away; the loneIi
e ness Of the farm life drives the daughter
+ to town to work, and leaves the mothe
= to still greater loneliness at home, ..i
which, pcrh ps. the spirit chafes until
7 breaks the bonds of reason"
l. An early ma rlag" has l,r, vented he
; getting sufficient schooling, aud she /
mmcnHbly 'efrirhI IN luuI,r. a.. ,,
sources She knu { nplhihg 1T lNuicI,
and only "a stout cons uiiOu CA. r,.-,.t Al.