Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1881-07-13

Chips from the Waste Basket,

Chips from the Waste Basket.
Our editor breaches the idea in his Re
marks that out door work or out doc
life-and for the majority of farmers
wives and daughters out door life mean
nut door idbOr of some sort, for their live
are not a continued play day-would b.
beneficial to our sex; but he hardly know
how such radical change is to be brough
| about.
am satisfied that his theory is correct
but can give no practical solution of the
problem of how to do it, for as matter
are at present, farmers wives are over
worked, almost always-worked AS tn,
farmer does not allow his favorte horse t.
be worked, and they certainly cannot ado
to the labor already performed.
! There are many kinds of work out OIL
doors that women could perform much
easier than some kinds of house work
Our girls and | have always done "thC
running" in the busy season of the year
| We go to the store for neediul things, tt
The blacksmlh's for repairs, to mill, anC
almost everywhere that is necessary
though admit that the "gude mon ha.
IN eye to the saving of his own time more
han anything else in thus employing the
feminine portion of the households; bu
it gives US needful change from houst
work, and even if we have to work little
harder to make up the time thus spent,
think we are the gamers thereby. But
can readily imagine that those housekeep.
ers whose work is planned and carried out
with the precision OF clockwork-such
work for such days, whatever happens
would not fancy such a hindrance to theil
plans.
1t is no harder to ride the moving ma
chine or horse rake than it is TO wash or
scrub floors, and know numbers of wo.
men who rake hay by hand and help load
hay; and This in miditaon to their in door
abor-not in eIchnnge Tor it, as it should
be. the care OF The ;tlden could be we'll
undertaken by women if they had time.
Many women help boil sap in the spring.
and pretend to like the bus ness.
In the good time coming" the men
will do the washing and scrubbng, and
such work in doors as requires much out
lay of strength, while the women will
CLEAN in the fields, or do the moving and
taking, to speak more literally, and many
other kinds OF light work, and the pale
checked, hollow eyed women of to. day
will be a myth. But before that good
time comes there has got to be some r,di-
cal changes in our habits, notably in our
dress
Fashions in some res poets, have changed
much for the better in the last twenty
wears, especially in the matter of warm
for the cold season.; but there is
yet II large chance for Improvement in
other directions.
Take strong man and lace him up in
corsets so tight that he cannot possibly
Inhale natural breath, fetter his limbs
with long, trailing skirts. and how long
WOULD he be able 10 endure hard workP
Not Tor long, | assure you; and if in ad
litlon to unwholesome dress, he be contin-
ed 10 the hot atmosphere of a tight, unven,
Hated house for months together, he
would wilt like a hot house plant exposed
to lie frost.
The wonder is not so much that women
are feeble and sickly as that they exist at
All with such wholesale disregard of the
laws of their being.
Now don't. NJ Editor, make fun of our
clumsy attempts to be arttstic. | believe
it is better to have Somcthing to brighten
our rooms, if we cannot have it in the
highest style of art. We have not the
line to be artistic-many of us-and if
we did have, we have not the necessary
but most of us can tell when Il
room is arranged so that it LOOKS cosy and
tasteful. We must have our bits of color
If we can't have oil paintings by the
great masters we can have bright chro-
mos, which are a great deal better than
nothing, though art critics don't think so;
and everybody can have their windows
frightened with plants.
y, that capable Mrs. Rose! She fairly
took my breath away.
Now. Mr.. Editor, I'll take it all
back about those Punxsuatwany girls;
III believe every word about them and
heir work if you U0nt throw those Ohio
women in our faces any more.
don't pretend to doubt this wonderful
ordinary days work." don't
lure to, for if should our editor would |
De sure to pick mp something or somebody |
50 much beyond "Rose's" achievements |
hat feel compelled to believe as much |
If this AS | can in self defence.
But would Ike to inquire OF Rose y
what her lazy husband and twelve bows
we're doing while she MIXED twenty cows
md fed the pigs? Also. if it wouldn't be
lsking too much, what sort of IN oven she
nad to to bake forty loaves of bread IMP
And the SHIRT makirg-she must be an
Extraordinary needle woman, for after the
hirts were all finished off but the button
roles and buttons, it would take an ordiD-
Try woman six hours to finish those
welve shirts. am glad to know that
Rose" finds time for her music with her
'ther duties.
l have thought | would sometime tell
'ur readers Of days work once accom-
'lished by n lady know but really. after
he western women have been shown up
would not be worth the while.
LAURA B. BoYCE.