Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-11-15
Farmers Daughters.

L was IalklnR 10 FARMERS uaugnter
the other day, and naturally, it seemed,
We dropped into complainings, and We
each revealed the fact that she was dis
eOntented. l asked her what she in-
tended to do for a living, and she an
swered, "Oh | don't know; | want to
get away and make money somehow.
If could 60 to school little more |
could teach; but they can't spare me-"
| knew that all her life had been one
round of cooking and milking and
Churning; of washing and scrubbing
and ironing. l knew that her father
was quite u wealthy farmer, AMI
granger, and leading church member.
He has a good farm and cozy barn
such coy barn and money in bank.
And when | looked at the ugly old
farm house, with its black door and
small windows, its calves and pigs and
chickens running in undisturbed tran
guilty over the yard, did not wonder
that she found it uuattractive and
wanted TO get away. The inner sensi-
bilities of her woman nature We're
awakening, and they called for some
thing better. /, for one, do not blame
the farmers daughters tor being dissat-
isfied. | know how much they have to
make them so. When will the farm
ers learn that the "life is more than
meat and the body more than raimeut"
When will they cease considering it a
waste Of time to send their children to
school, or waste of money to pay for
books or magazines? Why will they
spend their money giving the heather
a chance to be lost, when there daugh-
ters are dying for something to read?
They toll and sweat, wasting the best
earnings in providing for the poor frail
body, that, were it not that it is the
temple of the soul, would be wood or
stone. They reverse the positions and
make the rightful master a servant.
Their time is wholly occupied for tenn
pOral wants.
Holland tells us that farmers are
afraid to be educated or refined, or 10
cultivate the beauties of nature, lest
they be thought "stuck up" He says
their refiuer nature being neglected be-
comes sluggish and dormant. When
they go to sleep they merely go to roost;
when they eat, they tuck away grub"
that they surprise their backs with
clean shirts, and when they marry they
"hitch on" In all these we recognize
more truth than poetry. Perhapsit is true
that the world is what we make it; but
the sad part of the truth is, that some
of us cannot make it what it ought to
be or what we wish it to be. If the ma
lures that are given us with the exist
ence that are thrust upon Us, are slug
gish and stOlid, we must suffer the con-
sequences through time and eternity.
No matter what We may do to eradi-
cate the haser part, We can never attain
the higher standard We might have
reached, if loving and considerable pa
rents had helped to prepare the way TOR
us. We hear great deal said about
the dignity and nobility Of labor; we
see the truth of this in the results of the
lives of such men as Hugh Miller, Agas-
siz and our old time patriots. But labor
having no good end in view, labor that
is merely muscular expansion and con-
traction for the sake of making and
keeping money, is only method of
soul murder. We need never be afraid
of labor, provided We work with the
right spirit. Anna Dickinson used to
clean street crossings to earn money to
pay for bOOks.-The Former and Manu-
tactrer.