The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1882-11-11

quicker, and therefore hethr. with large
spoon than with . small SnA The way in
which man takes his soup IL by many re-
gardcd AZ the test Of bis table manners--to tip
tie plate and TO take the soup from The point
of the spoon are sins against the morality OF
the dinner table, as great rs to suck down the
LIQUID with the sound Of . miniature mael-
strom The best law givers ON the subject de-
mand that the spoon shall he swept through
the soup away from the person, and the soup
drunk noiselessly from the side of the spoon,
which should be lightly tipped, as If it were
small cup or bowl.
WOman's Life ON Nebraska Prairies.
IL s.. in Woman's Journal
You at the east have no conception Of the
hard conditions on which life is sustained in
this new state. Its limitless prairies are bare
of trees, and in many places water is reached
only by wells one hundred and fifty or two
hundred feet deep. Poor people who came
here without money to pre-empt land, had
often to dig holes in the ground, which they
call "dug-ou in which to live. The dis
the women. The men are with the cattle or
crops, out of doors; but within the low and
narrow @dug- out" women wear out discour-
aged and hopeless lives
young woman was one day riding with
two little boys in the same car with me- Her
tired and discouraged manner moved my
sympathy. At first talked with her boys,
and then to her, and said they would soon be
men, and be support and comfort to her. 10
THE she rsplied: "Yes, and have two girls. .
@That is better yet" said l. with your four
children, it will not be long before you will
sad assent, she added, II have five dead I"
She went on to say that she had married at
sixteen, had come there and lived in
3dug out" ever since. She had had
nine children, and was only
, thirty-one years old. She had worked out Of
doors and in the house, and, as she said, mad
an awful hard time" She said her husband
but he had to work hard too. When the farm
WAS fenced they were to get a better house
| With an evident desire to leave better i'm
preston on my mind, she said, ave never
suffer for anything We always have all the
milk and cream we want We raise great
| many chickens, and we never sell one and
, chickens are good whether you roast 'em or
stew 'em or broil 'em, and the broth is good
for children" to all of which assented 80 far
/ as food was concerned But the worn soul
that looked out from the discouraged eyes of
this woman, old before her time, told how
greatly she needed the things that do not per-
ish with the using. She was representative
of many others.
At one place we found young comely
woman, college graduate, with two small
children, cooking for eighteen men, besides
! those who came as transient travellers She
! had but two rooms below and two above. She
did the family sewing, was county superin-
! tendent of schools, and with brave courage
looked for better times.
| Another young woman, also college gradu-
ate, was established in a sod house, seven
miles from any other dwelling She lined The
whole with white cotton cloth, put in her
piano, and kept up her studies; and this
! year, seven years from the time she first took
up her abode there, she attended the teachers
institute of her county, and was the soul of it.
She presided at the organ, made speeches,
and good ones, and kept her cAildre., with
| her, az she had no one with whom to leave
them Nebraska is dotted 'all over with such
women. In spite of drawbacks which those
! in older states cannot comprehend, these
women are planting the finest civilization III
| this far west