The Portland daily press., 1883-03-01
A Farmers Wife.
The Mysteries and Miseries Of her Lot in
Lte-Her Fears and her Anxieties.

A farmers wife writes to city paper de-
failing few of the miseries of her lot, in
which she says: Let me ask you, is not a
thorough education the best worldly inheri-
lance parents can give their children? If
so, how is the farmer to obtain it? He works
harder, sleeps less, lives palmer, and has
fewer luxuries than the dwellers in cities or
villages. He cannot ''have his cake and eat
it, too;" and if bis Injuries are not all saw
ed to sell, be has nothing with which to buy
his plain clothing, tools. and few grocer
les. He and his children must work early
and late, or they cannot be clothed and fed
Not from early spring until late autumn is
there anything like leisure for the farmer or
any member of his family. The few weeks
which then can be devoted to study are in
sufficient to complete even a thorough En-
glish education, provided he has school ad-
vantages, a blessing he does not always en-
joy. Time, money and opportunity for
study are his chief lacks.
know you will speak of his independence.
grant that, although the Indian and saw
age have similar independence for that
matter. also know that he has few
compensations. l have enjoyed them for
many years. But, to say that they in any
way repay him for the lack of nearly all
life's luxuries, graces and refinements, is to
say, in my estimation, that the moon is
more efficient and useful than the sun. Co.
lossal fortunes are built upon his labors by
the dealers and spectators in the fruit of
his toll, while he enjoys too little of the re-
suits of those labors. / feel that there is
something wrong somewhere, though what
it is / cannot see; but l have faith enough
in your wisdom to think you could tell me,
ii you would look at it in the right light Is
it the middleman, or the purchaser, or the
speculator? Or has political economy any
thing to do with it?
am not thinking lightly on this topic, nor
solely for myself; yet in my own case can
not see where we have been al fault. | am
forty-ive and gray haired l have striven
for years with all my nerve and strength,
and so has my good husband. We have
practiced economy, self-denial, and frugali-
ty, along with our hard labor, to a painful
extent. We have done the very best we
could, and our toll has not been adequately
repaid. What we have to sell brings always
too little for what we buy. can bear ordi-
nary privations, if not with cheerful. at
least with patient submission; but when |
see no hope of anything but the merest ru-
diments of an education for the bright. bon
ME BARNS the Lord has given me, without
sacrificing the home itself, / feel that it is
too cruel Providence, if it be not mans
injustice. The farmer is not properly paid
or there would rot be thousands of mothers
similarly situated
In vacation, before / left school, and be-
fore and since my marriage, have taught
in rural districts, both in Iowa, Illinois and
Missouri, where the soil is richer than
here. I've seen many farmers children
with exceptionally bright minds, and 9th
ers OF natures best gifts. But in few years
ignorance and toll have laid their stampsup-
on them. The girls marry farmers, and
very few years changes their blooming youth
to haggard old age. Where is there SO ov-
erworked drudge, with so few recreations
and SO little rest as the farmers wife?
would like to go into few details to ex-
plain my meaning, but fear Eve already
wearied you. Let me just add that the
prices the farmer receives for all products
such rs grain, butter, fowls, and fruit do
not pay for the time and labor expended in
theli immediate production, except for very
short periods in time of great scarcity, when
the benefit is only to the few, and not to the
farmer at large. For instance, butter in the
low price as to hardly pay for the labor of
milking, churning and marketing. For the
capital expended in cows and the land de-
voted to their maintenance the farmer is
paid nothing. Let any farmer tell YOU the
number OF days he has worked on any one
crop, and the actual cost of the food his tie IN
consumes during that time, with the cost of
seed and other expenses, and the prices for
which that crop would SELL or what is actu-
ally worth to his family at market prices,
and he will not be paid over from twenty
five to fifty cents per day and his board.
So II is in everything. For his capital en-
ployed he is never paid. Oh, / have read
the long and labored articles trying to prove
that his home and his firewood, and i'm
provement of property in value, pay for the
amount he has invested. 1t will not pay for
the stock and farming utensils, let alone the
interest OH the price of the land, the chief
capital. The negative argument of improve
ment OF his property in value is of no actual
benefit to him, unless he desires to sell in
his old age, after the larger part of his time
has been spent in striving for the comforts
and conveniences of a home, and begin
again without them.
have not mentioned the absence of all
social and religious as well as educational
advantages. This necessarily arises from
his isolation, but is nevertheless not the
II asst OF the depriVations of his hard, hard
lot. There must be injustice somewhere.
when the prosperity and wealth of this vast
country is founded upon his toll, and of all
who enjoy its fruits he has the hardest lot
and the least of its real benefits.
When farmers have neither opportunity.
time nor money for mental culture, it is not
surprising that they are ignorant even of
their own pitiable condition. If there is any
holr IN. ct oh -