Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1883-11-16
THE MORTGAGED FARM.
Ten Years Hard Work for "a Mere
Living.

Ten n ears haru I" Ork Tor u mere
Living.
Maine correspondent of the Homestead,
who signs herself ''Sister G. p" relates her
experience in an impressive style which bears
on its face the evidence that the writer has
seen what she describes. 1t is the record of
ten years of hard labor on large farm, heav-
lily mortgaged, with only the mere subsistence
of the family as the result Her words are
of great interest for there are thousands of
families making like struggle, and often with
no better results-not always as good, for here
each years expenses and interest money were
promptly met" Yet cases are not uncom
mon where farm is bought and mortgaged,
and nearly all the purchase-money paid from
the profits of the farm. But here is the
story:
John and have been married ten years, and
our only bone of contention has been this
matter of big farm, mortgaged to the last
woodchuck's hole on the rivers bank, or a
small farm and own it. 1t may be because l
have such selfish nature that 1 do want to
have what is around us ours-our very own
and organize or gather comforts around US as
our circumstances allow.
Oh, the rich cheese have made-tons of it
patted into gilt-edged prints And for what
Not for any good thing their sale would bring
into my precious household, not for addition
al comforts or even the necessities of life, but
to help pay that blood.sucking mortgage in
terest
The first few years we were very hopeful,
and thought, Surely, with such an income
as the old farm brings in, the debt can easily
be lifted in five years" Income there is, in
abundance but greater constant outgoing
for needful expenses, table supplies for our
regular family of eleven replacement and re-
pairs of farming tools, and wages of hired
help. So ten years instead of five have rolled
by-years laden with labor for John and I
and the debt is as bulky and immovable as
ever.
1 cannot think it is Encouragement out of
doors or leaks in the household sleeves indoors.
1t is simply the leaden fact that the wages of
hired help consume nearly all profit from any
farm, and if there is mortgage-interest to pay
besides taxes, which count on SO many acres,
it is life battle against debt for him who
puts himself in such a position We have
promptly met each years expenses and inter
est money, but that is all we have found it
possible to do.
John is still hopeful, and unconvinced that
too many acres can be disadvantage, if not
nuisance, to hold in ones name. He watch
es the ponderous loads of hay and grain go
rolling into the barns during the harvest days,
and looks over his bins of unsod oats and a
scafold piled to the rsfters with the heeces Of
800 sheep, and thinks, There is money in
this-I shall give that old debt lift this year; !"
but l know that when the two-dollars ,a-dsy
harvest laborers are all paid, and the wages
of our season men give of them) settled, the
help indoors and household expenses met,
and the taxes and that ever-falling.due inter
est money paid, there won't be sixpence left
to pay on the principal.
like a large family. like to have all the
leaves of our extension table needed at each
meal, and am proud to call for three anda-
half yards of marbled oil-cloth for our every.
day table cloths but l would far rather the
faces around our board were those Of our own
children instead of those of uncongenial hire
lings. There are two little faces at our fire.
side that are ours-two little voices that
sweetly call us "papa" and mamma" but if
it had not been for the burdens of work and
care have borne, and the constant trottng
here and there to ''see to things" against
which our earthly tabernacles sometimes re-
bel, there might have been five and say it
is too bad for a wife to have to economic in
children, or, rather, to sacrifice them on the
altar of work, which she cannot avoid in a
family like ours.
John is yet in his thirties but his hair Is
getting grey, and there is an ugly stoop in his
shoulders, as though he bore constant bur.
demand he does, heavy one, in this old
homestead farm, portions of which lie so far
from the house that it takes quarter of day
to cart single load off or on to these out
lying fields. Sometimes, when / see the slow
OK teams go creeping up and down the wind
ing river road to the upper fields" drawing
dressing or grain, the teamsters demanding
one to two dollars day, think, John, my
dear husband are you as wise as you are
good -
have read again and again Brother 81. H.
SIS truthful words, "a little farm we'll titled
is better than large one run over" and the
hot tears will fill my eyes when l think how
much John and have lost the past ten years
and are still losing every day. Where are
Johns buoyant step and old vivacous ways ?
Lost and so is the laughing twinkle of his
kind blue eye, and his merry laugh, that used
to ring out on the slightest provocation.
l have lost-deary me, believe have lost
the greater part of my ambition and courage.
am 50 heartily sick and tired of cooking,
scrubbing and mending for an army of help,
who seldom care grain for the interest of
their employers and whose motto seems to
be, not "how much" but "how little can do,
and that, too, as slightingy as possible"
am tired of being left by selfish hired girls,
who drop their dishcloth or duster some hot
summer morning and are of for ian easier