The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1883-07-19
Farmers, Girls

FARMERS LirlS
We have long said that the best
wives in the world are farmers
girls. We believe it is true. Not
but many mechanics and mer-
chants and bankers girls make
good wives and excellent women.
But the rule is that farmers girls
are healthier, fresher, fairer, more
useful and sensible than any other
class of young women. What is a
girl good for that has no health, no
vigor of body, whose waist is like a
wasps, whose lungs are cramped
into half their proper size, whose
spine is crooked and diseased,
whose nerves are as weak as an old
mans, whose physical organization
is so weak and unstrung that every
wind gives her a cold, every change
in the weather a neuralgia attack,
every accident a hysteric. fit, and
every spider that sets foot in her
pathway a frantic terror?
What is girl good for if she
has no useful information, whose
hands can serve no useful turn, can
neither make bread nor butter, nor
clothes, nor wash nor nurse, nor
mend? Wives live TO some purpose,
or ought to. Theirs is & great
mission. They have field to oc-
cupy. They have noble service to
humanity to do. They have to
preside over the interests of the
the thousands of homes that dot
our country. The dress, the com
fort, the taste, the health, the hap
piness, the intelligence, the virtue
of our homes, are not a little in
their keeping. All the interest
that clusters around the Preside are
confded to them, Not the politi-
clans at Washington, not the pro
fessors in our colleges, not our men
of commerce in our seaports, not
the merchants in our shops, not the
men Of cur professions, not even the
misisters of the gospel have com
United 20 them q gr6nder, holiei
charge, or have in their keeping IN,
terests Of greater Importance than
the wives of oul country. Our
civilization, our intelligence, our
progress in ali that is great and
good, depend as much upon our
wives as upon any class Of the com
Inunity.
They should, then, be healthy,
strong and useful. They should
know how to do something that
will be of service to their families.
To cook, to wash, to make, to mend,
to pickle. to preserve, to cure, to
nurse, to instruct, to please, to
bless, to entertain, to serve, to en-
courage, to knit-are some of
the offices devolving upon a wife.
If she knows not all of these things,
She must fail in some Of her duties.
If she cannot put her hand to some
of these services, she cannot fulfil
her mission. To do these things
she must be well stocked with com
mon sense and useful information.
To embroider, to finger a musical
instrument, to paint, to read French,
and nurse fower-pots and lap-dogs
is a small part of a wife's mission.
To go into Mysteries over the last
novel, to weep over a newspaper
doggerel, TO study the fashion
plate, to feast on the Lady's Book
as though it were solid food, to
shuttle over love-stories and be de-
lighted with cox-comb literature
are accomplishments of very ques-
tionable character in a wife. Half
a grain of common sense sprinkled
into a few hours of useful occupa-
ton is worth more than all of them.
Because farmers daughters are
freer from these fooleries, are
sounder in health, are trained to
more useful employments, is the
reason who, as a general rule, they
make better wives, Ali true &C
compGshments are to be priced;
but the first and best and ever-to-
accomplishment is to
be useful. This always makes one
agreeable, always makes one hon
ored. When usefulness is joined
with intelligence, virtue and grace
full manners, it consummates the
character of good wife.-City and
Country.