News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-03-01
A FARMERS WIFE.
The Mysteries and lIiseries Of her Lot III
Life-Her Fears and her AnNieties'

I,ife-Her Fears and her AnNletleS'
A farmers wife writes to city paper
detailing few of the miseries OF ker
lot. in which she says: Let me ask you,
is not thorough education the best
worldly inheritance parents can give
their children? If so, how Is the farmer
to obtain it? He works harder, sleeps
less, lives palmer, and has fewer luXurles
than the dwellprs in cities or villages.
He cannot "have his cake and eat 1t,
too;" and if his luxuries are not all
saved to sell, he has nothing with which
to buy his plain clothing, tools, and
few groceries. 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 insufficient
to complete even a thorough English
education, provided he has school adj
vantages, a blessing he does not always
enjoy. Time, money and opportunity
for study are his chief lacks.
know you will speak of his independ-
ence. | grant that, although the Indian
and savage have a similar independence
for that matter. [ also know that he has
few cOmpensations. [ have enjoyed
them for many years. But, to say that
they i'll any way repay him for the lack
of nearly all life's luxuries, graces and
refnements, is to say, in my estimation,
that the moon is more efficient and use
full than the sun. Colossal fortunes are
built upon his labors by the dealers and
spectators in the fruit of his toll, while
he enjoys too little of the results OF those
Iabors. [ feel that there Is something
wrong somewhere, though what 1t is L
cannot see; but 1 have faith enough in
your wisdom to think you could tell me,
if you would look at it in the right light.
Is it the middleman, or the purchaser,
or the speculator? Or has political
economy anything to do with it?
am not thinking lightly on this topic,
nor solely for myself; yet in my own
case [ cannot see where we have been at
fault. I am fOrty-tive and gray haired.
[ have striven for years with all my
nerve and strength, and SO has my good
husband. We have practiced economy,
self-deniaI and frugaity, 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 or
dinary privations, if not with cheerful,
at least with patient submission; but
when I see no hone of anything but the
merest rudiments OF an education tor the
bright, bonnie BARNS the Lord has given
me. without sacrificing the home itself,
l feel that it is too cruel Providence, if
If he not mans injustice. The farmer Is
not properly paid or there would not be
thousands of mothers similarly situated
In vacation, before l left school, and
before and since my marriage, l have
taught in rural districts, both III Iowa,
Illinois and Missouri, where the soil Is
than here. I've seen many farmers
children with exceptionally bright
minds, and others of natures best gifts.
But in a few years ignorance and toll
have laid their stamp upon them. The
girls marry farmers, and a very few
years changes their blooming youth to n
haggard old age. Where is there so
richer and the farmers more prosperous
overworked drudge, with SO few recre-
atoms and so little rest, as the farmers
wife?
I would like to go into few details to
explain my meaning, but fear I've al
ready wearied you. Let me just add
that the prices the farmer receives for
all products, such as grain, butter, fowls,
and fruit, do not pay for the time and
labor expended in their Immediate pro-
duction, except for very short periods III
times of great scarcity, when the bene-
fit is only to the few, and not to the far
mer at large. For instance, butter In
the season of its abundance always drops
to so low price as to hardly pay for the
labor of milking, churning and market
ing. For the capital expended III COWS
and the land devoted to their mainte-
nance 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 team consumes
during that time, with the cost of seed
and other expenses, and the prices for
which that crop would sell, or what it is
actually 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 it is in everything. For his capital
employed he is never paid. Oh, L have
read the long and labored articles trying
to prove that his home and his tirewood,
and Improvement 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 on the
price of the land, the chief capital. The
negative argument of improvement of
his property in value is of no actual ben
eft to him, unless he desires to sell Ill
his old age, after the larger part of his
time has been spent in striving for the
comforts and cOnveniences of n home,
and begin again without them.
[ have not mentioned the absence of
all social and religious as well as educa-
tional advantages. This necessarily arises
from his isolation, but is nevertheless not
the least of the deprivations of his hard,
hard lot. There must be injustice some
where, 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 Opportun-
itv. time nor money for mental culture,
it is not surprising that they are ignorant
even of their own pitiable condition. If
there is any balm III Gilead, L wish you
would show it to me.
ONLY A HoAx.-About three years
ago Chicago newspaper printed one
morning, under flaming headlines, long
and detailed account Of the burning of
the NewhaI House, milwaukee, the