Connecticut western news., 1883-02-14
A FARMERS WIFE.
The Mysteries and NIiseries of her Lot in
 fife=Her Fears and her Anxieties.

J
 is not thorough education the best
 worldly inheritance parents can give
 their children If so, how is the farmer
 to obtain 1t? He works harder, sleeps
 less, lives plainet, and has fewer luxuries
 than the dwellers in cities or villages.
 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 autui1n is there anything like leisure for the farmer or any membef of his family The few weeks which then can be devoted to study are insufficient
 to complete even thorough English education, provided he has school ad-
 vantages, blessing he does not always enjoy. Time, money and opportunity for study are his chief lacks.
 know you will speak of his independ- ence. I grant that, although the Indian and savage 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 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 labors. feel that there is something wrong somewhere, though what it is I cannot see; but 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 I cannot see where we have been at
 fault. I am forty-fve and gray haired.
 I have striven for years with all my
 nerve and strength, and so has my good
 husband We have practiced economy,
 self-denial, and frugality, along with our
 hard labor, to 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. I can bear or dinary privations, if not with cheerful, at least with patient submission; but when see no hope of anything but the merest rudiments of an education for the bright, bonnie bairns the Lord has given
 me, without sacrificing the home itself,
 I feel that it is too cruel a Providence, ii it be not mans injustice. The farmer is not properly paid or there would not be thousands of mothers similarly situated In vacation, before I left school, and . before and since my marriage, I have , taught in rural districts, both in Iowa Illinois and Missouri, where the soil if
 richer and the farmers more prosperous
 than here. I've seen many farmers
 children with exceptionally brigh 0 minds, and others of natures best gifts I But in few years ignorance and toi v have laid their stamp upon them. Th' 4 girls marry farmers, and very fev f years changes their blooming youth to haggard old age. Where is there s' overworked drudge, with so few recre
 wife?
 would like to go into few details t.
 explain my meaning, but fear I've al
 ready wearied you. Let me just add ' that the prices the farmer receives fo all products, such as grain, butter, fowls !, and fruit, do not pay for the time an' T labor expended in their immediate pro u duction, except for very short periods il times of great scarcity, when the bene fit is only to the few, and not to the far g mer at large. For instance, butter il s the season of it's abundance always drop to so low price as to hardly pay for tn labor of milking, churning and mark e ing. For the capital expended in COW '1 and the land devoted to their mainte y nance the farmer is paid nothing. Le '- any farmer tell you the number of day a he has worked on any one crop, and tn 5 actual cost of the food his team consume IS during that time, with the cost of see 1T and other expenses, and the prices fe o which that crop would sell, or what it o actually worth to his family at marke n prices, and he will not be paid over fro1 le twenty-five to fifty cents per day and hi > board.
 y So it is in everything. For his capit' 5, employed he is never paid. Oh, l hay 'o read the long and labored articles tryin KS to prove that his home and his firewoot
 and improvement of property in value
 pay for the amount he has invested.
 will not pay for the stock and farmin
 utensils. let alone the interest on tE @. price of the land, the chief capital. Th "' negative argument of improvement ( le his property in value is of no actual bel 'o eft to him, unless he desires to sell oi his old age, after the larger part of h 10 time has been spent in striving for tf NO comforts and conveniences of hom D. and begin again without them.
 'n I have not mentioned the absence E. all social and religious as we'll as educ Ao tional advantages. This necessarily aris '' from his isolation, but is nevertheless n .t .o the least of the deprivations of his har
 hard lot. There must be injustice som ~ ~ where, when the prosperity and veal ~ of this vast country is founded upon pu toll, and of all who enjoy it's fruits A has the hardest lot and the least of
 real benefits.