News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-09-11
FARM LIFE IN THE WEST.
WHAT CITY BRED CHAP HAS TO SAY
ON THIS subject.
Work that Is Enough in Itself to Drive Men
and Women to Suicide or Insanity.
I'd. G.. CroIv in the Hour

I'D. q: Croly in the Hour.1
1t is stated in the last number of the
Hour that more farmers commit suicide
than any other class in society. Well,
we should think they would especially
the women among them. The ideal of
farming is beautiful. It is charming to
think of leading a calm and peaceful
life amid lovely green or golden fields,
surrounded by glowing, bleating herds.
The central part of the picture is the
attractive and neat farmhouse nesting
mid gardens and orchards teeming with
fruit of all kinds. The calm of evening
and sunset; the freshness of the dewy
morn also Lave place in a poetic view
of country life, as we'll as the more
prosaic sweet cream, fresh milk and
garden products of every variety. This
ideal, we suppose, is realized by few
gentlemen farmers" in the Eastern part
of this country who play at filling the
soil and living by it. But to the mass
of agriculturists life on the farm is alto
gether different thing. 1t means hard
work for poor living and almost entire
seclusion from social pleasures.
On the ordinary American farm in the
West, and too often in the Middle
States, life is something in this wise :
Everybody rises between four and five
in the morning. The men look after
the horses and cattle, feeding the COWS,
currying the horses and cleaning the
stables. Next comes breakfast, cooked
by the women, to which they all sit
down in their soiled clothes, smelling of
horses, COWS and cooking. The meal
itself is not apt to be well cooked, and
the food itself is generally poor, since
all the milk and fresh vegetables are
sold. Farmers consider it extravagant
to live well. As lex service, there is
none; everybody Sell.E himself. There
are no quitting on airs" The repast is
also hurried over so that the main work
of the day may be undertaken. For
men this means planting, cllltivatiDg, or
harvesting; or the doing of odd jobs
about the place, such as mending the
fences, the stables and pig-stys.
A heavyill cooked dinner is swallowed
in the middle of the day to which every
body sits down hot and perspiring. The
operation is that of feeding rather than
eating. Afterward, all through the dull
sleepy hours of the afternoon the weari-
some round of work goes on. At sun
down comes the care of the cattle
and horses, pigs and chickens again,
followed by supper of pie and various
other indigestible things. Every body,
tired with the days labor, goes to bed
soon after shutdown so as to be able to
get up early in the morning to under
take the same weary routine. Often no
| lights are lit in the farm-houses during
! the summer.
This is not pleasant life, even fol
men; but it has for them this redeem
ing feature that it is out-of-doors, and
has about it the charm which always
| comes from being in woods or fields, nc
matter how uninteresting the scenery
may be. But for the women farm-life
morning brings drudging duties in the
kitchen or the dairy and often in the
| barn-yard, where the COWS must be
MIXED, and the calves, the pigs, and
the chickens must be looked after. This
is all done in slovenly dress. There is
no chance for attention to appearances
under such circums stances, and, more
over, any care in dress is sure to cal
forth rude jests from the men around.
There then is the washing mot Of dainty
laces, mind YOU as we'll as ironing and
baking, house cleaning, scrubbing,
sweeping, and the putting up of fruits.
all these operations have to be per.
formed in the hardest way without the
conveniences common in city kitchens
even in poor mems houses. The making
of beds must not be forgotten, nor the
inevitable preparation of the three
meals.
There is, in addition to all this, an.
other strain on these forlorn farm wo-
men-the farmers wives and daughters.
1t is the necessity of having to make
their own clothes. They don't mind the
work, but they don't know how to do it.
The poor things, with the natural in
st1ncts of their sex, appreciate good
clothes; but their garments must be- all
home-made; and, worse than ali else,
must be hOme-fEted. These women
often have taste. but it is uneducated,
and so they have no way of showing it.
Did any one ever see so badly a dressed
woman as the average farmers wife or
daugh liter?
The men of the farm have some free
dom at times. Each young fellow has a
horse and buggy and goes to town or to
to the county fair; but the women go
about much less. They are little sought
for-the young men like town-bred girls
and their monotOnouS round of daily
duties kills their spirits and ruins their
figures. Did any one ever see q more
ifeless being than the average farmers
wife or daughter in the West? They
read little for they have no time. They
have had little schooling-three months
once a year. They never have any
money to spend. They are not sup,
posed to need it, and ready money on a
farm, even on a rich farm is hard to get.
The old farmer keeps an account at one
or two stores, which he settles in pro-
duce, and there all the trading of the
family is done. All the cash that can
be obtained goes to pay off the mort
gage or to buy more land or stock.
The fact is, that throughout this
broad land the work done by farmers
families is mental labor. 1t is servants
and day-laborers' work, in the general
acceptance of the words. It certainly
is not elevating. The farmers families,
the wife, the sons and the daughters.
know that it is not; they feel that it is
such labor as should be left to a lower
class of persons. Thus they learn to
hate their hard, mean lives. The boys
go to towns to be clerks; the daughters
sometimes go there too-and to the bad
as well. But generally the women settle
down to their unlovely lives with more
or less quiet bitterness. There is 10
way out of it. They stand it as best
they can, and daily see themselves grow
ing more narrow and little i'll their
minds, and more unlovely in their per-
sons.
Is it any wonder, therefore, that the
number of suicides is greatest in the
farming community