Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1891-06-05
HEALTH AMONG THE HOPS.
A Brooklyn Young woman's Chatty Story
of Her Health Trim.

Brooklyn Young Woman's Chatty Story
of Her Health Trip.
81 have just returned from the hop
fields. she said, and she looked as Though
all the good of the hops and none of their
injurious qualities had been absorbed
into her system. for her face was bright
and rosy, her step elastic and her man.
ner cheerful. She was not at all like the
fragile young lady of eight months ago,
whose friends in Brooklyn hardly ex-
pected to see her alive in November.
For a whole month";" she continued,
II have lived on farm near Coopers-
town, n. Y, and picked hops almost
from dawn to dusk every day except
Sundays. The farmer was glad to hire
me for my board and lodging. Four
other girls and two young men were en-
gagged on the same terms We were all
more or less acquainted with each other
in Brooklyn, so it was not exactly like
going alone among strangers.
..Of course it would have seemed
great deal more refined if we had paid
the farmer for the privilege Of picking
his hops, but, had we done so, the OBJ
iect for which we isolated ourselves
so far from home would not have
been achieved. He would never have
had the moral courage to make his
guests and patrons work against their
wills. AS matters were arranged, he
| left great deal to his wife, and, / can
tell you, she showed us very little con-
! sideration. She was determined to get
the full value of her milk and weak tea,
| and was not disposed to give us her fat
pork and beans without fair equiva-
| lent, or to allow us to eat the corn bread
of idleness. She called US every morn
ing at daybreak, and she was not to be
! denied We had to walk three-quarters
of mile to the hop fields, and it was
necessary, she said, for us to be astir
early.
eve did not mind this much on warm
mornings, but when the breath of frost
was on the atmosphere it was dreadful
thing to be told to get up from our not
too comfortable beds, and to know that
we had no alternative but to obey. How
ever, it was not SO bad when we were
once up, and when the sun got well up.
too, we grew quite cheerful, for the morn
ing air in the northern part of the state is
very bracing 1t was like bathing at Co
ney Island on chilly day. After the first
dip the agony is over. But washing I'm
the icy spring water was a terrible
ordeal Once l asked the farmers wife
to let me have little warm water in my
bedroom, but the proposition, which she
declined frigidly, so shocked her that
was afraid she would punish me by Civ
ing me no breakfast; but she only marked
her displeasure by combining me to three
slices OF corn bread, which was bad
enough, for my appetite at that time
had grown out of all ladylike proper
tons, and | usually consumed five slices.
Zone young man, whose hair and
mustache were of beautiful seal brown
color, said that he would allow his beard
TO grow rather than shave with cold wa
ter; but we were all amazed to see the
bristles on his cheeks and chin coming
out quite red. He was very much NOR
titled, and when the other young fellow
laughed at him, and lectured him about
the evils of forgetfulness, he packed VI
= his traps and went away two weeks be
fore the farmers hops had all been har
j. vested.
"Of course we had some rights tina
we always maintained. We insisted OF
not being separated from each other il
) the hop fields, and we ate our lunch to
gether among the vines. 1t was very
pleasant, for we could sing songs ant
talk and tell stories, which we SHOULD
not have cared to do if we had beer
J obliged to work side by side with thu
paid laborers, many of whom wer
u tramps, pure and simple.
ITO them the farmer used languag,
{ that seemed to me to be sometimes I'm
! necessarily emphatic. To us he spok
. more politely, but this was the only dis
tinction he made. He was as careful il
seeing that we turned in our full com
u plement of hops every evening as he wa
II to get the value of his money from tn
Al men and women to whom he paid thei
q wages at the end of each day.
e 1.-THE fare at meals was, Of course, ex
y ecrable, but hunger is good sauce, an
II we all ate heartily. Next season l shal
e. try TO make up party of delicate youn
ladies, and take them to the hop field
% in search of health. / shall lay in
l stock of biscuits and canned provision
= to assuage my hunger in my bedroom o
" among the vines, so that the farmer
Is wife will not have reason to regard m
y with strong reproaohful eye at meals
d as though she thought | worked harde
8 at the table than in the field."-NeN
+ York Sun.