The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-07-16
HER VERY TRYING LIFE.
WOMAN's Elk! STENCB ON A SMALL
FARM Is WORST OF ALL.

tine Dvt.es-And the Work is Kept
Up Every Day in the Year and There
Is No Rest as the Years Roll by-A
Sharp Contrast-Other Features Of
woman's Work-Her Fashions, Her
Ambitions, and Her FoIIies.
From the New York Sun.
It was just the kind Of a rambling, old,
red farm house. with painted gables OF
messy gray, overrun with riotous vines and
hidden in a tangle of lilacs and roses that a
painter wonld have chosen for his canvas,
a poet rhymed in his sonnet, a writer re-
joiced to describe in the opening chapters
Of his summer novel, and woman with
common sense would have seen was out of
repair, damp and unhealthy, inconvenient
and uncomfortable.
The green paper shades of the seldom
used parlor were rolled up and tied with
white tapes, the cream white curtains in
side with their crocheted trimmings looped
| back letting the unfamiliar sunshine into
the low room, with its odor Of damp, clean
sanctity common to country parlors.
| There was rag carpet on the floor, striped
| in gorgeous colors, a lounge in the corner
| with red calico covers and husk-1lled
cushion, a few freshly vanished cane>seat
chairs set stitfiy back against the wall, and
| some tintype fac-similes of relatives coffin
plates framed in dark wood, and a wreath
Of worsted flowers on the wall. Beside the
! orderly table where the family Bible
and photograph album had been life
| long companions a woman sat sew
ing on some of those fear
fully and wonderfully constructed
| trousers which the barefoot boy" of the
rural regions fsstens over his shoulders
with a single suspeGder made like the
..F - H. s.. i
! the vine leaves throw dancing
shadows over her fresh toilet Of luxurious
simplicity another woman sat. Her hair
| fell in becoming waves upon her forehead,
her hands were delicate and sparkling with
| jewels, bunch of fresh clover was nodding
upon her breast, and her face was bright
| with eager interest. The woman inside
wore faded calico dress, It's lily fitting
waist shrunken out Of shapeliness with
| much washing her hair combed tightly
away from her sallow face and twis ed into
a tight little knot at the back, her large
brown hands, coarse red with heavy work
drawing the thread through and through
the thick work with hurried, awkward
energy.
The woman with the clover in her belt
fresh from the rush aud strain of active
| city life, had wondered why the faces Of
| these farmers wives were so dull and spirit
less, why in their peaceful environment, In
| VI lGu buo putSo ObAL VI Iuo D1lROUy rush OF
modern life scarcely stirred the mononton-
GUS calm, where hurry and restlessness we're
| mercitully unknown, the country woman
| aged 80 much more rapidly than her city
sis ter; why her skin lost it's delicacy, her
| figure its suppleness, her bair its luster, and
why among tho women patients Of Insane
| asYlums the farmers wives constituted the
majority. She was finding out now. She
had heard this woman's voice In the barn.
| yard when the birds were singing their first
! drowsy dawn songs, calling out to the cows
she MIXED. She had seen her lifting the pals
| of foaming milk that look so pictureQue in
paintings. She had tried lifting one her.
self, and knew why the straight back was
! bent, the wrists large and bony. She had
heard her heavy steps walking the weary
| treadmill of the days duties through the
| long mornings. There we're washing and
| ironing, making and nendinR. The we'll,
with It's "old oAken bucket was far from
the kitchen sink. The cistern had been for
gotten in the construction of the house.
The vegetables were in the ground, the eggs
| in the loft, everything in most inconvenient
places There were the children to get off
to school with their well-flled dinner pals,
the mon in the lots to be provided with
hearty luncheons. Did you ever see
one Of these men NOW away bread
and huge. succulent doughnuts fried in lard,
beans and pie, thick country pie. with SOD
den crust and maple sugar seasOning2 This
one woman must keep all the domestic ma
| chinery going. When the cool shadows Of
the twilight fell she went again into the
stable, where the kline" Of the poets dream
waited TO be MIXED. There's no place this
side that prepAr ed for the wicked so hot as
one of the stables full OF these same ''kine,n
| which have little picturesqueneSs outside
the poets fancy. And when the milking
was done, and the "men folks" smoked out
side and chatted together, the woman
cleared away the supper things she had left
| to do the milking, put the children to bed,
made arrangements for the early morning
meal, and then went to sleep herself, too
| tired to crimp her hair say her prayers or
think how wretched she was.
| But do you always work so hard as
! this" queried the woman in the shadow of
the vines.
Pretty much of the time" answered the
other, in her loud, high-pitched voice. I'm
the spring there's the springs work, you
know, and have to milk more cows. cause
the men folks is busy nights and mornings; ;
there's the butter to make until the milk
goes to the factory, the house to clean, the
sugar to sugar off, the soap to make and
lots OF paIntin' and paperin' to he done
You know we farmer folks do everything
ourselves Money is too source to
pay it out for such work as white
washin' and paintiu' and paperin'
indoors. And then the haydn comes on. and
to do, and sometimes take the milk to the
factory, and the berries begin to git ripe off
in the otis. 1don't have any to put up for
the winter unless pick 'em myself It's all
we can do to buy the sugar And then
there's havesttn' and this threshers, and
after that the house to clean and things to
get fixed for the winter. And the children
do get so all out of clothes. You see we
don't never buy new, and things made out
of old wear out sooner can't get mu CHI
time to sew in summer, have so much to
do"
And in winter9" interrupted the softly
modulated voice.
'Well, in winter there's the quilts to
piece up and comfortables to tie, the carpet
rags to sort and sew. 1t is an awful Job to
make u carpet when folks wear their clothes
as close as we do. And then there's the
coloring of 'em to do, and the warp to get
ready and all and the knittin : 1 tell you
it's power o. wo-k to keep three boys and
two mon in socks and mittens. l haint got
girl. | lost my only girl. She'd helped
me, you know, And it's only a little while
any way before the cows come In again,
and have the utter to see to-"
but when do you read2"
80, don't read much of any 'cept Sun :
day afternoons sometimes when l get my
work done early. The men folks they read