The Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1893-1901, 1893-04-08
A FRONTIER FARMERS WIFE.
Ger i.ur.iess Are siany. and Her Pleasures
Are isa,r-

Ger burdens Are ii&ny. and Her Pleasures
Are Few.
The woTaen who I've in cities can form
40 estimate Of the work done day after
lay by the farmers wife on the frontier.
There are no convenient ~laundries, baker
les or stores where she could buy the
ready made articles she Is compelled tc
make for herself. 1t is unceasing wor7,
with her from carly sunrise until long
after the hours have grown small at
night. She lights the fires for breakfast.
Nowhere is a man SO completely lord
and master as on the farm. His mother
was a farmers wife and lighted the fires;
his wife shall do the same. While the
kettle is boiling she does the milking,
and cases are not rare where a farmers
wife milks us many as s or 10 cows
twice a day. The milk is carried into
the cellar in great heavy pals that
would try a mans strength, and she re-
turns to the work of getting breakfast.
During the progress of the meal she can
not sit back and eat and rest, as many
do, but is kept jumping up and down
waiting on the men folks and children.
1t Is often a question to strangers who
visit on the frontier if she ever gets a
chance to eat at all. Then the children
are to be started off to school, and
though the credit of their education falls
to the father it is the mother who does
extra work that they may go. and who
pulls them ont of bed and starts them
off in time every morning.
The milk is to be strained and put
nu-ox- pVon1rg c,o1lal l,t+au n1,.-a1 |
and the dishes and chamber work still
wait. Dinner and supper and afternoon
work take up her day. Then in their
turns throughout the week there arc
washing, ironing. baking every other
day, s~crubbing, sweeping, sewing ard
mending. In harvest time she will have
as many as II to cook for and does it all
alone. 1t is seldom that a farmer feels
that he can afford to hire help in the
kitchen. She has the vegetable garden
to see to. To brighten the dreariness Of
her life she has close to the seldom opener
front door a bed of half starved LOOKING
fowers-old fashioned coxcomb, fou.
o'clocks, grass pinks and a few other
cheerful looking plants that will thrive
under neglect. She makes everything
that her family wears except hats and
shoes. She has no time to think of rest
or self.
1t is in most cases her lot to welcome a
new baby every other year, and the 0 "
time when help is employed to assist her
is for a period of two or three weeks
when the little stranger arrives. The
births of the babies are about all that
vary the monotony of her life. Occa-
sionally death calls and takes from her
arms a little life and leaves in its
place an added pain i'll her heart. Sheis
old and tired out at 30.
When her daughters reach the age at
they could assist her. the dreary
prospect Of a frontier life appalls them,
and they seek employment in town.
Nothing in her house is Of late improve
Her dashboard is of the kind her
mother used, and her churn in its heavy,
build shows that it belongs to the :
date. improvement stalks all over
he farm and leaves no trace in tie kitclr-
n. Her pleasures are few. The salts
that she is doing her best seems
. be all that rewards her. She is a hero I
ne IN a calico dress. wrinkled and stoop |
houldered-a woman with a burden
Who never complains. Late at night,
all the members of the family are
bed, n light will slime out across the
'rairie from the family living room. 1t
by this light the farmers wife is doing
er mending and sewing, and it will
hine out long after the occasional travel
hat way has stopped. and no one but
one who blows it out knows at what
our the patient burden hearers labors
ease.-Baltin,ore Herald.