The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1893-03-24
A FRONTIER FARMERS WIFE.
Her y2,,rdens Are Many, and Her Pleasures
Are Few.

M estil late of the work done day after
day by iht 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 work
with her from early 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 lot rare where a farmers
wife milks as many as 8 or 10 cow
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 out Of bed and starts them
off in time every morning.
The milk is to be strained and put
away, crooks scalded, butter churned,
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 are
washing, ironing, baking every other
day, scrubbing, sweeping, sewing and
nending. In harvest time she will have
as many as IA to cook for and does it all
alone. 1t is seldom that a farmer feels
that he al 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 opened
front door a bed of half starved looking
fowers-old fashioned coxcomb, four
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.
It is in most cases her lot to welcome a
new baby every other year, and the only
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
tired arms a little life and leaves in its
place an added pain in her heart. Sheis
old and tired out at 80.
When her daughters reach the age at
which 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
ment. Her washboard is Of the kind her
mother used, and her churn in its heavy,
clumsy build shows that it belongs to the
same date. Improvement stalks all over
the farm and leaves no trace in the kitch-
IN. Her pleasures are few. The salts
faction that she is doing her best seems
to be all that rewards her. She is a hero
inc in a calico dress, wrinkled and stoop
shouldered-a woman with a burden
who never complains. Late at night,
when all the members Of the family are
in bed, a light will shine out across the
prairie from the family living room. It
is by this light the farmers wife is doing
her mending and sewing, and it will
shine out long after the occasional travel
that way has stopped, and no one but
the one who blows it out knows at what
hour the patient burden bearers labors
cease.-Baltimore Herald.