St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1894-02-08


bosses rule the cities According to
another doctrine the influx of coun-
try life is the strength and saliva
tion of the city and the rural home
is the controlling force in our coun-
try life. What comfort it would lay
to our souls If we could only believe
that the country home is a grea ter
power than the city boss in shaping
the real destinies of the nation. Be
this as it may, if any man will make
list of the hundred greatest Ameri-
cans, selecting them according to his
own judgment, and will study the
first thirty years of each lite, before
he reaches the end of the list he will
be thanking God iOr the country
home and for woman, its guardian
angel. If | were to present to you a
picture entirely to my liking 1t
would be a representation OF Yer
mont women of a generation ago. 1t
Is the tendency OF the age to make
all things yield to assihcation, so
in accordance with this age, instinct,
memory presents them III two
classes. First, housewives. OF
course she was a farmers wife. She
could take the wool from the back
OF the sheep, card, spin, color and
weave it, cut and make the gar
ments. In so far as the tailor makes
the man, the farmer was a walking
monument of his wife's industry and
skill. She could harness the horses,
milk the cows and accomplish that
most difficult of feats, teaching bo-
vine babyhoOd to drink milk from a
pail. When a thunder storm was
sweeping down from the fr-clad
peaks she could use the rake and
pitchfork. And such butter and
cheese as she could make! Such
pickles and preserves as she could
concoct! SUCH doughnuts and pump
kins pies as he could set before
hungry boy! We can say of them,
Though lost to sight, to memory DEAR
We cannot truthiully say of her,
"she was phantom of delight
When first she CLEANED upon my sight"
for she was altogether too real and
substantial u be phantom of any
kind. She was
"a creature not too bright or good
a strong toiler, she was no
stranger to womanly loves and
smiles and tears. That type of
has departed. Like the
mighty pines from the hills and the
trout brooks from the
she too has gone. The civil
lization which loudly calls for the
of
and the perfect development of the
has blotted out some of
the conditions of her existence. So
seldom is the Vermont housewife of
TODAY seen in pasture and farmyard
that the cattle tear her as they did
the black bear in the days of her
She now sends the
milk to the creamery in ugly cans
and keeps a hired girl. After all it
NAV be that this new and millennial
political economy is organizing So
ciety faster than it Is developing the
individual. The second class of Yer
mont women in the last generation
was composed of schoOlma ans.
They are mentioned as second class
only by the way OF numerical desig
nation. | use the word school
ma a N advisedly instead of calling
her school mistress, school teacher
or school dame. The person is as
unique among the tribes of humani-
ty as the word is in the vocabula-
ries of the lexicogr aphers. The
word is not found in many of the
The Century LET'S it in
labelled rural New England"
Well, anything that is rural New
is good enough for US to-
night. l may be permitted to say
that have been under the uninter-
rupted influence of the Vermont
schoolma al since | was FIVE years
old. She taught, inspired and chas-
tized me in childhood. Later l went
cOasting sleigh riding and skating
with her, escorted to her to picnics,
dona ton parties and singing schools,
and climbed some of the Green
with her. l had the honor
of being superintendent of schools
in two Vermont towns, visited every
school as often as the law allowed
and was paid by the state for those
attentions to schOolma ans. Nor is
that all; l had the good sense to
WOO Vermont schoolma am several
years and the good fortune to mar
nv her at last, and have been under
her genial sway for eighteen sum-
mers and eighteen winters, and in
such circumstances
December is pleasant May"
If any man is ready to render
just verdict upon the schoolma am
1 am, and pronounce her to be the
handsomest, brightest, wittiest,
sauciest, wisest, hrmest, provoking
est, kindest, purest, noblest gift ever
bestowed upon man. She is not ex-
tinct l am happy to say. Evolution
stands aghast when it encounters q
Vermont schoolma am. 1t may be
possible to evolve something better,
hut + he thing has NOT VET been done