The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1895-02-16
LIFE IN A SOD-HOUSE.
1t Is Not So Pleasant as That in a
Town Flat.
From the chicago Times.

The eve wanderS over immense grain
fields. perhaps large timber claim q
Young box elders and cottonwoods. Il gar
den. Il roomv stock ward and the sod ant
roof Of many sheds for poultry stock anC
machinery: but, except for wreath 0t
smoke or the chance reflection of window
pane. the dwelling would be overlooked
Ii Is often of the half f-du@out. half-sod.
house order of architecture. the back part
followed out of the side Of low hill. and
the front of the squares of sod merely
placed together and all upheld by slight
frame Of wood. with a door and one or tive
window castings, and perhaps a few rafter,
overhead 1t Is very small and low. and
serves the single purpose of shelter There
is possibility even of its failure in this. and
the trap door aslant at one side of the
house proclaims the cyclone cave-orlina
rily the receptacle for milk and butter
Life in one of these prairie dwellings i,
certainly getting close to nature and the
primitive; closer perhaps, than the Arab
tribes of the desert who. on the whole.
observe more laws, religious and secular.
and have less solitude aud social depriva-
ton To realize this one has only TO fancy
a man and wife in a sod house fifteen mile,
from the nearest village in one of the
sparsely settled districts of Western Ne.
braska For DAYS and in some season
for weeks. they see no human being out
side Of their own household Even beg
ging Indians and trampS are almost un.
known in this country. The prairie dog,
cast up their mounds and found towns in
the unmolested spots about the place
and field mice burTow through the sod
walls of the house not infrequently snakes
swing themselves down from the raiter,
inside, or crawl in At the door to get at any
milk pans standing about At night coy.
otes and some of the gray wolves come NJ
through the canyon and Skulk about the
poultry ward or howl close to the windows
Through the day. while the man is in the
fields the herding usually falls to the
woman lot Probably each takes a noor
ANAi'NAt'f ~ Z" l"liNA W N+ANT '''HiAtt- 'ti' >
to the house until night
The woman attends To her necessar,
household duties. throws 4 gunnv sack
over her brnncho back, jumps astride
rounds mp the cattle and drives them down
the canyons to craze on the steep sides o
in a low strip beside q creek Canyon,
ara not sociable place, One can scarcel,
have a conception Of the primeval unleS,
he has walked through 3 canyon III,
thinks of the dawn Of creation. Of tn,
races Of extinct mammothS and wonder,
If centaurs have not merely retired into the
inner cstverns What the sd house we
man thinks about all day long in solitud,
ike thar i, hard t. tell-the mortgage or
the farm. diseases among the stock. the
prospects Of the crops the time when the,
can put up their frame dwelling the hard
unadorued facts in the treadmill of her life
She makes new plans for the work, work
work which Is her -ole law Of existence
Perhaps she has memories Of another time
other surroundings but they must seen
vague and far away. Evea the weather
1, monotonou, there j. practically alway.
the eloudles- skv. the blilliant sun the
strong. dry wind. that curls the leaves Of
the Young corn and turns the bu Talo gras.
brown
Women. and men too become withered
and prematurely old Hair and skin tax,
on ths, general tint Of things about them
Their teeth drop out without a thought OF
replacing them And there come, Ger.
tain feycrish lock ia their eyes--a hook oi
intensified expectation a stralning into the
future They lose al Thought OF appear
ance II gets "a mean vanity rather than
self respect tu them Such a life must
have its inevitable mental and moral effect.
Al the sensitive. the aesthetic. sometimes
the moral sense itself, becomes atrophied,
The tragedies Of city are unearthed and
brought 10 light. but the silent tragedies
OF these de-olate lives are swallowed ul
and lost in the rcmotene~s and immenSity
&C the prairie wastes.
II Is a motley assortment of humanity
the opening up of country like this.
ENcowhoy who have come 10 admit the
claims of a single wife and family con.
6rmed pioneer, who move with the advance
of railrnads, people of refinement and re
verses Of fortune. many Russian and Ger
man immigrants. and sprinkling of all
the other nation, Of the earth. After the
hr>t rush sitting proeess sets in which
soon separates them into three classes
Those who stay through everything and
make the prosperity of the country the
non progressive. who never get beyond the
original >od house. and the shifting tran
sients who move At sign Of trouble and
come back in Il time Of prosperity
There j. however, no sitting social pro
cess during these first wears The sod
house levels all ranks. and at the rare in.
tcryals when any of the people are brought
together socially it i ON terms Of perfect
equality they simply take one another tor
granted. with no question of antecedents.
family history or social advantages They
are people who are starting life anew and
living on hopes of the future, with forget
tulnes> of the past and endurance> of the
present.
\ woman lot Is the harder; she misses
more things in such life than man does.
II she is strong enough mentally and
physically to endure it until they come into
better things. she lives out her allotted
time unpraiSed and unrewarded Of this
world. If she has mental bias toward
the morbid or melancholy, she Is in danger
of adding one to the list of the women in
the Hospital for the Insane at Lincoln.
The real pioneers, who survive every
thing. in the end have comfortable homes
and have created some advantages for
their children They have lived in the
sod house until the year Of a good crop
and few household necessities to be bought
and have had the small, bare frame cot
tage built The next season. if good for
tune continues "a porch and an L are
added. and in few years it is enlarged
and comfortably fitted up. 'Often the old
sod house is left standing near the new one
for some purpose, or sometimes as matter
of sentiment