Decorah-posten., 1896-09-25


She welded ak and saw, shovel and
pick and helped build their modest dwell
ling; she felled trees. helped break,
sowcd, harvested, bound, shocked and
threshed. moved, raked, pitched and
stacked, in fact there was no work, how
ever irksome, that she did not do her
equal share, and in addition attended to
her household duties. Truly she de-
served the name of better half"
And yet this arduous life seems to have
agreed with her. Her granddaughter
does not enjoy the robust health that she
did. / question that the early m
could tell a doctor should they see one.
You never heard a pioneer woman SUI
fering from ne~urosthenia, or any other
complaint with a long, unpronouncable
Greek name. 1t is no expected that she
should, for at hat time doctors had not
invented those ailments. They had yet
to discover what unlimited opportunities
nerves offered. The early woman con
fined herself to the toothache, with an
occasional headache, and TO each was
applied practically the same remedy.
But there were bright sides to pioneer
life. If more Of woman's time was de-
manded out doors, SO were her household
duties less exacting. A house I2xI4 was
a mansion. She had fewer hardwood
floors to polish, and was not so particu-
lar about the plate glass windows. Her
time was not so heavily taxed in taking
| care of the furniture. 1t was not so cas-
lily scratched. The large, square emf
grant chest, besides holding the family
wardrobe, was an excellent extension
table. Logs sawed to the proper length,
though somewhat bulky perhaps, yet
they answered the purpose of reason
ably substantial chairs, and our grand
mothers say those were easier seats than
a 10Th century swing rocker. Nor did
she have to prepare an elaborate banquet
three times a day, and have all her
dishes up to the standard of excellence
of those ''mother used to make" The
head Of the family was better satisfied
with one course, if there was plenty of
il, than he would have been with five or
six. 1t was not expected that she should
be expert in preparing all the varieties
of soup from mulligatawney to brau; all
the salads and all vegetables grown any
where in the world, half a dozen more
kinds of bread, besides the cakes, pies,
and other deserts. No, if she set before
her lord ''latbrod" and "mylsa" and
"prim" and 'bresta" and ''gammel ost. "
he thought himself dining on fare fit for
a king.
The early housewife, too, had more in
dependence. She did not have TO throw
open her house to everybody's servant
The telephone inspector and meter
reader were not regular callers. The
prying plumber did not prowl around in
her pantry and cellar. Tallow dips
furnished light and she slept peacefully
in spite of the Standard Oil company.
If the coal dealers combined to keep the
price of coal bobbing up and down with
the thermometer in their back yards, she
| looked on as income rned as though she
! lived but two miles this side the equator.
When the chilling blasts of October
necessitated a fire, she need not wait I'M
til she had sent her boy fifteen times, her
husband ten and had called in person
five times at the hardware store to send
a man out to clean the furnace. She
had but to bring in a log or two and in
five minutes have a roaring grate-fire
suggestive of solid comfort. Assume
her name is Nelson; she buys a pound
of sugar at the grocery, and brings it
home with her; she need not worry lest
the sleepy delivery boy should imagine
that a delivery to any one of the many
Nelson's would answer just as well, and
act accordingly. And last of all; she
must not rack her brains the whole year
%concocting wiles, arts and persuasions
whereby to keep her husband home on
next housekeeping day SO he could help
beat the parlor carpet. Robinson Cru
soc, on his lonely island, was not more
independent than the pioneer house
keeper.
The early woman was the f%orerunner
of the present. They have much in COM
mon. If Buck" and Brett SHE'D at
a black stump, she was prone to scream
and ready to help drive. Although an
expert carpenter. IN some respects. she
never learned to WELD a hammer: when
she attempted to drive a nail, it was a
matter of grave conjecture what she was
really driving at. 1t is not OF record that
by throwing a stone, she ever frightened
a single crow out of a cornfeld, though
it is known that to protect home and
children she often slew the wild bear or
hungry wolf, yet it has never been claim
ed that she ever stood up in mortal com
bat against an innocent and %unoffending
little mouse.
But we love the pioneer. She may
have been deficient in ball room etiquette,
may not have been fitted to shine as a
bright star in the social armament, but
she was a true just the same.
Man may be a man, and woman a mi
though she does dine on 'homely fare"
and wear ''hodden gray" Her heart
was in the right place. She was moved
by the same emotions and stirred by the
same ambitions as her granddaughter is
TODAY, Pioneer woman. we take opr