Daily Kennebec journal., 1896-01-24

III
SSsss:se9 E-~~>~aazz1esT4l3M It's ways, wher
eS-s-l 49, HfIA you are don,
Ns3a.z: ->ss-.,.ss expecting i t.
and believe thai
you have stopped thinking about it
The association of ideas, and "uncon
sclous cerebration," are responsible for
great deal which seems curious and singu
lar IN both events and mental phenom
eha 80 l do not think it strang,
mat one or two things should have hap
pehrd before tho next meeting of tn,
society which seemed to have a direc
hearing on the subject we had voted tt
discuss, |. e., country life and especiall,
the social side of it, as it appears. partic
ularly to womcnkind Several of the
members had come upon articles in cur
rent periodicals which had bearing or
the topic, and Others had bscn reminded
or things which they had read before
and Mrs. Hotella had had a letter from a
cousin of hers, of her own age, who
directly after her marriage, had gon,
from the town where she had beer
brought up, had been educated and haG
herself been teacher for some years, to Q
remote and. lonely farm, which she hac
not left since, save for the briefest OF
occasional visits. So that we were likely
to have some information at first hand
Mrs. PcpperSqueezer, as usual opened
the conversation. She said she didn
mean to jump at conclusions, but il
seemed to her that there were disadvan
tages in all circumstances People living
in towns, especially those in moderate
q t,i i,,t
to the position or resources of the averag,
farmer, if you could draw the line, as il
was always difficult to do, found Il good
deal that was hard and perplexing, and
even Giscouraging, in their lives A
thrifty farmer could command for him
self and his family a greater degree OF
comfort, independence security, and
actual leisure than the same resources and
effort would ensure in almost any Other
calling. II the lot of the wife sometimes
seemed to be more restricted, and actually
more toilsome and monotonous, as she
had often seen that it was, it was either
due to peculiar circumstances or surround
ings, or was, plainly, somebody fault.
And even then the odds We're not all
on one side; for the farmers wife ever
when she had her share Of pecuniary cares
to carry, had not the harassing and
frequently life long anxicties of her sisters
III the towns.
This was not exactly what we had ex
pccted to hear. though mono of US could
dispute it. But we all felt that there
was another side to that question, and We
waited for someone else to speak.
Mrs Amiahnlla said "a shp under
stood it, the work and care wcrs not tn,
peculiar hardship Of which the women on
farms complained. 1t was rather tht
their lives. As the potter said turning
his wheel,
"Oh no. it isn't the foot that goes.
But the foot that stands. gets tired!'
Della Simpsilly said that she stayed
two months with her aunt in Ashboro ont
winter, and she didn't think she could
have stayed Il day longer. She had a real
good time, too, with her aunt and the
girls, and her hoy cousins; and there wert
some Other young people who came oven
two or three times in the evening But
they all went to the schoolhouse to meet
ing twice, and she went to the store al
was all they went out except onca OF
twice coasting And her cousins said after
ward there had becn Il good deal going
on that winter on account of their hay
ing visitor
Mrs Hotella had taken out her letter
by this time. That was Just what hei
consin complained of, she said, She had
written some what freely, and contrary tc
her usual custom. And it seemed a little
singular, because it was something She
seldom talked about, and because she had
lived in the same place for many years,
But she said, Mrs. Hotella told US, that
the longer she lived in that way, the more
she felt It's unnaturalness; and the more
she felt the need of some association with
other people. The sort of life she used
to live seemed now like a dream, or as il
some other person than she had lived it.
There were some times when the loneli-
ness became positively oppressive, and the
longing for the society of other women
like an actual hunger. There were Sun
days when she dreaded to open her Bible
or hymn book, she missed so the living
voice of preacher or reader, and the words
became, sometimes, so meaningless with
out them.
Someone asked if they couldn't have a
neighborhood meeting. and if this woman
herself couldn't sometimes get people to-
gether. Hardly, answered Betscy,
with the nearest neighbor mile and a
half away, and two miles more before you
got to another house, with the snow half
way to the caves, or the mud IA foot
deep" Someone remembered that Ed
ward Everett Hale thought that good
roads, or even in some places plank side
walk, would solve the social problem for
country folk. Maybe it would" said
Mrs Hotella, when they have had them
long enough. " Someone else thought
that If farmers were as anxious to get
their Christianity at first hand and from
the best authority, as they were to get
their politics from acknowledged party
leaders, in campaign times, or their news
from live daily or weekly. the problem
OF the country Eeighborhood would be
almost solved.
And someone rejoined that if farmers
wives and daughters cared as much to
know the best that was being said aud
I