The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-08-12

dition than if we were serfs, bound to
the soil.
A crop of her own, I count as need
No p Farmers wives are very much like
the wives of other people. They are pleas
ed with new scenes, new faces, they like
diversion with an occasional rest from
cares at home, and a change of water oc-
casionally. All work and no play makes
Jack a duh boy
In my Judgment this heavy monoto-
nous burden of farm life without diver
sions or amusements that are healthy in
tone, is one great cause of farm decay
in the south. We are told that 70 per
cent. of the women in insane asylums
come from the poor farms in the land.
Rich and well-to-do people always find
change of scene prescribed for such all
ments. The poor women on the farms
cannot be spared until they are hopeless
invalids. These farm women need change
more than any other class. but how can
she get it, with a baby at her breast and
no money to compass her desires. A
bright, winsome little woman came to
see me some weeks ago with her little
brood around her knees, among them
baby three months old. When she start
ed home she said: How 1 have enjoyed
this visit. / have not been anywhere since
Christmas" Just think of 1t! Confined
to one spot for seven or eight months at
a time! What man in the nation could
nave kept MS temper SWeGlt looked at
her with genuine admiration. She was
real heroine in life's battle.
But suppose she had been diseased,
afflicted, as so many women are, and had
TO stay in one spot for months together
with things at skies and sevens,' as they
generally are when the wife and mother
is unable to keep her thing straight; who
can tell how lonely the situation becomes
to high-strung. sensitive woman?
do you wonder that farms have been
generally deserted by those who have seen
better days? Men wouldn't submit to this
enforced loneliness. Most of them spend
Saturdays in town; then they can meet
and gossip when the road hands are called
out. nave seen a woman get in a
desperate mood, leave the baby, and start
to town to get some cloth or calico that
she was obliged to have; but l generally
find her racing home, like the furies were
after her, to meet a crying baby and the
house in a helter-skelter condition.
SHOULD she take her brood to church,
how the tony crowd would stare at a
whimpering baby, and how the silly crowd
would smoker!
"Ohl for the good old days, when people
went to church and could sing, as wen
as pray, and the little ones could sleep
on pallet. while the preacher went to
his seventh and eighthly in the SER
mon. Then the women got the
good of the meeting, and the
children were not banished, after the
Master has said "suffer little children to
come unto me-" AS l look backward
fifty years memory brings up the Old
country church, with the giant oaks, and
the cool spring. / remember / was sorry
when a younger scion took my place on
the church pallet, but I can discern the
odor of May apples and gingerbread in
these memories of the long ago. / fell heir
TO the quaint little pitcher that went TO
the spring at these gracious assemblages.
and l know cold water never tasted
sweeter in crystal or gold goblets for the
fashionable and tony.
"Come back TO genuine farm life gentle
men. Live In the country and raise it up
10 its former advantages In my advance
ing years ] crave to see one genuine meet
ing house of the old type, where mothers
can wear simple clothes, and the children
can go with their parents, and learn the
sweet old songs. like Hebron and Old Hun
dred. Have genuine county school houses,
and be country people in dead earnest.
Not a lot of parasites hanging on Ike
grim death, to town fashions and town
folles. You are out of your sphere In
these marts of trade and trickery. Honor
your calling by sticking. to II, through
evil as well as good, report and give these
farm women a chance 10 be somebody at
home, and my word for IL, the town
crowd will be glad to eat and sleep with
your folks where peace ana plenty abide
In your country home.
81 don't know where to stop on this line,
but N you ever expect to make your chill
dren love farm life and take pride in the
occupation, you must furnish recreation
and simple diversions TO your wife and
children, without trailing 70 town TO catch
on to ways and manners, that make che
young ones unhappy and rest
less with cnvlous thoughts and
unsatlshed longings 10 have more tollty
and mrth In their own homes. Need No. 3.
Is recreation. dignihed respect for farm
life, and honest emulation In the business
that Is our life's work as women connect
ed with the farm.
MY fourthly. lies about the public
school system-and n my ideas are crude
or out Of harmony with your Views, you
are al perfect liberty 20 tell me 20.
81 believe we should make each county
responsible for us public school system. /
am in favor OF homo-rule an the business
OF the state. and especially for the business
OF the county.
~ never saw the need or collecting taxes
from q county 10 send II 10 the office IN
Atlanta 20 boo counted ana distributed 90
the same county again. I believe each
county should be- responsible for the cducl-
ton OF lts children. / also believe that we
should keep the rental Of the state road.
the nquor tax. ETC., 90 Itself a. BE- diafri.