Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1899-03-02
Paper Read Before the Farmers lnsti-
tute, by Mrs. Marcus Wright.
"a Model Farm Home ~

I Myself
minds farm life is associated with squalor, ignor-
| ance, detilement; something degrading My
| friend, if honest labor is defilement, then we
plead guilty; but when you presume our parlor
and pig sty one and the same apartment we
grow indignant. That cleanliness is next to
Godliness' is believed and practiced in country
homes, the same as III city, and in the home /
would present to-day neither filth nor ignorance
hold sway.
Home" Webster tells us, "is ones own house"
farm home suggests many things additional-a
place to be supremely happy or utterly miser-
able; a model farm home? My fair critic. go
back with me to the beginning And the Lord
God planted a garden and there He put the man
whom He had formed And God said it is not
good for man to be alone, | will make him an
helDmeet." And their bridal present was no
brown stone front in the city, nor cottage in
town; but garden, the annex of a farm home.
And 1t was not to be a home OF ldleness as some
teach. but labor was given him by the command
to dress 1t and keep II. Adam represents the
first husbandman farmer. Would ye dare
belitte what the Divine hand has placed II is
seal of approval on But man fell from his
high estate. A mortgage placed on that
pastoral home No sir; we are not here to discuss
whether Mr.. or Mrs. Adam placed the mortgage,
we might disagree; but it was thereJ and that it
was toreclosed has been demonstrated from
Adam down.
Man the bread winner, woman the home
keeper and if she lost you Eden she alone can
restore it. Home is where the heart is, you will
admit, also that the home is sometimes where
the heart is not. We fear this is too often the
on the farm. Many women have drifted
into country homes who found too late that there
tasteful in their surroundings. Such have
representation in our subject for surely no pride
nor interest can be aroused where there is no
pleasure.
There can be no success in any walk of life
where the wife pulls one way and the husband
the opposite, is a homely but true adage. There
fore the first requisite in a farm home is to be in
touch with your work; interested in every de-
partment, from ploughing and sowing to reapng
and harvesting; from baking, brewing, canning,
down to pig feeding or podltry raising, before
you can hope to build that model home.
Is the housewife expected to do the out door as
well as the indoor planning, is asked. decidedly,
no! But every woman should be educated to the
station she is called on to fill.
Would you think it strange or unseemly to see
the merchants wife behind his counter offering
their wares at his place of business, or filling a
bookkeeper's place in his office. Again a drug
gist wife who can go into his store and compound
syrups and tonics and not do murder, you would
laud to the skies. Then why not the farm wife,
should circumstances make it necessary, be able
to conduct or direct the affairs at the farm. Is
there anything improper in her directing or say
ing to the man of all work, husband was called
away last night, but you go on and finish the
poughlng in the south meadow and fit it for
corn; here it is the middle of May and the corn
must be planted at once" Ah thrice blest is
the farm wife, when the wall OF widowhood is
forced from breaking heart, who can gather
her orphan babes to her bosom and feel their
sustenance does not depend on rental, this
working on share system on that farm but can
take up the broken threads where John laid
them down and reap the harvest, she feels there
dishonor in her conducting. Such "A
woman we would place at the head of our model
farm home to-day.
1t is woman and only woman; woman all
by herself, if she likes, and without any man to
help her, who can turn house into home 1t
is the natural condition of things that all women
should be housekeepers, and yet we are all ac-
quanted with families where the work is never
done. On the other hand, we can recall house
holds where there never seems any work to do.
The secret in the latter homeis system. certain
work for each day as near as possible, and certain
hours are frequently necessary, for instance
would you leave till midday churning to grow
rancid under the heat of July day, and then
expect to harvest the sweet, golden hued butter
that the early mornings work would have
brought you; and many a loaf of sour, soggy
bread owes its existance to neglect of proper at
tention in due time. My sister, did you never
hear that the sure way to a husbands affections
is his stomach? pray you never bar the way by
unpaatabi ie bread or pastries. Picked M dinners
are an abcmination in any home. rule The
master of the house loves to feel that nothing is
too good for his table, even if company is not
expected. And the unbldden guest will never
feel untimely If the house wife always insists
that proper attention be paid to the linen and
setting of her table, fully important, we
think, as the menu thereon.
Let us remember this is a country of small
farms, IN which men cultivate with their own
hands their acres, drawing not only their sus.
tenance Out also spirit OF independence and
manly freedom, and the success of the farmer
is owing largely to the cabahIities of the wife.
Though not accomplished, she should be thrifty
and have learned how to wisely spend the money
committed TO her charge. To do this she should
be able to Systematically direct the affairs Of a
think no house IS worthy the healthy, CHEEKY
vigor ofthe wife and mother, room ever so
beautiful as the smile on a wiie's face.
1t is the overworked, nervous. lretful wife that
has made the club and corner grocery formidable
rivals in her home. the good man has learned
to smoke q pipe and most of them have pray
let him smoke ii i'll peace at his own hresde, even
though you fear for the little ones growing up
around you, the example of the father in this.
More to be feared is that son John may also find
home prison house and follow in the footsteps
of the father. Never shut up the best room in
the house, but when the evenings grow too chilly
for the veranda gather in the parlor and while
husband reads his farm journals and scans the
markets In the daily papers, do not, by repeated
cautions as to the dlsarrangement of book or
bric-a-brac, make the family feel they are
simply guests in their own home. All this over
care is bad Where may man hope to lay
aside his cares and put his weary feet up for
rest if not in his own home? Use the home.
AS it was said of the Sabbath so would say of
the home, "the home was made for man; not
man for the home"
Farm life they tell us, is so lonely, there are
no amusements, nothing exciting or ennobng
about it. Perhaps not, but nevertheless our great
men, have been born and reared in the country.
Washington, Jefferson, Webster, Lincoln, Greely,
Holmes, and the martyr Gariield-let us give
more than passing thought to that little back
woods home. When the husband and father
went to rest and left the wife with four babes
did she scatter the children and break up the
home? No, she stuck to the farm, against the
advice of friends, and by her own pluck and in
dustry, combined with intelligence and belief
in the promise 1.-The widow and the fatherless
to the Nation one of its abest statesmen.
There will be no mistake on the question of
expansion so long mothers Garfield" rear the
sons that uphold the helm of state-they are the
products of model farm home.
The upholstering has less to do than refine
ment in building up the home. Mothers, careful
department of SELF if you would have husband
and children ape good behavior also. Remember
that it has been said linen make laws, women
make manners" With good, wholesome read
ing, such every farm wife should insist on as
the most important furnishing, music and games
for the evening, social purity predominating in
your selection of guests, no farmers daughter
will ever go hero mad or hero kissing, even
though the man had sunk whole nGvies.
The marriage tie makes the twain one. Farm
life should be like partnership, in which the
wife shares with the husband the duties, cares
and economics. No wife should ask luxuries or
expenditures beyong her husbands income. 1t
is much easier to incur debt than to pay the
interest thereon. No debt, no mortgages for
model home. The good wife prefers her modest
calico to the merchants silk. Her rule is pay as
you go, and if marketing is delayed by the sloth-
fulness of biddy in filling the egg basket, she
never troubles the butcher to open his ledger for
surloin or roast, but turns to the much abused
pork and beans which city cousin always
associates with Johnny-cake and farm life. My
atntp viii L.;,,