The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1904-01-16
WHAT WOMEN MAY DO.

that seemed to loom up before me.
The subject was too broad for one
small paper to encompass. Women
are going up and down the land hunt
ing for easy places where they hope
to get big pay, and neglect the means
close at hand for earning their pin
money.
Thousands of girls are annually
leaving their mothers in the farm
homes to tussle with work that two or
three ought to share, while they y
are typewriting, bookkeeping and
standing with aching bricks behind
dry-goods and bargain counters, or
growing puny in factories and sweat
shops. This leaving of the healthful
farm home for pursuits in the crowd
ed cities sometimes works tolerably
we'll, but more times it does not.
There are more pinched and poverty
stricken people trying to keep up ap-
pearances in the cities than country
people dream of. The same High
Authority that issued the command,
Honor thy father and thy mother
that thy days may be long upon the
land," will not be likely to pour out
His blessings of health and long life on
those who needlessly desert parents
in want of their help at home.
Girls going away to pursue occu-
pations that require them to be always
sitting or always standing are dete-
riorating the race. Whichever horn
of this dilemma they may choose, it
will not prove beneficial to the future
wives and mothers. We may not cali
it race suicide" but it is worse; the
country can not be improved by large
families of feeble, sickly children; it
is to the strong and healthy that the
country must look for its future glory
if it has any. One good, healthy
child is worth a score of puny off
springs of enfeebled mothers. Those
girls who shun the necessary work of
the homes for private qualification
for money to spend in finer dress and
more frivolity than the farm affords
little know how it may turn to their
disadvantage later on. Almost any
girl, if she has ambition in her, can
find some way to earn something in
the home with her mother. Any
way, if she has not enough energy and
good sense in her make up to do this
she need not go out from home ex-
pecting to prosper at anything. Pros
perity, like every other good thing,
begins at home; its seat and centre is
in the person.
I have known many farmers wives
and daughters who have made money
in many different ways at home, and
what woman has done she may dc
again. I knew little woman who
raises every year somewhere from
three hundred to a thousand chick
ems. There is always demand for
poultry and eggs, and she can realize
a snug profit. 1t means work, to be
sure; it means constant watchfulness
and intelligent thought and knowl.
edge of the business, as every other
business does that pays. She can't
always dress in purple and fine linen,
but she is laying up snug little sums
that will count to her advantage by
and by.
I know another bright woman,
with two daughters in their teens,
who keeps summer boarders on a
scale, and these girls are being edu-
Gated out of the proceeds. Their
house and wagon house are full, and
dodgers are scattered around the
neighborhood, all to be fed at the
good farm table. Other women try
to get city boarders and fail, but they
swarm around this good woman like
flies around molasses barrel. Why
She is moderate in her prices. Her
husband grumbles because she doesn't
charge more, but she keeps him and
his high ideas in the background and
runs the boarding ranch herself. She
is wise woman, gentle and obliging,
and willing to ''live. and let live" "
She knows what many country board
ing house keepers do not know, that
city people will not pay fancy prices
on farms. If they must pay the
price of the seashore and mountain
resorts, they will go to the seashore
or mountain. She knows, too, that
all city people are not flush of money,
and must count the cost of all things
She caters to the middle classes, best
Of people, and gives them fresh, good
country fare, well cooked and plenty
of it, but not extravagant luxuries,
and they come to, her, more than she
can accommodate. She will grow
rich where others will not get on al
all, because she thinks and know:
what the requirements are of the peo
pie she serves. Her husband, hope
knows that his wife is a jewel, but
doubt it. 1t would be more natural
for him, being a man, to think she
was big goose not to take his ad
vice.
1t is not expected that eating will
ever go out Of fashion, and there i:
money in feeding the people. AL
the country stores deal out cakes