Weekly Arizona journal-miner., 1906-11-28
Paper Read Yesterday at the Arizona
 Federation of Women's Clubs. Con- cerns Prescotts Pioneer Woman. And Was Written By Arizona Foremost Litterateur. Sharlot M. Hall. of Dewey


 from friends and relatives; the jolt. ing, noisy wagons; the exposure to all weather; the scant means for comfort or cleanliness; the scant help in time of sickness--it was no romance but stern reality to the brave women who lived 1t day by day.
 Arrived at their destination, there was little improvcment--those cabin homes that fit go we'll into stories were less inviting when seen at closer range. Often all the life of the family went on in one room, and there was as little privncy aud not mu,h more comfort than in m Indian tepee.
 Merely to find sufficient food and 1 prepare it for ur was no small thing in , land -o lately wilderness and SO far rom any source of supplies. Every ar. 1 icle used in the new community had Q be brought from the eoas. towns of California, or in wagons from St. Losis or Kansas City. Most of the food came from California, and at first was packed over tho mountains from Wickenbarg on mules. When Mrs. Ehle came to Prescott flour was &44.00 . sack m greenbaeks and bacon was 70 cents pound in gold dust. Flour was so scarce that often the supply had to be divided and n few pounds given to each family. In one little settlement where bread had not been tasted for weeks, a sack of four was brought in so full of we~vils that it could not be used, until one woman there bent mesquite switch into hoop, sewed her only veil across it and sifted out the worms.
 The pionec. housewife had no baker or brewer 10 depend upon for her yeast -she brought it with her by frequent renewals cn the road, or learned to fer. men, flour and water and bake the ' sour dough" bread tbnt was the staff or life on ibe old trails. She could take n loaf in an iron pot in n bed of coals if N siove or Dutch oven was lack sng, or falling the pot, could cook thin biscuits in the frying pan.
 Necessity mothered many m ingeni. -ous invention; the mutual need bred n spirit of mutual helpfslness, and these women. who by their csn labor brought .omfort ont of the bar,st and toughest surroundings, also kept alive the 80. .ial instincts, the dssire for culture and improvement, for education and all that s best in civilization. ,l When tke days wGk was done they planned ss,ial gatherings for the even. ing; if the floor was lacking a wagon cover stretched tightly on the ground made as gs'od dancing place; lanterns hung in the pine trees to give light and someone stood guard with rife m ease prewiing Indians were attrac. rsd by the party.
 In Iittle old note beck ther. is this r~aord of the cost of n banquet given in Prescott in 1886:
 Seven pounds of butter nsad in the cakes co~t saI0.
 Six and one half dozen eggs, sl2.5O.
 Eight pounds of four cost $2.00.
 Eight poussis of common brown sugar, tLs0.
 Three ounces of spices, $500.
 Four pounds of lard, s2.s0
 cuhe sugar for the table cost s,.oo.
 Three cans of jelly cost st5o. and all else was in proportion.
 Mrs Eble brought the first chickens to Prescott. and when the little blael spanish hens begun to lay, it was al most a- much an event as the finding of gold nugget. She also brought the first eat and later miner gave an ounce of gold dust for a kitten. Mir Ehle brought The first honey bees, three stands, which had cost s50 n stand. Brave as they were in danger, pat tent under hardship. ready to make the most of rough surroundings hnd insuf. ticient means, it was m time of trouble. in sickness and death, that the nobility of the frontier women stands out most strongly Remote from medical help or from medicines, many woman trained herself to be both nurse and physician, and with simple herbs and homely remedies met as best sh. could the course of disease and accident.
 No one ever heard of frontier wo- man failing to go miles If need be, to help another woman in sickness; only a woman who has lived through it can know what sickness on inc lonely