Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-08-11

| THE COUNTRY GIRL FINDS LARGE SHARE
OF HER CAREER IN HER OWN home.
! girl. The first thought of the country
girl when she finds herself in the city
| is how dirty or "how awfuIly crowd
ed" But Notwithstanding the dirt and
| the crowds she often remains. She
stays because she is ambitious to have
career" There is a true hearted
farmer boy back home probably who
would be glad to take her into part
nership. But in the past the girl has
seldom been taught to look forward
with pride TO becoming farmers wife
or to regard a life on the farm as be-
ing a career worthy of her ambition.
This is the natural outcome of the
conditions for the quarter of a cen
fury when farmers were selling their
produce below cost. The lot of the
farmers wife was one of almost I'M
relendng Toll, as was that of the
tighten the monotony of the ceaseless
grind of house~ork. Her horizon
was limited by the kitchen walls. and
her highest ambition was to keep the
boys out of the best room" 1t is
little wonder that she hoped for some
thing better for her daughters. She
saw unfolding in them her own girl
hood. and she dreaded to see them
spend their lives in the hopeless task
of keeping body and soul together as
she had done.
Her idea of city life was vague
Most of the city women she saw
were well dressed, unwrinkled and
seemingly happy. They were living
the kind of life she would choose
for her daughter. The toll Of the
wives of the poorer laborers she did
not see One of the main reasons
that all through this period the coun-
try looked up to the city and the city
looked down on the country was that
country people saw only the best side
of the city and the city people saw
only the worst side of the country.
The change that has come about in 4
country life in the past decade and a
half is so great as to be almost I'M
believable. Many Of the country
people themselves refuse to believe it.
They read the reports Of high prices
skeptically, and not until the produce
is sold and the money In their hands
will they really believe their good
fortune. Even then they will shake
their heads and say that prices win
surely-go down before they have an
other crop ready for market They
have so long been content with a
small return for their labor and no
allowance at all for interest oD their
money or for the fertility which they
are selling away from their land that |
they can hardly believe that the time |
has come when the farmer is getting |
enough for his produce to enable him /
to put farming on business basis.
Probably this change has affected no |
one on the farm more than the women /
The country girl has a different idea |
OF a career now. She lives In a mod
ern farm home, or if she doesn't she
knows that such homes exist and are
well within, the range of possibility for
her. She has had her longing to see
the world satisfied by visits to city
friends and relatives. She has seen
that all the conveniences of city homes
are duplicated in the country She
has admired the spacious lawns and
beautiful grounds OF some of the best
Of the city houses. but she has been
obserVant enough TO note that such
houses belong only TO the few. She
has gone to the theater with her
friends and enjoyed it, but no more
than she enjoys the homemade the
atricals in her home town or the plays
and lectures she has attended in the
larger country towns by trolley She
has been surprised to find that her
friends in the city do not know their
next door neighbor The excuse that
they are not in our set has puzzled
her democratic little soul. 1t is diff
terent in the country, where every one
with every one else's sor-
lows and laughs with all in their joys.
The girl comes back from a trip to
he city better satisfied than ever with
her country home. Her father NAV
lot be worth Ipofe than 5000 or S10-
90 eg $4,000 measured in menez. but !,