The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1911-06-25


Mrs. Belmont has set aside for this
farm school constituted a parcel OF
her own estate. She has erected 4
charming and thoroughly comfortable
farmhouse and dormitories with com
mon room fitted with a library, a
piano. reading and writing desks, and
the necessary feminine touch-sew
ing machines.
BY way of live stock the school is
provided with eight COWS, several
horses and innumerable pigs | don't
quite know why they installed pigs
before chickens, but Mrs. Williams
assured me that by this time next
year there will be plenty OF hens,
ducks and pigeons.
The Shop Girls Wouldn't Come.
There are of necessity at first one
or TWO men to do the heavy chores
I to look after the stables and the farm
machinery. and tend the furnace in
/ the winter, and do the hundred and
one odd things which are rightfully 1
mans work about farm. The girls
ages range from lS to -.
was particularly curious to know
the previous economic status Of the
pupils. Mrs Williams told me that
the school was originally designed for
shop girls, girls whose lives are sup
pcsedly awfully hard but it has devel-
oped that the girls of the shops don't
care to leave the city; the farm holds
NO lure for them. On the other hand,
there have been applicants galore
from among typewriters and steno-
graphers, bookkeepers and other Of
fee girls of higher grades. The nat
ural result of this is that the stand
ard of intelligence among the students
is surprisingly high. They know their
own minds, believe they know what
they want 10 do in life, and are MT
ting themselves seriously for their ca
reers.
The daily routine OF this school is
hard though not excessively so. The
day begins at o'clock in the morn
ing. At $50 breakfast is served. The
girls then have half an hour to make
their beds and tidy their rooms, and
about 7:30 they repair to the fields and
begin the daily outdoor tasks. First
OF all, flowers. vegetables and fruit
are gathered. first for Mrs. Belmont
who is responsible for the enterprise.
ard who pays the girls their weekly
wage, and then for the public market.
All of the parts of this farm that are
not consumed by the colony itself and
by Mrs. Belmont are sold TO regular
dealers at regular market prices. The
flowers and the fruit trees are trim
med. the vegetable patches are weed
ed, the fields are TILED until night
fall, when at 6 o'clock the milking be-
gins. After supper the girls are free
to do as they choose. Mostly they
gather in the common room of the
dormitory and write or read, play,
sing or sew until sleep overtakes
them.
It's No Convent, Either
The dormitory has its interest fea
lures. One room into which was per
ritted to peep held two neat little
beds and two carefully arranged dress
ing tables In the mirrors We're stuck
a half dozen photographs-of men.
There is nothing of the convent at
mosphere here. The farmerettes are
still in the world and of the world.
In another room, on a nail, there hung
pair of jumpers and pair of bloom
er4. and on the floor beneath We're 4
pair of dainty red Turkish pumps
Little touches these, but pleasant and
significant.
The arrangement under which girls
come to the Brookholt school are
most reasonable. Any girl who thinks
she would like to learn farming may
apply for admittance to the school If
she appears to be in earnest she is
admitted for two weeks on probation
Al the end of the probationary pc
riod she is free to leave if she cares
10 do so. or her application is subject
to dismissal, if it appears to the ad
ministration that the girl is not fitted
o. not desirable TO enter there. If
the application is favorably acted up
on. the girl remains four weeks long
or. adjusting herself. This IS month
OF apprenticeship. At the end of tho
six weeks a girl becomes full-iledged
member of the school and receives
wages. Each girl is provided with
lodging. with plenty of most excel
lent food and 81 a week There is no
doubt that girls coming from city oc-
cupations will save more out of their
SIG a month there than they could