The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1915-02-09
THE FARM WIFE
HAPPY AS ANY
Much Wasted Sympathy -or
Her In Opinion of Fam
vile Lady l

To the Editor: I do not IA,
my pen except in q most earres-
sire to correct some mistake a~ ~-
conception-to say thai WORD IN as.
Tense Of the right, which 7 fear n,
one else will take the trouble 10 saw
With this apology please let me car.
rect some statements HE from
time to time are finding their Wa s-t.
the press.
Our educators have wisely placed
into the hands Of our children 4 te-t-
book on agriculture. our legislators
have provided for the establishment
of Farm Life Schools, our national
government is extending "A helping
hand in every direction: all trying III
instill into the hearts OF our youth
love of farming and farm life. These
are good and wise measures, bat how
utterly futile they Will all prove =
the press persist in publishing such
articles as directly reflect on the dix.
nifty, purity and wholesomeness =
farm life. Please let me quote from
recent article in this paper: We can
conceive of our Il WI women ~
broader knowledge giving lectures and
conducting round table discussions.
but we :nStinctively think Of the farm
er's wife as q woman with a careWorn
face, rough and and soiled dress
who is a mere tool on the farm Il,
cook, to sew, to wash. to iron. Car
anything be more humiliating Ia the
thousands upon thousands Of wives
whom his cutting criticism touches.
1t eve goes down into the grave ana
places a stigma On our loved moth-
ers sleeping there" This. however.
deals with the lving-the boys ana
girls who will succeed us. a W. eX-
pect them to voluntarily take their
places in a sphere where they are IT,
be singled out as an inferior class ana
pointed TO as examples Of ignorance
and untidiness?
What then? The coming genera
ton of farm children, following the
lead Of the majority of the intelligent
men and women who for the last
thirty years have quit the farm for the
less strenuous life in town. will turn
almost as a unit from the country.
and thus more and more will cur
fields be turned over to a tenantry be-
coming less and less efficient untll
famine and anarchy stalk through the
land. An overdrawn picture, alasi
no, Just as surely as time moves these
things will come unless the people
and the press change their attitude
towards the country and country
ways.
Familiar with every phase OF East
ern Carolina farm life, for two score
and ten years, am l not able to speak
with authority on these things which
so vitality affect US?
Having the good fortune to be borr
and reared among some of the bes'
people and in one Of the most favored
/ spots OF the globe, l have no pa
, thence with the piteous wall decryins
conditions in the Rural Districts
With all respect and sympathy IL,
49, 49, $3.50
jority of these wOuld-be benefactor
are not conversant with the condi
lions they seek to improve. Progress
in the right direction is always good
but why pull dow and ruin tina
which they claim to be trying to bull
up?
L have not spent all my years so re
mote from urban life that l have ha'
no opportunity to learn something o
its domestic machinery and culture
r / find homes there more imposing
and luxurious from to standpoint 0
the architect and uphOlsterers, bu
their knowledge is no broader tina
that OF the intelligent farming com
munlty knowledge is not a produc
Of social environment. DR.. Eliot
f%ve-foot book shelf we'll filled, to
gether with King James Version o
the Scriptures and a liberal supply o
\ common sense furnish ample near
6 for a liberal education.
: | do not question the good inten
, ton Of the writer of the artlCi
y quoted; l only wish to Show 10 you
! many readers hat all farmers wiVe
" except the few whom she would ext
2 are not the pitiful creatures she DE-
z scribes.
A house to house canvas in tn
. country would show the aVerag
e farmers wife just as bright and JUS
q as happy as the wives of other ave.
n age men, be their calling or occup@
ton what it may.
d MRS. JOHN +. McARTBtk-
- H. rrnNiiIo n q