Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-06-30
Life'sProbiems
Are Discussed

BY MRS. WILSON WOODROW
Everywhere l encounter among
women a desire to get back to the
soil.
They seem delighted with the fact
that there are organizations which
arrange for the necessary training in
agricultural work, and that in this
way they not only can help their
country, but will also be entering
upon a new occupation.
A garden of some sort has SEEM
ed as necessary to most of us as
food and drink. and the woman who
through circumstances is denied the
outdoor space for one manages a
makeshift and has her window full
of plants.
| believe that the care of gar
den has saved the health, life and
reason of uncounted women. 1t pro-
vides an escape from themselves.
fl ON the daily routine, from the dis
satisfaction of empty or care-hlled
hours-an escape into another world, !,
the enchanting world of beauty. And
it is necessary for the women to
make an effort, to do their part; for
the plants have to be tended anc
cared for before the reward Oh
bloom and perfume and loveliness
shall transform the spaces of bare
earth.
| was talking to d very brave
and cheerful woman only the other
day. She is burdened with respon-
sibilities which she cannot evade or
escape. l commented upon her cour-
age and unfailing good spirits.
1T is all due to my garden, she
said. II get out and work among
my flowers for a time. and then m
able to throw off the drag and de-
preston of it ALL"
But now women are listening to
wider call, and are eargerly an.
swering it. They want to help feed
the world, to help raise the grain
and vegetables, and look after the
fowls and the livestock, so that VIC
and the other nations which are
looking to us for assistance may not
only have enough but an abund-
anCe.
Hitherto, for the girl who either
had to earn her own living or meant
to do so, the indoor occupations were
about the only ones open to her.
We are all more or less creatures OF
custom and convention, especially iE
youth, and in the past no matter
how ardent a girls desire to work
in the great out-of-doors she was
hampered in a number of ways She
it for one thing; and for another
none of her friends and companions
were venturing in that direction, and
would regard her ii not exactly a
freak certainly as an oddity for at
tempting it. Then, being entirely
unframed and unused to the work,
| she felt, too, that she would prob
ably not be able to meet the re-
quirements of her job even if she
was lucky enough to get one.
So, quite apart from considera-
| tions of food-supply during the war,
! this promised invasion of the fields
| by women is highly significant
| Again woman is widening the boun-
! daties of her wage-earning occupa-
| tons, although TO speak of boundar-
| les of that sort nowadays seems In
| the face of facts an absurdity. 1t is
! to laugh, to turn back to the prog
ncstications and warnings of the
sages of a generation or so ago
| Woman's nervous system, they said
| could not stand the strain of severe
mental application, her physical or
| ganization would break down under
| hard work. The first contention was
| disproved long ago; the second has
/ been Knocked into n cooked hat by
! the women of France and England
! during this war.
OF course, not every woman
wants to rake the meadows sweet
with hay; but the big fact is that
the way will now be open to those
who do. Every one of us has some
special knack, some one thing that
/ is a delight to us and not drug
| cry; and there should be no bar
| riers between it and us.
More than one big successful
business has been built on woman's
| knack. Most of us know OF the girl
in Southern city who began by
| selling cakes to her friends. and now
they are sent all over this country
and have graced royal weddings in
foreign lands. Another large indus
try is the manufacture of certain
famous brand of pickles. that had
its start in a woman making few