The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-03-17
RURAL WOMEN ovERwoRKED.

Cooking. cleaning, washing. IRON
ing, scrubbing, sewing. milking, churn-
ing. nursing, canning and preserving,
caring for chickens and garden. some-
times spinning and knitting. and fire.
quently providing all the family
homemade bedding are a few of the
minor household duties with which
rural mothers In many sections of the
United States are burdened. In addi-
ton to the daily performance of these
time-absorbing tasks, the average
country women is frequently called
upon to work side by side with her
husband In the fields, and to assist
in all kinds of seasonal chores, includ-
ing carrying water for household uses
from distant springs and wells.
'Toting' water is one of the heav-
lest tasks that fall TO the lot of rural
women and children One fifth of the
white families visited in the course of
recent survey made by the chill
dren's bureau, United States depart
menf of labor, In one county in a
southern state. and over one-third Of
the negro families. carried water for
all necessary household purposes as
far IS fifty feet. and a number OF the
! tenant farms had no water of any
| kind on their premises and had to
supply their needs from the land
lords wells. In another section in
vestlgated not single family visited
had water either in the house or on
the porch: and only one out of five
had it as near as fifty feet of the
house. Twenty families In this section
carried water as far as 500 feet. and
eight families were as far as an
eighth to quarter of a mile from
the nearest spring.
Tn most rural families. according to
I J.
many outside chores, has to be done
by the mothers without help of any
kind except what is afforded by, the
girls of the family. Only three of the
women in one OF the counties studied
and kept servant regularly, and the
absence of modern household conve-
niences handieaps the housewife. and
renders her tasks doubly hard. With
the exception of sewing machines.
there are practically no conveniences
for facilitating the wemens work in
the average rural family in the inves-
tigated area. While the men. as n
lruie, have planters. drillers. spreaders.
and various kinds of new tangled
help in their farm work. nothing has
/ been done to make women's tasks any
easier.
/ The cooking Is usually done on
small wood burning stoves. the only
utensils being iron pots and kettles,
which may he used either on the stove
or in the big open firepiaces. The
/ laundry, consisting of wooden tubs
placed on a bench and great iron
wash kettle in which the clothes are
Rolled is usually down by the spring"
Much straining and lifting and undue
fatigue Is involved in this out-of door
i laundry. Sometimes an old fashioned
paddle is used instead of the modern
washhoard. which is still regarded as
a luxury in many homes. Only one
home in this section had a pump and
sink inside the kitchen
Many of the mountain homes In this
state still have their spinning wheels
/ in use and occasionally a primitive
hand loom Is found. SomeNf these
homes display rare collection of
homemade coverlids and blankets.
The wool was grown on the farm.
sheared from the sheep: washed.
carded and spun by the women and
girls Of the family: dyed sometimes
with homemade madden. indigo and
walnut stains; and woven on the loom
into quaint coverlids and blankets.
The use OF old fashioned implements
for churnfng and buttermaking, and
sweeping done by means Of home
made hrooms fashioned of short
bunohes of sedge grass. for house use.