Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-01-27
Women Of Small
TOlUns Are Real
War Hcr0ines
Miss Ferguson, Former Grand Forks
Teacher, of the Many Hours Work
Added to the Daily Routine. to
Help In the Defeat Of the Kaiser.

In a recent issue Of the Minne-
apolis Tribune was the following
story on the val heroitm of small
town women. 1t will be Of interest
undoubtedly, to many people here
who remember the writer, Miss
Bertha Ferguson. Miss Ferguson
Grand Forks high school faculty, and
she is now engaged in teaching In st.
Paul. She made her home for many
years in this state, and Is we'll known
to a number OF people here. and
elsewhere in the state.
Wash Monday; iron Tuesday;
bake bread and buns Wednesday: go
to- ladies Aid Thursday sweep FRI
day; do Sundays cooking Saturday.
Such. in main outline. was the
weekly program. Of Thousands Of
women in small towns before the
United States went to war. These
tasks were the daily detectives. =
program interfered with at the
housekeeper's peril.
Housekeepers may seem to be free
women, but they are not, for house,
work possesses a malevolence all its
own, a kind Of evil intelligence which
always gets those who, transgress
the fixed order.
Tuesdays sighted ironing steadily
o to telescope with Wednesdays
baking, to the housekepeer's con-
you-later" wink as it settles thick on
the furniture. Saturdays neglect
breaks Sundays calm.
II ever there was a hack Of an in
visible rider" a housekeeper ts that
hack, and housework that rider.
In addition, to the fixed program.
there were, of course. the usual three
meals a day, sewing, mending, raids
Of unexpected company, picking,
preserving, house cleaning. Most
housekeepers, too, make gardens and
raise chickens, children. and hus-
bands, the finest varieties in. the
world.
An important difference between
this routine and that of the city wom-
an is that the country woman does
her own work.
In small towns hired help Is scarce
and inefficient, no delicatessen shows
forth it's re~ady-to-eat, hand-me-down
food; no laundry takes the family
washing to it's capacious bosom. D
your work before it does you" is a
David Harum text adapted for rural
places.
Into this life Of perpetual motion
there came one April day in 1917 the
appalling news, 1.-The United States Is
at war with Germany"
A few short months and the Red
Cross had begun to lay its cause on
the hearts of thrice busy women: For
almost two years they have answered
every call bravely, heroically.
How did they accomplish so much ?
BY rising a little earlier and working
a little harder, but above all by say
ing, cit is my duty! I must"
And these women did their war
work without witnessing any war
glory, without the stimulus that
comes from marching regiments,
military bands, Liberty Loan ano
Red Cross parades or notices and
photographs in Sunday papers.
Orders came for a Thrift Stamp or
surgical dressings, for knitted ar
ticles, for comfort kit bags, for coarse
garments. To that music she fell in
line and kept marching while the
days grew darker and service flags
stole into windows, their blue stars
changing now and then to gold.
The Red Cross met, perhaps in the
fire hall or the ~schoolhouse,* where
two or three times a week tired
women raced huge plleS OF pam sew.
ing, made surgical dressings or sew
ed rags for rugs.
Everyone's talents were speedily
discovered and utilized. The best
sewers, women who know the sewing
game from the first snip Of the shears
to the last e Of the folded gar
ment-a sort of Class A Of the Red
Cross draft-went right to the front
without asking any exemption.
'These women were regular speed
demons" on a sewing machine and
along with their speeding could, with
a look here Or a word there, keep up
the morale Of the entire company.
Not a basting fell to the floor with
out their notice, not a button budded
in the ron place, not a buttonhole
slipped by without their inspection.
One big idea dominated the whole
company-to do the thing according
to orders, and to do it on time.
The order for substitutes gave the
housekeeper more concern thar any
other war measure, except the one
calling the men to the colors. Would
her family like the war breads:
Would the children digest them
we'll? What about that acid quality
in barley? Would her husband be at
happy on dark bread as on light? 1
Charles" said M woman last
summer, lis the easiest man in the