Year: 1870




folks? Women will gravely tell you


that large house is great trouble, re-


quiring so much work to keep it clean


iu one-roomed house everything is so


handy, and dirty floor the very best to


have, for it needs neither sweeping or


mopping. Indeed, speaking in general


terms, if people would dress and deny


themselves as they do here. they might


lay up money as rapidly, but who does


it or wishes to?


Since we have but one life to spend


here, why not make the most of it and


crown it with comforts, instead of al


ways starving the mind and body both,


for sake of the pocket. In all my ram


bles here | have entered but half doz-
en- houses that | would think | could
at all live in, and my notions of COM
fort are by no means too lofty for com.
mon use. We often hear complaints


made of people who do not live within
their means, but there are more here who
do not live up to their means, and | of
ten feel indignant for family of chill
dren whose parents still cling to the cab
in or 'dug-out," when amply able to
have better home. 1t is one of the
curses of this money-getting country,
but when you get with the Romans you
are quite apt so do as the Romans do,
especially when it is SO advantageous to
the pocket.


WORK HERE AND THERE


The idea that life is less struggle
here than at the East, and work easier,
is the greatest of fallacies. Women here
need TO work twice as hard as they do
there to secure the same degree of COM
fort. Houses lack the appliances for
lightning labor that abound there. The
constant winds bring in dust as one who
never witnessed it cannot imagine, and
it seems to penetrate everything and coat
everything with a disagreeable grit, from
the dishes in your cupboard TO the writ
ing paper you take from your trunk
Another thing which strikes one unpleas-
antly is that no grass grows about the
houses, AMI the coarse native grass makes
no good sod, and once broken to dig eel
lars nothing springs up in its place but
weeds. Clover or herds grass need as
much care as hot-house plant to make
them grow; and the result of all this is,
that when you leave doorstep you strike
the naked SOIL Children wallow in the
dirt from necessity as much choice, bring
ing away a liberal allowance on both
clothes and faces. IF by chance rain
comes to moisten to the top of the ground
the mud is as adhesive as so much tar,
and you may kick off your boot-soles in
the vain endeavor to rid them of it. Ow-
ing to the innate tendency of the human
body to dispense with unnecessary exer-
tion it may well be imagined that after
g shower the amount of mud brought
into house is sufficient to drive a wo-
man frantic. Then flies and insects do
so abound, that they must be constantly
fought and cleaned after, and withal, the
water is so hard that it cannot be used
for washing until broken with soda or
lye. The eastern housewife, who prided
herself on clothes that came from the
washing white as the driven snow, finds
it a hard matter to accomplish that re-
suit here. There is no good, soft grass
on which to spread and whiten them, but
the hot sun dries them very qui kly, and
perhaps fierce wind coats them entirely
with dust, whipping out the hens of
sheets and table-cloths till they havethe
appearance of being fringed Other
things which tend to make woman's lot
a hard one, will appear in connection
with other things. As to mans labor, if
it is " from san to sum-" as the old prov
erb hath it, the days are long and tedious
1t strikes one very singularly here that
there is no twilight. The sun sets, and in
half an hour it is dark-no long, restful
twilight to attend to little odds and ends
and then sit down for quiet ease. Day
breaks in the same sudden fashion; you
half wake from your dreams and it is
dark, one more little nap, and presto
the sun is up and flies are buzzing in your
face in the mostaggravating manner pos
sible. Thus far the season in this section
has been unprecedently dry, and gener-
ally speaking men say it has way Of
never raining here except nights and
Sundays, so that hired men see but little
for rest. Since last Septem-
ber there has not been single day when
weather would hinder men from work. |
Not enough rain has fallen in all that
time to moisten the ground TO the depth
of three inches, and the dust is fairly in I
SO that men at work on the |
land have sore eyes from it, unless they
take the precaution to shelter them with