No. 5. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 245 



woman what to do, particular!}^ about her own house and her own 

 affairs. Women are not in the habit of taking advice from any 

 other woman on how to conduct their own affairs. I am not trying 

 to make myself out a martyr, though; I like the work; it appeals 

 to me very strongly because of its immense possibilities — because it is 

 so far-reaching — because the need is so great. 



It was not so easy to start out; I had to make other women feel 

 that I was really trying to help them ; that I deeply sympathized 

 with them; that I had had all their problems to face; that I was a 

 woman, like themselves; that I had had a little child; had had a 

 home; that I had been poor; that I had to work, and was still work 

 ing, and that it was simply a case of two heads being better than 

 one, and that a sympathetic heart went with it. 



You would be surprised to know how these women answered this 

 appeal. They confide to me all their trials; they ask my advice on 

 all kinds of questions — not only household economics, but how to 

 manage their husbands; how to take care of their children; I have 

 had to introduce women to each other in the same neighborhood — 

 home bodies, homesick, heartsick women, longing for friendliness. 

 The women of the small towns are different from the country wo- 

 men; the country woman finds she is different from them; these must 

 be brought together, because each has something that she can give 

 the other. I have gone into Women's Clubs, and induced them to 

 go out into the country and get the country women to join them; 

 they need the diversion, and the stimulation that comes from a 

 broader intellectual life than they get in their isolation; often the 

 country woman may not be able to get to the club meeting because 

 there is no conveyance ready to take her there; then the town wo- 

 man can send her auto — and is generally willing to do so, if the mat- 

 ter is brought to her attention; otherwise it may not occur to her. 

 Or perhaps the club can go out to the house of the country woman 

 for a meeting, or that a few women from the neighborhood, where 

 they can bring their sewing, or their babies, if necessary, can run 

 in upon each other and spend a few hours, discussing the same things 

 they were discussing at the club. They talked about "rural uplift" ; 

 now I tell you we don't want niral uplift from inside out; we want 

 it from outside in. We want the town woman and the country wo- 

 man to belong to the Federation of Clubs and to have a common sym- 

 pathy and interest in common topics. I have talked to Community 

 Clubs in four large cities. I have talked to civic clubs", and I have 

 talked to the girls in colleges ; I have talked to the Pomona Grange, 

 and I have tried to impress this one thing on all of them — that they 

 will all be better for going out and helping each other. If these 

 women would only exchange confidence on their way of doing things, 

 every one of them would receive new ideas, and this question of sani- 

 tation would soon be solved. I have tried to impress on these girls 

 at the colleges and schools that they are only better than the others 

 because they have received a better education to help others. I have 

 talked to Normal Schools, and they are all going out to help some 

 one else. T have talked to small classes in rural communities on 

 Domestic Science, and have tried to send them out with this same 

 idea of passing along the helping hand. 



I have had husbands to appeal to me to get their wives the medical 

 attention they needed and could not get in the country; have had 



