342 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



There are American homes in all the different gradations, from the modern 

 palace to the log cabin on the frontier and the dug-out of the prairie, and home is 

 the sweet name bestowed upon each by some woman, joung or old. There are 

 homes that are homes, and there are homes that are houses. 



We have met with you month after month, and listened with interest to the 

 discussions of how to raise and market fruit in the most perfect condition, how to 

 make each arable acre of land produce the most of which it is capable. We have 

 listened to the recital of trials of the horticulturist in battling with the many 

 insect foes that make such havoc among the fruits and grain; we have listened 

 with interest to the suggestions of remedies for the extermination of these pests. 

 Now we home-makers and home-keepers are to discuss a still more vital question- 

 that of happy homes and woman's place in making them. We home-makers have 

 as many insidious enemies to fight as the horticulturist, who would shield his 

 apples, pears, peaches and grapes from the insect enemies that mar their beauty 

 and cause them to become shriveled and worthless. 



"Every man's house is his castle," and should bo to him a place of safety and 

 repose. In olden time men, and sometimes women, had to stand guard to defend 

 their dear ones from wild beasts or some savage human foe. Foes no less danger- 

 ous exist now, and it is well that we stand guard at the threshold of our homes, 

 armed with ail weapons of defense, lest these enemies of our happiness gain a foot- 

 hold in the sanctuary of our homes. We have waited long and patiently for the 

 advent of men with moral courage to cast the ballot that would rid our fair country 

 of the dramshop, the gambling den, and the places whose steps lead down to hell ; 

 and since the ballot is denied the home-keepera of our land, we await the time 

 when some woman of genius shall arise, who shall discover some human insecti- 

 cide, like London purple or Bordeaux mixture, and have the courage to do a little 

 spraying for the extermination of these pests of society, that they no longer cor- 

 rupt our young and desolate and impoverish our homes. (Just here my husband 

 suggests that the women do the spraying without the s.) We have done that, and 

 we have learned that faith without works is nothing, and that God blesses those 

 who help themselves. 



What is woman's place in making happy homes? That depends upon how 

 much the man does. If husband and wife labor in perfect accord for the upbuild- 

 ing and protection of the home, the labor becomes a delight and all things seem 

 possible. We are able to do so much for those we love ; the work goes unselfishly 

 on from year to year, with no discord, each laboring for the protection of not only 

 their own home, but all the homes in this broad land. But if, on the other hand, 

 the home-maker, forgetful of his life duties, spends his earnings in debasing his 

 moral, intellectual and physical faculties, the time will come when it will be a 

 hand-to-hand struggle to provide food and shelter for loved ones, and the woman 

 will not only have to be home-keeper but home-maker as well ; and if from her chil- 

 dren she can hide the disgrace and shame that has cast a shadow over the home, 

 and train them to truth and sobriety, she may yet form the nucleus for a happy 

 home, if not for herself, for her children. 



The scoial horizon of woman has become broader than in the days of our 

 mothers and grandmothers. Then the threshold bounded the sphere of woman's 

 duties, and her sympathy reached out to neighbors in deeds of kindness in sick- 

 ness and affliction. The tenderness of her heart and aspirations for the approval 

 of her God found expression in never turning from her door a needy applicant for 

 food or lodging, and she heard, in her inner consciousness, the words of approval : 

 "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these. My children, ye have done 



