Missouri Country Life Conference. 169 



over and he is through with his chores maybe she is putting them 

 back just where they were. 



Fall time €omes, he sells a calf. What does she have for her 

 dishes and work? Fall time comes and he sells his grain. What 

 does she have for her cooking and steaming? 



What do you have for the women in the house? It is mighty 

 little, friends, for the woman. The woman don't do much! Oh, 

 but she does! If you traded jobs with her you would say, like 

 the old man in the little old doggerel, "I would rather follow the 

 plow all day than to chase the speckled hen." We think it 

 is a mighty little thing, but it has to be done. It is the tiny 

 screw that holds the great belt in the big factory, but let the 

 screw break and the whole machinery stops. The tiny screw 

 is the woman in the kitchen with the little job here and another 

 one there, but the boys are kept in clothes and the children kept 

 in school, the cooking is done, the washing is done, and it is 

 mother at the wheel that does the work. Not enough con- 

 sideration is given her. No, there is not. Not enough done 

 for her comfort. That woman does not sit down to consider; 

 she has not the time; she has to work. She is not like the boy 

 sitting down one day to whom it was said, "Get up and go to 

 work. What are you sitting there for?" He said, "I have 

 got to have time to figure." "Well, work while you figure." 

 And he replied: "I tried that, but I got to get caught up with 

 my figuring." The woman working in the kitchen don't often 

 think things out. In fact, if she does, something is going to 

 happen; the beans are going to burn or the chickens are going 

 to get out. It breaks up the whole plan and she decides not to 

 do it again. She does the best she can and feels more plainly 

 than you that the best is poor enough. 



Now, how is that to be bettered? How are the conditions 

 going to be overcome? Folks, all the domestic science in the 

 universe cannot keep dishwater from getting greasy or beans 

 from burning. You will have a hard time if you are going to 

 work out a whole family system in "yes" and "no" and in a 

 definite Outlined plan. Rather too many exceptions to the rule 

 It is like the old Latin lesson, there are more exceptions than 

 cases that follow the rule, and that is just as true in the home 

 making as it is true in anything else. 



We have decided in our state that if we could get the women 

 to drop the work for a day, even if the men do come home to a 

 cold supper once in a while, it is better than having the wife 



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