FOURTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 583 



11 girl should marry right, then one vote counts as well as two. What is 

 the use of a girl marrying a tippler, then turn around and want to vole 

 to do away with liquor. She made her choice, let her abide by it. I 

 heard a good mother, when counseling with her daughters, make this 

 assertion: "Remember, girls, as you sow, so shall you reap." One of the 

 wittiest and most careless ones spoke up and said, "Yes. ma. as ye sew, 

 so shall ye rip. and as I grow older I think the latter maxim is most true 

 to life. 



I am straying away from my subject, but as this paper applies to 

 farmers' daughters as well as to their wives, I thought it well to drop a 

 little wholesome advice which may hel pthem in the future. 



I believe in a share of the property dollar for dollar. Why not? Can 

 any man give good reson why it should not be so? A farmer's wife per- 

 forms the labor he can not hire; she loves to do it. Why do farmc".^ 

 leave the farm? They can hire the farming done, but who can he hire 

 to wash and cook for his men? A woman can easily, with the modern . 

 household appliances, perform the labor required on a good sized farm. 

 Say, for example, the good man of the house hires two or three men, 

 more or less, as he needs them, and "'all pull on the same rope," as the 

 saying goes. A man grows well-to-do. and I'll add here, what is there to 

 hinder with these good republican prices? Now here is where my women'o 

 rights would come in. If she lives and he lives she has the name of hav- 

 ing one dollar to his two. but let her die first, and what has she to will to 

 her children? Nothing. She can call them around her and give them 

 her blessing, and there it ends. All is her huisband's. I say "less name 

 and more game." Now you have all the share I would have, namely, the 

 power to claim one half and the right to will it to her children. I hope 

 there are some ladies here, because I know the men will not want to 

 listen. 



Now as to the share of work for the farmer's wife. I do not think 

 the work on a farm is done by shares. Sometimes a man needs his wife s 

 help and she should help him if possible, for she, too. may need a favor, 

 and then the men are ready and glad to help. 



When a man marries and commences farming, and I'll say here no 

 man can farm and make a success of it without a wife, he expects her to 

 share his adversity as well as prosperity, and to do this and be a true 

 wife to him. he should not keep his business affairs from her. When ho 

 has a payment to make she will be just as anxious as he to save and plan 

 for it. How many times would women do entirely different had they 

 known just how things were? 



There is no life more independent than the life of a farmer's wii'o. 

 She can plan for herself and family with her own money made from poul- 

 try and cows. S'ome will say a farmer's wife is a drudge. Not so. What 

 IS more healthful and life-giving than to rise early, attend to your du- 

 ties, have your work done before noon and have a horse and buggy ai 

 your disposal in the afternoon? 



Very few are the farmer's wives who do not have a horse and buggy 

 to go when or where she wants. A farmer's wife whose husband rents 

 has more money, and more privileges than the wife of a salaried man 



