SOCIAL FEATURES OF THE UNION. 249 



is brief and they make the most of it Then they go back 

 to their dreary monotony at home, for no matter how com- 

 fortable the home, how liberal the provisions of the 

 husband and father, there is a monotony and loneliness 

 about it which the most loving wife and dutiful daughter 

 feels most keenly. To the watchful care, the unremitting 

 and unselfish efforts of the cleanly housewife depends all 

 the comforts of home. Few women but what like to 

 render home as attractive as possible; this requires work 

 and care, and the wife is obliged to make a slave of her- 

 self, working from daylight to bedtime through the long 

 hot summer days until nature itself fairly gives way. I 

 do not exaggerate; I have seen the haggard looks and 

 heard the weary sighs of overworked farmers' wives. I 

 have seen broad acres of highly cultivated land groaning 

 under the abundant crops, good houses and barns, and fine 

 stock, but the order and cleanliness that reigned in-doors 

 in harvest time, when twenty hungry men sat around the 

 farmer's table, were too often purchased at the price of the 

 premature old age of the wife. Anything that will break 

 in upon this tread-mill life which, though not quite uni- 

 versal, is altogether too common, should be hailed with 

 joy by the farmer and his family. 



The Order, proposes to change this state of affairs, and 

 render the farmers and their families one of the greatest 

 services towards making his life happy that can be done for 

 him. It offers them the means of improving their social 

 intercourse, of adding to their pleasures, and of improving 

 their condition mentally as well as socially. 



Mankind, in their natures, are social beings, and when 

 in solitude all pine for social and friendly intercourse. This 

 being an organization designed more especially for farmers 

 than any other class, we say that its social features are par- 

 ticularly pleasing, and well adapted to meet the necessity 

 which exists for some method to bring them and their 



