THE DEMONSTRATION WORK 



going about two miles she came to a gate which was locked. 

 She soon realized that she was up against a difficult situation. 

 It was growing dark. Even if she succeeded in turning 

 around and driving out of the lane she was not sure she could 

 get into the public road again. She hurriedly looked the situa- 

 tion over. Naturally she thought of the pliers in the tool box, 

 for they had helped her out many times when her machine 

 had refused to run. She got out the pliers and cut the barbed 

 wire fence from the post which held the lock and chain. Then 

 she worked that post loose and lifted it out of the ground. Of 

 course it was an easy matter then to swing the gate around on 

 its hinges. But just at that time she looked up and saw a man 

 approaching. It was the farmer who owned the gate. She 

 hastened to explain her mission and to apologize for the ap- 

 parent field burglary. He laughed heartily and told her to 

 come to his house for the night, because he wanted his wife and 

 daughters to know a woman with self-reliance and practical 

 .ability which she had displayed. It is almost needless to say 

 that she enrolled some club members and demonstrators who 

 did good work. She also made some friends and admirers who 

 were always glad to aid her. 



The woman agent must be a nurse, sanitarian and health 

 officer. In ordinary epidemics and in many special cases the 

 Home Demonstration Agent gets opportunities to show leader- 

 ship. Sometimes she must act as a nurse and organize un- 

 trained people to become temporary nurses. If work of this 

 kind had not been done during the influenza epidemic many 

 communities could not have met the emergency with any 

 degree of success. 



The following is a good example of relief work done under 

 the guidance of the woman agents: When the flu struck 

 Richmond County, Georgia, in October, 1918, the authorities 



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