64 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS. 



that the servants are continually rising to the upper 

 regions to give "warning." In the country the average 

 kitchen is far more decent, but still the erring house- 

 keeper, anxious to "have things like other people," is 

 prone to pinch the poor kitchen in order to furnish the 

 parlor its gim-cracks. 



This is all wrong. If one's house were intended for 

 entertainment and continual festivity, then it would be 

 well to place its parlor and dining-room first and fore- 

 most ; but in a farm-house, where the house-mother's 

 work lies mainly in kitchen and dairy, and where are 

 needed all the aids and conveniences for making this 

 work pleasant as well as profitable, it is simply silly to 

 deny one's self valuable and useful every-day things for 

 the sake of what-nots, upholstered chairs and Notting- 

 ham-lace curtains, that must necessarily be shut up and 

 of no benefit to anybody nine-tenths of the year. It is 

 as if some farmer, otherwise of sound mind, should 

 deny himself reapers and seeders and good horses in order 

 to keep himself well supplied with broadcloth, beaver 

 hats, French boots, and fine linen ! 



However, if the country house-keeper would visit one 

 of the large retail hardware establishments in the nearest 

 big city, with money in her pocket, I have no fear that 

 she would have very much cash or inclination left for 

 mere " best room " adornments, for there is certainly no 

 more captivating field offered to the eye of the home- 

 woman than is found in this branch of house-furnishing. 

 Before she has half surveyed the wonderful display of 

 improvements in everything, from a magnificent cookmg- 

 ran.sjc to a rotary nutmeg-grater, from an elegantly builded 

 refrigerator to an apple-corer, from an oil-stove or a dish- 

 washing machine to the last idea in clotlu's-lnu-s and car- 

 pet tacks she will feel that "hardware 1 " is altogether 

 too meagre a term to apply to such a world of beautiful 

 and helpful things. 



