84 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIIATION. 



In a business way Farmer John finds it the cheapest 

 waj^ as well as the best to look up a thrifty Elizabeth to do 

 the work, particularly in these days of "restored confidence.'^ 



Asa rule the farmer's wife is no spendthrift — not so much 

 so as her husband. She has her likings, like other women, but 

 fine linens, laces, dishes and house furnishings are not usually 

 purchased until she can honestly pay for them. Incidentally, 

 I want to tell that in our dealings with the girls we employ in 

 a special industry on our farm, we have found that almost 

 invariably they keep correct accounts and give good measure. 

 I am also told by merchants that working girls seldom abuse 

 their credit, which speaks well for future business women. 



Our farmers' wives boast of good habits. Personally I 

 am not acquainted with a farmer's wife of American birth 

 who will touch a drop of intoxicating drink as a beverage, 

 let alone go to a saloon, and only a few of foreign birth. Sorry 

 I know many of their husbands that do. I know only one 

 woman who uses tobacco. She is a young woman of Ameri- 

 can birth and smokes a cob pipe. I do know more than one 

 man who does not use it. The farmer's wife finds no time 

 to patronize the store boxes and street corners; nor is she 

 giving to treating and tipping, all of which means thousands 

 of dollars saved where men worse than waste it. Now tell 

 me why in the name of common honesty, there should be any 

 question about the right of the farmer's wife to have a share 

 of the common earnings for herself, or a say in how they 

 shall be spent. Law and custom say these common earnings 

 are the husband's: but by that broad, unwritten law of right, 

 they are not all his any more than all hers. The hard work- 

 ing farmer's wife should be the last woman on earth who 

 should beg for money of her husband for the necessaries of 

 life. It would seem strange to hear a hard working farmer 

 beg of his wife for money to buy a pair of new overalls, a 

 new pitchfork or a modern plow; but it would be as just 

 as the wife begging for money for a new dress, a new wash- 

 board or an improved wringer. 



Sometimes I think that farmers' wives are themselves 

 to blame for not placing more value upon their labor. Tears 

 are said to be the natural solace of women, and I would not 

 stay them, if I could, but with these tears over thoughtless 



