1873 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
385 
PHE H©lIJ§E!HI©lLDo 
(For other Household Items, see “ Basket ” pages.) 
A Convenient Clothes-Horse. 
Tlie clothes-horse here figured has several advan¬ 
tages over the old form. When opened to its full 
extent it has the capacity of a horse of the old 
style, and it can be used with one-fourth, onc-lialf, 
three-fourths, or all of its slats spread, and when 
not in use it takes up but little room in its stable, 
which for this kind of horse is usually behind the 
kitchen door. After a trial of some weeks we 
found it an exceedingly convenient affair. It was 
invented by Mr. John A. Morfit, of Harlem, N. Y., 
who for a wonder has not patented it, but allows 
us to give the design for the benefit of our readers. 
CONVENIENT CLOTHES-HORSE. 
The engraving needs but little explanation. The 
central post, which has a foot to allow it to stand 
firmly, is of 1 % in. stuff, and 4 ft. 6 in. high. Each 
of the four sections consists of four horizontals of 
1 x % in. stuff, 2 ft. 8 in. long, and an upright 
of similar stuff 4 ft. 6 in. high. The sections are 
all alike, and are put together by means of rivets 
and washers. If screws are used they will soon 
work loose. The central post is of pine, and the 
slats and uprights may be of ash or similar strong 
wood. This horse can be readily made by any one 
of ordinary mechanical skill, the chief item of ex¬ 
pense being the rivets. On behalf of our readers 
we thank Mr. Morfit for bringing this household 
convenience to their notice. 
-— -—— -- «. - 
Home Topics. 
BY FATTII ROCHESTER. 
Farmers’ Wives.— Do we really wish to see 
ourselves as others see us ? There is a chance, 
then, for any of us who are farmers’ wives to see a 
portrait of ourselves painted pretty vigorously— 
whether quite truthfully or not each farmer’s wife 
should judge for herself. I refer to a chapter in 
Mrs. Woolson’s “ Woman in American Society,” 
entitled “Farmers’ Wives.” I will quote from the 
work, with some italicizing as I copy Mrs, Wool- 
son’s words. It should be remembered that Mrs, 
Woolson is a New England woman. 
“Her constant labors arc carried on within four 
bare and narrow walls, without change of scene or 
hope of variety. It is not strange that her strength 
becomes impaired, and that she often finds herself 
at middle age afflicted with disease. And the phy¬ 
sical weakness which must inevitably result from 
such a life is greatly increased by an astonishing 
ignorance of the manifold causes that tend to pro¬ 
duce it. This is especially the case in towns lying 
remote from the great centers of intelligence. 
Practices and food that cities have learned to dis¬ 
card as most pernicious are still clung to in our 
farmers’ homes without any suspicion of their in¬ 
jurious effects. Visitors avoid, if they can, their diet 
of fried pork, their feather beds, their cotton coverlets, 
and their ill-aired rooms, and gladly escape out of 
doors for exhilarating rambles through field and 
forest; but these are supposed to be mere whims of their 
guests, indulged in ivithoid reason. 
“ This peculiar animal food [pork], which intelli¬ 
gent people have learned to abjure, is usually 
cooked iu the very manner which renders it most 
indigestible—by soaking in boiling fat, in other 
words, by frying. The wholesome bread raised by 
pure yeast, once the pride of our farm-houses, has 
given place to abominable compounds whose 
chemical ingredients are ruinous to both teeth and 
stomach. Everywhere around these houses sweeps 
a current of pure air; but it is as carefully excluded 
from the rooms as if it were a poison. Fortunately, 
however, it possesses the witch’s privilege, and 
enters unbidden through cracks and key-holes. 
Walking is nowhere held iu such ill repute as in 
these same towns, where there is so much beauty 
in earth and sky to tempt one abroad. It is an 
offence in the eyes of all for a woman to he seen 
sauntering along the roads, and gadding about is 
held to be one of the heinous sins. A horse and 
wagon must be brought to the door if the distance 
to be traversed is but half a mile, so that daily 
exercise in the open air is indulged in only by 
school children and those who work in the fields. 
These influences of excessive toil, lack of diversion , 
unhealthy food, and ill-aired rooms, submitted to 
partly from necessity and partly from ignorance as to 
their results, can not but seriously impair the health of 
all who experience them." 
Well! Does the coat fit ? Here is another—try 
this. I find it in the private letter of a gentleman 
whose position and years and culture and habits 
of observation give weight to his words. He says: 
“Do you know the absolute cheerlessness, loneli¬ 
ness, wretchedness, almost hopelessness of a large 
share of farmers’ wives ? Work and bear children 
—that is the whole story.” 
But this is too bad! The farmers’ wives whom 
these pictures fairly portray are not readers of these 
columns—at least, not many of them. And be¬ 
sides, if we are farmers’ wives how can we help 
that ? We wouldn’t like to divorce ourselves from 
our husbands, nor to divorce them from their 
farms. I don’t wonder at all that observers have 
begun to say such things about the lot of the aver¬ 
age farmer’s wife, but they maybe too sweeping in 
their statements and too limited in the application. 
A good many wives and mothers in other fields of 
labor—mechanics and tradesmen’s wives—might be 
described in almost the same way, though to be sure 
these generally live in villages or cities. It will do 
us no harm to consider the criticisms upon our 
shortcomings, and to go to work at once to improve 
our condition. 
They complain of our ignorance. Well, knowl¬ 
edge is worth something; but I have good author¬ 
ity for saying that charity or love is far better. 
Patience and faith on our part are worth more to 
our children than any scientific information we 
could give them. But let us give these dear chil¬ 
dren, and give our husbands and maid-servants 
and man-servants and ourselves every chance we 
can to get health and knowledge and happiness. 
I would like to go on now and speak of the ad¬ 
vantages of the farmer’s wife over her town sisters, 
for I would not like to have any discontented 
woman strengthened in unwise dissatisfaction by 
what is here written. Let every farmer’s wife 
think over these advantages for herself. She will 
find them many if she looks deeply. Each situa¬ 
tion in life has disadvantages as compared with 
others, and each has its compensations. The fact j 
is, we are all getting stirred up and unsettled, and 
any person who thinks his or her present lot too 
hard had better look well before leaping into what 
seems a better situation, or it may be just “ out of 
the frying-pan into the fire.” 
Ruffles and Ill-Health. —Just now I saw a 
woman dressed to go out, with her little daughter, 
five, years old. In the morning she told me that 
she was sick again to-day, as she is almost half of 
the time lately. She is troubled with one of the 
numerous ills that female flesh alone is heir to—a 
disease which the use of the sewing machine 
greatly aggravates. The little daughter wore a 
white cambric skirt trimmed with four ruffles, all 
hemmed upon both upper and lower edge. Her 
polonaise, or apron, was also trimmed all around 
with a double-hemmed ruffle. All this ruffling has 
been done within the last fortnight while this 
woman has considered herself (and really has been) 
a suffering invalid ; and it has been done by herself 
with the sewing-machine hemm'er. Those long, 
straight hems, with the steady motion of the foot 
aud the exertion of the muscles of the leg and ab¬ 
domen, have done a great deal, in my opinion, to 
cause her hours cf suffering and days of weakness, 
and to render her whole family uncomfortable, as 
a family is sure to be when the mother is too ill to 
give her usual oversight to the working of the 
home machinery. The woman is a sincere Chris¬ 
tian, and it would be hard for her to understand 
my pain on account of the unenlightened state of 
her conscience. I do not mean to judge her or 
an} - of the sisters whose hearts are set upon ruffles 
and tucks, but you who read this page please just 
consider when you sit down to hem the next ruffle 
whether the time and strength expended in mak¬ 
ing' it, and the labor always required to iron it 
properly whenever the garment is washed, are the 
best that you can be doing for yourself and your 
family and our big human family. It is not neces¬ 
sary to dress your children so plainly as to expose 
them to the ridicule of ill-bred associates, there 
are simple trimmings that may be used; but to a 
well-cultivated taste good materials look best sim¬ 
ply made up, and poor materials look silly enough 
when much labor is expended upon them. 
The Demand for Healthy Women.— Public 
opinion seems to be setting in favor of strong and 
healthy girls. Pale faces are not thought so inter¬ 
esting nowadays as they used to be. A sneer goes 
round at the inefficiency of the feeble women who 
work for a living and ask for good wages. Young 
men ridicule the idea of tying themselves for life 
to the sickly girls who exhibit loads of expensive 
dry-goods upon their persons along the sidewalks, 
and they begin to praise openly rosy cheeks and 
stout figures. Indeed, it seems as though the pale 
and weak young ladies who, if they were of no 
practical use iu the world, were at least admired 
and praised as interesting on account of their 
pallor and languor, were going to have a pretty 
hard time of it now. We had better not raise any 
more girls of that kind. I would not advocate 
any heathen practice of putting feeble infants to 
death, but I would strongly urge that more care be 
exercised to prevent our making feeble women of 
healthy infants. This subject demands the imme¬ 
diate attention of parents. "Something must be 
done to save our daughters from unhappy lives, 
and from becoming acknowledged burdens to 
society. 
Where Shall Women Carry the Burden 
of their Clothing? —There seems to be a differ¬ 
ence of opinion upon this point. On one side it is 
asserted that the internal organs of the abdomen 
are so delicate and so easily displaced or deranged, 
that it is conducive to weakness and disease to 
carry any weights hanging upon that portion of 
the body. It is replied to this that women’s shoul¬ 
ders are not strong enough and suitably shaped to 
carry so great a weight as Fashion puts upon 
women in the way of dress without undue weari¬ 
ness to the shoulders, and that the greater breadth 
of the female form at the hips suggests the propri¬ 
ety of carrying the chief weight of the clothing 
there. There is some sense iu this reply, for it 
