566 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
August 19 
A TALE OF HIRED HELP. 
I notice tbe experience given by sev¬ 
eral of The Rural’s correspondents with 
tbe “ hired man,” and add my mite. Last 
year I had a large farm, and thought if 
1 could get two first-class men, I could 
get along with that much help. I had 18 
milking cows, 12 calves and heifers, 3 
horses, and about 60 acres of grass to cut. 
I advertised for one or two men who did 
not drink, smoke or chew tobacco. I got 
one, and later another, both saying they 
filled the bill, and I agreed to give good 
wages. All began nicely. Both men 
were good workers. We had a lot of pas¬ 
ture fence to overhaul. For driving 
stakes I had a rather heavy maul, but I 
noticed my men used the flat of their 
axes to strike with. I directed the use 
of the maul as a safer and quicker way to 
drive a stake “ home.” In a day or two, 
I 1 ad some work about the stable, and 
sent them alone ; within 30 minutes my 
best man returned. He had tried to drive 
a stake with his axe, holding it with his 
left hand to steady it. Well, the axe 
turned, struck the back of his wrist, cut 
three of the cords and opened the joint. 
I should have sent him home and got 
some one else, but, instead, allowed him 
his board for driving and getting the 
cows, and such one-handed chores. In a 
month he could use his hand a little, 
though he could not open it, but could 
close it, and I allowed him full pay. I 
gave him all the easy work in haying, rak¬ 
ing, etc. Just in the middle of baying, 
when there were about 10 loads in cocks, 
my model men told me that they would 
not work so late nights I must either 
agree to quit and milk at 5:20, or they 
would quit then. I looked at my grass 
cut and uncut, and knew I could not hope 
to get men then, and—I agreed. To be 
with them all day, I did my churning at 
night after they had gone to bed, and, if 
any hay was in cock and it looked like 
rain, I capped every cock before I went 
t.o bed. This churning three times, or 
four, a week made my average retiring 
hour 11 p. m. or later, so, to even up a 
little, I decided that on Sundays I would 
sleep a little later, and let my men milk 
the 18 cows alone in the morning. They 
did so one Sunday. The next Sunday at 
about 6:30, I went to the dairy to skim 
the milk and set the morning’s milk. My 
men were sitting by the door. 1 asked 
if they were through milking ; they said 
they were. I noticed several cows in the 
barn-yard and said, “Why don’t you drive 
the cows to the pasture and bring in the 
milk, then?” Judge my surprise when I 
heard this: “ There are six cows wait¬ 
ing for you to milk them ; you have got 
to milk your share every day; we won’t.” 
I thought things over in a very few 
seconds. I had but four acres of grass 
uncut. Apple picking was two months 
or more off. I had treated my men well, 
given them as good bed and board as I 
had myself, and far easier hours than 
others gave their men, and I decided. I 
said, “ Boys I am the boss here, and from 
now on, as long as you stay here you will 
do as I say; when you are doing one 
thing you are not doing anything else. 
If I say you are to milk all the cows, you 
will do it, or you will quit. I don’t pro¬ 
pose to overwork you, but I do propose 
to have you do what I tell you to— Now 
I’ll give you 30 minutes in which to milk 
those cows or quit. ” They talked together 
a few minutes, then they told me they 
would not milk the cows ; that I must do 
it myself, and do it every day too. They 
would do “their share,” but no more. 
They guessed I would have to; good 
men were scarce, etc., etc. I said noth¬ 
ing, but sat down and milked the cows. 
When I finished, with a broad grin they 
started to drive the cows to pasture ; but 
my turn had come, and I gave them to 
understand that they were no longer in 
my service ; that I would drive my own 
cows, and I did. When I got to the 
house, I told them that, as it was Sunday 
I could not pay them then, but I would 
get their money as soon as the bank 
opened on Monday, and pay them off— 
and I did so. They tried to “ arrange ” 
matters Sunday afternoon, but I would 
listen to nothing, and from then—July 18 
—to October 1, I milked those 18 cows 
alone twice a day, cared for my calves, 
heifers and horses, did all the work on 
the farm alone—no, not quite, for my 
wife fed the calves and skimmed the 
milk, and often washed the tins, and to 
make it easier we stopped making butter, 
and I delivered my cream in bulk nearly 
four miles away every morning, and was 
back in time to milk before breakfast. 
October 1, I had an offer for farm and 
stock which I accepted. 
I had another just such experience 
some years ago. I had a small farm and 
on it 26 head of stock, only seven in milk. 
It was two miles from where I lived. I 
had a man living on it who cared for the 
stock and cut brush, while his wife made 
butter. I gave them a good house and 
$30 a month. On January 311 paid them 
in full. The man, as soon as he had 
pocketed his money, told me he wanted 
$5 a month more. I said we would talk 
of that about April 1. He replied, “ I 
want it now or I will quit.” I told him 
I would not give it, but would give him 
three days in which to vacate my house. 
He tried to beg back, but I would have 
none of him. I drove those two miles 
twice every day, and cared for all the 
stock until April 1, before I could get a 
man I was satisfied with ; this man I had 
for nine years, but finally he too turned 
on me. Now I have always treated my 
men well, better than the average, and 
always got good service frc m them as 
long as they did work at all. Hut, once 
a man turned on me, except in the one 
instance above, I would never have any 
further dealings with him. I have 
always been sorry I yielded the one time 
I did, for I believe if I had been firm 
then, my men would have behaved them¬ 
selves. It is the old story, “ give an inch 
and they want an ell”—but why is it 
SO ? F. M. C. 
ANOTHER SIDE OF IT. 
I cannot help feeling that in the case 
of Carrie T. Meigs, care cf the best kind 
and extreme kindness in every way are 
bestowed on the stock under her special 
care. No straw and club diet there, but, 
on the other hand, I think she cannot 
have a very good knowledge of how to 
control human nature when I read of the 
hired man having to steal a drink of milk 
or go without. That doesn’t “sound” 
much like T. B. Terry’s man eating a 
peck of strawberries in a day and per¬ 
fectly welcome. During the past 10 
years I have had more than 75 different 
hired men by the day or month, some 
only a few days, some for periods of 
three years, and although they were not 
all of the best sort, I have as yet to find 
one who has sunk to Carrie’s measure of 
hired men’s cussedness—perhaps good 
usage has had something to do with the 
matter. The hired man who has proved 
the most profitable with me is the one 
with some aim in life besides being 
simply a hired man for life. Two of the 
best hired men I have ever had have 
since become lawyers, two more have be¬ 
come farmers and one a railroad station 
agent. 
Hired men don’t seem to be very good 
in the Meigs’ neighborhood, and I don’t 
wonder when Carrie tells what kind of 
farmers there are there ; they are cer¬ 
tainly not the kind we have here. Within 
the last month more than once my men 
have worked until nine o’clock at night 
in order to get all the hay up before it 
rained, and some years ago my help 
voluntarily worked drawing oats until 
after 12 o’clock at night, clearing the 
field ahead of a three days’ rain. My 
men have never been opposed to taking 
orders from my partner in business (my 
good wife) because I never give them 
any reason to think that her rights in 
the business are less than mine. I do 
pity any woman who has to live wi c h “A 
Farmer” who thinks she has no rights 
beyond the kitchen. My wife’s rights 
extend farther than that and she has 
seen fit to ride the mowing machine and 
horse rake many a time, and never have 
I thought she was out of place. The 
farmer who is ashamed to help in the 
house if occasion demands it, or the 
woman who would not help out-of-doors 
in an emergency when she easily could, 
are just a little above their calling. 
Long life to Carrie T. Meigs and may 
she ere long see a change for the better 
in the hired men and also in the farmers 
of her neighborhood. John q. wells. 
Ontario County, N. Y. 
“ A FARMER ” TALKS BACK. 
T. B. P., of Goldsboro, writes as if he 
did not understand the item I wrote to 
The Rural some time ago in regard to 
hired men. How modest, how womanly 
it is for a lady to go hunting around the 
barn to tell the hired men to go to work ! 
If T. B. P. would discharge those $10-a- 
month negroes and hire a few $25-a- 
month white men they would know 
enough to go to work when it was time 
without the necessity for his wife or 
daughter to hunt through the barn and 
fields to find and tell them. I believe any 
man’s wife or daughters are more re¬ 
spected if they attend to their household 
duties and leave the bossing of the hired 
help to the husband and father. How 
proud a father must feel to see his daugh¬ 
ter out bossing the hired help ! I would 
rather that the men did nothing than 
that my daughter should do such a thing, 
and if wife or daughter has any sugges¬ 
tions or grievances she always tells me, 
and if there is anything to be said to the 
hired men I say it. My wife is assistant 
boss in one sense of the word: she is boss 
in the house; her word is law there and 
out in the field I consider my word the 
same. Perhaps my daughter has high¬ 
falutin ideas as T. B. P. terms them ; I 
think she has, but they are so high that 
she would not go to the barn to hunt the 
hired men up to tell them to go to work 
if they never did a stroke. My wife and 
daughter have a horse and buggy at their 
disposal; they can go or come whenever 
they will; they do not bother themselves 
about the hired men, and I believe no 
woman would who considered her hus¬ 
band capable of managing a farm. What 
a loving family T. B P.’s must be by his 
description—wife at the barn to start the 
hired men out on time and the daughter 
in the field to keep them at work. 
Lyndonville, N. Y. A farmer. 
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