iV'jrsi: 
JK. BELGIAN THRESHING MACHINE 
VOL. XXXII. No. 21. I 
WHOLE No. 1317. 1 
NEW YORK, AND ROCHESTER, N. Y„ NOV. 20, 1875. 
PRICE *3X3C CENTS. 
*2.05 PER YEAR. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by the Rural Publishing Company. In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
Jiulustijial ©0511(8. 
, A BELGIAN THRESHING MACHINE. 
Our illustration shows a peculiar machine 
used for threshing grain in the Walloon 
Country, Belgium. The square built, strong, 
heavy horses, tread the machine over the 
wheat, operating something like a treadmill, 
while the sturdy women shown do the 
harder part of the labor, handling the grain 
and carrying away the straw. The man is 
evidently “ tho weaker vessel” in this case, 
and is assigned the lighter portion of the 
labor, a fact certainly not creditable to Bel¬ 
gian ideas of gallantry—if those people have 
any ideas of that nature. After all. while 
women in Continental Europe, as well ns in 
some parts of Great Britain, are set to un¬ 
natural work or coarse and un re lining labor, 
there is in the perfect equality of the sexes, 
possibly a nearer approach to nature and 
right than in our more civilized, more re¬ 
fined and more artificial separation of 
woman’s work from man’s. Wo need to re¬ 
member what our refined society has too 
often forgotten, that while woman’s work 
may be rightfully lightened all and more 
than has yet been done, it ought never to be 
by divorcing her thoughts and interests from 
those of man. There are thousands of wives 
who would gladly take heavier burdens— 
even in such rough manual labor as these 
Belgian peasant women shave, if they could 
thereby hold the common interest which 
every wifo should enjoy in her husband’s 
cares, business, and even doubts and per¬ 
plexities. The too common idea of refining 
away the wife iuto a mere plaything for 
man’s leisure hours, is not kindness, not re¬ 
finement, not true civilization. We would 
by no means have woman do the hard 
drudgery, as represented in this engraving ; 
but there is a truth underlying even this rude 
sketch which ought not to be forgotten. 
It is the happiness of farmers’ wives that 
this community of interest with thoir hus¬ 
bands in business, a3 in everything else, is 
generally recognized. It is the misery of 
too many thousand refined, rich, and sup¬ 
posed to be happily-married women, that 
they are defrauded of their rightful interest 
in their husband’s business. What wonder 
if they become “mere butterflies of fashion,” 
as so many do in default of higher objects to 
attract their interests and feelings. 
NOTES FROM LIVINGSTON COUNTY. 
Pictures which I had scon had given me 
a very wrong idea of the situation of the 
DansviUe Cure. It is indeed upon a high, 
steep hillside, but not far up, nor remote 
from the village. The beautiful, ornamental 
grounds extend down to the village street 
along the bate of the mountain ; wide, wind¬ 
ing gravel walks lead up through these 
grounds to the narrow level in front of tho 
buildings, from which the view of the vil¬ 
lage, the wide, fertile valley and the moun¬ 
tains which inclose it, except on the north, 
is enchanting. If self-forgetfulness in tho 
admiration of charming surroundings is a 
hygienic condition, health should be tho rule 
here. I arrived in time and could remain 
just long enough to hear one of Dr. Jack- 
son’s talks to the inmates in Liberty Hall. 
The hall was tastefully decorated with mot¬ 
toes and garlands cf green, ret oil with red 
berries and autumn leaves. On the platform 
was a light stand, surmounted by a vase of 
brilliant scarlet and white flowers, geranium 
leaves and vines hanging almost to the floor. 
In the middle of the stage, in a large red 
easy clumysat the doctor, clad in an easy-fit¬ 
ting suit of gray, with a blue velvet study 
cap upon his heud and ample gray beard de¬ 
pending over his breast. His perfect self- 
assurance and poiitiveness command atten¬ 
tion and interest, while the human sympa¬ 
thies, which warm and mollify his strong 
utterances, win confidence and assent. Be the 
theories which have gone forth to the u orld 
over the doctor’s name, practical or other¬ 
wise, the discourse to which 1 listened upon 
the relations of the sexes, was full of practi¬ 
cal truths, which could not fail to benefit 
every hearer ambitious of improvement in 
character and condition. While ho did not 
advise women to get mad or rant over the 
country upon the matter of sutTrage, believ¬ 
ing that that, like other collateral subjects, 
would in due time rightly adjust itself, ho 
did with impassioned speech urge every 
woman to consider her capabilities ns a 
moral, intellectual, immortal being, regard¬ 
ing as trivial those specific, physical, evanes¬ 
cent differences which make her femiuine ; 
and to assert, within to herself, her liberty 
as an individual accountable to God to exer¬ 
cise, develop and use for the good of human¬ 
ity and the glory of tho Redeemer, all lior 
po v/ers. But no report can communicate the 
j speaker’s magnetism. Happy those who 
1 heard his words. 
