AUG 48 
§26 
£or 11* outfit. 
'JON DUCTED BY jllSS KAY CLARK. 
A FARMER’S WIFE SPEAKS FOR THE 
FARMER HUSBANDS. 
Really it is getting perfectly frightful, to 
think one bears any relationship to a farm or 
the farmer himself. Certainly the writers go 
from bad to worse. The former and father is 
a perfect Algerine, devoid of all feeling or 
sense. Ladies, i implore you to come to the 
rescue immediately, before we and our liege 
lords are banished to some forlorn place and 
walled in. Our children will all leave us of 
course, but we poor trodden down beings will 
stick to our husbands through ignorance, and 
a tender heart which it is presumed we have. 
Once in a while a ray of light comes to us, that 
we ought to be more than we are, but it is 
soon banished. Our hearts ache for our chil¬ 
dren, because the father is such a stern man, 
not a smile to gladden their young hear ts, or a 
few pennies to buy a jews-harp or stick of gum 
of the country peddler, for of course, their 
time must be all taken up with work. They 
know nothing about economizing time, that 
they might get a few hours of leisure, conse¬ 
quently they know nothing about what ele¬ 
gant things our village people have. 
But, enough of this. Have not our husbands 
an honest occupation if not, as remunerative 
as some! Did uot we as wives make our own 
selections in the matter for better or for worse! 
And it is as often for the worse to the man. as 
the woman. We expected to work together 
through life, taking the good with the bad. 
Husband works hard it may be for there is 
plenty of work ou ttie farm, it is never done, 
and like all other kinds of business, requires 
constaut watching. There is work for the 
brain as well as muscle, and the more of it ap¬ 
plied, the greater the profits. A young man 
commences in a mercantile business. If he 
trusts it to clerks, and he spends his time visit¬ 
ing and traveling, using up the income as fast 
as made and throwing away his time which 
has its value, he is going to be sold out in a 
short time. The lawyer who rises to an emi¬ 
nence envied by some, applies all his attention 
to his business. The physician attends bo his, 
day and night, is out in all kinds of weather, 
anil if he makes it successful he must be found 
in his office when not paying his round of vis¬ 
its or he will soon have no visits to make. 
Then why should there be so much said about 
the farmers? that they never go anywhere; 
that, they know nothing; are a set of block¬ 
heads from beginning to end, and their family 
brought up under their guidance would be no 
better. The farmer lias this one idea always 
before him, to make a more comfortable home 
for bis family, more convenient, more pleas¬ 
ant, more stylish,—yes, I say more styl¬ 
ish, for where is the person that does not when 
making or purchasing au article think of the 
looks of the same as well as the service it will 
do?—ho wants better implements so that the 
work will be made easier for himself and boys; 
better horses and harness, carriages, etc., that 
when his family goes out they will go in as 
good style as those around him; and everyone 
will purchase the best their means allow. To 
be sure some reach further than they ought 
and so get a fall. But can we say that this 
rebelling out,looking ahead, aiming to accom¬ 
plish some great thing in the future, we have 
pictured out iu our miuds fancy, is really au 
evil ! There are many selfish people who have 
to work a great deal harder thau is necessary 
if they could be satisfied v ith just enough to 
be comfortable. But as the man said, his 
wife was never comfortable, and that seems to 
be the predicament we are all in, we must have 
somethiug a little better all the way along, and 
a little money as interest may come in good 
sometime. We as the wife, try to take care of 
what our husband brings in, so that what he 
has labored hard to get shall not be wasted, 
aud, to see that the house aud belonging are 
kept clean and presentable. Here rests a great 
responsibility; the home is what we make it. If 
we keep everything in order, are good cooks, 
economists in everything, lively aud cheerful, 
welcoming company with a smile, we do not 
know the amuunt of good we may do. It does 
seem as though it has got to be a sort of mania 
people have, for almost every paper you take 
up has Something about the “poor farmers 
wife.” Does she really ha ve such a hard lot ? 
I for one say nol aud 1 think Mrs. Annie L. 
Jack will also say uo. She has learned how to 
entertam company without working all uight. 
It in a loug life, but women as a class are not 
given to laziness. In this part of the State the 
milk is mostly sent to the creameries, and 
where it is worked up at home, every year 
brings with it improvements, to make the 
work lighter for the women. Some men make 
the butter themselves, the women only wash¬ 
ing the milk things. But, of course, that does 
uot constitute all the work there is done. If 
fchm-a )<= but one to do the work she wifi df? 
THE RURAL WIW-YORUCER. 
her feet from early moru until dinner dishes are 
washed; then, perhaps, will come the making 
and mending for the family; but this will not 
seem very hard if her heart, is in the work. 
To make husbands shirts, mend his stockings, 
etc., is a pleasure, and when the shirt aud col¬ 
lar is starched aud ironed, aud he puts it on. 
if it looks a little better than Mr. R. or Mr. S, 
we find we are harboring a little pride in the 
matter. Why should it not be a pleasure! 
Does he not bring in the wood, the vegetables, 
do all the little chores that he thinks will save 
us stops'! Then the baby must be taken care of. 
Yes, there it is agaiu! “the baby,” what must 
be done with that! Surely some writers seem 
to think it too rnueb for the mother to take 
care of her baby', it unsettles her nerves, con¬ 
fines her to the house and so ou. Can husband 
take a bottle of milk aud baby iu the field, so 
mamma can have a little rest aud perhaps finish 
the last novel she loves to read so well ! This 
hardly seems practicable. We think we can 
answer for the majority of mothers what to do 
with baby'. We can do for it what no one else 
can. The little dimpled eh; eks and soft chubby 
hands we love as no other person can. If there 
are women (and I do not dispute but what there 
are many of them) that have more work to do 
thau they ought to have, and are more closely 
confined, it is their own fault, for there is not 
more than one man in a hundred but what if 
she would tell him so, would hire help. 
But it is too common for women to say “Ican- 
not put up with such help ns we get no w-a-days, 
I will do any way rather thau to have such iu 
my house,” and still feels as though sbo was 
“giving out” all the time, and saying if one 
drops into her cosy sitting room for a few min¬ 
utes, aud while in conversation asks “ if she 
attended the sociable the other evening,” re¬ 
plies, “ no, I cannot, get time to attend such 
places; why it takes me all the day to do my 
work aud I am clear discouraged; it is noth¬ 
ing but work, work! (looking out the window) 
there goes Mr. H. and wife. I wonder where 
they can be going to-day again; how can people 
find so much time to visit ?” You will as a 
rule fiud such ones home in perfect order, 
everything dusted, books and papers stacked 
up, and if perchance one is taken to look at it, 
will be in its former position in a very few 
minutes after leaving your hands. Rather 
thau to sacrifice so much to order and system, 
let the house be stirred up a little. There is 
seldom an afternoon or evening spent among 
your friends and neighbors but something 
is learned, some neiv idea perhaps; or. iu a dis¬ 
cussion light is brought out upon a certain 
subject. There are not many wives who have 
to be invited the second time to go out; give 
them a chance and they will manage the work. 
The columns in the Rural devoted to the 
ladies aud the household, are helping us won¬ 
derfully. I wished they rould be placed ou 
every' womans’ table in the country. 
Mr. Green says, “when he looks over the 
farmers at country' fairs he hesitates to have 
his sous follow his occupation.” Bo the mother 
“ hesitates to have her daughter take the little 
ones to the village, for fear they cannot resist 
the temptations that will surround them from 
the age of 14 to 21.” Keep them on the farm 
then until they are capable of doing for them¬ 
selves. Some of our best lawyers, physicians, 
teachers and business men were born aud 
brought up ou a form; energetic, full of life 
aud vigor they left the homestead to do for 
themselves, and their perseverance has won 
them fame. We dislike to be spoken so 
slightly of, as though we were the only ones 
that are duped by sharpers, but I see occasion- 
ly a notice like this in some country paper, 
“ Mr. A. of the city of B. was divested of a 
few hundred dollars by the sharpers following 
such a show,” which looks to me as though the 
fools were not all farmers, although some 
people think to the contrary. 
Millie Roberts. 
Fig. 424 
BRIC-A-BRAC VS. BREAK-YOUR-BACK 
MAY MAPLE. 
“ Decorate the homes,” is a beautiful senti¬ 
ment, and for the last decade of years, the 
inundate has been heeded by a multitude of 
Rural readers, Aud these fresh adornments 
do please the eye and delight fancy at 
I oft st for a time 
I imagine if our great grandfathers and 
grandmothers could enter some of our parlors 
at the present day , they would fancy they had 
entered the fairy-laud of their youthful 
dreams or a full-fledged toy shop. Bo many' 
faucy articles would they fiud, not only' for the 
little ones who counted their ages by a few 
flower-strewn Summers, but also toys for the 
older members of the family. To be sure 
many of these ornaments come from foreign 
lands and may be considered treasures of 
value from certain association. But many 
very handsome adornments have been manu¬ 
factured by' loving hands at home, often at 
the expense of needed recreation aud there¬ 
fore of health. 
When some would be philanthropist sent 
forth the mandate to “ Decorate the homes, ’» 
that the sons and daughters might find at¬ 
tractions around their own fireside instead of 
wandering away into “ by and forbidden 
paths,” or lookiug with JoDgiug eyes for the 
“ fleslipots of Egypt;” or in modern language, 
iu making home so attractive, the young folks 
would have no desire to leave the old roof 
tree aud go cityward, but would forever re¬ 
main fanners; he had no idea of the extremes 
to which his wish would be carried. Now, 
throughout very many farming communities, 
the mothers and grown up daughters improve 
every' spare moment that is to be found 
between their multifarious duties of kitchen, 
dining-room, parlors and sleeping-iooins, to 
manufacture somethiug new to adorn these 
various apartments; chairs and sofas must be 
covered with faucy tidies that are like rugs, 
designed to be picked up and spread out every 
time one comes within reach of them. There 
are rustic frames by the score hanging on the 
walls, “what-nots” iu every corner filled to 
overflowing with ornamental vases, fancy 
dishes, handed down from the old-fashioned 
cupboard of the great grandmothers, and 
may or may not be valuable for their an¬ 
tiquity. Specinnus from the forests are 
brought to the parlor, mosses, sticks, fungi 
and Autumu leaves. The old stoue pile from 
the meadow must also give of its treasures to 
ornament the old staud that has renewed its 
age by being covered with velvet or plush; 
gilded air castles of various forms are pendant 
from the ceiliug over-head, aud other brie- 
brac too numerous to mention, 
The manufacture aud gatheriug together of 
all these bits of decoration is but a very small 
part of the cost. Every day in the year do 
the most of these things need dusting aud re¬ 
arranging if oue desires to be reasonably neat 
aud orderly. And what au immense sight of 
work does these ornaments entail upon the 
already' over tasked wives aud daughters. 
What wonder is it that a look aud feeling 
of weariness hangs about them from early' 
dawn to dewy eve ? And after all does this 
display of “ fancy' nothings” accomplish its 
object ! Do the boys aud girls stay more 
willingly upon the farm ? 1 think not; they 
may be pleased with the general appearance 
of their home and its adornments, and happy iu 
the thought that “ Our home is as pretty as 
our neighbors.” 
But the fact is, we as a nation are moving, 
stir-about bodies, aud each feels the necessity 
or desire to know what Dame Fortune has in 
store for services that may be rendered. And 
the day is already here when even the girls— 
those heretofore almost useless append, 
ages, at least so considered—as well as the 
boys, are making calculation to get something 
they can claim as their own, by their own ex¬ 
ertion. They are tiled of all this faucy work, 
that really amounts to nothing when it comes 
to getting ones bread and butter. Their as¬ 
pirations have gone beyond the pillow case 
full of well kuit stockings, and u few chests of 
flannel and patch-work quilts, iu which the 
moths might burrow from year to year. 
Adornments to a certain extent, are useful 
as well as ornamental. But for ruralists to 
ape their city sisters in filling every room to 
overflowing with break-back or bric-brae, is 
simply suicidal. If a happy medium could bo 
reached iu the deeoratiug of our homes, there 
might be some opportunity to decorate the 
minds of those who are now obliged to spend 
many hours in furbishing up handsome toys. 
The extremes of decoration arc as much to be 
avoided as extremes in any other fashion, 
STRAY NOTES FROM THE FARMERS) 
WIVES’ CLUB. 
At the last meeting of the Club no formal 
proceedings were had; the members were all 
saddened by the recent death of an esteemed 
friend, wife of a neighboring farmer, who bud 
died suddenly “with the armor on,” and It 
was the opinion of all that had she been less 
self-sacrificing, loss blindly devoted to her 
family she might have been spared to a good 
old age, instead of falling in the prime of life. 
With almost reckless devotion she had toiled 
for her husband’s material interests during 
the first years of her married life, looking for- 
w ard; bowevery to the time when she could 
afford to take life easier. She never paused 
in her weary round to study newer, better or 
shorter ways of accomplishing her work, but 
trusted to her bodily strength and persever¬ 
ance. When her rising family of gil ls became 
old enough to lighten her work, if she had 
trained them to do so, her mistaken affection 
caused her to spare them every disagreeable 
task. “I have always had to work hard,’ she 
would say, “aud I want my girls to have an 
easier and pleasanter time than I have.” Thus 
she unconsciously educated them to be selfish, 
inconsiderate, and exacting towards herself. 
11 was not their fault that their mother worked 
through the long, hot afternoons of the Sum¬ 
mer while they amused themselves with read¬ 
ing or fancy work. It had been instilled into 
their minds that they ought not to work at 
drudgery unless they preferred to, and that to 
be happy they must not be useful. So they 
had lived on thoughtlessly uutil the woru-out 
but too loving mother dropped her burden 
suddenly, and they found themselves all un¬ 
prepared to take up the domestic cares which 
bad heretofore made their lives so comforta¬ 
ble. It, seemed to iuteusify their grief at their 
loss to think now, when it was too late, where 
their mother had failed in doing her duty by 
them. They were good, enterprising girls, 
too, and had now set out earnestly to learn 
what they ueeded to know about practical 
work, and our impreteudiug society promises 
to be of great help to them. And each aud 
every one feels more determined to learn all 
they can of eaeli other of the homely duties of 
life, and to teach the same to their daughters 
they may go hand in hand with the more in¬ 
tellectual pursuits which add so much enjoy¬ 
ment to their well-earned leisure hours. 
Dorinda. 
-- 
OUR KITCHENS. 
Truly lias it been said that the proper 
care aud good management, of a home is of 
as much impoi tance as the business affairs of 
men. 
While we acknowledge that man earns 
the home; we must concede that woman 
makes it a haven of rest, or, by her idle¬ 
ness and incapacity turns it into a place of 
torment. How' very important then, 
is it, that the daughters of a household 
should be trained to that which may be the 
business of their lives. It must not be sup¬ 
posed that the education obtained in the 
kitchen will detract from the dignity or re¬ 
finement of a true lady. Let her rniud le 
Stored with all the wealth of wisdom which 
the ages have handed down in volumes and 
the greatest miuds have written. If duty 
ealls her to the occupations of home life, if 
others depend upon her skilful hand or active 
brain iu the administration of household af 
fairs, let hera be the noble part of cheering 
others by her industry. Have we not read of 
lofty intellects who yet took in the details of 
household employments! Of Mrs. Stowe, 
who, while thinking out her characters aud 
incidents for the next chapter of her grand 
book Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” was working with 
her busy bauds to maintain the order aud com¬ 
fort of her home? 
You all know well. I presume, the routine 
oflifeinthe kitchen; how the bread must, le 
baked the savory dinner cooked, the dishes 
washed, the floor swept., the stove polisheJ, 
and the hundred other little things which make 
up the comfort of a home,—this in both city 
and country kitchens—how, in the city, the 
ironing day comes with its clothes-basket of 
dainty ruffles,tucks aud puffs which may not be 
slighted. In the country, the farmer’s wives 
aud daughters are content with plainer cloth¬ 
ing, thereby making that work easier for 
themselves; nevertheless, having other duties, 
which perhaps outweigh that of ironing ruffles. 
Oh! if withour work we could always preserve 
a tranquil, cheerful spirit, how much that now 
we call drudgery would be termed service—the 
fulfilling of a holy mission. Blessed iu our 
eyes are the lives of some women we know, 
who strive to make tlieir homes bright for 
those whom God has placed iu their keeping; 
who think it uot a degradation to work for 
those they love! Blessings on their dear toil- 
stained hands, which will one day lay down 
the well-worn implements of labor, to touch 
the golden harps of heaven uud feel, on brows 
which here have ached with anxious thought 
the soothing influence of eternal joy and rest! 
Shall we not then, think with a degree of in¬ 
terest uud real satisfaction of the work of the 
kitchen, nnd its importance In our homes ! 
Really, is not a well kept, kitchen a nice, yes, a 
very pretty room? Kee how the clear fire 
throws a brightness on the surrounding ob¬ 
jects, the very floor catches the ruddy gleams 
aud smiles in return, over whose surface the 
busy foot must move. The dresser, ou whoso 
shelves thu shining dishes wait until they serve 
the “ daily bread;” and the homely pots and 
pans which live in retirement, only ccming 
out to be used in prei aring the appetizing feed 
