1909. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
903 
My Daughter And I. 
* 
“Mother, how about Christmas pres¬ 
ents, this year?” 
“Yes, I am glad you mentioned them. 
Now that the last jar is filled with fruit 
or vegetables I fee] like a comfortable 
squirrel, and can turn my thoughts to 
something else. What are your ideas?” 
“I have not many. You see we soph¬ 
omores have not much time for any¬ 
thing except studying, but I do intend to 
take time in “Teachers’ Institute Week” 
to use my pyrography set—’that is going 
to be my stand-by this year. I shall buy 
some pieces ready to burn. For others 
I am going to use whittling blocks, 
which I think will do nicely, some for 
calendars, the printed calendars we buy, 
you know, pasted on the block, and a 
conventionalized pattern drawn and 
burnt round it. Then I thought the 
blocks would be nice for blotters—we 
never have enough blotters. Burn one 
side of the block and on the other side 
fasten quite a number of layers of dif¬ 
ferent colored blotting-paper, putting 
mucilage only at -the corners so that it 
will be easy to strip off a layer when it 
has been used.” 
“That sounds good. I mean to be se- 
rere'y practical this year. I know you 
will laugh when you hear I am going 
to give myself up to nightgowns and 
nightingales. I am intending to leave 
the young folks to you while I cater for 
the elders. I want to get the prettiest, 
warmest outing flannel I can find for 
both garments. The nightingales are 
for the weary ones who must spend 
days in bed and want something easily 
put on to keep arms and shoulders 
warm. Two and a half yards of cloth 
are folded over 12 inches at each end 
and then seamed flat. This gives a flat 
c'osed fold at each end, loose enough to 
slip the arms down easily, while the 
remainder of the material forms a loose 
wrap over the back and shoulders. There 
you have warmth without the usual 
struggle there is to get into sleeves. 
Now for my warm, snug nightgowns.” 
“I don’t see how you will find time to 
make them.” 
“I could not find time for an elaborate 
pattern, but this style, which may be 
called “simplicity nightgown” will soon 
be made. I shall not decorate them 
much—they are intended for the busy 
ones whose time is taken up in sewing 
for their little ones and I know they 
will value.the warmth and comfort more 
than decoration. For a nightgown, two 
yards long (I want lots of nightgown 
for cold feet), I take four yards of 
cloth and double it crosswise, run up 
the sides to within 10 inches of the 
crosswise fold. Hollow the arm-hole 
slightly and put in any desired sleeve. 
The crosswise fold forms shoulder the 
size wished. Between the shoulders cut 
open the crosswise fold, insert a little 
gusset at each side so as to fit into col¬ 
lar, gather front and -back into collar 
and cut opening down front There you 
have a nightgown on the shortest no¬ 
tice. Those who wish to get a pattern 
for a plain sacque nightgown will find 
R. N.-Y. pattern No. 6303 very useful.” 
“I think those will be both pretty and 
useful.” 
“The next .thing on my list is canned 
goods. I have put up about twice as 
much fruit and vegetables as we shall 
need, and I can give assorted boxes of 
them to those who have not much of a 
supply. By Christmas many people are 
getting low in their supplies, and those 
which come from an outside source seem 
to be greeted with quite a warm wel¬ 
come. When the time comes, I guess 
I shall not be able to resist making some 
Christmas cakes, and those, with nuts 
and oranges, will, I think, complete my 
little Christmas packages. I like to have 
my presents all ready beforehand so as 
not to be too tired to enjoy thoroughly 
the pleasure of giving, and with all the 
forethought possible Christmas is a busy 
time for housekeepers.” 
“I don’t know what to do for the chil¬ 
dren of seven or under.” 
“They are rather difficult, on a small 
income. Flow do you like writing and 
drawing materials? Transparent slates 
and small note paper and envelopes, and 
rainbow tablets with good, pretty pen¬ 
cils? They like the different colored 
sheets of rainbow paper, I think, and in 
some households it is quite a tax to keep 
the little ones supplied with paper to 
scribble on.”_ A. e. f. 
A Farm Woman and Her Work. 
In reading the article on page 932, 
reprinted from the New York Evening 
Post, I must say decidedly I do not 
agree with writer quoted. While not 
just at present living on a farm, in my 
younger days I spent several years of 
farm life. While we are glad to admit 
farm life is far pleasanter, in a great 
many ways, than it was in our grand¬ 
mother’s and our mother’s time, still I 
don’t think it fair to accuse the farmers’ 
wives and daughters of shirking their 
duties. It is much easier now to do one’s 
work, with all the modern appliances, 
than it once was; still, if it is easier for 
mother and the girls, how much easier 
it is for father and the boys, with all 
the new and high-priced machinery, run¬ 
ning all the way from a sulky plow and 
riding cultivator to a hayloader! This 
runs the cost of farming a large farm 
well into the thousands of dollars, where 
the farmer’s father and grandfather 
were well content to run their farms 
with the few tools at their command. 
But would anyone advise the farmer to 
go bade to the old way, or could he go 
back to the old way even if he wanted 
to? No; conditions have changed, and 
if he clung to the old way the more 
progressive farmer would soon own his 
farm, and he would be kept by the town 
very likely. 
But, how many machines are at moth¬ 
er’s disposal ? Only a few; many of the 
so-called labor-savers are laid away for 
some time when the busy housewife has 
more time to bother with them. They 
are labor-savers in name only, but the 
actual machines at a woman’s command 
can be counted on one hand. First and 
foremost is the sewing machine, next is 
the washing machine, and let me say 
right here there are hundreds, yes, thou¬ 
sands of homes where the washing ma¬ 
chine is known only by name. The 
washing is done in the same old way 
as our mothers and grandmothers and 
even our great-grandmothers did before 
us. Of course the coming of the cream 
separator has been a great boon to the 
farmer as well as to his wife. It is not 
only a labor saver and a help to the 
woman, but an actual saving of many 
dollars, as any farmer who has used 
one will attest, and as for taking the 
cream to the creamery, it is not so much 
different from the old way of taking 
the milk to the cheese factory, which 
was the rule a few years ago. To my 
way of thinking it is far superior, as 
you have the fresh sweet milk for the 
rearing of young calves and pigs. 
The writer in the Evening Post must 
be indeed unfortunate in his acquaint¬ 
ance with condition's on the great ma¬ 
jority of farms, not the very poor nor 
yet the very rich, but the great middle 
class, where both the farmer and his 
family are helping swell the income; 
where washing and ironing, cooking and 
baking, sweeping and cleaning, mending 
and sewing, canning, pickling and pre¬ 
serving, and numerous other duties fall 
to the womap’s share, and last but not 
least the rearing of sturdy sons and 
daughters to furnish the brains and 
sinew of the next generation. I wish it 
might fall to the lot of the writer in 
the Post to follow some busy farmer’s 
wife from early dawn until she lays 
away the last work at night. I think he 
would have a different story to write, 
and T think his respect for the farmer’s 
wife would increase mightily. As for 
the poultry raising on the farm, I am 
sure it is rare to find a farm without 
its flock of poultry. Within the last two 
or three years there has been in this 
community a decided increase in the 
number of hens kept on the farms, ow¬ 
ing I think to the lectures on poultry in 
the Granges and farmers’ clubs and else¬ 
where; also the articles written in all 
farm and poultry papers, which "help to 
increase the enthusiasm for poultry. The 
high prices of eggs and poultry in the 
last few years, make the farmer’s wife 
increase her flock and thereby increase 
her pin money. Ask almost any farmer 
how many hens he keeps, and he will 
tell you he doesn’t know, for “mother 
raises all the poultry.” You ask “mother” 
and she will probably tell you how she 
finds time with her numerous duties to 
raise a large flock of chickens, and may¬ 
be she will also tell you how she sold 
Macbeth Pearl 
Glass is the only 
kind of glass that 
would ever be 
used for lamp- 
chimneys if every 
maker consid¬ 
ered his interests 
identical with 
those of the user. 
It is only the 
user’s interests, 
however, that you have to con¬ 
sider. 
See that my name, Macbeth, is 
on the lamp-chimneys you buy, 
and they won’t break from heat. 
eggs enough to buy all their groceries, 
her aprons and father’s shirts, and may¬ 
be the school dresses for the little 
daughter. It is not unusual to find tur¬ 
keys, ducks and geese raised besides 
hens, and often the daughter of the 
house makes all her pin mbney in rais¬ 
ing poultry, besides helping mother in 
the house, and often, if work is press¬ 
ing and father short a man, she will not 
be above helping out of doors too. In 
fact I think father will be more indig¬ 
nant even than tire women themselves, 
at hearing mother and the girls called 
shirks. 
Again, some will tell you how the rag 
carpets and rugs and hand-made quilts 
are out of date, and how foolish it is 
to waste time making such things. You 
have only to ride out through the coun¬ 
try in house-cleaning time, to see hang¬ 
ing on the lines handsome quilts and 
bed linen and good serviceable rugs and 
rag carpets to attest to the busy fingers 
of mother and the girls, and they can 
do all the so-called fancy work too. Go 
into their parlor and you will probably 
see as nice a carpet as their city sisters, 
but they know for all-round durability 
there is nothing quite so good for the 
sitting room floor as a rag carpet; 
therefore they prepare the rags and take 
it to the weaver, or sometimes mother 
owns a loom and even weaves it herself. 
I tell you frankly the home woman, the 
woman with a family, whether she be 
on a farm or not, works more hours 
than any factory girl, but they are hap¬ 
py nevertheless in knowing that they are 
working for their own, and they care 
not one -straw, whether some city re¬ 
porter tells them they are shirking their 
duties, or somebody else wants to ap¬ 
point a commission to investigate their 
One quality: to get the correct size and shape for 
any burner, have my lamp book. Free. Address 
Macbeth, Pittsburgh, 
Christmas Book Sale 
| TJftrishnas 
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AMERICAN GOLF GLOVE CO., 
5127 Lena Street, Germantown, Philadelphia. 
conditions on the farm, or some paper 
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own way, glad to live on the old farm 
and call it ’home, sweet home.” 
MRS. E. C. MOULTON. 
TH BEST'”Ll GHT 
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