80 
Woman and the Home 
From Day to Day 
DAN’S WIFE. 
Up in early rooming light. 
Sweeping, dusting, “setting right,” 
Oiling all the household springs, 
Sewing buttons, tying strings, 
Telling Bridget what to do. 
Mending rips in Johnny’s shoe, 
Running up and down the stair, 
Tying baby in her chair. 
Cutting meat and spreading bread, 
Dishing out so much per head, 
Eating as she can by chance, 
Giving husband kindly glance; 
Toiling, working, busy lift— 
Smart woman, 
Dan’s wife. 
Dan comes home at fall of night. 
Home so cheerful, neat, and bright; 
Children meet him at the door, 
Pull him in and look him o’er; 
Wife asks how the work has gone, 
“Busy times with us at home!” 
Supper done, Dan reads with ease— 
Happy Dan, but one to please! 
Child r< u must be put to bed— 
All the little prayers are said; 
Little shoes are placed in rows, 
Bedclothes tucked o’er little toes; 
Busy, noisy, wearing life— 
Tired woman, 
Dan’s wife. 
Dan reads on and falls asleep— 
See the woman softly creep; 
Baby rests at last, poor dear, 
Not a word her heart to cheer; 
Mending basket full to top. 
Stockings, shirt and little frock; 
Tired eyes and weary brain, 
Side with darting, ugly pain; 
“Never mind, ’t will pass away,” 
She must work, but never play; 
Closed piano, unused books, 
Done the walls to easy nooks, 
Brightness faded out of life— 
Saddened woman, 
Dan’s wife. 
Upstairs, tossing to and fro, 
Fever holds the woman low; 
Children wander free to play 
When and where they will to-day; 
Bridget loiters—dinner’s cold, 
Dan looks anxious, cross, and old; 
Household screws are out of place, 
Lacking one dear, patient face; 
Steady hands, so weak but true, 
Hands that- knew just what to do, 
Never knowing rest or play, 
Folded now—and laid away ; 
Work of six in one short life— 
Shattered woman, 
Dan’s wife. 
—Mrs. Woods. 
* 
The appointment of a woman as Com 
missioner of Correction in New York 
City does not seem so very surprising 
after all. It. was the devoted work of 
Elizabeth Fry that started the work of 
prison reform in Great Britain, and the 
philanthropy of Dorothea Dix that blazed 
the path for others in ameliorating the 
condition of the insane here. Indeed all 
through history we find devoted women 
who show their pity upon prisoners and 
captives, and it is quite fitting that a 
woman who has devoted herself to reform¬ 
atory work should be rewarded by mate¬ 
rial honors. There are many little conn 
try towns to-day where practically the 
only reformatory influence extended to 
the county jail is the periodical visit 
of some good women, who may not be 
very learned, and not always very wise, 
but who are actuated by the same spirit 
as the English Quakeress who gave up 
her leisure to the degraded prisoners in 
Newgate. 
One of the pleasant reminders of New 
Year’s Day was a neat little box with 
the following label: 
COMFORT POWDERS. 
To be used in all cases of disease, sor¬ 
row, lack of courage and discomfort of 
any kind. 
Take onq powder every morning, thor¬ 
oughly stirred with equal parts of loving 
trust and gratitude. Repeat the dose 
often. 
Compiled from the medicine book of 
the Great Physician. 
9 
Inside the box were about two dozen 
little packages in red paper looking ex¬ 
actly like the pills or powders prepared 
by doctors. Opening one at random there 
was disclosed a slip of paper on which 
was printed: 
“There shall no evil befall thee, neith¬ 
er shall any plague come nigh thy dwell¬ 
ing. —I’salms 91:1Q. 
Each “powder” contained a similar slip 
with an appropriate passage from the 
Scripture. After reading these “powders” 
are to be wrapped once more and well 
mixed together so that they may be 
“taken”- at random. Here is a new and 
effective variety of the good old way of 
inducing mind- to climb up above matter. 
T.VIB RURAL 
A farmer’s wife writes that she cares 
very little about fashions or how women 
“deck themselves out.” Once in a great 
while is often enough for her to read 
about such things. On the other hand, 
and almost in the same mail, come let¬ 
ters from wives and daughters who say 
they want to know what women are wear¬ 
ing and how to make the pretty little 
things which add so much to a woman’s 
dress. It is evident that the great ma¬ 
jority of our readers want to know how 
they can, with their own hands, and with 
such material as they can find, make the 
things which will enable them to dress 
well and becomingly. We are in full 
sympathy with this discussion of “fash¬ 
ions,” and such discussion will be con¬ 
ducted by women who know how to fit 
the sensible effects of Fifth Avenue to the 
needs of the country home. 
* 
One essential part of direct and profit¬ 
able trade is bright and “catchy” advex-- 
tising matter. In these days people are 
tired of dry statements, of facts, and 
some sti-ong and original way of putting 
a thing is sure to give it profit. Here 
is an illustration from the card of a 
Florida poultry keeper. We all think 
of Florida as a land of oranges, but few 
know that hens find it a paradise. 
EGGS VS. ORANGES. 
The same amount of capital and labor 
that is required to produce a box of 
oranges will produce a case of eggs. The 
box of oranges will sell f. o. b. for about 
$2.50, while the case of eggs will sell 
f. o. b. from $9.00 to $14.00 in the same 
market. There is about the same per 
cent, profit in a case of eggs as there is 
in a box of oranges. (Investigate). 
This man appeals to the imagination. 
Everyone has a box of oranges in mind, 
and by associating eggs with oranges the 
reader is compelled to stop and think 
of the connection. We hear through the 
brain, and we must sell to a direct trade 
that way too. 
* 
A prominent educator in Ohio said 
not long ago that no one was really fit 
to teach a school until "some little white 
coffin had been carried out of their home.” 
What he meant was that only those who 
had children of their own, and could thus 
realize the parent’s attitude toward the 
child, should teach in our public schools. 
What a contrast is presented between 
this and the attitude of the New York 
City Board of Education. They claim 
that the mother has no place in the 
school room, and they will, if they can 
carry out their plan, discharge married 
teachers who have children. There are 
said to be 1.000 married women teaching 
in the f(ew York City schools. The 
courts have finally decided against the 
school board and denied their right to re¬ 
move a married teacher who asks fox- 
leave of absence in case of maternity. 
* 
There is a story going around of an 
old farmer who came home at the close 
of a market day, looking quite puzzled, 
lie had a string tied around his fingei-, 
and his daughter's asked him what it was 
for. lie told them that while in the 
town he tied that string around his fin¬ 
ger in order to remember to bring some¬ 
thing home, and now to save his life he 
couldn’t remember what it was. The 
daughters tried to help him, but wei-e un¬ 
able to jog his memory, until one of them 
asked “Where is mother?” “Why,” said 
the farmer, “I have actually forgotten to 
bring your mother home, and that’s what 
I tied the string fox-.” Of course, this 
story originated in the brain of some 
funny man, who tried to earn a dollar 
by making a joke of this sort, and yet 
after we laugh at it and say how ab¬ 
surd it is that any such thing should 
happen, it, may do us all good to spend 
a little time in thinking whether mother 
is really ever fox-gotten or not. For 
the good patient mother often goes too 
far back in the meeting, and takes a seat 
too far back from the fire, when the 
younger people, busy with their own in¬ 
terests, do not realize that pei-haps they 
are playing somewhat the part of father 
when lie left her in town. 
* 
Several new “chain letters” ax-e float¬ 
ing about through the country. The lat¬ 
est one is headed : “A letter from Christ.” 
It contains about 900 woi-ds and carries 
a veiled threat that if the receiver does 
not copy it and try to have it published 
NEW-YORKER 
misfortune and loss will follow. A few 
years ago such letters urged the receiver 
to send a dollar’s Vorth of cancelled 
stamps to a certain address in Aus¬ 
tralia, and millions of those worthless 
stamps were sent. The postal authorities 
try in evei-y way to stop the circulation 
of these lettci-s. They ai-e useless and 
often mischievous. We hope that those 
of our readers who i-eceive such “chain” 
letters will break the chain at once and 
take no further notice of such schemes. 
* 
I haven’t much hope that much can 
be done for the average grown person. 
The average grown person has his or her 
habit of mind pretty unchangeably fixed. 
Some can take in new ideas, and some 
are always students, but mostly, l think, 
our hope lies with the children.* The soft 
wax of their brains is all ready for new 
impressions. And I do not know but 
that the best way to reach the elders is 
through the children. The new ideas that 
the children can be got to advocate with 
their fresh enthusiasm at home will go 
farther, perhaps, than all our preaching. 
D. 
Have you considered that perhaps we 
have done too much preaching—or preach¬ 
ing of the wrong sort? We had a man 
tell us the other day that he was com¬ 
pelled to go to church until he was 21, 
and then kept it up for a few yeai-s from 
habit. The preachers thundered at him 
and expounded doctrines, but they “never 
touched him.” Finally came a man of 
gentle, simple words, who somehow put 
a vision or pictux-e before this man— 
something he could not put out of mind— 
and the work was started. There are 
wise and good people who go at their 
audiences as if they would cut into the 
head with a cold chisel and pack some 
of their science away inside. They find 
this “wax of the brain” too hard. Soften 
the “wax” through unconscious thought 
and the impression will take. It is in 
just this way that children influence such 
parents. Why not imitate the children? 
* 
On page S5 is a statement of the 
property rights of women in Pennsyl¬ 
vania. There will be articles to follow 
on the rights of women in the holding 
and training of their children. We have 
been asked about the women’s pension 
law in Pennsylvania. The following 
statement covers it: 
“We have a mother’s pension, which 
is to indigent, widowed, or abandoned 
mothers who have continuously for three 
years been residents of the county from 
where they may receive relief for the 
partial support of their children in their 
own homes. The combined total maxi¬ 
mum payment to one mother must not 
exceed $12 per month for one child ; $20 
a month for two children; $26 for thx-ee 
children, and $5 for each additional child. 
The payments last only until the child 
reaches the age when the law permits 
it to be employed. It is managed by not 
less than five, nor mox-e than seven wom¬ 
en trustees. The State appropriates a 
certain sum of money for this relief every 
two yeax-s, according to the population of 
the counties, the county must put up 
an equal amount. Satisfactory proof 
must be had before any recommendations 
are made.” 
* 
Can you suggest how I should pro¬ 
ceed to make a comfortable living for my 
fatliei-, aged 84, and myself, near middle 
age, on a 30-acre place, 10 acres level 
tillage and 20 in pasture and wood, in 
southern New Hampshire, seven miles 
from town of 6.000 inhabitants? 
I purchased the place thx-ee years ago, 
paying nearly cash for it, and bought 
two cows and a horse and a few«tools. I 
plant 2% acres to corn and potatoes, and 
nearly one-half acre to garden truck, but 
frosts early and late interfere with beaus, 
cucumbers, tomatoes, etc. I work out all 
the time I can spare after attending to 
my own work, but so far make a very 
poor living. My father is able to do most 
of the housework except the cooking, and 
I do most of that evenings. I wish to 
make the farm produce an income suffi¬ 
cient to supply our simple needs, but the 
outlook at present is discouraging. Dry 
weather last Summer made the hay crop 
short, and I have had to pui-chase bay 
this Winter, but think the place should 
produce hay enough for five cows and a 
horse when brought to proper state of 
cultivation. Before coining here I worked 
in a shop for 10 yeai-s and saved quite 
xx sum each year, enough so that I was 
able to buy this little farm. I like the 
farm and will stick to it if there is any 
chance of getting ahead. Can you give me 
any ideas that will put me on the right 
track? a. s. a. 
Here we have a genuine life problem 
for which there must be some l-emedy. 
We know how hard it is for a stranger 
to advise in such cases, for the person¬ 
ality of this man must be considered, and 
we do not know it. Yet here is a brother 
with a hard task, and one which must 
January IT, 
demand our sympathy and help. Who 
has had experience that will help him? 
He does not want theory or random ad¬ 
vice, but rather practical experience, and 
it is largely a housekeeper’s job. Tiie 
R. N.-Y. has been made strong through 
the kindly and sincere help of its read¬ 
ers in just such cases. In the same way 
“Woman and Home” can be made to 
serve its purpose. 
* 
We find that hundreds of women ax-e 
developing a direct trade in food by 
parcel post. The women do this better 
thaxi the men, and thci-e are many op¬ 
portunities. A New Yoi*k man used our 
Subscribers’ Exchange to call for food 
supplies. He received a good many offers 
to furnish butter, poulti-y, eggs, fruit 
and vegetables, and is buying from five 
different people—each supplying some 
particular food. He is well pleased. The 
goods are of fine quality and he makes 
a saving over city prices. The towns 
and cities are full of just such people, 
and direct trade with them offers great 
opportunity for farm women. In order 
to develop it one must be patient and ac¬ 
curate, prompt, and wise enough to give 
customers just a little more than they ex- 
’'eet 
* 
Very few farmers hesitate to spend 
$50 on improved farm machinery, to 
carry on their own work, and they should 
consider the mnuy steps, the drudgex-y of 
carrying heavy pails of water, and the ex¬ 
posure to bad weather which such a 
water supply saves the members of the 
household, to say nothing of the practical 
economy of preserving milk, butter, etc., 
fresh during the hot Summer days. 
Virginia. mart lee c. adams. 
A description of the water system in 
Mrs. Adams’s house is printed on page 83. 
She is entirely right. A good water sys¬ 
tem. inside the house should be regarded 
as just as necessax-y as impi-oved ma¬ 
chinery on the farm. The R. N.-Y. will 
make a campaign for water in the house, 
just as it has for Alfalfa, lime or parcel 
post. Let the men folks be warned. We 
shall make them all hot water men. 
* 
We have been reading the “Letters of 
a Woman Ilomesteadei-” in the Atlantic 
Monthly, which are, we are told, the 
actual correspondence passing between a 
woman on an isolated ranch and a friend 
in town. The Eastern farmer’s wife who 
thinks herself a “shut-in” because fate 
puts her on a hill farm four or five miles 
back from town would learn the meaning 
of real isolation from these letters, which 
are written so delightfully tha they give 
us a perfect picture, not only of surround¬ 
ing conditions, but also of the courageous 
and light-hearted woman who wi-ote them. 
But thei-e is one very dark side to the 
pleasant pictures of the wholesome ranch 
life, and that is the misery undergone 
by the women in sickness, and especially 
in maternity. Thei-e appeared to be, in 
too many cases, no help, medical or 
otherwise, and the sufferer must endure 
her burden as best she may, taking the 
risk of death or invalidism. It is just 
these conditions that have lead, in Aus¬ 
tralia, to the beginning of a great move¬ 
ment to supply trained nurses to the 
“back blocks” or frontier, the intention 
being to provide a nurse for a certain 
area, so that isolated women could re¬ 
ceive care and hygonic instruction, even 
where no doctor was accessible. In the 
city, with abundant facilities for medi¬ 
cal treatment, district nurses are pro- 
vided both by public and private agencies. 
The country, which so sorely needs them, 
is without. Some of the Granges have, 
we believe, already put themselves on 
record as favoring the establishment of 
rural nurses. We think this is a matter 
to be taken up by farm women. In all 
our schemes for conservation of National 
resources, we cannot find any worthier 
assets than the life and health of the 
farm .mother. 
Perhaps there are a few things we are 
apt to pride ourselves on as our good taste 
and culture. It is really no matter for 
pride at all. Good taste is a more likely 
comrade of humility, and goes with a 
childlike reverence for the work of the 
Creator as shown to us in the clouds, the 
mountains, the waves, the forests, the 
flowers, and in the flight of birds. These 
are examples of the highest attainable in 
beauty of form and colour.—Sydney 
Spalding. 
