964 
July 31, 1915. 
WOMAN AND HOME 
A Few Old Timers. 
The sailors tells us as they go, 
Across the Gulf of Mexico, 
IIow far beyond the sight of land, 
With ocean stretched on every hand, 
They find a patch of lighter blue, 
And, bubbling up—the ocean through, 
Fresh water, pure as mountain dew. 
From the far Rockies, cold and gray. 
That crystal flood has found its way, 
Deep in the earth, to merge at last 
Beneath the bed of ocean vast. 
And reach the surface of the tide 
Where weary mariners may ride. 
Rost mountain waters, moving slow. 
Through subterranean rivers low, 
To meet at last the ocean’s blue, 
Bike life's lost impulses are you, 
Beneath the crust of doubt and wrong 
Through weary years they creep along, 
And, gathering force as time goes past, 
They burst in truth and strength at last! 
* 
Outdoors. 
Ride on my mower, my plow and ray rake. 
The horse lifts the grain and the hay ; 
I sit down to bind, and my comfort I take 
As my farming goes on—that’s the way 
For a fellow to work—have respect for 
your back, 
Make your head save your heels and 
then go 
At a good easy pace down the slojie of 
life’s track; 
Not with footsteps all stiffened and 
slow. 
* 
Indoors. 
With the washboard and tub I must stay 
here and scrub 
With the water some 30 rods away; 
With a stove that won’t draw and a wood- 
pile all raw. 
What a lie to call housework a play. 
There are meals to be cooked there are 
tempers all crooked, 
To be straightened and only two 
thumbs 
And eight fingers complete—all day long 
on your feet. 
’Tis not strange that your ambition 
numbs. 
* 
Bring that water indoors, farmer, do 
these hard chores. 
Save your wife if she’s worthy your 
name. 
Save her steps ere too late do it now, sir, 
don’t wait, 
Or your tools will but publish your 
shame! 
* 
We’re coming Uncle Farmer, and we’ll 
settle on you long: 
Our name is City Cousin—we’re a hun¬ 
dred thousand strong. 
There’s mother and the baby and there’s 
Mary Ann and Jim; 
And Mary’s beau is stopping here, so 
we’ve invited him. 
We’re coming up to eat your eggs, and 
put away your fruit, 
And get a taste of milk and ham, and 
other things that suit. 
Be sure to feed the horse some oats, and 
get the hay all in. 
We want to drive him all we can—it 
seems almost a sin 
To ride in that old wagon, don’t you 
think that you can buy 
A bran new carriage for us? Oh, do 
please now, Uncle, try! 
We’re coming out to rest, you know, and 
breathe the country air. 
Our nerves are broken down, while you 
have lots of nerve to spare; 
We’ll give you our society to satisfy your 
due. 
And take our change in vegetables to run 
the Winter through. 
* 
A Sunday school teacher, one day in his 
class 
Discussed the old question—how came it 
to pass, 
That old Father Adam was given a wife 
To comfort his sorrows and brighten his 
life, 
And bring Cain and Abel to fill up the 
crib. 
So Eve was made up of old Adam’s short 
fib. 
He asked a few questions: “Who, chil¬ 
dren, was Eve?” 
A little boy said “Adam’s wife, I be¬ 
lieve.” 
“And what was she made of?” A girl s 
feeble tone 
Piped in with the answer: “Of Adams 
backbone!” 
We often have wondered when men 
shrunk away 
From duty and let evil carry the day. 
Just when Adam’s backbone was killed by 
the frost 
But now we well know that it never was 
The women folks carry it solid and sound, 
And though men may shirk, their back¬ 
bone will be found. 
In mother or sister or sweetheart or wife, 
To stand for the honor and jurMce of life. 
* 
Another result of the European war 
is observed in the “spending power of 
English women.” Buying has largely 
passed into the hands of the wives oi 
daughters of soldiers: 
Wives of men who have enlisted are 
THE RURAL 
receiving all, or a good part, of their 
husbands’ pay, as well as the allowances 
made in many cases by their employers. 
The latter amounts to about one-half 
of their regular pay. With those funds 
the women are better supplied with 
money, to spend in such manner as they 
see fit, than they ever have been before. 
One result, landlords say, is that they 
are receiving their rents more regularly. 
Another result, no doubt, is that the 
money is being spent in a different way 
than it was when the men chiefly or 
wholly directed its expenditure. 
Here then is another thing to consider 
when the war is over, the surviving 
soldiers will return to find women doing 
The Youngest R. N.-Y. Subscriber. 
men’s work and also doing the financial 
business of the home. The adjustment 
of these things will shake up society. 
* 
There must be an oldest and a young¬ 
est subscriber to every paper. We are 
not quite sure about the oldest subscriber, 
but there is probably no doubt about the 
youngest so we print his picture here. 
This is Ernest S. Johnson of Vienna, Va. 
The paper goes to him in care of his 
mother, Mrs. .Tul Johnson. Ernest was 
born on Washington’s Birthday of this 
year and is therefore about four months 
old. He has not yet stated his inten¬ 
tion of growing up a farmer but he prob¬ 
ably will, and we will do our best to in¬ 
fluence him in that direction. 
❖ 
Every industrial report from Europe 
now refers to the work which women are 
doing as substitutes for the men now 
fighting in the armies. In Germany, 
France and England thousands of women 
are working in arsenals, packing shells 
and cartridges and preparing ammuni¬ 
tion. All this in addition to other thou¬ 
sands who are working on farms or at 
other manual labor. The English women 
are quite likely to win the suffrage 
through the record they are making as 
home defenders during these war times. 
Their labor is now necessary, yet month 
by month the question of the future effect 
of all this upon labor grows larger and 
larger. What will happen when the sol¬ 
diers come home at the end of the war 
and find women in their old jobs—doing 
the work as well as they ever did? 
* 
One of our readers sends us the follow¬ 
ing note—which is like many others: 
My wife recently attended a neighbor¬ 
hood organization in our home county. 
One of the questions asked was: “Which 
farm paper do you think of most value to 
tlie average farm home in the neighbor¬ 
hood?” If I remember the figures cor¬ 
rectly, out of 1(5 answers The Rural 
New-Yorker received 1J, as first choice. 
It seems that country people are be¬ 
coming more discriminating than ever be¬ 
fore regarding their reading matter. A 
new generation has come into active con¬ 
trol of affairs. Farm life has changed, 
in many ways, and a paper must now 
make a direct and convincing appeal to 
country people if it is to stand the test. 
The R. N.-Y. welcomes such a test. It 
is designed for intelligent and thinking 
people, who believe in country living, and 
who have no apologies to make because 
they are farmers. We want all the com¬ 
forts and conveniences which town life 
can supply transplanted to the farm, but 
we believe the country is the best place 
for man, woman and child to live. The 
women of the country have always been 
our staunch friends. In the majority of 
cases they decide what papers are to be 
taken and many thousands of women sub¬ 
scribe to The R. N.-Y. in their own 
NEW-YORKER 
names. Not long ago one of our agents 
approached a farmer who had been re¬ 
cently married. lie and his bride engaged 
in the following dialogue: 
He. —“Oh I guess I can’t afford it. 
We have many papers now and there are 
many calls for money.” 
Site.—“B ut this is the old Rural. 
We must take that. I have read it at 
father’s house since I was a little girl. 
We can’t keep house without The 
Rural.” 
That settled it—and there are hun¬ 
dreds of just such cases. 
The papers are now telling of some 
wonderful characters. There is the baby 
weighing 22 ounces which promises to 
grow up to gigantic size. Then the 
Whitman baby champion long distance 
yeller. This is the little son of Gov. 
Whitman of New York. The Governor 
got on the ’phone in San Francisco while 
the baby was brought to the mouthpiece 
in Albany, N. Y. After some trouble this 
good-natured youngster was induced to 
let out a yell which was distinctly heard 
in San Francisco, 8.000 miles away. A 
long distance baby that. Then comes the 
four-year-old girl in Pennsylvania who 
swam about one-third of a mile in record 
time. Following her is the young woman 
who drives a team in Oklahoma and 
makes $10 a day. Some of us who can 
look back more than half a century won¬ 
der why there were no such wonderful 
creatures in our youth. The answer is 
that there were plenty of them, but they 
were not so well advertised as they are 
now. 
Referring to the letter dated May 24, 
1915, from Henry E. Stimson, printed in 
The Little Nurse. 
the New York Times, I wish to state 
that he need have no fear that “woman 
suffrage in New York State would tend 
to destroy proportionate representation 
between city and country interests.” In 
my experience the wives go with their 
husbands to the polling places, which 
are at the farthest only three miles away. 
They take advantage of the opportunity 
offered to shop or visit with friends while 
father votes. I am sure they would be 
glad to spend a little of this time in cast¬ 
ing their own ballots. The farmer's wife 
and daughter are awake and active. 
They will be on hand to vote when the 
men of this great State will permit them 
to do SO. MRS. G. L. TEETS. 
• New York. 
Usually and “normally” I am not a 
suffragette; I have too many rights and 
privileges now—several that I would like 
much to shift to some man’s shoulders 
and see that he carried them gracefully. 
BUT when I see some poor little woman 
struggling along, abused and brow-beaten 
by some lazy, good-for-nothing man, then 
I am all for suffrage a. r. 
We have an idea that this expresses 
the point of view of thousands of sensible 
women. They may easily hesitate to as¬ 
sume the responsibilities which go with 
the ballot, and they would feel responsi¬ 
bility more than most men do. Yet when 
they see injustice or a crooked deal meted 
out to other women they feel that they 
would like to help with their ballot. The 
question will finally come down to this— 
Could I help these other women if I could 
vote? If I could help them is it my duty 
to do so? 
A Wind-jigger for Company. 
We knew a farm woman who encour¬ 
aged her younger brother to put a wind- 
jigger up on the cone of the barn roof. 
The picture here shows one at work. 
She said that this plaything for Boreas 
was company for her Often she was 
alone, and while going about the house 
doing one work or another, she would 
glance out of the window and see the fly¬ 
ing contrivance changing with the wind 
and whirling around and around like all 
possessed. It served to relieve the ted¬ 
ium, and however slight the influence it 
really lightened labor. In this way the 
wind-jigger was worth much more than 
it cost, and it was the wind that did all 
of the work. J. L. graff. 
* 
Woman and the School Vote. 
On page S50 there is the question, 
“Why don’t the women vote on the 
schools if they desire to vote?” It states 
that “for years the men have given wom¬ 
en equal voice with themselves in all 
that pertains to school affairs, yet in few 
instances do women avail themselves of 
the privilege of participating in school 
district elections.” 
Now have they? 
In this State (Vermont) there must be 
property in the woman’s name that calls 
for a separate inventory by the listers. 
Until the Legislature of 1914 this was 
specified as real estate; now it reads as 
any taxable property. This means money 
in some taxable form, not merely a poll 
tax. The woman cannot say “My head 
is worth $200 to me and to my town and 
State,” as the men do. No, it must be 
more tangible property than that. 
IIow many girls married at 20 or 
thereabouts, as many are, have saved 
enough to more than buy their linen and 
things necessary for marriage? After 
marriage the property, among farmers es¬ 
pecially, is in the man’s name, It must 
be, they say, for them to do business. 
Do the women stop earning after mar¬ 
riage? That is a question still under 
discussion. I say no. A woman who 
cares for home and children is still an 
earner of life’s wages, but they are very 
often not represented in dollars and cents. 
Now what connection is this to the vote? 
Simply this: The spinsters and widows 
have property, they have to pay taxes, 
they can vote on the school question. 
Mothers with children in schools, who 
are interested in schools, know most 
about schools, where are they? I know 
the mothers of 50 pupils, including three 
schools of this town, and of those there 
are two who could have voted last elec¬ 
tion, but the last child of each graduated 
this June. One of those mothers is a 
widow with her share of the small estate 
left by her husband, the other received 
property from her parents. Can anyone 
see the connection? As for me, were 1 
worth a million dollars I’d never go and 
vote on the school question when my 
A Wind-jigger for Company. 
sister woman with an equal number of 
children in the public schools, could not 
vote, simply because she had not the 
dollars I had, but possessed the same 
amount of sense. I once read the follow¬ 
ing in print—it is worthy of being print¬ 
ed again and yet again. Idiots are de¬ 
nied the ballot because they have no 
sense, lunatics are denied the ballot be¬ 
cause they have lost their sense, criminals 
are denied the ballot because they have 
abused their sense, women are denied the 
ballot—why? A. b. g. 
