Home Making in the Country 
The Flower Gardens Have Disappeared 
IIAT THE HOME NEEDS.—It is not counted 
the part of wisdom for anybody to live too 
much in the past, and none of us would recommend 
doing so on general principles, but here in my own 
State and, I believe, 
in much of the United 
States, a definite 
change has come about 
during the past 20 
years that I think de¬ 
serves some thought. 
The matter that I have 
in mind is home-mak¬ 
ing among practically 
all of the rural popu¬ 
lation. I think that 
our homes are, and al¬ 
ways will be, the 
heart of the nation. 
There is more truth 
than fiction in the 
joke that “These are 
not biscuits like 
mother used to make.” 
I certainly do not need 
to give any lecture up¬ 
on what constitutes a 
home. It begins, as 
all of you will imme¬ 
diately agree, with the 
mother. It includes 
all of the little things 
that go to make life 
less of a drudgery, the 
neatness and cleanli¬ 
ness, the attractive ap¬ 
pearance in every way. 
in short, the well-kept 
house, with its proper 
complement of reading 
matter, both to rest us 
when we are weary 
and to stimulate us to 
more activity. It in¬ 
cludes proper cooking, 
with a mother's watch¬ 
ful care over every¬ 
thing. not only over 
the bodily welfare of 
the family, but their 
mental and spiritual 
needs as well. It 
should not be a place 
where all is work, and 
this means that the 
mother herself must 
not have too many 
cares, and last but not 
least, the setting must 
be proper. That is, 
the house must be an 
attractive - looking 
building, and the lawn and its surroundings must 
be attractive. These homes will necessarily be the 
result of several things. One of them will certainly 
be a sufficient financial income, and this is largely 
dependent upon the father’s ability. Another will 
be the character of the mother and. in most 
cases, I do not think we need to worry much 
about this last point, because American women 
have character that is naturally beyond reproach. 
OLD-TIME LEISURE.—Here is a change that 
has taken place in my own neighborhood during the 
past 20 years. At that time we had no automobiles, 
and our circle of acquaintances was more limited 
than it is today. We had intimate friends who 
lived within a mile of us, less intimate who lived 
lip to three or four miles away, and our cirele of 
acquaintances pretty well stopped at five or six 
miles. The friends that we had. however, were very 
good, and we saw each other continually. Mrs. 
Mahan was a dear old lady, who lived a quarter of 
a mile to the south. Mrs. Mickle was a very fine 
character, who lived a quarter of a mile to the 
north. Mrs. Bryan was a very dear friend, who 
o 
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lived half a mile to the west, and there were others 
of whom we were very fond, living within this close 
radius. I was a boy then, and possibly I forget, but 
it is my recollection that one or two of these ladies 
was at our house every week, and that my mother 
and sister returned calls regularly. They brought 
their sewing or knitting, spent the afternoon, and 
thriftily combined 
pleasure with their 
everyday work. At 
that time, the entire 
country grew flowers 
vastly more than they 
do today, and all Sum¬ 
mer, when the ladies 
came, one of their first 
thoughts was to walk 
about the house and 
yard examining the 
beds that my mother 
always kept, beds of 
old-fashioned flowers, 
it is true, but they 
were properly com¬ 
bined and well cared 
for, so that they made 
a very pleasing effect. 
CHANGED CONDI¬ 
TIONS.—In compari¬ 
son to the conditions 
that existed 20 years 
ago. our neighborhood 
today has changed 
radically in many 
ways. Mrs. Mahan 
died perhaps 14 years 
ago. and the house is 
now occupied by a 
family of our own 
tenants. The other 
neighbors have, in 
many cases, died or 
moved away, and their 
places, to a great ex¬ 
tent, have been taken 
by laboring people or 
worse. Every circum¬ 
stance has a cause, 
and this part of the 
change has been un¬ 
avoidable. because 
gradually during these 
years the live young 
people have realized 
the attractions of the 
city, and many of our 
best have gone there, 
their places being 
taken, in many cases, 
by laboring men. I 
wonder if the gradual 
disappearance of flow¬ 
ers from many of our 
homes has not been 
coincident with the 
disappearance of help in the house. The two seem 
to have pretty well gone together. Twenty years 
ago it was not at all difficult to have help for the 
lady of the house, but it has gradually become more 
and more difficult, until today, in the parts of the 
country where I am acquainted, it is practically 
impossible to have help, and it is entirely possible 
that the lady of the house has not felt equal to 
