<Jhe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1669 
The Hired Man’s Wife 
We are new subscribers to The R. X.- 
y, although for some time reading 
“p'assed-on” co|>ies. For over a year now 
I have been a hired man's wife and, there¬ 
fore, was much interested in the letter of 
\lrs. M. B. of Yates Co.. N. 1\, because 
it was the lirst time I've seen in print the 
hired man’s side of the farm help prob¬ 
lem. Perhaps the experience of a young 
couple who ventured from the city into 
the unknown realm of the hired man may 
shed a little light on the subject. 
M.v husband was one of the many sol¬ 
diers who, upon returning from service 
in France, hoped to take up a “slice” of 
land the Government was talking of re¬ 
claiming out West, so with this idea in 
view, he got a job as hired man on a 
large Hudson Valley farm, hoping to 
gather further experience about general 
farming. Over 100 miles came this em¬ 
ployer to interview him, and the offer of 
$50 per month, a cottage, garden, etc., 
sounded good when compared to the 
“young fortune” demanded in Manhattan 
for the poorest flat. A splendid chance, 
thought we, to spend the Summer among 
the glorious hills, dodge the H. C. L. and 
preserve the tan and added flesh and 
brawn acquired in the army. 
Our cottage turned out to be a “shack” 
with a dry well, the nearest water supply 
contained in a spring at the foot of a 
steep hill. Our furniture was already on 
its way via freight, so still undaunted, we 
set about to scrub and paint walls or 
paper them, and repaired the “shack” so 
we were certain of its interior cleanliness 
at least, and the knowledge that the roof 
would not cave in on us. My husband 
toiled hard from 5:30 a. m. to 8 P-,.m. 
seven days a week, milking and doing 
general farm work, but all this was noth¬ 
ing compared to the meauness of the man 
towards all his men, nor the attitude of 
his women folks towards me. Six lonelier 
or more humiliating months I never put 
in before. Every woman in the. village 
ignored me. seemed afraid of me in spite 
of my half-way friendliness.. Not one 
ever spoke a friendly word, or in any way 
tried to make me feel at home. The chil¬ 
dren alone (who know not the social 
creed. God bless ’em) entered the forbid¬ 
den threshold of our shack on Saturday 
afternoons to visit me and tell me of their 
school work, and listen to my stories and 
eat. some of my cookies. Our employer 
had a little girl of five, whose aunt pun¬ 
ished her on several occasions because she 
dared to sneak across the field to pay me 
a little informal call, and on another oc¬ 
casion because she greeted me while pass¬ 
ing me on the road in her father’s flivver. 
Yet in appearance, education and good 
breeding I was the equal of any of the 
ladies in the family, so I am at a loss to 
know the reason for their antipathy and 
aloofness. The butcher’s auto wouldn’t 
turn in off the main road for five min¬ 
utes to come to our house and sell us meat 
on his weekly trips (no doubt because a 
hired man isn’t supposed to exist and it 
doesn’t matter whether he eats or not, so 
we asked the employer once or twice to 
buy us some beef on one of his almost 
daily trips to the nearest butcher market, 
and he did so with the spirit of one who 
had been asked for his last cent, and from 
that time on he was most careful never to 
let us know when he was going to town. 
Once a month we paid $1 carfare apiece 
to go to the nearest city for a little meat 
and other articles we needed, including a 
haircut for my husband, who, although lie 
was considerate enough to do the chores 
in the morning before starting, and would 
hurry back at night in time to save the 
boss himself from doing them, always 
found a full day’s pay taken out of the 
monthly pay check. Also, our furniture 
happened to arrive in two lots at the sta¬ 
tion seven miles distant from the farm, 
and Mr. Employer let us have one of his 
teams one afternoon to go and get it as 
agreed, but when the second load arrived, 
weeks later, he absolutely ignored our re¬ 
quests for the loan of a team, even after 
working hours, and we finally had to hire 
a truckman to get it for us. Needless to 
say. at the end of the season my husband 
handed in his notice and was then offered 
every inducement possible to remain, was 
given unstinted praise for his work and 
permission to refer future employers for 
the finest recommendation this employer 
could give any man. Then Mrs. Em¬ 
ployer invited me into the sacred precinct 
beyond the front doorstep and expressed 
her regrets at our coming departure ; said 
she admired my courage for having en¬ 
dured so long without a sink, running 
water, electric lights and all the com¬ 
forts and amusements of the city, and 
that she told her husband when we came 
that they could never hope to keep us 
long. IIow I longed to tell her that it 
wasn’t so much the city improvements I 
wanted, but a little human companion¬ 
ship and a kindred soul or two to share 
my household problems, and had she only 
spoken thus to me months before perhaps 
her husband would not at that moment 
have been racking his brain as to how he 
was going to find another man. But T 
said nothing, and we packed up and went 
with no hard words or feelings—not to 
the city, but to another farm in another 
county and in a larger village, where we 
hoped the people would be more, broad¬ 
minded; but the same social aloofness ex¬ 
ists among the women towards me, al¬ 
though we have a lovely cottage to live in. 
better working hours for uiy husband, und 
an employer who is not quite so much of 
a tyrant. 
We have to walk several miles to do 
our marketing, while several horses and 
teams are idle iu the barns week in and 
week out, which we could have if we 
eared to grovel iu the dust and ask for 
like a beggar asking for alms, as we have 
experienced several times. Sometimes we 
are given a “lift” if the “flivver” chances 
to pass us on the road and they happen 
to feel charitably inclined, but always 
such kindness is spoiled by some patron¬ 
izing remark or the “casting pearls before 
swine” attitude. 
Why not figure out a budget for a hired 
man—his income and his expenses? Ev¬ 
eryone is feeling the pinch of costs these 
days in city and country alike, but let 
these farmers who are kicking at paying 
over .$(!() a month with the usual priv¬ 
ileges consider how much of it goes for 
shoes at $7 a pair that last about two 
months after service in the barnyard and 
behind the plow, not to mention the shirts 
at .$2. whose average life with continual 
patching, is even less, due to the daily 
stain of perspiration in the hot sun. Add 
to that the price of nourishing food that 
a man must absolutely have three times a 
day when he is doing hard physical labor 
outdoors; and I know that it is double 
that required by the indoor working man 
who earns the big money and works the 
short hours and. as God intended, has 
the seventh day to rest, which is a lux¬ 
ury my husband hasn’t had in a year. Oh, 
the much-needed money we could save this 
Winter if we had a tenth part of the veg¬ 
etables that are rotting all over this farm 
on the vines canned for our Winter use! 
As it is. from our own little patch, where 
my husband has toiled in the gathering 
dusk nights and the few hours between 
chore times on Sundays, we have been 
able to raise enough to last just the two 
of us until Christmas. And how much a 
quart of the skim-milk that is thrown 
to the pigs daily would mean to us when 
used for creaming vegetables. I speak 
not only for my family but for the other 
families ou this farm and those I have 
seen iu two different counties in this 
State, where there are children to feed 
besides, whose employers prefer to throw 
skim-milk to hogs and let fruit and other 
produce rot ou the ground rather thau to 
humor the help with one thing more than 
he bargained to give when he hired them. 
This may seem like a prejudiced tale 
of grievances from a couple of soreheads 
who chanced to pick the wrong kind of 
employers, but I assure you this letter 
was not written in this spirit. We are 
going back to the hurly-burly of the city 
as soon as a flat or even a hall bedroom 
is available, where my husband can have 
his eight-hour job and his Sundays to 
himself, and can again call his soul his 
own; where we can both be respected 
again among people of our own standing, 
and still have money enough at the end of 
the week to eat and live like civilized be¬ 
ings. The majority of the help on the 
farms today are old men (who stand no 
chance elsewhere), road-walkers, shirkers 
and undesirables who have to be driven 
and watched. The young and efficient 
men leave. We shall certainly miss the 
sunsets, the cool open spaces of this beau¬ 
tiful spot, the wonderful views, when we 
get back to the city, not to mention our 
100 per cent milk and fresh vegetables 
and eggs, but then I sunpose when this 
baek-to-the-land longing grips us too hard, 
we can always appease same by a trip in 
the subway to either Bronx or Central 
Park for the small sum of a nickel, as 
hundreds of others do. Please print some 
articles once in a while teaching the farm¬ 
ers the city man’s methods of keeping effi¬ 
cient help. Times and methods change 
quickly these days. 
ANOTHER HIRED MAN’S WIEE. 
Pennsylvania Schools and Labor 
Will you give me the school law? 11 ow 
many days out of each month are chil¬ 
dren compelled to be at school? I need 
my boys to help with farm work, and I 
am threatened with the law if I do not 
send them every day to school. 
Pennsylvania. h. c. u. 
The compulsory school law is effective 
for school children between the ages of 
six and id. as follows: 
1. Under 12 years, no child may be 
absent more than three days, except for 
sickness. They may not be kept out for 
work. 
2. For children between the ages of 
12 and Id the school board has the right 
(before the beginning of the term) to 
make the compulsory attendance period 
70 per cent of the term, and should no¬ 
tify teachers and patrons on what date 
that compulsory period begins. During 
the compulsory period the same regula¬ 
tions hold true for those under 14 as is 
mentioned above for those under 12. 
3. Between the ages of 14 and 10 a pu¬ 
pil may be absent only if lie has an em¬ 
ployment certificate. Unless he has an 
employment certificate his employer is 
liable to fine or imprisonment. 
Upon consulting our lawyer for this 
district lie thought there was a ruling 
made at Harrisburg to the effect that 
boys or girls working at home (between 
the ages of 14 and 16) do not need au 
employment certificate. u. n, K. 
NEPQNSET ROOFS 
In the long run Bird’s 
Neponset Paroid is the cheapest 
roofing to use 
Twenty years without a single repair 
is not an unusual record for a Paroid 
Roof. 
That’s why we say that Paroid is 
the cheapest roofing to use. 
Paroid comes in natural gray. Every 
roll complete, with nails and cement. 
If your dealer does not carry Paroid we 
will ship direct to you. 
Bird & Son, inc. (Established 1795) East Walpole, Mass. 
I 
I 
Nice amount of money for 
five months’ work, isn’t it? 
You can do it as well as Mr. 
Mason and hundreds of others 
are doing. The demand for traction 
ditching is enormous. You can 
make big money with a 
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With one helper you can dig 1} 
more ditches each day than can 
fifteen men by hand. You make a perfect 
ditch at one cut. Farmers want traction 
ditching—its better, can be done quicker and 
at less cost When they know you have one, 
you’ll be kept busy; you won’t have to look 
for work, it will come to you. Many Buckeye 
owners have six to twelve months’ work 
ahead. $15 to $20 daily is the net average earnings 
of hundreds of Buckeye owners. Here is a proposi¬ 
tion that will give you a standing and make you a 
big profit each year. 
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THE BUCKEYE TRACTION DITCHER CO. 
468 Crystal Ave., Findlay, O. 
