290 
*D*  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
February  24,  1920 
HOPE  FARM  NOTES 
I  believe  my  husband  is  almost  one  in 
a  hundred.  He  is  a  steady  worker,  always 
at  home  and  he  puts  all  his  earnings  in 
the  home,  and  I  try  my  best  to  be  as  sav¬ 
ing  as  possible.  His  wages  are  small,  and 
there  are  lots  of  little  things  I  would  like 
to  have  to  help  fix  up  the  home  more 
comfortably  for  us.  We  have  a  family  of 
four  children,  two  in  school,  another  one 
to  send  next  year,  and  our  expenses  are 
quite  high,  and  we  do  our  best.  I  am  not 
a  very  strong  woman  myself ;  I  have  been 
.shut  in  for  almost  four  weeks,  not  able 
to  do  our  washing  at  present.  Don’t 
know  when  I  can  get  out  or  do  our  wash¬ 
ing.  I  was  wondering  if  I  could  sell  some 
crochet  work,  such  as  yokes,  lace,  and 
dust  caps.  I  would  be  very  glad  to  do 
the  work,  and  that  kind  of  work  wouldn’t 
be  very  hard.  mbs.  e.  l.  g. 
*  *  *  *  * 
As  I  read  this  typical  letter  I  can  see 
through  my  window  that  the  air  is  thick 
with  snowflakes.  We  have  had  more  or 
less  snow  every  day  for  over  a  week,  and 
now  the  great  flakes  are  falling  with  a 
slow,  steady  and  persistent  determination 
ro  bury  us.  Happily  there  is  no  wind  to 
drive  the  snow  into  drifts,  but  as  steadily 
and  relentlessly  as  fate  the  white  blanket 
is  covering  the  earth.  We  are  comfort¬ 
able  enough,  with  plenty  of  food  and  fuel, 
fireplaces  and  stoves,  and  water  from  the 
spring  on  the  hill  running  through  the 
house.  The  horses  are  comfortable,  the 
cews  lie  contentedly  in  their  stalls,  and 
the  hens  are  laying  well.  The  pullets  at 
the  egg  contest  are  still  over  100  ahead  of 
th<*ir  nearest  competitor.  The  wire  high 
over  the  house  is  catching  songs  and  ser¬ 
mons,  music  and  moralisms,  lectures  and 
loose  wit,  out  of  the  whirling  storm,  and 
bringing  pulpit  and  platform  right  into 
the  house.  I  have  no  doubt  that  on  the 
hill,  beneath  the  snow,  the  mice  are  gnaw¬ 
ing  away  at  our  trees,  but  we  will  not 
“fly  to  evils  that  we  know  not  of,”  while 
the  home  fires  are  burning. 
***** 
I  have  lived  in  lonely  places  in  just 
such  weather,  and  I  know  just  what  it 
means  to  be  shut  in  with  hard  and  uncom¬ 
fortable  surroundings,  with  the  fear  of 
impending  debt  and  disaster,  and  the 
ghosts  of  unsatisfied  ambitions  crouching 
in  dark  corners  and  pointing  long  lingers 
out  of  the  shadows.  With  us  a  day  like  this 
has  its  extra  pleasures.  It  brings  the  fam¬ 
ily  together.  We  can  kill  a  chicken,  dip 
into  the  fruit  cellar,  provide  a  little  feast, 
read  “Snow  Bound,”  and  actually  feel 
that  we  are  bound  a  little  closer  together 
by  the  snow.  I  know  well,  however,  that 
there  are  many  country  homes  back  among 
the  hills,  where  this  great  storm  is  falling 
upon  the  family  like  the  dark  folds  of  a 
shroud,  and  where  trouble,  discontent, 
sickness  and  fear  sit  with  the  family  be¬ 
fore  the  fire.  Those  of  us  who  can  be 
happy  and  carefree  at  such  a  time  may 
well  give  a  thought  to  the  other  side,  for 
there  is  another  side.  .Nothing  but  zero 
is  one-sided.  The  progress  of  the  world 
is  determined  by  the  way  “the  other  half 
lives.”  Unless  we  can  equalize  and  im¬ 
prove  living  conditions,  our  great  indus¬ 
trial  developments  will  be  one-sided  and 
only  half  effective. 
***** 
Let  us  take  this  woman’s  letter  as  a 
text.  Whenever  I  hear  a  woman  talk 
this  way  about  her  husband  I  always  want 
to  see  the  man.  Somehow  we  all  like  to 
look  at.  abnormal  products.  From  the 
half-clad  savage  on  some  South  Sea  island 
up  to  the  queen  on  the  throne,  it  must 
be  at  times  the  dream  of  every  woman  to 
have  such  "a  husband.  And  yet  I  imagine 
there  are  times  when  the  woman  tires  of 
this  blameless  creature,  who  always  wipes 
his  feet  on  the  mat,  keeps  the  woodbox 
filled,  carries  out  the  ashes  without  clut¬ 
tering  the  floor,  puts  his  money  on  the 
pantry  shelf  and  never  says  “Ain’t  dinner 
ready?”  Very  likely  I  am  wrong,  but  1 
think  every  woman  at  times  gets  a  mes¬ 
sage  from  her  old  ancestor,  the  cave 
woman,  and  really  wants  to  be  bossed  and 
made  to  realize  that  there  is  a  strong  head 
of  the  house.  For  example,  there  was 
Mary,  Queen  of  Scots.  I  take  it  she  was 
a  dainty,  well-bred  woman,  imperious  and 
fond  of  having  her  own  way,  yet  she 
married  Bothwell,  a  big  ruffian  and  bluf¬ 
fer.  I  think  that,  like  many  other  women 
she  was  tired  of  being  “queen  of  the 
household,”  and,  like  her  remote  ancestor, 
wanted  to  be  bossed  so  as  to  enjoy  the 
excitement  of  rebellion.  I  am  not  sure 
that  a  wife  is  always  the  fairest  critic  of 
her  husband.  I  have  known  what  are 
called  blind  wives,  who  go  about  extolling 
their  husbands  as  saints  in  marble,  when 
others  see  very  common  clay.  Then  there 
are  wives  who  feel  in  their  hearts  that 
their  men  are  not  quite  up  to  the  mark 
( ehromos,  in  fact)  yet  being  good  sales¬ 
men,-  they  sell  the  public  a  beautiful 
<-il  painting.  But  we  will  accept  the  state¬ 
ment  that  this  husband  is  one  of  a  hun¬ 
dred.  Some  cynical  fellow  may  start  up 
and  say :  “He’s  got  her  fooled.’”  But  the 
rest  of  us,  who  belong  to  the  ninety  and 
nine,  can  only  envy  that  husband  and 
wonder  how  he  won  his  reputation.  Did 
he  really  earn  it  or  has  it  been  bestowed 
upon  him  like  a  decoration?  At  any 
rate,  the  foundations  of  happiness  are  laid 
in  that  home.  How  can  the  temple  be 
erected  upon  them? 
That  is  the  big  question  in  your  home 
and  mine.  Money  is  required  to  do  it, 
and  this  woman  understands  that  clearly, 
as  we  see  from  her  letter.  Time  was 
when  our  ancestors  could  go  out  into  the 
wilderness  with  an  axe,  or  rifle  and  am¬ 
munition,  a  bag  of  salt,  and  a  wife,  and 
develop  a  home  and  a  farm  without  a 
dollar  of  money.  It  is  doubtful  if  there 
ever  were  happier  people  than  those  who 
occupied  the  rough  log  cabins  of  pioneer 
times.  On  a  day  like  this  they  could  look 
out  into  the  storm  and  thank  God  for 
rough  clothing  and  coarse  food  and  home, 
while  most  of  us  feel  resentful  because 
we  do  not  have  something  finer.  No  one 
can  do  that  now ;  that  is,  no  one  of  nor¬ 
mal  mind.  Money  rules.  Nine-tenths  of 
the  things  which  we  crave  from  day  to 
day  have  their  price  in  money.  If  we 
cannot  raise  this  price  in  some  way,  we 
must  do  without  the  things  we  crave,  for 
somewhere  along  the  road  from  pioneer 
days  we  have  lost  the  art  of  being  satis¬ 
fied  with  homely  and  handmade  things. 
We  think  we  must  live  as  others  do,  and 
we  cannot  do  that  without  a  fair  supply 
of  cash.  We  must  all  live  as  well  as 
our  friends  do,  or  drop  down  to  what  we 
consider  a  lower  level  of  friendship.  It 
is  humiliating  to  be  forced  to  admit  that 
in  a  democracy  such  as  America  was 
designed  to  be,  we  should  be  forced  to 
pay  this  great  price  foij  the  freedom  of 
living  somewhat  as  we  like;  but  who 
will  say  that  the  happiness  of  the  usual 
American  family  does  not  depend  on  in¬ 
come? 
***** 
This  woman,  like  thousands  of  others, 
must  increase  her  cash  income  if  she  is 
to  come  near  her  ideal  home  or  give  her 
children  fair  advantages.  I  shall  not  dis¬ 
cuss  the  causes  which  have  led  to  her 
condition.  They  are  probably  both  pub¬ 
lic  and  private.  That  is  true  of  most 
of  us.  What  can  she  get  to  do  that  will 
bring  cash?  I  cannot  give  much  encour¬ 
agement.  Years  ago  a  large  share  of  the 
manufacturing  of  certain  articles  was 
done  on  the  farms.  I  was  brought  up 
on  making  shoes  and  braiding  straw  hats, 
out  in  the  barn,  but  all  that  work  has 
now  been  concentrated  in  town  and  city — 
even  the  business  of  baking  has  been 
taken  from  women  and  put  in  the  hands 
of  men.  There  are  a  number  of  people 
who  advertise  “work  at  home,”  but  most 
of  them  are  the  meanest  sort  of  humbugs. 
They  take  your  money  and  rarely,  if  ever, 
even  try  to  sell  your  goods.  The  ordi¬ 
nary  class  of  crochet  work  is  done  by  so 
many  people  that  there  is  very  little  sale 
for  it.  A  lost  women  know  hdw  to  do  it 
and  make  it  for  their  own  use.  The 
finer  classes  of  this  work  are  made  by 
French,  Irish  and  Syrian  women,  who 
ax*e  trained  lacemakers.  Our  people  have 
tried  to  find  a  market  for  embroidered 
handkerchiefs  and  similar  goods,  but  were 
unable  to  do  so.  Now  and  then  a  woman 
with  unusual  skill  and  great  determina¬ 
tion  succeeds  in  finding  a  market,  but  it 
is  unusual.  The  truth  is,  that  a  woman 
with  four  children  and  a  home  to  care  for, 
and  not  very  strong  at  that,  would  find 
little  time  for  such  work.  No  one  knows 
better  than  I  do  the  need  of  such  an  in¬ 
come  for  the  farm  woman,  and  I  fully 
understand  how  disappointing  such  a  re¬ 
port  will  be.  If  anyone  can  tell  us  just 
what  such  a  woman  can  do  to  earn  a  few 
extra  dollars,  we  shall  welcome  the  infor¬ 
mation.  It  never  should  be  necessary  for 
such  a  woman  to  be  obliged  to  hunt  for 
work.  Taking  care  of  her  home  and  feed¬ 
ing  and  training  four  children  is  enough 
of  a  job  for  any  woman.  It  is  a  perver¬ 
sion  of  society  and  a  wrong  twist  in  econ¬ 
omy  when  such  women  are  denied  the 
privilege  of  living  as  they  should. 
***** 
The  thing  comes  back  to  the  dominant 
influence  of  the  city  over  the  country. 
Everybody  rushes  to  town,  and  jobs  must 
be  made  for  them.  This  great  army  of 
handlers  must  be  paid  out  of  what  the 
farmer  and  the  miner  dig  out  of  the  earth, 
and  what  the  fishermen  and  the  icemen 
take  from  the  waters.  .Tust  consider  this 
family  now  living  in  a  New  York  flat. 
Father  is  a  bookkeeper,  mother  is  cashier 
in  a  store,  two  girls  are  stenographers 
and  one  boy  a  salesman.  They  live  in  a 
flat  largely  on  cooked  food  bought  at  a 
store  and  prepared  by  grandmother.  They 
all  get  fair  wages,  but  it  seems  to  me  that 
three  of  these  women  are  doing  work 
which  ought  to  go  to  country  women, 
such  as  Mrs.  G.,  who  writes  the  letter  this 
week.  We  ought  to  come  back  to  the 
old-fashioned  plan  of  having  more  of  our 
goods  made  in  the  country. 
That  would  break  up  some  of  our  pres¬ 
ent  laws  of  industry. 
Very  likely.  A  good  thing!  I  think  it 
high  time  some  of  them  were  broken.  It 
will  have  to  be  worked  out  by  wealthy 
men,  not  as  a  matter  of  pure  business,  but 
as  business  philanthropy.  Many  a  man 
has  made  a  fortune  in  the  city  and  feels 
inclined  to  do  something  for  his  native 
town.  Let  him  cut  out  the  monument, 
the  public  park,  the  cemetery  or  the  li¬ 
brary,  and  organize  some  little  factory 
or  some  business  which  can  handle  home¬ 
made  goods.  Take  a  share  of  this  “in¬ 
dustry”  out  of  the  city  and  plant  it  back 
among  the  hills,  so  that  women  like 
Mrs.  G.  and  farm  boys  and  girls  may 
have  profitable  work,  especially  in  Win¬ 
ter.  There  might  not  be  any  money  in 
it  to  begin  with,  but  I  think  it  could  be 
developed,  and  who  can  conceive  of  a 
worthier  use  of  money  than  this  plan  of 
distributing  industry?  Monuments  and 
cemeteries  and  public  libraries  are  great 
in  their  place,  but  as  this  storm  draws 
upon  us  closer  and  closer  I  know  that 
country  people  need  most  of  all  an  in¬ 
come  that  will  permit  them  to  lead  a  good 
life.  h.  w.  c. 
Nash  Leads  the  World  in  Motor  Car  Value 
NA 
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New  Touring  Model 
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$935 
/.  o.  F  Factory 
Five  Disc  IVheels  and  Nash  Self- 
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Here,  in  this  new  Four  touring  model  for  five, 
Nash  has  incorporated  engineering  improvements 
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larly  is  it  a  car  destined  to  win  a  pronounced 
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Prices  range  from  $915  to  $2190,  f.  o.  b.  factory 
The  Nash  Motors  Company,  Kenosha,  Wisconsin 
(1220| 
