CHORES T N the days when our ancestors plowed with one 
A hand and simultaneously shot savages with the 
other, there was little use for manual training schools. Such am¬ 
bidexterity that the troublesome times developed in minute-man 
agriculture, was an indication of aptitude in many other pursuits 
of husbandry. Circumstance made the women of the household 
also equally proficient, nor were the youths of that day excepted. 
The boy and girl in Colonial times each had a particular stint of 
several tasks to perform, and even with just as much time spent 
in education as is the case to-day, did chores with unfailing regu¬ 
larity — or suffered. The consequence was the general ability 
upon the part of all members of the family to do various special¬ 
ized manual labors with a certain degree of technical success. 
An age of machinery, a time when most of the population lives 
in cities, has altered this. The telephone, the mail-order house — 
these have killed the chores system. True, it languishes in most 
remote rural districts, but a tendency is now noticeable even there 
to let it die out. So to-day there are comparatively few in this 
country who possess the knack of working with their hands to the 
degree of excellence characteristic of previous generations. 
It is fruitless to hold up the perfections of other days and sigh 
for the “good old times.” There is none of us who would will¬ 
ingly give up the refinements, the comforts, the conveniences that 
specialization and increased wants have given us. But for all we 
have gained, there is something valuable that we have lost. We 
are no longer handy. 
When the chore system went, our manual cleverness disap¬ 
peared with it. That we are appreciating the loss is apparent 
from the recent increase of manual training schools, and the 
propaganda spread by educators for the need of such training. 
But what is the use of gathering all the arguments of the edu¬ 
cators? We know the need, and recognize what its loss means. 
How many boys can harness a horse, tie a knot, milk a cow, drive 
a nail, build a fence?—the catalogue of deficiencies is much too 
long. How many girls — but already you must have been sur¬ 
feited with the statements of the household inefficiency of the 
modern young woman. Now there is no special intrinsic merit in 
each task, or does proficiency in all of them particularly fit a youth 
for a special function, but chores did make a better rounded man. 
It is a pity to lose that instructive muscular “form” that chores 
made the heritage of every boy. There is only one way to swing 
an axe efficiently, and it requires a grace and precision; the 
“form” is as necessary as is form in golf, and it is hardly question¬ 
able that the requisite dexterity for wood chopping is not of a 
higher order than that required for golf. It is that aptitude which 
we call “natural” that daily tasks instilled and made natural. The 
chore boy could take hold without bungling, and lift without 
wasting strength, and use his fingers well at delicate adjustments. 
His daily life trained him to it; he was not more talented along 
these lines than is the boy to-day. His eye could gauge distances 
and measure heights. Daily tasks outdoors coordinated hand and 
eye and made them both true. Regular labors made the muscles 
efficient, both in accomplishment and saving of strength. 
As this bodily fitness that chores develops is a fine thing, so is 
its companion, good mental fitness. To-day it is the fashion to 
discuss eugenics, and there is a latitude of conversation in mixed 
gatherings. Yet a clever young woman who felt perfectly at 
home in such an erudite conversation was heard to remark to a 
gentleman farmer: “What! Ten cows not giving milk! Didn't 
you get a good kind? Perhaps you might find something or other 
to give them with their food that might help." When this remark 
created a laugh, the reply was: “Well, how is one to know about 
cows; goodness knows, that’s not my business?” 
The man who lives in the country or in the suburbs may bring 
up his children to be as bookwise and experience foolish as this 
young woman, but he has a dozen opportunities of giving them a 
common-sense breadth of knowledge instead. And this they 
would get were there chores to do in the chicken yard, the horse 
stable, the cow barn, or even the task of consistently looking after 
a dog's training. 
Chaucer and Rostand took the barnyard to mirror truths about 
the life of humans; they considered it forcefully interpretive. 
We are not guilty, then, of any sentimental vagary in stating that 
the close acquaintance with the domestic animals awakens certain 
human virtues. The care of farm creatures teaches sympathy 
and fosters patience. What is more, with the asknowledged need 
of parental instruction in the great mystery of birth, there is here 
a means of overcoming any false reticence in teaching the facts of 
life and inculcating knowledge honestly. 
Yes, standing among the many privileges of life in the coun¬ 
try is the opportunity for training, for education, that comes from 
the daily performance of some manual task. It is with this idea 
in mind that these random thoughts are written. It seems like a 
waste of country prerogatives not to take advantage of the train¬ 
ing that garden tasks or animal husbandry labors, regularly per¬ 
formed, may afford. These are the substitutes that one may make 
for the old chores. They can give the bodily fitness to youth to¬ 
day as well as in the times when their routine was a necessity, 
and when, perhaps, their duties bore heavily on growing boys. 
The chicken yard can become an economic factor in country 
living, but beyond its economy, we think, lies the broadening 
effect upon the intelligence that comes from its careful superin¬ 
tendence. A boy or a girl granted responsibility of its overseeing, 
of the keeping of the accounts, the management of the stock, a 
share in the building of coops and fences, and the many incidentals 
of purchase of food and watchful care to develop the animals, 
receives a supplementary training to his education that is inval¬ 
uable. For these results, and no other, it were worth while to 
keep stock. Tasks at school are heavy to some children, because 
they do not see results. The abstract and abstruse in algebra and 
Latin are deadly dull because to the young mind they are purpose¬ 
less. The child sees no possibility of application. But in the 
garden and the barnyard there are results. There are gratifying 
eventualities to be striven for. There is rivalry; it has all the 
charm of a game. Originality grows in meeting and overcoming 
the setbacks which may occur, and in fashioning new devices to 
facilitate labors. If you can give your boy a task to do, or your 
girl a labor to perform, and have it understood that it is a function 
to be performed with absolute regularity and despatch, you will 
find that vou are giving him or her a training that is beyond the 
power of a mere manual training course to afford. Any of 
the country labors, if regularly applied, will give that fitness of 
body that we have mentioned. The subject does not need dis¬ 
cussion ; its truth is everywhere accepted. 
This spring when you shape your plans for further occupa¬ 
tions, why not consider giving your children a job to do? The 
garden offers a good field, and should be part of the home curri¬ 
culum ; but beyond this comes the barnyard. In all natural 
humans there is a latent desire to love some pet; encourage this. 
But regulate it and direct it in consistent channels. It will be of 
infinite good. A child may spoil a pet, and, spoiling the animal’s 
nature, spoil its own by growing selfish and naughty. But if it 
has a task to perform for the animals, responsibility of its care — 
and in this very responsibility there is good — there will grow 
virtues that much parently legislation might not accomplish. With 
your garden, then, and with your barnyard, why not encourage 
this year the working with tools, the care and superintendence of 
farm animals. To gain the most, to make results permanent, give 
each his allotted task to perform, and encourage and insist upon 
its performance. 
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