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VOL. LXVII INDIANAPOLIS, MAY 4, 1912. NO. 18 The New Country-Life Home Ideal Conditions Which Prevail in the Great Middle West. SOME THINGS FOR CITY PEOPLE TO THINK ABOUT. By One Who Lives There. It ls pcssible that this article may sound rather defensive. I have read so much on farm life, written obviously by city dwellers that, being country l.orn and bred, I have a desire to tell of farm live as I know it. When I read articles on conditions in the country which show so plainly the writer's lack of knowledge on the subject, I am reminded of the doctor who visited a rural district for a few days. <>n his return to the city, he buttonholed everyone who would listen to him and told all about how countryfolks lived.- My brother chanced to be one of his victims. For obvious reasons, I will not give the doctor's name. He is a resident of the capital of one of our middle states, however, and conceded to be one of the brightest lecturers in their medical college. The conversation to which I allude took place near the capitol, at a boarding-stable, where the doctor kept his horses. A City Man's Views. The Doctor began by telling what a terrible place the country was, regardless of the fact that he knew my brother was a farmer. "Why actually," he said, "they served bacon for breakfast! Think of it, bacon! And it's a fact that they had no paper and 1 did not know Bob Ingersoll was dead for two or three days! Such ignorance as I found was a revelation to me. The barren home, the isolation! It's simply terrible the way country people live. No magazines, no daily papers, nothing to uplift." My brother listened with amusement until he had finished; then asked: "Doctor, do you suppose you would find a daily paper in any of those homes?" pointing to some houses across the street. "Why no," the doctor admitted, "but >*ou must not judge our city homes by 'hem. Of course, those people are ignorant." "And yet, Doctor, you take one trip into the country, into, as I happen to know, one of the most God-forsaken Parts, and because you find ignorance ;"id poverty there, you immediately! ' """* to the conclusion that all country people live in that way. I might Jus. as well visit one of those hovels "'<*ss thrre and say It was a fair rep- "•"entation of your city homes." The doctor was neither silenced nor convinced; but broke out fresh with "■"re of his newly acquired knowledge. •M'st then the voice of one of the stablemen came to them. "Mark Hanna? Who's Mark Hanna?" he asked. It ''as when Hanna's fame was at its tenJth, too. "Listen, Doctor," my brother said. ".io you hear that? Look across there. Do you see that shadow?" The state- house dome was casting its long shadow across the stable and street. "Here in the shadow of the capitol, a man is asking who Mark Hanna was. Deplorable isn't it, the ignorance one finds." "Now, Doctor, I'll tell you what to do. Come down to our place and see how country folks live. The country you saw, I also have visited. Facts daily papers, the piano, the dinner- table, and even ourselves seemed to astonish the Doctor. He returned to his home, and those who know him say he has never, from that -day to this, spoken of the hard, ignorant lives of country people. Recently, he has purchased a farm and cozily established his old father and mother on It. Now, I mention this Doctor and his views, only because his ways of judging country life is the way of most city people. They see one phase of It and straightway are convinced that it is all like the part they chance to see. Tlie Same in Both. There are classes in the country just The Way Modern Country Homes Look. are, it is too poor to grow intellect. You will find that intelligent people do not stay in a part of the country like that." A Typical Farm Home. The doctor accepted the invitation and came on Christmas-day, driving twenty miles each way to do it. Our dinner that day was just such as our neighbors were having and the company was a family gathering. We country folks may show our amazement at what we see when visiting city homes more than the city people show theirs when visiting us, but I doubt it. Our homo is only a typical farm home, but the reading-table filled with the latest magazines and the same as in cities. One does not expect the tollers In cities to be mentally equal to those in higher walks of life. If they were, they would not be where they are now. Just so it Is on the farm. Wo do not expect to hire intellectual leaders to labor in the fields for us. Men of a high mental caliber are not often day laborers, and it is not environment that has made them what they are. If the intellect is there, it will find a way out. Typical Farm Woman. I^et me give you the typical farm woman as I know her now and have known her all my life. She is a happy, contented, youthful-looking woman. You will find her with neatly A Typical Scene in an Up-to-date Farming Community. puffed hair, and, although her work- dress is usually of calico or gingham, it is made tastefully ln the styles used by her city sisters for morning dresses. She has also a light straw hat In lieu of the old sunbonnet to wear about her outdoor work. She is a neat, instead of a slovenly, figure. The Country Life Commission. The Country Life Commission—that subject for all cartoonists—sent out by President Roosevelt, was never taken seriously by any one who really knew country life. When they were appointed, it caused amusement from one confine of the United States to another. Most thinking people thought the President had about run out of something to appoint a commission for. The tales that were told them possibly were true; but is hard for me to imagine a farmer's wife so void of humor as to be able to resist telling those gullible gentlemen wonderful stories. They were like the scrupulously neat woman who, all her life, had continually hunted over her beds and house, least a bedbug might have been carried to her. One day, her long search was rewarded. With hor- r...w, she carried the offending bug to her husband, expecting him to share her trouble. Instead, he told her that one who had hunted all of their life, ought to find something. The Country Life Commission hunted diligently and, of course, found what they were looking for. Better Farm Home Conditions. I cannot remember when conditions on the farm were very hard for women, but in the past few years, these conditions have changed rapidly for the better. It is folly to say the farmer is not providing conveniences in and around the house as rapidly as he is providing them on his farm. Of my large circle of friends, who are farmers' wives, I do not recall more than one who does not have a gasoline or oil stove for use in warm weather. Nothing has been done to lessen the labor of the farmer's wife and add to her comfort more than this. Every one admits that country people have more good things to eat than their city cousins. Of course, it calls for work to prepare the delicious fried chickens, tho strawberry shortcake, the various fresh vegetables and other good things too numerous to mention, which all farmers, who arc worthy of tho name, raise on the farm. The farmer's wife has learned that, with these cool stoves, she can do most of her cookin~ seated by them. While pies bake, she sits where she can reach the oven door, and prepares the vegetable* or, if she Is tired, she drops down a n.oment while she broils tho meat. Also, in making jellies and preserving, she sits by the stove and watches them. I write from actual experience. We have learned many things like this that our grandmothers would have considered laziness in their times, but which we know is wisdom The Farm Laborers. It is a mistaken idea that the farm laborers are boarded in the house by well-to-do farms. Not one time in ten is this the case. All farms of any size whatever have small houses over
Object Description
Title | Indiana farmer, 1912, v. 67, no. 18 (May 4) |
Purdue Identification Number | INFA6718 |
Date of Original | 1912 |
Subjects (LCSH) |
Agriculture Farm management Horticulture Agricultural machinery |
Subjects (NALT) |
agriculture farm management horticulture agricultural machinery and equipment |
Genre | Periodical |
Call Number of Original | 630.5 In2 |
Location of Original | Hicks Repository |
Coverage | United States - Indiana |
Type | text |
Format | JP2 |
Language | eng |
Collection Title | Indiana Farmer |
Rights Statement | Content in the Indiana Farmer Collection is in the public domain (published before 1923) or lacks a known copyright holder. Digital images in the collection may be used for educational, non-commercial, or not-for-profit purposes. |
Repository | Purdue University Libraries |
Date Digitized | 2011-04-14 |
Digitization Information | Original scanned at 300 ppi on a Bookeye 3 scanner using internal software. Display images generated in CONTENTdm as JP2000s; file format for archival copy is uncompressed TIF format. |
Description
Title | Page 1 |
Subjects (LCSH) |
Agriculture Farm management Horticulture Agricultural machinery |
Subjects (NALT) |
agriculture farm management horticulture agricultural machinery and equipment |
Genre | Periodical |
Call Number of Original | 630.5 In2 |
Location of Original | Hicks Repository |
Coverage | Indiana |
Type | text |
Format | JP2 |
Language | eng |
Collection Title | Indiana Farmer |
Rights Statement | Content in the Indiana Farmer Collection is in the public domain (published before 1923) or lacks a known copyright holder. Digital images in the collection may be used for educational, non-commercial, or non-for-profit purposes. |
Repository | Purdue University Libraries |
Digitization Information | Orignal scanned at 300 ppi on a Bookeye 3 scanner using internal software. Display images generated in CONTENTdm as JP2000s; file format for archival copy is uncompressed TIF format. |
Transcript | VOL. LXVII INDIANAPOLIS, MAY 4, 1912. NO. 18 The New Country-Life Home Ideal Conditions Which Prevail in the Great Middle West. SOME THINGS FOR CITY PEOPLE TO THINK ABOUT. By One Who Lives There. It ls pcssible that this article may sound rather defensive. I have read so much on farm life, written obviously by city dwellers that, being country l.orn and bred, I have a desire to tell of farm live as I know it. When I read articles on conditions in the country which show so plainly the writer's lack of knowledge on the subject, I am reminded of the doctor who visited a rural district for a few days. <>n his return to the city, he buttonholed everyone who would listen to him and told all about how countryfolks lived.- My brother chanced to be one of his victims. For obvious reasons, I will not give the doctor's name. He is a resident of the capital of one of our middle states, however, and conceded to be one of the brightest lecturers in their medical college. The conversation to which I allude took place near the capitol, at a boarding-stable, where the doctor kept his horses. A City Man's Views. The Doctor began by telling what a terrible place the country was, regardless of the fact that he knew my brother was a farmer. "Why actually," he said, "they served bacon for breakfast! Think of it, bacon! And it's a fact that they had no paper and 1 did not know Bob Ingersoll was dead for two or three days! Such ignorance as I found was a revelation to me. The barren home, the isolation! It's simply terrible the way country people live. No magazines, no daily papers, nothing to uplift." My brother listened with amusement until he had finished; then asked: "Doctor, do you suppose you would find a daily paper in any of those homes?" pointing to some houses across the street. "Why no," the doctor admitted, "but >*ou must not judge our city homes by 'hem. Of course, those people are ignorant." "And yet, Doctor, you take one trip into the country, into, as I happen to know, one of the most God-forsaken Parts, and because you find ignorance ;"id poverty there, you immediately! ' """* to the conclusion that all country people live in that way. I might Jus. as well visit one of those hovels "'<*ss thrre and say It was a fair rep- "•"entation of your city homes." The doctor was neither silenced nor convinced; but broke out fresh with "■"re of his newly acquired knowledge. •M'st then the voice of one of the stablemen came to them. "Mark Hanna? Who's Mark Hanna?" he asked. It ''as when Hanna's fame was at its tenJth, too. "Listen, Doctor," my brother said. ".io you hear that? Look across there. Do you see that shadow?" The state- house dome was casting its long shadow across the stable and street. "Here in the shadow of the capitol, a man is asking who Mark Hanna was. Deplorable isn't it, the ignorance one finds." "Now, Doctor, I'll tell you what to do. Come down to our place and see how country folks live. The country you saw, I also have visited. Facts daily papers, the piano, the dinner- table, and even ourselves seemed to astonish the Doctor. He returned to his home, and those who know him say he has never, from that -day to this, spoken of the hard, ignorant lives of country people. Recently, he has purchased a farm and cozily established his old father and mother on It. Now, I mention this Doctor and his views, only because his ways of judging country life is the way of most city people. They see one phase of It and straightway are convinced that it is all like the part they chance to see. Tlie Same in Both. There are classes in the country just The Way Modern Country Homes Look. are, it is too poor to grow intellect. You will find that intelligent people do not stay in a part of the country like that." A Typical Farm Home. The doctor accepted the invitation and came on Christmas-day, driving twenty miles each way to do it. Our dinner that day was just such as our neighbors were having and the company was a family gathering. We country folks may show our amazement at what we see when visiting city homes more than the city people show theirs when visiting us, but I doubt it. Our homo is only a typical farm home, but the reading-table filled with the latest magazines and the same as in cities. One does not expect the tollers In cities to be mentally equal to those in higher walks of life. If they were, they would not be where they are now. Just so it Is on the farm. Wo do not expect to hire intellectual leaders to labor in the fields for us. Men of a high mental caliber are not often day laborers, and it is not environment that has made them what they are. If the intellect is there, it will find a way out. Typical Farm Woman. I^et me give you the typical farm woman as I know her now and have known her all my life. She is a happy, contented, youthful-looking woman. You will find her with neatly A Typical Scene in an Up-to-date Farming Community. puffed hair, and, although her work- dress is usually of calico or gingham, it is made tastefully ln the styles used by her city sisters for morning dresses. She has also a light straw hat In lieu of the old sunbonnet to wear about her outdoor work. She is a neat, instead of a slovenly, figure. The Country Life Commission. The Country Life Commission—that subject for all cartoonists—sent out by President Roosevelt, was never taken seriously by any one who really knew country life. When they were appointed, it caused amusement from one confine of the United States to another. Most thinking people thought the President had about run out of something to appoint a commission for. The tales that were told them possibly were true; but is hard for me to imagine a farmer's wife so void of humor as to be able to resist telling those gullible gentlemen wonderful stories. They were like the scrupulously neat woman who, all her life, had continually hunted over her beds and house, least a bedbug might have been carried to her. One day, her long search was rewarded. With hor- r...w, she carried the offending bug to her husband, expecting him to share her trouble. Instead, he told her that one who had hunted all of their life, ought to find something. The Country Life Commission hunted diligently and, of course, found what they were looking for. Better Farm Home Conditions. I cannot remember when conditions on the farm were very hard for women, but in the past few years, these conditions have changed rapidly for the better. It is folly to say the farmer is not providing conveniences in and around the house as rapidly as he is providing them on his farm. Of my large circle of friends, who are farmers' wives, I do not recall more than one who does not have a gasoline or oil stove for use in warm weather. Nothing has been done to lessen the labor of the farmer's wife and add to her comfort more than this. Every one admits that country people have more good things to eat than their city cousins. Of course, it calls for work to prepare the delicious fried chickens, tho strawberry shortcake, the various fresh vegetables and other good things too numerous to mention, which all farmers, who arc worthy of tho name, raise on the farm. The farmer's wife has learned that, with these cool stoves, she can do most of her cookin~ seated by them. While pies bake, she sits where she can reach the oven door, and prepares the vegetable* or, if she Is tired, she drops down a n.oment while she broils tho meat. Also, in making jellies and preserving, she sits by the stove and watches them. I write from actual experience. We have learned many things like this that our grandmothers would have considered laziness in their times, but which we know is wisdom The Farm Laborers. It is a mistaken idea that the farm laborers are boarded in the house by well-to-do farms. Not one time in ten is this the case. All farms of any size whatever have small houses over |
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