Page:The Souvenir of Western Women.djvu/177

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HILE the tendency of the city is to destroy the simplicity of home life, and to substitute for it the apartment house, the flat, the hotel, the club, and innumerable cheap amusements away from the home, it is quite the contrary in the country. Never before was the woman on the farm striving so hard to make her home attractive as now. She reaches out to draw from art and science all of the beautiful that she can afford, and such inventions and conveniences as will shorten and ease her labor, and so give her more leisure for self-culture.

The woman on the farm is being taught, largely by the Grange, that she is a valuable citizen, and has a leading part to play on the stage of life. So she respects herself and her work more than she did, even a decade ago. She dresses better, practices physical culture, takes a little more rest; reads more magazines and books: makes herself a better companion to her children and husband; takes more outings to coast and mountains; camps with her family at the State Fair and the Chautauqua Assembly, and is in general a much more cheerful and interesting woman than she has ever been. "With our correspondence schools; with modern languages taught by phonograph: with art reproductions for 1 cent apiece; with the traveling library; with current literature at club rates; with lecture courses and farmers' institutes; with stereopticon views of every famous object on the earth's surface; with graphophone records of every fine singer, actor, speaker and orchestra, the woman on the farm is not so far lacking in general information as one may suppose. Much of culture and society polish is denied her by reason of her secluded life. But there is a compensation in the universe which gives us on one side what we have missed on another. So the woman of the farm, while lacking much in "style" and society small talk, has a comprehensive and practical knowledge of many things. She is an independent and all-around serviceable person. Indoors or out she can "lend a hand" where there is need. If her husband falls ill or dies, she can manage the business of the farm and bring up the children. Husband and wife on the farm are very close partners in all that concerns their welfare. It is the ideal family life of loving co-operation. To all the members of these ideal rural and suburban homes, the sweet home interests come first. Everything circles around home and mother. There are few distractions, and no unwholesome dissipations to draw the children out at night from their mother's influence. To prove the high character of our country women, and their devotion to love and duty, we have only to point out the many great men and women who have gone