Part 4 (1/2)
Go if you will to the farm home where the life of the mother is being gradually crushed out by the over-work and the lack of sympathetic protection on the part of the husband, and you will almost invariably find a secret understanding between the mother and the growing children in reference to the future careers of the latter. It is implied by these words put into the mouth of the mother: ”Your father is too ambitious about the work and in his desire for acc.u.mulating wealth about the farm. He is over-working me, is thoughtless of me, and indifferent to your present needs and your future welfare. Work on as you must, driven by him, but do as little as you can and grow up to manhood and womanhood. Study your books, get through with your schooling, and in time find something easier for your own life work. Perhaps we can persuade him to give it up after a while and move to town, where you can go out more, dress better, and get more enjoyment out of life.” Thus, the children grow up to mistrust and dislike their father, and to despise the vocation in which he is engaged. Such a state of affairs will precipitate their flight from the home nest. This will take place at the earliest possible moment and will often be in the nature of a leap into the dark, anything to get away from the drudgery of the farm.
Mark you this situation well, you farm fathers, and attack it in all possible haste with the best available relief. A happy, contented, well-protected farm mother almost certainly means the same sort of farm children, while the converse situations will also run in the same unvarying parallel. Do not satiate your desire for more hogs and more land with the sacrifice of the peace and happiness and the very life-blood of your wife and children!
REFERENCES
The Nervous Life. G. E. Partridge, Ph.D. Sturgis-Walton Company, New York. This book is especially recommended as an aid to the relief of the tired farm mother.
Parenthood and Race Culture. Charles W. Saleeby, M.D. Chapter IX, ”The Supremacy of Motherhood.” Moffat, Yard & Co., New York. This is a book of great value for students of race improvement.
From Kitchen to Garret. Virginia Van de Water. Chapter I, ”A Heart-to-Heart Talk with the House Wife.” Sturgis-Walton Company. Wholesome advice concerning the conservation of the mother's strength.
Proceedings of Child Conference for Research and Welfare, 1910. L. Pearl Boggs, Ph.D. Page 5, ”Home Education.” G. E.
Stechart & Co., New York.
The Efficient Life. Dr. L. H. Gulick. Chapter XVIII, ”Growth in Rest.” This entire volume is highly recommended as being suitable for over-worked mothers.
What the Farmer can do to Lighten his Wife's Work. T. Blake.
_Ladies' Home Journal_, Feb. 15, 1911.
The Higher Tide of Physical Conscience. Dr. L. H. Gulick.
_World's Work_, June, 1908.
Education for Motherhood. Charles W. Saleeby. _Good Housekeeping_, April, 1910.
The Profession of Motherhood. Dr. Lyman Abbott. _Outlook_, April 10, 1909.
Power Through Repose. Annie Payson Call. Chapter XII, ”Training for Rest.” Little, Brown & Co.
_Wallaces' Farmer_, Des Moines, Ia., is especially to be commended for its editorial champions.h.i.+p of The Farm Mother.
The Freedom of Life. Annie Payson Call. Chapter IV, ”Hurry, Worry, and Irritability.” Little, Brown & Co.
Ideas of a Plain Country Mother. _Ladies' Home Journal_, May 1, 1911.
_American Motherhood_. Coopertown, New York Monthly, $1. This magazine publishes many short articles bearing on the subject of this chapter.
How to conduct Mothers' Clubs. (Pamphlet No. 302, 8 cents.) _American Motherhood_. Coopertown, New York.
CHAPTER V
_CONSTRUCTING THE COUNTRY DWELLING_
Much has been written in books, and more has been spoken from platform and pulpit, relative to the patriotism of the American people. In addition to all this the public schools of city and country have been consciously instructing the children with a view to laying a permanent foundation in their lives for love of the native land and for defense of the national ideals. But it seems to me that the best word on the subject of patriotic instruction has never as yet been given wide publicity. So long as a boy has to grow up in a home where there are meanness and turmoil and strife and hatred and degradation, one may point a thousand times with pride to our great nation, display again and again before his eyes the proud banner of freedom, sing with him numberless times the patriotic songs eulogistic of the fatherland and its national heroes,--under such circ.u.mstances a boy can never be expected to develop into anything other than a superficial patriot. But give him a good home, simple and unadorned though it may be, where love reigns, where his childish needs are thoughtfully ministered unto, whereinto he may go at nightfall after a hard day's work and find rest and peace and comfort; a home whereinto he may take his childish cares and perplexities and place them before the affectionate consideration of his parents and perhaps his elder brothers and sisters; a place where he is carefully taught the rudiments of filial respect and a wholesome regard for work and industry,--bring up the boy in the midst of these plain, sympathetic situations, and you have a real patriot. Although he may be reminded only occasionally of the meaning of the national flag, and although he may read with no unusual interest about the blood that was spilled on the national field of battle, a life so reared would mean that the love of home has become rooted in the heart of the young patriot, and that he would rise up if need be and give his life in defense of that home. In such a case, only a small stretch of the imagination would make it possible for the youth to regard the nation as his home in the larger sense, while his willingness to defend that home in time of real need would be none the less present and strong.
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