Can a city woman do the things a country woman can?TO THE EDITOR: So many articles are written in magazines, casting reflections on country people's mental ability that I would like to make a reply. I am a country woman, born in a small town in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of . When I was about ten years of age, my parents moved to Kansas, and later to Colorado. I have never lived in a town of over 2500 people. I know I could not find my way about crowded streets as readily as my sisters, nor have I mastered the art(?) of powdering and painting to extremes. I would feel embarrassed in high-heeled pumps and a low-cut dress. As a society woman I'd be a failure, but I believe I could learn to be less awkward in time. But how many city women could hold a country woman's place? Take my own duties as an example. I am a mother of a boy fourteen years old, a frosh in high school, who has ambitions to enter college and study medicine, and a girl twelve years old, in grade school. I have been, and am, cook, dressmaker, barber, shoe mender, advisor, moral teacher, judge, and banker, of our family. Of course, the really important things my husband and I talk over and decide what we think best. When my husband was in the mercantile Relating to trade or commerce; commercial; having to do with the business of buying and selling; relating to merchants. A mercantile agency is an individual or company in the business of collecting data about the financial status, ability, and credit of individuals business a few years ago, I was bookkeeper and helper in general. I have also been postmistress post·mis·tress n. A woman who is in charge of the operations of a local post office. Noun 1. postmistress - a woman postmaster postmaster - the person in charge of a post office postmistress in a small office for five years. I have held a position as nightwatch for ten months steady in a western mill. I have helped herd and brand cattle on western plains. I have broken horses to drive, and ride. I have found it easy to drive two or six horses, to a plow plow or plough, agricultural implement used to cut furrows in and turn up the soil, preparing it for planting. The plow is generally considered the most important tillage tool. or wagon wagon: see carriage. wagon Four-wheeled vehicle designed to be drawn by draft animals. Wagons have been used from the 1st century BC; early examples used spoked wheels with metal rims, pivoted front axles, and linchpins to secure the wheels. . I can also drive any make of car. I have taken a car engine apart, ground the valves and put it together again, to have it run smoothly. I have papered and painted several houses inside, and done inside wiring for electric lights. At butchering time, I always dress the veal veal, flesh of a calf from two to three months old weighing usually less than 300 lb (135 kg). The locomotion of the veal calves is often restricted, and they are fed a real or synthetic milk that is high in protein and low in iron; this produces the desired for home or market as I can usually do a neater job in less time than my husband. I have hunted in the Adirondack Mountains Adirondack Mountains (ăd'ərŏn`dăk), mountain mass, NE N.Y., between the St. Lawrence valley in the north and the Mohawk valley in the south; rising to 5,344 ft (1,629 m) at Mt. Marcy, the highest point in the state. , and the Rocky Mountains Rocky Mountains, major mountain system of W North America and easternmost belt of the North American cordillera, extending more than 3,000 mi (4,800 km) from central N.Mex. to NW Alaska; Mt. Elbert (14,431 ft/4,399 m) in Colorado is the highest peak. , can operate a motor or row boat, and have fished in the St. Lawrence river with a fair success. When on a farm, I believe in studying the farm paper. Or when at any line of work, study it, whatever one does. Perhaps it doesn't take brains to do the things I have mentioned. But can the city woman do the things a country woman can? Has she more difficult work? Does her work take more brains?--Mrs. E. M. C., Wash. Fine, Mrs. E. M. C.! Quite a few of the high-brows have been fussing around over what they think is a decline of rural intelligence and the greater keenness of city folks. They've been measuring us by city standards. Turn the case around, as you've done, and it makes our city cousins look sort of dull and unsagacious.--The Editors. |
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