The American Country Girl Part 16

I have always been a "Benton County country girl," and love the farm and its life. I had been out of my county but twice when I became a Club member. In the last two years I have traveled in ten different States--but still like Tennessee best of all. I have also visited a great many large cities, our National Capital being one.

Last year, Miss Moore said I could go, as First Prize Winner, with four other girls to the National Corn Show at Columbia, S. C. We spent a delightful day in Atlanta, a week in Columbia, and two days in Charleston on this trip, besides stopping at several other cities for a few hours. O how grand the Atlantic looked and how majestic its ships! I thought then that a Tomato Club girl could be no more highly favored than I.

But this year when Miss Moore wrote me that I had been selected to go to Washington it seemed too good to believe. What a delightful time we had, girls and boys from Michigan to Florida and from South Carolina to Oregon. The greatest people in the land showed us that they thought we too had some degree of greatness because we were "Good Farmers and had a purpose in life." We were not ashamed of our work, either, for I presented "The Highest Lady in The Land" some of my canned goods, and she very graciously accepted them and told us she was proud of "her girls." As a final treat Miss Moore carried me to New York where we met some lovely people and spent two days full of interest and sight-seeing. Then home in time for Christmas.

Some have asked me how I won. I don't know, but my County Agent says, "It's because you TRY to do everything you are told to do in the work, and do it like you are told." That may be true. I advise every Club girl to do no less than this anyway.

Full information about the work of Canning Cubs for girls may be obtained by any one who will write to the Department at Washington or directly to Mr. Benson, and ask for circulars on the subject. Many of the State Agricultural Colleges, also, have bulletins on the subject.

In all these wage-earning endeavors there is but one caution to be thought of beforehand. We should remember that when a young woman is working in the kitchen of the farm home, she is doing a wage-worthy work fully as much as when she is offering to some outside market. Now if she undertakes to make use of some by-product of the farm, if she cans the waste vegetables, reclaims them to common use, and standardizes the product, will not this new industry march into the factory as the others have, and will not the woman in the home be left without her wage as before? Unless the right principle underlies the business of canning, this will surely come to pa.s.s. There is no reason why the housework should not be standardized and brought under the law of economic production; there is no reason why a new sort of canning should be left in the unregulated realm for the benefit of the woman's whim for a work of her own. It shall surely not escape commercialization. The rag carpet, now a cheapened factory product, should be a warning to women.

What we should work for is not the enclosing of a certain piece of work with bars that we may get our hands upon it, but the establishment of economic laws that shall make women free to work wherever their taste and abilities incline them.

For the Country Girl in her plans for a future life of healthful, satisfying labor, the pathway to this better order lies over the rocky pavement of household systemization and scientific budget-making.

CHAPTER XVII

THE DRESS BUDGET

There is that scattereth and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet and it tendeth to poverty.

_Proverbs._

Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

_St Paul._

Even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister.

_Jesus._

CHAPTER XVII

THE DRESS BUDGET

The Country Girl has this advantage--the business of the farm and the home are so closely connected that the work she has to do can be carried on without separating her from her home. This would not be so in any work she could undertake in the city. She would not have a great big house to return to from her store or factory, but some little upstairs room, the "hall-bedroom" of that tragic book _The Long Day_, which so painfully portrays the conditions of work for girls in a great city. The Country Girl in her home with her housework about her is in a paradise compared with conditions such as these.

The "home" means rent, board, general living expenses--all these are looked out for in the scheme of life for the Country Girl. Why, then, does she feel so great a need for sheer money? The reason is partly this: she has the dress problem on her hands. She is scantily supplied with a bit now and then when she asks for a cloak or some other garment; she is not a.s.signed a certain sum a month, as her self-respecting spirit demands, and left free to use it as her judgment directs. She has not been trained to do this and the fear that she will not do it wisely keeps the father from inaugurating such a system. In the long run, after the daughter has gained wisdom from a few mistakes with the suffering resulting therefrom, the outgo from the parental pocket would not be much increased by adopting the educative method of letting her have the personal management of her little budget. Few fathers can bear to see a daughter really suffer; most fathers will not let her even foolishly think that she is suffering, and a plea from her will generally bring an indulgence in some unnecessary purchase.

The problem is intricate and has many sides; but we believe the best way for the father to take would be to place a set sum at her command with the injunction that she is to plan and use it carefully--and make it do!

If the parent is able to go so far in the process of education as to start her on a cash account and oversee her as she tries to carry it on, especially if he will initiate her in the mysteries of a small bank account, he will in the majority of cases be richly repaid in the development of an ability to manage and to save that he did not suspect the daughter to possess.

The father himself, in the happy-go-lucky method of most fathers in their financial relations with the women of the family, does not know what the daughter's dress budget for a year ought to be. The following lists of items for a country girl's dress budget are presented here as much for the father's sake as for that of the girls. The lists have been drawn from various sources and they represent the thought of many students of country life conditions and of some country girls themselves.

The first list was made by a wide-awake Country Girl in the State of Idaho:

LIST OF CLOTHING FOR A YEAR, FOR A GIRL IN HIGH SCHOOL

1 suit for best for 1 year, coat for best 2 years $15.00 1 winter coat 6.00 1 winter hat for best 2.50 1 winter hat for school, a felt knock-about 1.00 1 spring coat or party wrap 6.50 1 summer hat 3.00 1 pair gloves, seldom worn here except on Sundays 1.50 1 pair golf gloves .50 4 pairs shoes 10.00 8 pairs of stockings .80 2 pairs rubbers 1.30 2 suits underclothing, winter 1.80 2 suits underclothing, summer .70 3 underskirts, white 2.25 1 underskirt, knitted .50 1 silk underskirt 1.98 2 pairs corsets 3.00 6 corset covers 1.50 4 waists (not worn much) 3.00 1 worsted skirt 1.98 1 linen skirt .98 2 gingham wash dresses 2.00 1 princess slip 1.00 Miscellaneous, per year of nine months 9.00 ------ $77.79

She adds this note: "Some figures are guessed at, for I make and remake my clothes always. Note that the suit is not necessary. Needless to mention these figures are doubled and even trebled by some thoughtless girls of poor but long-suffering parents. I earn my own money."

The following meager list represents, I am sure, the thought of a girl who has been accustomed to the least that could possibly be got along with:

DRESS FOR A VILLAGE GIRL GOING TO SCHOOL

2 woolen combination suits $3.00 1 corset waist .50 2 flannelette petticoats 1.00 1 black petticoat 1.50 1 waist 3.00 1 dress skirt 3.00 1 woolen dress 3.00 1 winter hat 3.00 1 pair gloves 1.00 6 pairs of stockings 1.50 2 pairs of rubbers .80 2 pairs of shoes 6.00 1 winter coat 10.00 1 spring coat 7.00 6 handkerchiefs .99 ------ $45.29

The following is quoted with permission from a valuable little leaflet prepared by Miss Caroline D. Pratt, of Hampton Inst.i.tute, Hampton, Virginia, and shows what the prices would be for a girl in the southern realm:

SUGGESTIONS FOR CLOTHING FOR SCHOOL GIRLS

6 undervests (summer) $.60 4 undervests (winter) 1.00 4 pair drawers, homemade .80 2 white petticoats, homemade 1.00 3 nightgowns, homemade 1.65 4 underwaists, homemade 1.00 1 gingham petticoat, homemade .40 2 short flannel petticoats, homemade .70 6 plain shirt waists, homemade 2.40 1 white percale dress skirt, homemade .55 1 gingham dress, homemade 1.00 1 muslin dress, homemade 1.50 4 gingham ap.r.o.ns, homemade .72 2 white ap.r.o.ns, homemade .60 4 pairs stockings 1.00 1 pair low shoes 2.50 1 pair high shoes 3.00 1 pair corsets .50 1 hat 2.00 1 wool skirt 3.00 1 suit 12.50 1 raincoat 3.00 1 pair rubbers .60 1 umbrella 1.00 4 collars .40 12 handkerchiefs 1.20 1 pair gloves, lisle .25 1 pair gloves, wool .25 Belts, neckties 1.50 ------ $46.62

This list has been very carefully thought out, it is evident; but while the sum is small, we believe that it would be difficult to get clothing of good material at these figures. For instance, the corset. A fifty-cent corset cannot easily be made to last a year; and it would probably be of such a shape that it would be injurious rather than helpful to the wearer. Perhaps something else could be subst.i.tuted for that, however; that should be studied out by the Country Girls.

To this budget Miss Pratt adds a page of suggestions that are so useful that we are glad to have more girls read them.

Here they are:

WHAT A WELL-DRESSED GIRL WEARS TO SCHOOL

Neat, plain, shirt waists.

Plain, well-made, cotton or wool dresses.

Plain, short, wool skirt. Good material will last longer and prove more economical in the end.

Clean, plain, well-mended, durable underwear. If trimmed, use cambric ruffles, lace, or embroidery of good quality. Torchon lace wears well and is cheap.

Clean collars and neckties.

Neckties and belts should either match or harmonize with skirt or waist.

Hair neatly and becomingly dressed, not extreme.

Clean hands and finger nails.

Plainly trimmed hat.

Plain, serviceable coat.

Neat, comfortable shoes.

Neat gloves.

Old gloves and shoes are neat when clean and carefully mended.

WHAT A WELL-DRESSED GIRL DOES NOT WEAR TO SCHOOL

Elaborate shirt waists or dresses.

Jewelry.

Low shoes and thin stockings in winter.

Bright, gay colors.