The American Country Girl Part 17

Petticoats longer than dress skirt.

Dusty, spotted clothes.

Fussy neckwear.

Soiled shirt waist and collar.

Dresses or underwaists cut too low.

Short sleeves in winter.

Coats, dresses, skirts, or waists whose b.u.t.tons or hooks and eyes are lacking.

Holes in stockings.

Safety-pin showing beneath the belt.

From a report by Miss Caroline Gleason, Director of Social Survey for the Consumers' League of Oregon, is copied, with permission, a carefully made list representing conditions in the Northwest:

1 winter coat $15.00 1 suit 18.00 1 extra skirt 5.00 2 dark waists 4.00 4 white waists 4.00 2 dark underskirts 2.00 4 suits summer underwear 2.00 3 suits winter underwear 3.00 1 dozen pair stockings 3.00 2 pair corsets 3.00 4 corset covers 2.00 1-1/2 dozen cotton handkerchiefs .90 4 pair gloves 4.00 4 pair shoes 10.00 1 pair rubbers .50 1 umbrella 1.00 3 hats 6.00 1 party dress 10.00 3 white underskirts 4.50 2 summer dresses 10.00 ------- $107.90

Miss Gleason adds: "In making out a budget for the cost of the Country Girl's clothes, I would feel it necessary to consider whether they were procured in the city at city prices (through mail order houses) or in the country store. My reason for saying this is that, judging from my slight experience, country prices are higher than city prices even with postage attached."

These Western and Southern reports may be supplemented by two that come from New England. The first of these is made by Miss L. G. Chase, Social Worker in Providence, Rhode Island, and represents a great deal of thought and experience. It may be called final for that part of the country. It is as follows:

_Underwear_--

Winter--3 union suits at 75c. (cotton and wool) $2.25 Summer--3 shirts at 25c. .75 3 pair drawers (made at home) at 25c. .75 Two outing-flannel petticoats, 5 yds. at 11c. .55 Two outside petticoats, 5 yds. at 9c. .45 One ferris-waist 1.00 One pair garters .20 Four nightdresses (estimated) 2.00

_Coats, hats, gloves_--

Summer coat 6.98 Winter school hat 1.50 Winter hat (best) 4.50 Summer hat (every day) 3.50 Two pair gloves 2.00

_Rubbers, shoes, stockings_--

One pair rubbers .75 One pair high shoes 3.75 One pair low shoes 2.50 Repairs to shoes 1.20 Eight pair stockings (estimated) 1.63

_Dresses_--

Summer--4 yds. gingham at 50c.--Tr.i.m.m.i.n.g 23c. (best dress) 2.23 Gingham dress, 6 yds. at 9c.--Tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs 23c. .77 White middy blouse and skirt--5 yds. material at 12-1/2c. .63 Fall and winter Blue ratinee--4-1/2 yds. at 25c., tr.i.m.m.i.n.g and girdle 65c. 1.78 Brown corduroy--6 yds. at 50c., tr.i.m.m.i.n.g $1.00 4.00 Three shirt-waists--2-1/2 yds. each at 12-1/2c. .94 One pongee waist (Made from dress of mother, estimated value of waist to take its place) 1.00 Handkerchiefs, collars, ties, etc. (estimated) 3.00 ------ $50.61

Left over for use for another year--

Winter coat, Sweater, White panama hat, White dress, Princess slip, Corset cover, Blue serge dress, Black and white check dress, Gingham dress, House dress.

The second New England budget was prepared by a group of girls at the Agricultural College of Connecticut, most of whom came from the country.

The scheme is made for three years' wear and is given with the caption that the girls themselves chose.

A THREE-YEAR BUDGET

SUITABLE FOR A SIXTEEN TO EIGHTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL LIVING IN THE COUNTRY AND ATTENDING A NEIGHBORING HIGH SCHOOL, WITH THE ADVANTAGE OF SHOPPING IN THE CITY.

To be attractive is not to attract attention. In choosing her clothes, a young girl at school must consider style, suitability, durability, neatness, and cost. Cheap materials should not be chosen merely because they are cheap, for in the end a high-priced material is often cheaper than a low-priced one.

8 light-weight unionsuits at 25c. $2.00 5 heavy-weight knit unionsuits at $1.00 5.00 8 corset covers (plain) at 25c. 2.00 4 corset covers (fancy) at 60c. 2.40 1 princess slip 1.25 3 white petticoats at $1.50 4.50 2 dark petticoats at $1.00 2.00 4 summer nightgowns (of long cloth or nainsook) at 85c. 3.40 3 winter nightgowns (of outing-flannel) at 62c. 1.86 6 pairs corsets at $1.00 6.00 4 waists (made at home of material easily laundered) at 50c. 2.00 4 waists at $1.50 6.00 1 heavy skirt 5.00 5 cotton dresses at $1.25 6.25 1 dress (silk) 8.00 3 dresses, woolen material at $3.50 10.50 1 suit (coat and skirt) 22.50 1 heavy skirt 5.00 1 sweater 5.00 1 heavy coat 18.00 1 light coat 6.00 1 raincoat 5.00 4 winter hats 11.50 4 summer hats 15.00 2 pairs silk gloves 2.00 4 pairs heavy gloves 4.00 4 ties at 25c. 1.00 24 handkerchiefs 4.25 9 pairs stockings at 50c. 4.50 18 pairs stockings at 25c. 4.50 8 pairs shoes at $2.50 20.00 6 pairs overshoes at 70c. 4.20 Extras: hairpins, tooth-brushes, shoe-polish, various toilet articles 6.00 Extras: ribbons, velvet, collars, etc. 12.00 ------- Dress budget for three years $218.61 Dress budget for one year $72.87

These various budgets are given that we may be sure to have some approach to a standard for each part of the country. But it is of course possible that none of them will meet the case of a great many of the girls. However, the hope is that they may at least give the suggestion that it is a useful thing to make such a list in order that a girl may thus be able to see at a glance what she is doing with her money; and when she is looking forward into the year ahead she may feel an inspiration to plan beforehand and thus forestall the disaster that so surely follows poor investment. The first principle of efficiency is to put in a pin, as it were, at a certain point, so that one may see what point has been reached and so be helped to decide whether it can be surpa.s.sed another time.

Let this chapter be a help to put in such a pin, to set something like an ideal of what is possible in the matter of reasonable dress. It may also aid the daughter to know what she may fairly expect her father to supply for her needs. It may help the well-meaning father to realize what he must do if his children are able to hold up their heads in the community. The rank of the head of the family is often reckoned by the appearance of the wife and child. Some of these lists are evidently made for a girl whose father may be marked by the daughter's dress as a man of less position and generosity and fairness than he imagines himself to be. That state of things can easily be corrected. On the other hand, the girl that has time for sewing, and the cleverness and training to do it, should take delight in making her clothing for herself. Given those antecedent conditions, the Country Girl's dress will thus be not only less expensive, but also better adapted to herself, and more charming because more individual.

CHAPTER XVIII

FOUNDING A HOME

The woman that can in the midst of her rigid daily duties fall on her knees and thank G.o.d for the dim, black forests which are the eternal fans of nature, for the rain that appeases the thirst of the birds of the air, and the newly sown seed in the fields, that can feel amid these natural objects awe, admiration, a sense of infinite force, of boundless life, of duration that is eternal in its broad and human sweep, leaving her stunned with the realization of her pigmied self in the presence of these veritable facts, and at the same time filling her with a deep, maternal pride that she, too, is a living, necessary factor in G.o.d's world of Rural Life is the one that possesses the power to rise above the common drudgeries of daily existence. She knows that the secret of the beautiful and simple life is to make oneself a symbol of heavenly life.

--_Sigismund von Eberstadt._

CHAPTER XVIII

FOUNDING A HOME

There is one thing that may not be mentioned by any Country Girls even in their dearest confidences, but that we may for a surety know: it is that every one of them looks forward to the making of her own home. Yes; every one has her dream of a "hope chest"; and as she wanders about her home community she is looking here and there to see what hillside or what sightly place on the plain will be the destined location for her home. Like the wise woman in Proverbs, she, in imagination, buildeth her house beforehand, and thinks it all out according to the scope of her ideals.

These ideals that are cherished in the thoughts of the young woman are her most valuable possessions. They are the blossoming of the best that she has received from her education, her surroundings in the home, the advice of her elders, the influence of the books she has read, the music she has heard and has made, the plays she has seen and the poetry she has learned. They are the inherited result of long years of experience on the part of the race; and perhaps in no place is the best that past centuries have garnered to be found more a.s.similated and concentrated than in the country home in America.

In the history of the evolution of society we recall that woman was a.s.signed no small place. In those early eons of the long slow growth of society, she was the creator of the home; she was the master of the mysteries of fire and of household devices; she was the carrier, the lapidary, the builder, the inventor, the harvester, the tiller of the soil; she was the weaver, the skin dresser, the maker and mender of clothing, the hewer of wood and the drawer of water; she was the linguist and instructor of girls; she was a prophetess and a founder of religion; she went into battle with the fighting men and she deliberated in the council of the tribe. She had her full share in the creation of a social order.

To dwell upon the history of domestic evolution will perhaps encourage the young woman of to-day to step forward and shoulder the responsibilities that belong to her. But the young woman in the rural field has at present a special difficulty. If the better and more adventurous among the rural young men withdraw to the city, the choice of the young women that remain is restricted. Indeed many may continue unmarried because of the lack of companionship of their own caliber.

This situation should work several ways; to the young men who are tempted to run away to city life, it should be an incitement to stay where their true home is; it should also be an inspiration to the youths remaining in the home village when the less loyal or the more enterprising young men have departed, to build up efficiency in every possible way, so that they may make themselves more acceptable and successful in the social field of the community.

But as to the girls themselves--ay, there's the rub! Difficult as the problem always is for any young woman, it is doubly so for her in the country to-day. Under these circ.u.mstances, what the dignified position for her to take is hazardous to say.

There is no use in trying to minimize the great importance of the problem. The advance or the deterioration of the community depends on the mental and physical health of the race. In order that a home may be successfully founded; that it may carry on the best traditions and improve upon them, it should be made by the best possible choice of each other on the part of those that form it. Back of these best possible choices must lie the highest ideals and the courage to demand the fulfilment of these ideals. For the characteristics of the children in any home will be formed by the characteristics of both the parents.

Therefore, the quality and character of both parents will determine whether the race shall ascend in the scale of being or shall decline and deteriorate. The young may not choose for their own pleasure alone; they should choose also for the sake of the whole race and its hopes and aspirations. They must develop themselves; they must make themselves and keep themselves sound and well-trained and in good trim not for their own joy in living, not even solely for the benefit of those about them, but for the strength and success of those who are to live after them.

It is for this reason that the choice is so momentous. And it is not to be wondered at that many young men and young women find the years of youthful decisions fraught with an almost tragic significance.

In the present state of social evolution, the burden of choice seems to rest chiefly upon the young man. But is it really so? Professor Scott Nearing asks the question and then makes the suggestion that though the conventionally modest young woman of to-day may shrink from the thought that she should take the lead in this matter of selection, still she may unconsciously and instinctively do so after all. The same suggestion is strongly urged by another educational authority. One of the wise men of Illinois, a man of culture, an educationalist and a close observer of life, writes as follows: "What the country girl most needs and wants is a larger opportunity for social development. Her life is isolated, her friends limited. She has little choice when she selects a husband from the home community. I almost wish custom would permit her to make the proposal, for I feel sure that she could do so more intelligently, and better results would obtain." We have indeed a mighty precedent in the earliest days of our national story for the initiative of the woman.

"Why don't you speak for yourself, John?" has been said once, and it can be said again.

But then again, would the state of things be bettered if this important initiative were placed equally in the hands of women and men? Would the young men suffer themselves to be ensnared by the unbelated suggestion, remain in the rural environment and found their homes there? Would they allow themselves to be tied down in a place where they do not desire to be? And who would want to tie them down, anyway? The wings of Lord Love are tremendously energetic, especially when bound by artificial cords.

In questions like these we must wait until we have seen what the young folks have done before we make up our minds what is right to do; and especially to-day when the boys and girls are suffering from the neglects of the last generation. The people who have just pa.s.sed off the stage allowed education, science, recreation, good times, hospitality, and spiritual life to drag behind; now the younger farm people of to-day are feeling the results. We must look to the new life, the new methods, the new community spirit of to-morrow to make things over so that there shall spring up perfectly balanced homes all along the countryside with such attraction in home and community that no one can possibly be lured away. In this reorganization of community life, as we have seen, the Country Girl has a great share and duty. And one of the greatest services she can perform will be to cherish in her own heart the highest ideals as to the right and necessary construction of a home in the character of the parents, and to hold everybody on whom she has any influence in the community to those ideals as strictly as she possibly can. For it would be indeed far better for her and for her part in the onflowing life stream of racial progress if she should dwell unmarried, run her own farm, and fill her house with the laughter of some unmothered and unfathered children who would no doubt repay her with love and service and honor as devotedly as if they had been children of her very own, as if she should unite in a family plan that by carrying on impure or diseased influences would contribute to the degradation of the race, and increase the misery of the world.

Though hampered with some disabilities, the Country Girl of to-day has one great advantage. She was born after the time when it was settled conclusively that there was nothing in her s.e.x alone that ought to hinder her mental growth and her opportunity for activity. In her time woman has come to realize that when she believes in her own inferiority, in the possibility that her s.e.x may be a handicap, her nature will be restricted, and she will not be able to develop the powers she does possess. She sees that the obsession of this thought has tied down the woman in the past and has impeded her development. She is now wakened from this daze.

What barrier can there be to a woman's progress? Truly life presents many. For instance, her idea of what would for her be progress, may not be the right idea. There are many stern duties that sometimes seem to impede progress; duties to parents, to family, or to the social order; duties to religious forms that have become woven into society and could not be drawn out without too much sacrifice of what is good and necessary; duties to common legal form that has dominance and is the result of centuries of experience, and that could not be taken exception to without too great risk--these and many other things may form barriers to the desire of the mere individual. But, these being granted, the woman can have a free chance for growth and development only when she believes that nothing coming out of the mere fact of s.e.x has a right to hamper her growth or restrict her activity, and that no one shall have the right to say what is best for her or what she ought to wish for herself, in matters where she alone can have the means for understanding the situation.

These principles intimately concern the question of marriage. George Meredith said that to a woman marriage should be a platform from which her soul may take a new flight. How wonderful! A platform from which the soul may take flight!--not a black cage in which the soul of woman must crouch, to which her soul must fit itself, moving cramped, and slowly, and at war with itself; not a cage in which a caught and imprisoned canary bird must sing for the amus.e.m.e.nt of its owner. No! a platform from which to take flight, with sunlighted realms to investigate and new skies to discover, with wings growing ever stronger for more daring ascensions into still clearer light.