_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 circumstances 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.
PLANS AND SPECIFICATIONS NOT AVAILABLE
There are hundreds of types and thousands of varieties of rural dwelling
houses. It would perhaps be impracticable to attempt to furnish definite
plans and specifications in connection with this chapter. The wide
variation in the nature of the selected sites, in the means available
for building the home, in the size of the family to be accommodated, and
the like, would hinder us in the attempt. But there are certain
principles that may perhaps apply in nearly every instance and that
especially in thought of serving the first and best needs of the
juvenile members of the household.
It is altogether possible to make a two-room cottage out on the open
prairie a place suggestive of repose, of beauty, and of other high
ideals. So, no matter how small and inexpensive the rural dwelling may
be, let the builders work first of all for that simple beauty and
attractiveness which may most certainly invest the heart of the
indweller with a feeling of comfort and satisfaction. Let it be a place,
though humble, that may soon become to the members of the family the
most beloved spot on earth. For, after all, the best things of life
cannot possibly be bought with money. There are often misery and
dissension and bitterness in the finest palatial dwelling, while the
essential elements of beauty and worth may have lodgment in the hearts
of the humblest cottage dwellers. However, it is not the intention here
to argue any one into the thought of building a humble cot for the mere
sake of humility. The point we desire to make is merely this: that,
although possessed of very meager means with which to build, one can
actually construct a home in which the inhabitants thereof may dwell
in peace and contentment, and a place over which the Spirit of the
Most High may brood in great strength and beauty.
[Illustration: PLATE V.
FIG. 5.--An attractive old country residence in the South, built in
1854. At least one good family has been matured therein. And to them
"How many sacred memories
Bring back those childhood scenes."]
WHAT APPEALS TO THE CHILDREN
In the selection of a location and a site for the dwelling the welfare
of the children must be thought of, second only to that of the house
mother. Now, what material arrangements will appeal to the growing
children and add much interest and romance to their lives as in future
time they view them in retrospect? First of all, perhaps, a broken
landscape might well be mentioned, a hill or two near by the place, with
a sharp cliff or embankment to the crest of which the children may climb
and there cast down missiles. Such things tend to add a charm to the
young lives. And then, if possible, have a brook or larger stream of
fresh running water. A large river is less desirable on account of the
danger to child life. But a stream which may furnish, not merely water
for the live-stock, but a swimming and bathing place for the children in
summer and a skating pond for them in winter, to say nothing about the
pleasures of fishing and boating--these will appeal most strongly to the
boys and girls. And then, the woodland, or at least the shady grove with
trees to climb, and possibly nuts and wild flowers to gather--a place
where chipmunks and song birds and the like may have their natural
habitat, and wherefrom there may proceed the weird and doleful sound of
the night owl and the whip-poor-will; herein one may find many of the
crude materials well suited to give proper nourishment to the souls of
the young.
But the things just named will not nearly always be accessible.
Throughout many of the commonwealths there are vast stretches of level
plateaus with scarcely a hill or woodland in sight, and yet covered with
a rich, tillable soil. These places may for good reasons be selected for
the site of a dwelling. But they demand more work and heavier expense of
money and time before the best material surroundings of an ideal home
for boys and girls may be realized. Before the house is scarcely laid
out in such a place, the shade and ornamental trees should be planted,
selecting for part of the planting a quick-growing species that may be
removed later after more permanent and more valuable trees have reached
a suitable height. Of course, a stream of water cannot always be
diverted so as to make it pass the place, but a fair substitute may be
had by the construction of a pond. And this thing should be accomplished
at the earliest possible moment. If there be a small dry ravine, dam it
up with concrete and catch it full of surplus water during a rainy
season. It is a positive injustice to boys and not a little unfair to
girls to require them to grow up without any access to open water of
some kind. And it is almost a matter of criminal neglect to require
children to live permanently in a home about which there are no trees
growing. So it is recommended, even if the house construction must in
part be delayed or cut off, that the surroundings just named be sought
in all earnestness.
THE HOUSE PLAN
In planning and arranging the house, the matters to be thought of in
addition to those named above are convenience and comfort. While it is
somewhat important that the house look well to those who may be passing
upon the highway, it is vastly more important that it be good within and
serve such needs of the home-maker and the children as will conserve the
strength of the former and render the lives of all happy and contented.
In addition to the matters just named, that of placing the dwelling to
face in the right direction will be thought of. That is, arrange the
house so as to take advantage of the morning sunlight, the evening
shade, the winter blasts and the summer breezes. While for the sake of
entertainment it may be well to place the rural dwelling near the public
highway, rather than sacrifice the child-developing factors of shade
trees and streams and the like, it is often better to build back from
the road and make a private lane leading thereto.
In arranging for the heat and light in the house, think first of all of
the health and sanitation of the family. Ordinarily, the windows of the
farmhouse are too small; while worse still, many of them, even in the
bed chambers, are permanently nailed down. So, if the health and the
general well-being of the boys and girls, as well as the parents, are
worth anything at all, attend religiously to these small and inexpensive
conveniences, not neglecting to provide most carefully for keeping out
flies and other insects. The wise farmer will find the secret of getting
along with his own household and of rearing a strong, healthy family to
lie in the strict attention he gives to just such small matters as
these. The things that overstrain the physique, that try the temper and
patience of the housewife, must especially be looked after and something
of a better nature substituted for them.
HOW ONE FARMER DOES IT
Mr. W. F. Mottier, living in Ford County, Illinois, gives in _Farmer's
Voice_ his plan of providing for the children, as follows:--
"I have always tried to farm intelligently. One of my favorite ideas in
regard to farm life is that of making the home as attractive as possible
for the children. So I put on the place all the modern improvements that
I can afford, in order that the children may not feel that town life is
the best. And our children do not have any desire to go to town. It
would bring a sad thought to me to hear my children talk against the
farm life or home life on the farm."
OUTBUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT
With few exceptions, the money available for building the home should be
expended first in putting the house into the ideal condition just named.
After that, if any means remain, the outbuildings may be constructed.
Otherwise, crude, temporary arrangements may easily suffice. There is
one thing, however, that must be provided with scrupulous care and that
is the water for the household use. It must be, first of all, wholesome
and comparatively free from impurities. Then, if at all possible, it
should be cool and taste well. Actual records have shown that one will
not drink enough water to satisfy the demands of his health in case the
taste be in any degree unpleasant to him. So the ideal water for
household use is comparatively soft, is cool, highly pleasing to the
taste, and is free from disease-carrying germs. This comparatively
simple matter of providing the water will prove most important in
relation to the well-being of the household and the up-building of the
family life. See to it at any cost that the well be situated out of the
way of seepage from any barn or outbuilding, even though it may from
such necessity be placed somewhat out of the reach of convenience.
HUMAN RIGHTS PRIOR TO ANIMAL RIGHTS
If the farmer cannot afford to erect a good barn he may take reasonable
care of his horses with the use of a cheap, improvised one. Actual test
will show that horses may be made comfortable in the summer time with
the use of a straw-thatched shed for a barn, provided the drainage be
reasonably good and the earth floor be kept in good order. The thatched
covering may be made to keep out the rain. During the winter, with the
use of a few slender poles, the entire shed may be inclosed with a hay
or straw wall and the place thus be made very satisfactory for the time
being. Similar sheds and protection may be provided for the other
live-stock, all to await the time when the means are at hand for better
conveniences. It is especially suggestive of a mean lack of
consideration of human rights in the case of the farmer who has a big,
expensive farm barn towering up beside a little dingy shanty of a
dwelling house. And yet this thing is all too common, particularly in
new prairie regions. Such is the place out of which beastliness and
criminality and anarchy tend to be germinated from the lives of boys and
girls, to say nothing about the hidden tragedies that surround the lives
of the many women who are forced to put up with such an arrangement for
half a lifetime.
Just one illustration of a situation of the sort described will suffice
to point out the moral. On an occasion two strangers drew up to a
farmhouse. One of them was a land agent, and the other a home seeker.
Their mission was that of purchasing a farm. The owner of the farm
showed them about the place with considerable enthusiasm, but his heart
swelled with pride when he reached the magnificent barn, one side of
which was devoted to the propagation of a high-grade strain of Duroc
Jersey swine. Every convenience and comfort for the hogs was provided.
He boasted about his success with them, showed an affectionate regard
for the different individuals, calling them by name. The horses, too,
might have aroused the envy of the entire neighborhood. They were sleek
and well-fed, full in flesh and fair in form. There was provided every
convenience for feeding and caring for the horses and the hogs, so that
the hired men found the work about the barn exceedingly easy and
pleasant.
Then the attention of the visitors was turned to the farmhouse. Yes, it
was small and run down and poor, the intention being to build a larger
one "some time." But that same intention was known to have been
expressed repeatedly for a period of twenty years past. And where were
the boys? Well, that was the trouble, and furnished the excuse for his
willingness to sell the place. He simply could not induce the boys to
stay there and take an interest in things. Two of them, barely more than
boys, had left the home nest in its meanness and degradation and hired
out in town. The mother of the boys was living there because she had to,
but upon her face were lines of suffering and disappointment and
degradation. Yet in the midst of it all, strange to say, the father
seemed to blame the boys and their mother for having conspired against
the interests of the farm home and plotted to get away. In the course of
his conversation he made it somewhat evident that he would have sold out
and left sooner had the other members of the family not been so urgent
about the matter, and that he was now holding on partly to indulge his
spite and feeling of stubbornness in reference to them.
The cheap novels one may pick up depict many a fictitious tragedy. But
in the place just described lies the typical scene of thousands of real
tragedies during the course of which numberless lives of boys and girls
have been wrecked forever,--lives latent with possibilities of goodness
and beauty, of mental and moral strength. And then, the bitterness and
anguish of soul of the mothers of these lost members of a high
humanity--what of that? The silent walls of an untimely grave in many
cases closed them in, while much of the memory of their secret suffering
lies buried with them.
THE CHILDREN'S ROOM
Even though the means available will not allow for more than the
humblest sort of cottage, there should be definite thought of providing
therein some room or niche or corner to be considered as the private
property of the children. In a three-room dwelling on the Kansas prairie
in which lives a happy family of five, and about which thrifty young
shade trees and orchards are growing, there may be seen a children's
room that would surprise and inspire any ordinary observer. In a little
attic room facing the east and reached by a mere step-ladder
arrangement, may be found the "den," which is the private place of the
three children. A small window opens out to the east and a small
improvised dormer window about twelve by twenty inches admits light and
air from the south. There is no plastering or other expensive covering
upon the sloping roof walls, but the artistic mother has provided dainty
white muslin for concealing the rough places, and with the help of the
children she has decorated the little room in a manner that would
attract the very elect. None of this has required a money cost, but it
has all been done beautifully at the expense of thought and good sense
and artistic taste, prompted by rare consideration for the needs of the
boys and girls.
[Illustration: PLATE VI.
FIG. 6.--A commodious farmhouse in Canada, equipped throughout with a
complete water system. Many farmers waste enough trying to build a house
without a modern plan to pay for this extra convenience.]
The two little girls and their brother, ranging in age from five to ten
years, spend many a happy hour in their attic chamber. The heat from the
room below comes through a small aperture and warms the little place in
winter time, while the breeze passes through the little windows in
summer, tempering the room satisfactorily excepting upon extremely hot
days. Upon the walls are arranged beautiful post cards, larger pictures
gathered from magazines and other sources, and small though beautiful
home decorations of every conceivable sort. The little seven-year-old
boy has a small assortment of curios collected from the hills and
streams, while the girls have a small display of their childish
needlework, their dolls, and some of their best school drawings. How
suggestive and how helpful it would be if this little den could be
displayed before the eyes of all the humble cottagers throughout the
rural districts!
Yes, the hogs may live out-of-doors and the horses get along very well
indeed with a temporary barn thatched with straw, but the places of the
boys and girls must be looked after and that in the interest of making
them happy, of filling their lives with every good, clean sentiment, and
of preparing them for that large sphere of usefulness which may mark
their future. If the house be larger than the one we have described,
then provide accordingly for the children. Give them a good room of
their own. Put their ornaments and playthings in it. If there be space,
provide a library containing a few suitable volumes. And after this
thoughtful provision has been made, see to it carefully that their
schedule for work, schooling, and the other duties allows for ample time
and opportunity for their enjoyment of the apartment set aside for them.
In years to come, that sweet poetic sentiment running back to the home
of one's childhood will be given greater strength and beauty because of
the fact that this thing just urged has been done. And more than that,
the man (or woman) who has the blessed privilege of recalling these
bygone scenes of childhood receives from such contemplation a new sense
of inner strength and new enduement of power to go on with life's
struggle and master the larger problems that come to him.
THE EVENING HOUR
No matter what the cares of the day may have been, how many things may
have gone wrong, how much hay left out in the field unprotected from the
rain, how many acres of corn unplowed and losing in the battle with the
weeds, how many items of household duties unperformed--there is every
justification for laying aside these work-a-day affairs at the approach
of bedtime and for the spending of a precious hour with the problems of
the children. Farm parents as well as other parents can thus preserve
their youth and add immeasurably to the joys of their own lives. This
thing of being with the children at evening may seem slightly awkward
and prosaic at first, but it will slowly grow into a habit and will
become transformed into an experience of great charm and beauty. Best of
all the high refinement, potential in the lives of the children, will
thus be gradually brought to an expression, and the foundation stones of
substantial manhood and womanhood will be laid in their lives. Yes, it
is true, even farm parents may learn to lay aside their cares and
perplexities and enjoy the splendid privilege of getting intimately
acquainted with the hopes and desires and aspirations of their boys and
girls!
REFERENCES
The Outlook to Nature. Revised edition. L. H. Bailey. Page
79, "The Country Home." Macmillan.
Low Cost Country Homes. A. Embury, Jr. _Collier's_, June 10,
1911.
A Primer of Sanitation. John O. Ritchie. Chapter XXXIII,
"Public Sanitation." World Book Company, Yonkers, N.Y.
Recommended for general use.
From Kitchen to Garret. Virginia Van de Water. Chapter X,
"The Boy's Room." Sturgis-Walton Company.
Home Waterworks. Carleton J. Lynde. Sturgis-Walton.
"Comforts and Conveniences in Farmers' Homes." W. R. Beattie.
Yearbook, Department of Agriculture, 1909. Washington, D.C.,
pp. 345-356. See also in same volume, "Hygienic Water Supply
for Farms," pp. 399-408.
Water Supply for Farm Residences, The Plan of the Farm-House,
Saving Steps. Cornell Reading-Courses.
Rural Hygiene. H. N. Ogden. The Macmillan Company.
Rural Hygiene. I. N. Brewer. J. P. Lippincott Company,
Philadelphia.
Earn your Child's Friendship. J. Balfield. _Lippinott's
Magazine_, January, 1911.
Fireside Child Study. Patterson DuBois. Dodd, Mead & Co.
Home Decorations. Dorothy T. Priestman. Chapter XIV, "Rooms
for Young People." Penn Publishing Company, Philadelphia.