The Farm Home

By Mrs. A.J. Wilder, Rocky Ridge Farm

Rummaging thru a closet in the attic a few days ago, I unearthed some fashion magazines of the summer of 1908 and was astonished to discover that since that short time ago women have apparently changed the form of their bodies and the shape of their faces as well as the style of their gowns and hair dressing.

Perhaps the pensive lines and die away expression of the faces in the old fashioned plates were due to the tightly drawn in waists and the over draw check effect of the choker collars, or it may be that faces with such an expression just naturally called for that style of dressing.

However that may be, a comparison of those fashions with the easy,, comfortable styles of this summer, which give beauty and grace of line with freedom of movement and plenty of breathing room, is enough cause for celebrating a special Thanksgiving day months ahead of the regular time.

There is still room for improvement in children’s clothes. They are much too fussy to be either beautiful or becoming. Why trouble with fancy, changeable, children’s styles? There will be plenty of time for them to learn all the vanities of dress later and it is better to keep them simple and sweet as long as possible. It would do away with a lot of needless bother and vexation if we copied the English in their way of dressing little girls as there mothers were dressed, in the same kind of a simple little smock frock.

Fashions in other things than clothes have been and are still being simplified, for the sake of a more economic production, thus lessening the cost of manufacturing by saving time, labor and material.

Furniture makers cut down the number of their pattern several hundred per cent during the war, cutting out just that many varieties of furniture. This was done by the advice of the War Industries Board to reduce the cost of production and save materials and labor for other work. It was found to be such a benefit that it has been decided to keep on in the same way and so we shall have fewer styles in furniture.

In the hardware trade the same plan is being used. There are something like 4450 fewer styles of pocket knives for Johnnie to buy and lose than there were before the war, but it does seem that he should be able to please himself by a choice from the 250 kinds left him

There used to be 207 kinds of lawn mowers. Now there are only six. This number does not include the regular mowing machine which The Man Of The Place uses so effectively in the front yard nor the pet colt who mows the lawn and puts the clipping to such good use.

The idea of doing away with useless, unnecessary things is at work in architecture also, in the planning and building of houses so that we are hearing a great deal these days of the dining roomless house.

The dining room, if kept strictly as a dining room is used for only a few minutes three times a day which is not enough return for the work and thought and expense of keeping up and extra room. The fact is that most dining rooms are used by the family as a living room as well and so in the new plans the rooms are frankly combined into one. Sometimes where the kitchen is large it is the kitchen and dining room and many steps are saved. Either of these combination rooms may be made very attractive and have been in small houses where people did not wait for it to become the fashion.

Everyone is complaining of being tired, of not having time for what they wish to do. It is no wonder when they are obliged to pick and choose from such multitudes of thoughts and things.

The world is full of so many things, so many of them useless, so many, many varieties of the same thing creating confusion and a feeling of being overwhelmed by their number. It would be a wonderful relief if, by eliminating both wisely and well, life might be simplified.

Mrs. A.J. Wilder. "The Farm Home." Missouri Ruralist (July 20, 1919): 29.

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