Fiction

A Teachers’ Visit in the Early Days

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From the Relief Society Magazine, 1933 –

A Teachers’  Visit in Early Days

By Edna May Irvine

CHARACTERS: Dicey Brown and Mary Ann Williams, Relief society teachers, Sarah Jane, housewife, and her mother, Sister Richards.

SCENE: An old-fashioned combination kitchen and dining room. Dining table prepared for ironing, water bucket and dipper on bench or stand, old chairs, homemade rugs, etc.

(As curtain rises, Sarah Jane is discovered ironing and her mother is seated, sewing carpet rags.)

Sarah Jane: My, it’s hot ironing.

Mother: It ud be a lot worse if the stove wasn’t in the shanty.

Sarah Jane: yes, it would, but it makes a lot of extra steps and the irons cool off while I’m carrying them in.

Mother (preparing to rise): Let me change you off for a while.

Sarah Jane: No, you sit still. I’m getting along all right. I’m thankful you’re able to knit and mend and sew rags again, and I do want to get that carpet done so I can have a quilting in the Fall.

Mother: Yes, we must get it finished before then.

Sarah Jane: I think you’d better have a little sage tea, Mother, your color isn’t very good yet. I’ll get you some. (Sarah Jane gets tea either from cupboard or shanty.) I must remember to have the children bring in some more sage, too. (Sarah Jane exits to change iron; returns presently with fresh iron and a copy of the “Woman’s Exponent.”)

Mother: The News hasn’t come already, has it?

Sarah Jane: No, this is the “Woman’s Exponent.” Sam’s just come from the Post Office. Says he saw Dicey Brown and Mary Ann Williams out gathering for the Relief Society. They’ll be coming here pretty soon. wonder what I’ll give ‘em? Guess I can spare a pound of butter, though the cow getting bloated has run me kinda short.

Mother: yes, I think we can spare some butter even if we have to go a little short ourselves. There’s no blessing without sacrifice, you know. Give them a piece of that calico you got to make me a dress. it will be nice for a sunbonnet for some poor soul.

Sarah Jane: If I do I’ll have to leave one ruffle off your dress, but that ud be one less to iron so ‘twould be a double blessing.

Mother (reading paper): Here’s another poem by Eliza R. Snow. She is a wonderful woman. (Reads poem.)

Sarah Jane: That is lovely. It’s a good thing we have writers to relieve the monotony of our busy lives. I’ll bet this is Dicey and Mary Ann now.

Dicey (calling and knocking): Anybody home?

Mother and Sarah Jane: Yes, come right in.

(The two women enter, each carrying a large market basket well filled. Greetings are exchanged, chairs placed, etc.)

Sarah Jane: You are certainly loaded today.

Mary Ann: Aren’t we though? Si Hibbard said he’d give us a load of hay if we’d take it with us.

Dicey: You’re sewing carpet rags for a change, Sister Richards.

Mother: For a change! Seems like I’ll never be through sewing carpet rags.

Dicey: Never’s a long time, Sister Richards. Do you think you’ll have to make rag carpets for the golden stairs?

Mother: Maybe I will. I’d probably be better at it than I would at playing a harp, anyway.

Mary Ann: I’m going to get a drink. Won’t you have one Dicey?

Dicey: Guess I will. We’ve had one everywhere we’ve been.

Mother: Sarah Jane will give you some sage tea if you’d rather have it for a change. She just made me take some.

Sarah Jane: I guess that water is warm. It’s been drawn quite a while. Sam’s always wanting me to put ice in it, but I just can’t bear to put ice off that slewey old pond in the water.

Mary Ann: I don’t believe it’s healthy, either. Tom Jones says a man was telling him of a new kind of well. They drive pipes in the ground and the water spurts out. Tom says he believes we’ll soon all be having them.

Sarah Jaen: Wouldn’t that be wonderful. I’m so afraid of these open wells with children about. And it is hard work drawing water, especially on wash days.

Dicey: And then I guess the waste water would run onto the garden so’s we wouldn’t have to irrigate. That sounds too good to be true.

Sarah Jane: To change the subject, what did you do at meeting last month? It seems an age since I was there.

Mary Ann: Oh, that’s right, you weren’t there, were you?

Sarah Jane: No, with mother not feeling well and fruit to dry, I just couldn’t get away.

Mary Ann: Well, we sewed rags, as usual, bore testimonies, distributed donations.

Dicey: And don’t you remember? Sister Simpson predicted that the time would come when we’d hold meetings every week.

Sarah Jane: Every week! How ridiculous! how could us busy mothers ever find time to go to meetings every week?

Mother: Why, we couldn’t get enough rags to keep busy every week.

Mary Ann: Well, I wouldn’t mind going to meeting for a couple of hours eve4ry week fi that would do away with so much sitting up nights. Many a night I sew till nearly morning, making burying clothes and such.

Sarah Jane: I don’t see how holding meetings every week would do away with that. you can’t make folks’ burying clothes before they die.

Dicey: Or if it would do away with sitting up with the dead. I was all done up last week from sitting up two nights with that little Smith baby. Some folks thought it was diphtheria and everybody was afraid to go, so I was all alone. and with this hot spell, it just kept me busy putting resh ice on the little thing. And I couldn’t keep a door or window open for fear I’d drop off to sleep and the cat would come in. I never put in two such nights.

Mother: That’s real Relief society work, sisters.

Mary Ann: We must be going, Dicey. I’ve got to churn when I get home. I’m going up to the tithing office tomorrow and I want to take some nice fresh butter.

Dicey: yes, and I’ve got an old hen coming off today. It’s late but she was crazy to set. She’ll trample the chicks if I don’t take care.

Sarah Jane: I’ll get my donation. (Exits and returns with calico.) Mother wanted to give this and I’ll give some butter. Why don’t you leave one of your baskets and when the girls come home they’ll bring it over for you.

Mary Ann: That is a good idea. Then we can both carry this one and it won’t be hard.

Dicey: Well, we’re glad you are well again, Sister Richards, and hope you and Sarah Jane will both be able to come to meeting next month.

(They shake hands all around.)

Curtain.

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3 thoughts on “A Teachers’ Visit in the Early Days”

  1. Two thoughts:

    First, a little context on the beginnings of Visiting Teaching from “Daughters in My Kingdom” (p. 105-106) might be helpful in understanding this sweet vignette:

    [In July 1843] Relief Society leaders appointed a visiting committee of four sisters for each ward. The visiting committees’ most visible responsibilities were to assess needs and collect donations.

    Donations included money, food, and clothing. Each week, visiting committees gave the donations they had collected to the treasurer of the Relief Society. The Relief Society used these donations to provide aid and relief for the needy.
    In fulfilling this responsibility, one sister expressed her belief that “our Salvation depend[s] on our liberality to the poor.” Another sister expressed her agreement, saying: “The Lord confirms it again and again. He is delighted with our acts of charity.”

    This practiced continued well into the twentieth century. Generally the sisters who were assigned to go visiting went with baskets in hand, receiving items such as matches, rice, baking soda, and bottles of fruit. Most donations were used to help with local needs, but some were used to meet needs thousands of miles away. FOr example, after World War II, Relief Society sisters in the United States gathered, sorted, mended, and packed more than 500,000 articles of clothing and sent them to Europe.

    In addition to collecting donations, visiting committees assessed the needs in the homes they visited. They reported their observations to Relief Society leaders, who organized efforts to help.

    Second comment: the Word “slewey”. I wonder if that is a phonetic spelling for “Sloughy” which most readers would have no idea what was meant on visual encounter. A Slough, meaning a local marshy lowland that collects runoff water, is pronounced in the USA as “Sloo.” This would match with the sister’s context… the only place that ice might be collected during the winter was the marshy muddy neighborhood low areas, and she is right that she probably doesn’t want to put ice from that in her drinking water.

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