AUGUST 15, 1914 



653 



an exjieil from the makers of the vehicle to 

 overhaul it thoroughly, getting rid of all the 

 friction possible. It was quite a treat to me 

 to be with the expert while he took the 

 machine to pieces, critically examined every 

 part, and gave me new ideas, not only in 

 regard to storage batteries, electricity, 

 " ball-bearing," etc., but he gave valuable 

 instructions about repairing, to my good 

 friends who have charge of our automobile- 

 repair shop. Well, on Saturday morning, 

 about ten o'clock, he discovered he wanted 

 some special parts; and as he expected to 

 finish up his job by night it was quite im- 

 portant that they reach here that same 

 afternoon. I expressed some doubt about 

 his getting them so the machine could be put 

 together so I could use it to go to church. 

 He said he could telephone them so they 

 would be sure to get it right off. Now, the 

 point of my story is what I found written 

 on the ship23ing-tag when it came in at three 

 in the afternoon on the electric-package car. 



Rush I Special rush — -man waiting 1 Notify con- 

 signee by phone immediately on arrival. Bakee 

 MOTOK VEHiCiiE Co., Cleveland. 



By the way, friends, is there any one 

 among you who has not been annoyed by 

 the half-heartedness or stupidity of express 

 agents and others connected with transpor- 

 tation? Again and again I have been told 

 things had not come that I wanted badly. 

 Sometimes by importunity I have made the 

 express man wake up and take a good look. 

 Then, again, I have phoned and wired big 

 establishments for something I wanted bad- 

 ly, and would not get a reply for several 

 days. I have had so many such disappoint- 

 ments that I do not know but I was begin- 

 ning to lose faith in humanity. But the 

 Baker Electric Co. had always been so 

 prompt in their correspondence, and so 

 willing to make every thing plain, that I 

 was beginning to have confidence again. 

 The printed matter on that shipping-tag 

 gave me more confidence. One of my gi'and- 

 sons took his wheel when the ear came in, 

 gi'abbed the package, and handed it to me 

 without even stopping, and it was in the 

 hands of the expert just as soon as he was 

 really ready for it. The car was all fixed, 

 he gathered up his tools, and left me the 

 happy possessor of my car with all the 

 moving parts practically " brand-new." It 

 made 31 miles on one charge, and I expect 

 to get several more miles out of it if I fully 

 comply with his instructions. Now for the 

 moral. 



The people who do business in that way, 

 take as much pains with an order for a 25- 

 cent article that is badly needed as if they 

 were going to make a sale of $25.00 or 

 $2500. The young man or young woman 



who starts out in the world with tlie deter- 

 mination to be " faithful in a few things " 

 will very soon be made by the people "ruler 

 over many things." While I am on this 

 subject I wish to tell you another little inci- 

 dent. First we will have a heading like this : 



THE LOW COST OP LIVING. 



Now do not think, friends, that I have 

 made a mistake and got it wrong. So much 

 has been said in regard to the high cost of 

 living that I am exceedingly glad of the 

 opi3ortunity to say something on the other 

 side ; and the incident I am going to speak 

 of did not occur out in the country nor in a 

 rural village. It was almost in the heart of 

 the gi-eat city of Cleveland. A great deal 

 has been said about the expense of living, in 

 large cities. Now, at the time of my story 

 I hapiDened to be in the city with one of my 

 grandsons, a full-grown man, and another 

 stout fellow who has charge of our auto- 

 repair shop. I had finished my business, 

 and was in a hurry to get home. I had but 

 twenty minutes to catch our Medina car 

 quite a piece away. Mrs. Root told me, 

 when I started to go out, to be sure to take 

 the boys to dinner as a return for taking 

 me along in their auto. I said to Howard, 

 " We cannot get dinner, and get over to 

 where the car stops, in twenty minutes, so I 

 shall have to wait for the next car." 



Then we started for a restaurant. It was 

 up an elevator on the second floor. Howard 

 took the lead, gave me a big tin server, 

 pointed to a knife, fork, and spoon, to which 

 we helped ourselves. He then took the lead 

 to a long table where hot smoking viands of 

 every description were ready to be ladled 

 out for the benefit of hungry people. It was 

 one of those restaurants that I think they 

 call " help yourself." I took a little roll of 

 corn bread — I think it might be called the 

 " hoe cake " that I have sj^oken about so 

 often, and it was certainly tiptop. Then I 

 had three slices of extra-nice bread cut from 

 one of the loaves a yai'd long or less. A nice 

 pleasant woman with a spoon in her hand 

 presided over a dish that looked something 

 like a meat pie. She gave me a spoonful, 

 and I pointed to a nice little chunk of roast 

 beef. Another pleasant-faced little woman 

 gave me a generous spoonful of fried pota- 

 toes. A third one asked me if I w^ould have 

 some brown beef gravy on my potatoes. I 

 nodded assent. You may wonder why I thus 

 go into details over such commonj^laee mat- 

 ters. Well, I do so because I feel sure there 

 are many among our readers who, like my- 

 self, have not kept pace with the gi'eat im- 

 provements in feeding the multitudes in a 

 big city and in reducing the high cost of 

 living. 



