1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



639 



OUR 



HOMES, 



BY A.I. ROOT. 



Charity is not easily provoked; thinketh no evil; . . 

 believeth all things, hopeth all things. — I. Cor. 13:5, 7. 



When my thousand bushels of potatoes 

 were ready to harvest last fall, I was a 

 great deal worried about the amount it was 

 going to cost me to get them to Medina. To 

 haul them b}' wagon over the hills to the 

 nearest railwaj' station would cost between 

 S50 and SlOO; but at the foot of the long hill 

 on the edge of the bay there was a dock 

 where vessels of various kinds stopped to 

 get lumber, and I could get the potatoes 

 down there at very little expense, because 

 it was all the way down hill. Then the 

 question was to get the steamer to stop there 

 and take them on and carr}' them around 

 by the " Soo " to Cleveland. I presented 

 the matter to the Northern Michigan Trans- 

 portation Co. , whose agent was at Traverse 

 City; and after presenting the matter to the 

 general freight agent of the company he 

 said they would take my potatoes from the 

 Bingham dock and turn them over to the 

 railwaj' company at Cleveland at 12 cents 

 per 100 lbs. : but thej' said I must have a 

 carload or more piled up on the dock as an 

 inducement for the steamer to stop and take 

 them on. The plan was carried out with- 

 out any trouble, and my potatoes were de- 

 livered at our potato-cellars in Medina at a 

 cost of about 13 or 14 cents a bushel. But 

 our people here in Medina notified me that 

 the railroad company demanded an over- 

 charge of something like S20. I suppose 

 our friends are aware that, to facilitate 

 business, these overcharges are always 

 paid; that the railroad company agrees to 

 look into all matters of this kind; and where 

 the monej' received is not according to 

 agreement, or more than the agreement, 

 thej' will paj' it back. This method of do- 

 ing business has been severely criticised, 

 especially bj' the farming communit}', and 

 on this account I wish to take a little space 

 right here to defend the railroads and the 

 great navigation companies. 



In all kinds of business where the owner 

 or owners can not be right on hand to de- 

 cide in regard to difficult questions, it is 

 pretty generally ag-reed that the best waj', 

 and, in fact, almost the only way, is to pay 

 the charges and adjust the differences aft- 

 erward. For instance, if you are traveling 

 on a railwa}', and there is something wrong 

 about your ticket, you can pay your fare, 

 and the railroad company will refund the 

 money afterward — that is, if you are in the 

 right and the conductor is in the wrong. 

 In the nature of things, the railroad com- 

 panies can not give their conductors unlim- 

 ited discretionary powers. 



A fe%v months ago I sent Mrs. Root's tick- 

 et to the headquarters of the Pere Mar- 

 quette railway to have the time extended. 



Before the ticket got back, however, we had 

 notice that my mother was near death. 

 Of course, we could not wait for the return 

 of the ticket, so I paid my wife's fare from 

 Traverse City to Toledo. I supposed at the 

 time and under the circumstances I should 

 be out of pocket. I thought, however, 

 I would present the matter to the general 

 passenger agent ; and I confess I was a lit- 

 tle surprised when my $8.25 came back 

 promptly. You see I could not tell the 

 agent at Traverse City about my ticket 

 that had not got back, for he would not 

 know any thing about it, and it was no af- 

 fair of his any way. 



At another time we just managed to catch 

 a train. Mrs. Root had a return ticket, 

 reading plainly that it would have to be 

 stamped at the ticket-office before it could 

 be used on the return trip. I knew we had 

 neglected to comply' with their regulations, 

 and I supposed I would have to pay the 

 fare ; but they managed it so my failure to 

 comply did not cost me any thing, but it 

 made them some trouble. 



By the way, perhaps I might reniark right 

 here that a friend of mine who is a railroad 

 man said I must not jump to the conclusion 

 that all railway companies are as accom- 

 modating as the Pere Marquette. He said 

 he honestly believed they gave their passen- 

 gers more for their money than almost any 

 other railwaj' company. But this is aside 

 from the subject we are considering. 



There are a great many iron- clad rules 

 about traveling that seem to us unneces- 

 sary ; but where railroad companies employ 

 thousands of people, and sometimes almost 

 a thousand miles away from headquarters, 

 they have got to exercise great care to pre- 

 vent dishonesty, or, perhaps we might say, 

 to avoid leaving things in such shape as to 

 encourage ^\s,hones,ty. And this is whj'^ we 

 are told again and again that, where there 

 are differences between yourself and the 

 conductor or the freight agent, as the case 

 ma}^ be, the better way is to pay the bill, 

 then put in your claim and have the matter 

 adjusted afterward. And just here comes in 

 the thought that this adjuster of all these dif- 

 ferences should be a very wise, sharp, and 

 keen man. People often present claims to 

 the railroad and transportation companies 

 that are preposterous ; and several times I 

 have known of claims being paid where I 

 thought the adjuster was almost throwing 

 away the money of his company. Let us 

 now go back to the potato deal, if you 

 please. 



As soon as I learned of the overcharge on 

 mj' potatoes, I put in a claim for my S20. 

 After some weeks had passed, I became a 

 little uneasy about it ; but Mr. Calvert and 

 Mr. Boyden, who have these matters in 

 charge, jokingly told me if the transporta- 

 tion companies got around to it in a year 

 they would do well. Of course, you know 

 that I have in years past had quite a large 

 experience in collecting claims mj'self, and 

 I said if they were followed up properly it 

 need not take a year, nor any thing like it. 



