1893 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
25 
THE MONOPOLIST'S SONG. 
I’m a trust or corporation, or Smith, Brown, Jones & Co.. 
But whatsoe’r my name may be to thousands I work woe; 
For I brook no rival near me, all competition crush. 
And all rules humane I quite disdain as sentimental mush. 
My present size and might I’ve reach'd from a commencement small, 
By executive ability, great talents and sheer gall, 
All my objects I've seen clearly, and effective means devised 
To obtain them, and In doing so all moral laws despised. 
My workmen I treat fairly in shop. If not In mine, 
But I can't endure their impudence when against me they combine; 
Then by tamp’ring with their wages, a strike I soon provoke, 
And starve them and their weaklings till they cringe beneath my yoke. 
Then each leader Is blacklisted, and, like a shabby shirk. 
Wherever I have influence, he’ll kneel in vain for work. 
In these battles with grim Labor, I ne'er need rue the day, 
For I wring from the consumers the whole cost of the fray 
Though most lawyers I prize highly, most laws I execrate. 
For the latter seek to bind me, while the former liberate. 
With their high-priced aid and guilefulness, ability and tricks, 
Through all hostile legislation I can “ drive a coach and six.’’ 
And then In the legislature, with admirable skill, 
They muddle the laws they’ve been well feed to nullify or kill. 
And, corrupt themselves, their fellows they’re ever keen to bribe; 
And so lawyers I’ve found ever a most convenient tribe. 
While production regulating, my work I oft curtail, 
And then thousands forced to idleness this policy bewail; 
But consumers pay me higher as supplies for them grow small, 
And producers sell me lower as their goods are In less call. 
And thus while a legislature must tax as the people please, 
I enforce my own taxation just as my will decrees; 
And while too all rightful burthens are for the public weal, 
My arbitrary Imposts are merely a “ private steal.” 
So I rav’n around for money, for power and a free rein, 
And to me, In the sordid struggle, the turmoil and stern strain, 
The rancorous cries of maddened men and women’s vengeful jeers 
Are what blazing babes’ shrill shrieks of old were to fierce Moloch'sears 
With twelve months of my extortions, when I’m weak-kneed and old, 
A college I’ll build somewhere and endow It well with gold; 
And an hospital I'll raise there for the wrecks that I have made; 
And a charity I’ll found there for my pauperized prey In trade. 
And when I’ve gone, the vulgar cheers will damn but for a day, 
But below these gifts must laud for years, and aloft buy bliss for aye. 
And what care I for jesters’ jeers or for fierce scoffers’ flings, 
As I float in the empyrean on sanctimonious wings ? —w. l. n. 
NOTES OF TRAVEL. 
PART II. 
Nearly everywhere I was surprised to see so much 
(shall I say useless?) needle-work—patch quilts, crazy 
quilts, scarfs for thing's (and is there anything more 
tiresome than to enter a room and see a scarf, or hit 
of stuff perched in somewise on every available bit 
of furniture ?) and yards and yards of knitted or 
crocheted laces. 
“When do you find time to read?” I sometimes 
ventured to ask, and the usual reply was that very 
little reading was done. The dear old fashion of knit¬ 
ting or sewing, when visitors were to be entertained, 
prevailed, and of course considerable fancy work 
would be the outcome of such odd hours. But I 
observed a marked difference in the appearance of 
people of similar ages—some 50 years young, and 
others 50 years old. With an erect, alert figure, hair, 
teeth and clothes well cared for, and the mind kept 
alive and bright with reading and thought, old age is 
kept at bay at any age; while if bent, toothless and 
dowdy, one is aged at 30. Pie and cake abounded, 
and on several occasions I saw women and children 
chewing gum—and that, too, in a railway car in full 
view of their fellow passengers. 
Anent needle-work, at a very pretty tea-table where 
I was often a guest when a girl, the napkins, which 
were of plain linen fringed all around, bore across one 
corner a motto worked in red cotton. The legend on 
the napkin at my plate read : “ Let us renew old ac¬ 
quaintance,” and the Bible and Shakespeare had been 
drawn upon for suitable texts, which set the table 
talk at once going in an interesting direction. The 
napkins had been beautifully made, and were, I 
thought, quite unique and desirable—something fitting 
for a Christmas or wedding gift. 
As I was reared in a Puritanic way, with strict 
observance of Sunday, I was astonished to see, consid¬ 
ering that the population was practically native-born 
for several generations, a general disregard of ordi¬ 
nary Sunday observances, and I could not well help 
thinking that some of the decadence of their vigor was 
due to this fact. Even if the sermonizer is of the 
flimsiest description, as he often is, still the act of 
going to church involves care of the toilet, a change 
of dress, and an hour of quiet. Greetings are exchanged 
with friends ; and one is lifted out of the daily routine 
of the week, and the result is good. At any rate, for 
the sake of mental and bodily vigor, one day in seven 
ought to be set apart for occupations different from 
those of the othe>* days,occupations that are not manual. 
I had a charming visit with a long-time friend of 
three score and two years of age, who fills a respon¬ 
sible and difficult business position, with every moment 
filled, and he is as alert, mentally and bodily, as many 
men at 40, and, what think you, he has taken up 
for his latest recreation, out of office hours ? The study 
of Arabic U He has not been in school since he was 
14 years of age, but he is one of the most accomplished 
scholars of my acquaintance. He finds, with Marcus 
Aurelius (whose Meditations I keep at my elbow for 
daily reading), no such place for rest as in the quiet of 
his own mind. People ordinarily fail in memory be¬ 
cause they cease to exercise their mental faculties by 
the acquisition of new knowledge. The study of 
Arabic, or any unfamiliar language, brings into use an 
entirely different set of faculties from those required 
in financial or ordinary business transactions, and 
therein lies the rest for the taxed faculties. 
In going about among acquaintances, one hears 
many tales of family trials—long illnesses of the aged 
and incurable, the injustice of wills, etc. Of two men 
who had made wills with the intent of governing the 
action of their sons for the generation succeeding their 
deaths, the result had been that none of the sons did 
as the fathers had “ willed,” but followed the bent of 
their own inclinations: one had gone as lumberman to 
Canada, another as an engineer to Minnesota, a third 
to Mexico, and a fourth wholly to the bad. The 
widowed mother in one case, who should have had un¬ 
disturbed control of the estate, was being buffeted 
about like a shuttle-cock between two homes, humil¬ 
iated and miserable for all her old age, while the other 
forbidden to sell the real estate, and unable to manage 
it, enjoyed the felicity of seeing her worldly posses¬ 
sions deteriorating in value more and more as the 
years rolled by. After one has died, he is dead, and no 
human foresight can meet unexpected emergencies as 
can the living with present sight, and the individual 
who expects to control the free action of his descend¬ 
ants, after he is dead, by the mere wording of a will, 
is a first-class imbecile. He may control some specified 
use of property, but if he has not sense to see that 
John may not wish to stay on the farm, or James to 
run the sawmill, he had best not bother to make a 
will, but let the law in such matters take its course. 
Then there are the “pig-headed” people who make 
a fetish of things made with hands. One man resisted, 
as if a principle of right were at stake, the cutting of a 
door between two rooms, that had for years been 
imperative for convenience, and 700,000 extra steps 
had, by calculation, been taken because of the lack of 
direct connection between the two parts of the house. 
Another would not allow certain shelves and books to 
be put on the walls, for the latter might be cracked 
thereby, and walls were sacred things in comparison 
with the comfort of the family, mary wager-fisher. 
(To be Continued.) 
SOME MISSOURI FRUIT NOTES. 
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY MEETING. 
The crank was of course present at the meeting. 
Indeed there were more than one. One of them had 
found in common salt a remedy for pear blight and 
all the other ills that plants and animals are heirs to. 
He could give many instances in which its use had 
proved highly beneficial and profitable. Calomel was 
claimed by one member to be a specific for pear blight. 
It is to be inserted under the bark of the tree in 10- 
grain doses, somewhat after the manner of a bud in 
budding, when the sap is up and the bark will slip. 
Ben Davis is still in the lead as a profitable market 
apple. Jonathan seems to hold the second place. 
J. B. Durand, of Prairie City, and some others con¬ 
sider it the most profitable variety. Its early ripening 
is a fault, but cold storage overcomes it to a great ex¬ 
tent. Willow Twig, Winesap, Minkler, Grimes’s 
Golden and Huntsman are some of the varieties in 
favor with growers and shippers. Henry Speer, of 
Bates County, thinks that well grown and properly 
ripened Grimes’s Golden is the best fruit that grows on 
trees. Northern Spy, Rhode Island Greening, Baldwin 
and other Northern varieties made a poor show this 
unfavorable season. Mr. A. Nelson of Laclede County, 
formerly of York State, and other Eastern men 
say they made a great mistake in planting in the 
West the varieties popular at their old homes in the 
East. York Imperial seems to be rapidly gaining 
ground. Mammoth Black Twig is being quite largely 
planted in some localities in the Southern part of the 
State. Shackleford is by some considered identical 
with Ben Davis; the veteran Samuel Miller who has 
had it in bearing for three years says that it is lighter 
in color and better in quality. 
It was generally agreed that yearly cultivation is 
the bes t method of caring for orchards, though some 
advocated seeding with clover after cultivating three 
or four years. Judge Waters of Lebanon recom¬ 
mends growing cow peas for a fertilizing crop in 
orchards, sowing in drills, cultivating, and plowing 
under in the fall. H.e claims that treatment is better 
than seeding to clover. It permits cultivation when 
the trees need it. 
Peach culture in the southern counties of the State 
is growing very rapidly. The trees are free from 
disease, vigorous and prolific. Mr. J. E. Kreybill of 
Howell County, sold the past season from six acres of 
Elberta peach trees planted in the spring of 1889, 
$1,800 worth of fruit. These peaches were extra fine 
and sold for $6 per bushel. Mr. J. C. Evans, president 
of the society, confirmed this peach story. Mr. Krey¬ 
bill is trying to grow the finest possible fruit. He 
cultivates constantly, fertilizes with wood ashes, 
prunes and cuts back the previous season’s growth 
annually. He says the Elberta is the best peach he 
has ever seen in any State or country. In addition to 
the Elberta, he recommended Troth’s, Mt. Rose, Family 
Favorite, Susquehanna, Globe, Smock, Wonderful, 
Picquet’s Late, and Sal way. He has no use for clings. 
Alexander, Hales and all that family were con¬ 
sidered of no value. President Evans thinks it a mis¬ 
fortune that they were ever brought to notice. 
For the best 12 kinds, ripening in succession from 
early to late, he named : Troth’s, Mt. Rose, Reeves’s, 
Foster, Family Favorite, Walker, Elberta, Gold Dust, 
Picquet’s, Salway, Bonanza and Henrietta. Only two 
of these—Gold Dust and Henrietta—are clings. 
All varieties are so productive in this peach belt 
that severe thinning is necessary for the finest fruit. 
In the valleys the peaches were killed by the late 
frosts. Going up the slopes the first peaches were 
found in the tops of the trees which reached above the 
frost line. r. e. b. 
MILK FACTORY WANTED IN CAYUGA COUNTY, N. Y. 
This county is largely a grain-growing one and at 
one time was noted for its fine beef cattle and pork ; 
but the two industries are almost extinct, especially 
the fattening of beeves, and the fertility of our soil has 
been going off in grain, and at present hay is one of 
the most profitable money crops to the farmer, and 
carries off most fertility. How to replace this is the 
all-important question of the day to the thinking 
farmers. Commercial fertilizers cost quite a serious 
sum and are not always judiciously used. Now what 
we want is more stock on our farms to utilize the hay, 
straw and more grain. A few have taken up dairy¬ 
ing to help the problem, with apparent success ; but it 
calls for a great amount of work for the good house¬ 
wife, and that should be avoided as much as possible, 
for competent help for her is among the impossibili¬ 
ties ; indeed any help at all is not procurable. 
It has been said at our farmers’ club that a milk 
factory would help the farmer to diversify his crops 
and to keep more stock on his farm to use up the crops. 
We have good transportation facilities, for the New 
York Central and the Pennsylvania and Reading Rail¬ 
roads run through the county. The farmers would hail 
with pleasure anything that would yield a paying divi¬ 
dend. We have already established a sweet-corn can¬ 
ning factory, and if we could get some one to establish a 
large creamery so that we could use up the surplus 
fodder from the sweet corn, it would “ nick” well. 
Everything in the line of feed for stock can be raised 
to feed the cows, as we have found out the value of 
oats and peas as feed for dairy or any other stock on 
the farm. The peas take the place of linseed meal 
largely and are easily raised. A. n. baker. 
AGAINST FREE COINAGE OF SILVER. 
Do not fail to give the opponents as well as the ad¬ 
vocates of free coinage space in The Rural to present 
their views. The truth and the greatest good to the 
greatest number are what the masses desire. Error 
and the enrichment of the few are the desires of the 
classes. I deem the measure one of the worst ever 
proposed. Free coinage will benefit no one except 
the silver kings, and this at the expense of all others. 
The profit now made by the Government ( i . e. the people) 
by putting only 70 cents’ worth of silver in a dollar, 
(65 cents’ worth to-day.— Eds.) would uDder free coin¬ 
age go to the owners of silver mines, and thus further 
enrich those already wealthy. A proposal to put only 
20 cents’ worth of silver in a dollar, and leave coinage 
to the Government would be far more popular than 
free coinage if the masses knew what was for 
their good. There is no excuse for Government ex¬ 
cept as a means of protecting the weak from the 
strong, but our law-makers usually reverse this, and 
free coinage is only an additional method of cheating 
the masses. emory d. robinson. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
AN Orange County, N. Y., friend of The Rural New-Yorker, 
wants to engage a sober, rellal le and experienced man, to speed colts. 
Good salary will be paid the right man. No use to apply without good 
reference. Address this office. 
The advertising agency of J. H. Bates will hereafter be known as 
The Bates & Morse Agency, Mr. Lyman D. Morse having become a 
partner in the business. 
The old and reliable “Acme” harrow Is still offered for sale, and 
for many purposes of tillage It is without a rival. It does the work of 
three separate machines — leveling the surface and thoroughly 
lining it, completely pulverizing and crushing all lumps and clods. No 
horse tool leaves the surface In better shape for seeding. The “Acme” 
is practically unbreakable, as Its teeth can “ give ” and slide over big 
stones or stumps. At the price at which It Is now sold it Is the 
cheapest riding harrow offered for sale. The price Is reduced for this 
season. Write to Duane H. Nash, Millington, N. J., for full particulars. 
