368 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 27 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker 
Cor. Chambers and Pearl Sts ., New York. 
A National Weekly Journal lor Country anft Suburban Home*. 
ELBERT B. CABMAN, Editor-In-Chief. 
HEHBRBT W. COLLINGWOOD, Managing Editor 
EBWIN G. FOWLER, Associate Editor. 
Copyrighted IMS. 
Address all communications and make all orders payable to Thb 
Bubal Publishing company. 
Money orders and bank drafts are the safest In transmitting money. 
SATURDAY, MAY 27, 1893. 
Over in England the farmers are still making the 
beet fight they know how against the practice of sell¬ 
ing American beef as “Prime English.” Some English 
butchers are in the habit of buying our dressed beef 
and selling it as the English-grown product, thus 
taking advantage of any British sentiment in favor of 
meat grown at home. The farmers demand a law 
compelling butchers to label all such meat as “foreign” 
with severe penalties for selling it as “ home-grown.” 
It seems to us that this is just as fair as it is for Amer¬ 
ican farmers to demand that bogus butter shall sail 
under its own colors. While our meat is as good as 
any other, it must be sold for what it is. One fraud 
is as had as another. * # 
We are informed that the last Indiana Legislature 
undertook to amend the laws permitting building and 
loan associations to do business so that farmers could 
share in their benefits. These associations were 
started chiefly to aid mechanics and townsmen who 
draw cash salaries a 4 ; regular intervals. The dues and 
interest moneys were to be paid weekly or monthly. 
This did not suit farmers so well, as they must depend 
upon sales of crops for funds to meet such dues. The 
law allows quarterly, twice a year or yearly payments, 
which are far more convenient for farmers. The exten- 
tion of this principle of cooperative investments and 
loans to rural neighborhoods would be of great benefit 
to those who live on farms. 
* * 
Just a caution to farmers : In 1886 the Standard 
Mutual Live Stock Insurance Company was organized 
in Chester County, Pa., and, like hundreds of similar 
associations, collapsed some time ago. A receiver was 
appointed and is now suing the members to recover 
heavy assessments which they refused to pay. Some 
of the farmers deny that they ever owned the live 
stock insured by the company and to pay for whose 
alleged loss the assessments were made on the mem¬ 
bers at large. Within the last 15 or more years the 
writer has seen accounts of the collapse of dozens of 
similar organizations, and in nearly every case charges 
of swindling, trickery and other forms of misconduct 
have been freely bandied between the members, and 
always the impression left on impartial outsiders was 
that the charges were not without a pretty strong 
foundation. 
« • 
About three months ago one of the largest banks in 
Australia, with liabilities of $48,000,000, collapsed, and 
since then, one after another, nearly every bank in 
the different colonies has been forced into bank¬ 
ruptcy, with aggregate liabilities of over $175,000,000. 
The recklessness with which the managers squan¬ 
dered money in developing the country and erecting 
magnificent public and private buildings, etc., was 
truly colonial; but a large proportion of the money 
came from the “ Mother Country.” Such heavy losses 
compelled the latter to call in some of the investments 
made elsewhere, and as those made in the United 
States could be liquidated on better terms than those in 
any other country, a sudden increase occurred in the al¬ 
ready very heavy shipments of gold from this side of 
the Atlantic. This, combined with the condition of the 
National Treasury produced a notable stringency in 
the money market here, which resulted in the col¬ 
lapse of the notorious Cordage Trust and a wild panic 
in the stocks of most of the other “ industrials,” and 
finally in the downfall of Zimri Dwiggins, President 
of the now bankrupt Columbia National Bank of 
Chicago, and promoter and organizer of over two 
dozen other banks that have just collapsed in Ohio, 
Indiana, Michigan and Illinois. This middle-aged 
‘ 4 Napoleon of Finance,” having graduated from the 
“ bucket shop ” about 10 years ago, has feathered his 
own nest very comfortably, his plunder being all safe 
in his wife’s name, and has spread wretchedness and 
ruin among a couple of dozen communities in the four 
States mentioned, and caused distrust and distress far 
beyond their borders. All classes of the community 
were his victims, but the most various probably were 
the farmers who patronized the numerous mushroom 
banks he organized in the different States, always 
with lamentably insufficient capital and often with 
wofully ignorant and inexperienced managers These 
catered for the cash of their respective neighbor¬ 
hoods. and were especially solicitous for the custom 
of the farmers, to whom they generously offered loans 
at eight per cent interest—six per cent on bond and 
mortgage and two per cent on notes secured on second 
mortgage. The first were sold to secure working 
capital, and the second swelled Zimri’s profits, through 
the United States Loan and Trust Company, one of 
the high-sounding institutions he organized to pro¬ 
mote his schemes. Moreover, all the spare capital 
and deposits of the subsidiary banks were scooped in 
by the hig Chicago concern. No bogus lottery swin¬ 
dle, no fraudulent “blind pool” rascality, no catch¬ 
penny, bamboozling periodical temporarily got up to 
fleece the public ever had a more alluring literature 
and seldom achieved such notorious success as Dwig¬ 
gins—yclept Zimri. * * 
At the last session of the Minnesota Legislature, the 
State Farmers’ Alliance made a winning fight for an 
appropriation of $250,000 for the construction of a 
farmers’ elevator ; but, as is very commonly the case 
in “ farm legislation,” the law was so badly formu¬ 
lated that the Attorney-General declares that under 
it the members of the Alliance, instead of the State, 
must pay for the structure. Ignatius Donnelly, Presi¬ 
dent of the Alliance, is to make a demand on Governor 
Nelson to call an extra session of the legislature to 
remedy the blunder. Why put the people to the heavy 
expense necessitated by such a measure—all on ac¬ 
count of the carelessness, stupidity or treachery of 
those in charge of the passage of the law? Better wait 
for the next regular session and accept any consequent 
inconvenience or loss as a merited punishment for 
the transgression. 
* * 
In spite of all the ranting of demagogic blather¬ 
skites, and even of the lugubrious lamentations of one 
of the great political party’s national platform prior 
to the late Presidential election, it turns out, accord¬ 
ing to the Eleventh Census, that only 12% per cent of 
the true value of Western mortgaged lands belonged 
to Eastern “ blood-sucking plutocrats ” and other in¬ 
vestors, many of them farmers, in 1890, and their in¬ 
terest in mortgaged Western property is considerably 
less to-day. Indeed, it appears that the representatives 
of the farming industry of the West are less indebted 
than those of almost any other important branch of 
industry in the country. An appropriation of $1,000,000 
to enable the Census Bureau to investigate farm mort¬ 
gages and the consequent researches have served to 
show how grossly exaggerated were opinions and 
statements with regard to the matter. 
* * 
In connection with the article about return crates 
for berries on page 363, an instance of the change 
among merchants here may be in point: When inter¬ 
viewed earlier in the season, one of them remarked : 
“ You may rest assured that I shall return all crates 
to the shippers.” Now he says that he will return no 
crates. He started in to do so, but found that if he 
persisted in it, he would lose all his best customers. 
And why shouldn’t this change be made ? The apple 
grower who would ask for the return of his barrels 
would be laughed at: yet an apple barrel costs more 
in proportion to the price received for its contents than 
a berry crate, even the rld-style, high-priced crate. 
The R. N.-Y. has been advertising a 36-quart crate, 
complete with baskets, for 32 cents, about the cost of 
an apple barrel, ar.d another style for 24 cents. And 
yet there are people who insist upon having their 
crates returned! Better spend their strength in an 
endeavor to keep up with the procession. 
* * 
In the United States, Great Britain is usually 
regarded as a “free trade” country ; and the question 
is often asked, how, then, does she raise a revenue of 
about $450,000,000 which she has to find every year? 
Of this sum she pays annually $125,000,000 as a 
charge on her National debt, $166,000,000 on her army 
and navy, and $90,000,000 on her civil service, besides 
a multitude of minor items aggregating about $70,000,- 
000. The difference, in reality, between “free trade” 
England and “protected” America is that there import 
duties are levied on only about a dozen different com¬ 
modities, while here they are exacted from 1,000 or 
more. Last year Great Britain obtained $99,000,000 
of her revenue from customs’ duties on foreign beer, 
chicory, cocoa, coffee, currants, figs, plums, prunes, 
raisins, rum, brandy, gin and other spirits, tea, 
tobacco and wine. Of these duties tobacco contributed 
$50,000,000, spirits $23,000,000 and tea $17,000,000. 
The “excise,” or internal revenue taxes aggregated 
$138,000,000 from land taxes, post-office, telegraph 
service, stamps, crown lands, etc., etc. The antici¬ 
pated revenue for the current year will be $7,800,- 
000 smaller than will be required for the year’s 
expenditures, and it is proposed to make good the de¬ 
ficiency by raising the income tax from six to seven 
pence per pound sterling. In Great Britain, Germany, 
and, indeed, most other European countries, the income 
tax, so odious among the moneyed men here and so 
unpopular among the same class abroad, makes no 
small annual addition to the national revenue. Last 
year the six-penny tax contributed $69,250,000 to the 
British revenue, and the addition of another penny to 
the pound this year would, it is estimated, bring in 
$8,700,000 more. In the British Isles the tax has 
varied from 14 pence during the Cr mean war and 16 
pence during the Indian mutiny to six pence in 1892-3, 
and two pence in 1874-76 In recent years incomes 
not over $750 have not been taxed at all. In this 
country, especially among workingmen and farmers, 
there is a rapidly growing sentiment in favor of a 
graduated income tax, after the German plan, in which 
the amount of the tax is to be proportioned to that of 
the incomes. Is there a fairer form of taxation ? 
* * 
BREVITIES. 
It’s kinder fun fer me ter take an' put a baiter on ole Jake 
When he comes in all wrtngln’ wet an’ plastered up with dust an' 
sweat, 
A-haultn’ some big heavy load. I lead him out along the road 
An’ let him nibble atthe grass. He’sawful knowln’; see him pass 
That clump o’ stuff all hard an’ thick ? You can’t fool him—be takes 
his pick, 
A bunch o’ dandylion here, a bite o' dock, and then a spear 
Of tansy. He knows what Is good to medicate an’ clear his blood. 
I love to watch th' old feller eat; that tender grass is suoh a treat 
To him. You see he’s old an’ gray: like me his prime has paesed away. 
An’ younger folks with limber legs an’ lips that bave not touched the 
dregs 
Of life are pressing thoughtlessly an’ pushln’ poor ole Jake an’ me. 
An’ so we sorter sympathize; In that ole hose's patient eyes 
I read a tale that like a knife lays bare the story of my life. 
So I stan’ here at eventide of life alone, unsatisfied, 
While Jake, contented, crops his fill without a thought on comln 111. 
An' yet, I wouldn’t take his place; fer somewheres, yonder off In space 
It ’pears ter me my time will come an’ I shall sorter find a home 
Where ole folks won’t be in the way because they live In yesterday. 
Many a lamb Is ill ewesed. 
Com® now. how about that black knot law ? 
Won’t combine—dainty cow and talnty food. 
There's free trade in berry packages anyway. 
Who doesn't hate to let a kicking cow be boss ? 
Every soft job grows out of somebody's hard work. 
When a man ships a 15 pig does he expect the crate back? 
No man can get the dirt out of his conscience by straining It. 
The only cow worth keeping Is one that shows greed for her feed. 
What’s one man’s “stench” seems to be another man’s •* aroma.” 
The rural districts want free mall delivery. Paid carriers make It 
fee mall. 
The curcullo will make a “ plumb failure ” of your crop unless you 
jar him. 
Common sense has often sired success, but never acted as the 
female parent ! 
Who can tell us about the second crop of Orchard grass ? The first 
comes at a bad season for haying 
What a stlr-up there would be If we would all publicly express our 
private opinions for just one month. 
The patron of a creamery who fears a Babcock test, may be the 
very fellow who's In danger of arrest. 
As we anticipated, the new Commissioner of Agriculture of New 
York State is paying far more attention to ballots than to butter. 
At Its last session the New York Legislature failed to pass an Im¬ 
proved tax law. though It paid $31,000 to lawyers for drawing up taxa¬ 
tion bills. 
The Southern negroes are said to have no pardon for a man who 
will kill his own dog. That Is a crime beyond all others In their 
opinion. What is there about a dog for men to worship? 
“Travel-stained strawberries” Is the latest name for the 
long-distance fruit that crowds In upon us at this season. Travel 
stains come from rough usage. They can’t be washed off of fruit. 
Plump kernels of wheat seem to be what the poultrymen want. The 
best Is none too good for the business hen. The scrub and the Idler 
may have the shrunken stuff. But what about oats ? There the 
authorities differ. 
Can you really mix water and milk ? We doubt It. It seems to us 
that the water will separate from the milk sooner or later. Most of 
the adulterating seems to be done by adding skim-milk to the pure 
sample. This makes a better mixture and is not so easily detected. 
Dried blood and tankage have been higher than usual this year. 
Why ? The reason given is that the catch of fish was light last year, 
and consequently dealers who used dried fish for organic nitrogen 
were obliged to use more blood and tankage. With a larger supply of 
fish next year, prices will fall—otherwise not. 
AN English farmer has been holding the watch on his horses to get 
at their “ plow pace.” He found that they walked just 1 4-5 mile per 
hour, or nearly 14J4 miles In eight hours. To plow an acre with a 
nine-inch furrow requires a walk of exactly 11 miles. The team that 
can walk steadily all day will easily plow the acre. It Is the stopping 
that puts the work back. 
During the financial flurry last week, $50,000 were lost In the little 
town of Skowhegan, Me., in bucket shop gambling. Most of the 
money, we are told, was the hara-earned savings of hard-fisted but 
soit-headed farmers, some of whom are reported to have In this way 
gambled away their ancestral acres. Wonder If this Is a sample of 
many other like places throughout the country. Any tears to shed 
for their losses ? 
AT last woman suffrage has received the indorsement of an Import¬ 
ant If not the controlling factor in one of the two great political 
parties in the Nation. At the convention of the Republican League 
at Louisville, a resolution in favor of such a measure was passed, on 
May 11, “amid intense excitement” by a vote of 375 to 185. Are the 
Republicans ready to compete with the Populists for female ballots 
and bolstering In affairs political? 
Several of our readers have given testimony In favor of very light 
harrows for working among crops. The very heavy harrow is useful, 
too, but before crops are started. Some live years ago we gave an 
account of a Canadian’s experiment with a steel rail such as is ordi¬ 
narily used on rallroadB. A team of horses hitched to each end 
hauled this over the ground, and for spreading manure and scraping 
stones together It proved very effective. 
