8i6 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
THUMBS.” 
We don’t wish to play any game of 
“ Simon says thumbs up •/” this week, but 
we have a little sermon to preach on a 
neglected member of the human body. 
That little baby vice-president of our 
home, is getting old enough to observe 
things. For a while she seemed to stare 
upon the world in general with but little 
fixity of purpose. The first single thing 
that seemed to claim her individual at¬ 
tention was her own small hand. She 
held that up and examined it carefully 
from every point of view. After moving 
every joint and thoroughly satisfying her¬ 
self that the hinges were all perfect, she 
displayed a sagacity which, if increased in 
arithmetical progression as she grows 
older, will undoubtedly land her in the 
presidential chair—when women vote. 
What did she do ? She just selected her 
thumb from all the rest of her hand, put 
it into her mouth and proceeded to enjoy 
the pleasures of imagination to the full¬ 
est extent of her little mind. 
Now babies of all ages might well 
study the human hand, for it is the most 
complicated and ingenious machine ever 
devised. J ust think of the capacity for 
good or evil that lies in that small area 
below the wrist. Hold it up and see 
how perfect the machine is ; how much 
depends on its training, and how it may 
serve as master or slave as the mind 
directs. And of all parts of that hand, 
the most important is the thumb. It is 
the king of the hand because it is the 
base of all work. The fingers have an 
extra joint and can play about lively, 
but when there is any work to be done 
the solid old thunilj must be there to give 
them something to brace against. Try 
to pick up something, or hold it between 
two fingers, and you will realize what 
the thumb is. No wonder we have high 
hopes for the future of our little vice- 
president when we see that she recog¬ 
nizes this superior value of the thumb 
so early in life. * 
And now for The R. N.-Y. of it. It is 
our ambition to make our paper the 
thumb of agriculture for our readers— 
something for them to brace up against 
for a firm hold. Let them take right 
ambition for one finger, love of home for 
another, true sense of duty for another, 
and a desire for knowledge for the fourth. 
Put in as many joints as you like, but 
give us the privilege of acting as thumb 
to these fingers. That is the office we 
are running for with all the speed we 
possess. When one of those fingers 
pushes a worthy object up against us for 
a “hold,” we will do our best to stiffen 
up and give you a good chance to clinch 
it. For the sum of $1, we guarantee to 
act as your agricultural thumb for the 
good year 1895. Gentlemen, here is our 
thumb—permit us to suggest that your 
dollar may now take the floor ! 
That big “ ad” to the right of us cuts 
this sermon off with an ax, but there 
will be 52 more of them next year if we 
all live—and the dollars hold out. We 
will let one of our Ohio friends now talk 
a little about his life. This is a part of 
his recent letter: 
I married and went to work on a farm for my¬ 
self, but I had the misfortune to get lame in my 
knee. In about five years, I went to the hospital 
for treatment, and the doctors amputated my leg 
above the knee. I went back to my farm of 100 
acres, carrying a debt of from $800 to $1,000 on one 
leg. Then the question was, whether I should 
abandon the farm or make a success where all 
told me that I would fail. I determined that I 
would stay and succeed. I wanted to prove my 
theory correct, that the farm is the place for the 
disabled and those that have poor health to stay. 
I have Improved my farm a great deal, planted 
900 peach trees that are now ready to bear, and 
have enough trees of all kinds growing in the nur¬ 
sery to plant all the orchards I will need. I must 
give The R. N.-Y. a great deal of credit, for it has 
FOR ALL THE FAMILY. 
fsis 
TKe\buths 
(^mpanion 
Comes Every Week. 
FOR 
1895 . 
The quality of the reading that will be given in The Youth's Companion during the coming year 
is indicated by the names of a few of its many famous contributors. 
Famous PeopR. 
GLADSTONE. 
Mr. Gladstone will give a striking 
paper of reminiscences of the emi¬ 
nent physician, his lifelong friend, 
Sir Andrew Clark. 
HOWELLS. 
His experiences furnish Mr. 
Howells material upon which to 
draw in discussing “An Editor’s 
Relations with Young Authors.” 
QUEEN VICTORIA. 
Specially qualified by her ac¬ 
quaintance with the Royal House¬ 
hold, Lady Jeune will write of the 
Queen as a Mother. 
DICKENS. 
Two articles by Charles Dickens, 
son of the novelist, will reveal the 
author of “Oliver Twist” as his 
children knew him. 
BISMARCK. 
Sidney Whitman, who has fre¬ 
quently visited the great States¬ 
man, will write of the boyhood of 
the “ Man of Blood and Iron.” 
TENNYSON. 
Theodore Watts, a personal 
friend of the poet-laureate, will 
portray Lord Tennyson as he 
appeared among the children. 
PRINCESS HELENA. CAMILLE FLAMMARION. PRINCESS LOUISE. 
Princess Christian, of Schleswig- 
Holstein, will write for The Com¬ 
panion her first article for the press. 
The article is on “Nursing the Sick.” 
The celebrated French astrono¬ 
mer will write upon the scientific 
possibilities of the future — “ If 
Telescopes Were Bigger.” 
“ The Story of a Statue ” is the 
subject of an article by the March¬ 
ioness of Lome, who is a practical 
sculptor herself. 
These articles are written expressly for The Companion, and are published exclusively in its columns. 
Other Noted Contributors. 
J. M. Barrie, Rudyard Kipling, Prank R. Stockton, 
Pugene Field, Harold Frederic, W. Clark Russell, 
Andrew Lang, Robt. Louis Stevenson, Dr. Cyrus Fdson, 
Mark Twain, Archibald Forbes, Sir Fdwin Arnold. 
FREE-EXTRA NUMBERS-FREE. 
New Subscribers who will cut out this slip and send it at 
once with SI.76 M'ill receive the Thanksgiving, Christmas 
and New Year’s Double Souvenir Numbers FREE, and THE 
COMPANION a full year from Jan. 1, 1895. 66 
Address THE YOUTH’S COMPANION, Boston, Mass. 
helped and inspired me to do better work—to work 
with my head and not my heels (for I had only 
one). 
There’s that thumb idea again, you see ! 
The heel is to the foot what the thumb is 
to the hand. This man is going to tell us 
next year how he healed that debt with 
but one heel. One thing more, and w’e 
retire for the week : 
I am not accustomed to writing for the news¬ 
papers, and so may not be able to write anything 
worth publishing. If not, it is my own fault, as 1 
might have taken advantage of the means of edu¬ 
cation placed within my reach, although they were 
not so great nearly 70 years ago, at the time I 
was born, as they are to-day. What led to these 
thoughts, were the criticisms on The R. N.-Y. “by 
a friend,” published in the issue of December 1, 
on the “ Humorous Column.” His criticism re¬ 
minded me very forcibly of the story my father 
used to tell, over 60 years ago, of the father who, 
when going to church on Sundays, would, with a 
rope or cord, tie his little boy to the bedstead and 
compel him to learn a verse of the hymn com¬ 
mencing, “Thine earthly Sabbaths, Lord, I love.” 
If that boy lived to grow to manhood, he would 
never have offered the criticism mentioned. 
Connecticut. D. a. n. 
The R. N.-Y. didn’t feel the least bit 
offended by that criticism, because we 
knew it was honest and well meant. That 
is where the advantage of the thumb 
comes in. We can just push up against 
a criticism, and squeeze the germ of good 
out of it, for if it is unjust, the finger 
that presented it will be sure to give 
way, and that’s the end of it. By the 
way your wife’s thumb would make that 
Emerson piano sing songs of joy in your 
house! 
gGUfvti.&iiuv 
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