272 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
February 25, 1922 
Things to Think About 
The Problem of the Country Church 
It was a wise professor who once ad¬ 
vised Ins students when preaching in the 
city to wear their good clothes, but when 
preaching in the country to take along 
their good sermons! I do not care to 
emphasize the first part of this classic 
utterance for obvious reasons! But the 
latter Suggestion is as pertinent as ever. 
The average minister knows, if he knows 
anything, that in the country church he 
will have as keen appreciation and as 
thoughtful a hearing as his best efforts 
can possibly deserve. When you recall 
that among the successful lawyers, states¬ 
men, ministers, journalists, professors, 
and indeed all so-called "learned profes¬ 
sions" the vast majority are country 
born and bred, you will sec why, at the 
outset, we should gladly acknowledge the 
intelligence and generally high class of 
the typical country congregation. 
But why arc there so many vacant 
country churches? In rural New York 
and Connecticut—not to go farther afield 
—it is one of the saddest and most, dis¬ 
couraging sights to sec upon many a 
village green or country road, a vacant 
house of God, and when he inquires the 
reason, to learn that no minister can be 
induced to assume the pastorate. And 
why is this? First of all it is because 
not enough men are entering the ministry 
these days, nearly to fill the churches 
seeking pastors. The students from the 
seminaries are going out to churches to 
which their fathers could only aspire after 
years of service. They can pick and 
choose their fields as no generation of 
ministers has ever been able to do before. 
And they arc not choosing the country 
parishes." Perhaps this is because, the 
salaries are inadequa te; possibly it is 
because the minister of today sees clearly 
that in many rural communities there 
arc too many churches. But underlying 
these reasons is the deeper one that young 
men do not realize the opportunity and 
strategic importance, of the rural pastor¬ 
ate. The best men and the most carefully 
Trained are the very ones who are most 
needed in the country districts. The op¬ 
portunity is measureless 
Now I do not blame the young men 
wholly for this. They are ambitious to 
do the most good in the world in their 
lifetime which they possibly can. They 
naturally assume that the larger the field, 
the more important the work. It is 
primarily the function of the rural field 
itself to show them their mistake. And 
how can this possibly be done except by 
the rural churches? This means.heart- 
searching of the most thorough kind on 
the part of the men and the women who 
live in the country and are responsible 
for the country church. Men and wo¬ 
men of the country—do you believe in 
vour churches? Do you want them to 
succeed? Are you willing to give time, 
cbov.s.Jt. money and above all. prayer to 
that end? If not. there is nothing in this 
article to appeal to you But if you do— 
and I must assume you do—then there arc- 
some grave questions which you alone 
are competent to face. Here are a few 
of them: . 
Why. oh why, do you persist in holding 
to some ancient prejudice, which prevents 
you from co-operating with your neigh¬ 
bors for the good of the community? 
That old denomination or sect to which 
you belong may be the best in the world. 
Perhaps it is—but is it the best possible 
for your community? If it is. and the 
majoritv in your community believe it, 
then stick to’it and get your church on 
its feet. But if the fact is that the 
Methodists and Baptists and Congrega- 
tionalists and Episcopalians in your com¬ 
munity are all divided on the question 
as to which is the Apostolic Church and 
cannot reconcile their differences enough 
to make any one of them a real factor 
in the community—then for the sake of 
tbe Master of them all—get. together in 
a community church and discard your de¬ 
nominational labels ! I have seen—who 
has not?—three or four churches in a 
rural district which could not possibly 
support more than one good, strong or¬ 
ganization. The ministers starve and so 
do the people, hut in a very much more 
serious sense, while every Tom. Dick and 
Harry nurses his pot religious prejudice 
and the work of the Kingdom languishes 
or fails utterly. Stubborn narrow-mind¬ 
edness has closed more churches than re¬ 
movals to the city! “Brethren, these 
things ought not so to he.” The whole 
modern world is against that suicidal 
policy. The fundamental truths of the 
Christian religion, held in common by all 
the great historic branches of the church, 
are a sufficient basis of union for the 
scattered flocks of the rural districts. 
Again—are there not many reasons for 
the decadence of the rural chnroh which 
are primarily the result of the decadence 
of the individual religions life? The 
happiest memories of many of us are 
those which gather around some rural 
church, where the farmers and their fam¬ 
ilies went to service as a matter of 
course, and where Sunday observance and 
the support of public worship were a 
community habit. Rut as one travels 
about the country now, he sees many 
farmers busy in the fields on Sunday, 
just as upon any other day of the week 
—not because of necessity, which surely 
at times is perfectly right, but solely be¬ 
cause Sunday no longer is a day of rest 
and worship. Either this is the case, 
or the day is made one of selfish pleasure, 
with no thought of its religious signifi¬ 
cance at all. If there is any class of 
people on earth who need and should 
have, one clay in seven for complete rest, 
and change, it is certainly the farmer. I 
am not preaching a sermon ! If I were, 
there is much more which I might say 
along this line. But I am asking for a 
hearing on the problem of the rural 
church. Surely this indifference vitally 
affects it. You want the benefits of the 
church in your community. You want 
to live in a community where law is re¬ 
spected and where character is valued. 
Then you want a community where the 
church is a live factor in the life of the 
people. No other community long re¬ 
mains safe and desirable. But how can 
the church amount to anything if the 
people who ought to support its services 
and its work are conspicuous by their 
absence? If I were an atheist I would 
still support, as far as I could, the work 
of the rural church—and I would do it 
for the general good of the community, 
irrespective of theology or creed. It is 
inconceivable that any man can be so 
short-sighted as not to see that this is 
just plain common sense. 
No man knows the country intimately, 
as only he does who has been brought up 
in it, cau be blind to the great task and 
the almost impossible burdens which an 
ungrateful urban civilization has imposed 
upon the American farmpr. But take 
him as a whole—he is such a big factor 
in the future of the race, and he stands 
up so nobly to the best traditions and 
the highest interests of civilization, that 
one ventures to appeal to him to face 
this discouraging problem of the rural 
church with confidence, believing that the 
re-awakening of the religious life of the 
rural community will be of incalculable 
value to the nation and the world, “The 
field is ripe already unto the harvest but 
the laborers are few !” What a challenge 
to the thoughtful men ami women of the 
rural districts! The measure of your in¬ 
terest in the work of the country churches 
is the measure of the success of the world 
at large. The real problem is not what 
crops you are able to raise from the soil, 
but what is the nature of the crop of 
men and women you develop. Will the 
leaders of American thought and life still 
come from the country, if the old religion 
is allowed to decay? What will you do 
to solve tbe problem? ibving u. berg. 
Helping the Local School 
I think we farmers would better take 
more interest in our country schools. I 
don’t believe our duty to them is dis¬ 
missed when we pay our school tax. I 
believe most of us could take some little 
part in the school work which would 
make a lasting impression upon the minds 
of the pupils. And this would not be 
meddling, but would be a real service. 
Of course nothing like long speeches 
should be tolerated, but every farmer in 
the course of his work and observation 
has picked lip some hit of information 
about a farm crop nr a farm practice that 
would prove interesting and instructive 
to the pupils if presented in a simple, 
dignified way. 
I have this day had an experience in 
our local district school which convinces 
me of the feasibility of this idea. For 
several years I have given a small sum 
to the boys of the school for exhibiting 
samples of corn grown on the home acres, 
and at the proper time would be asked 
by the teacher to come to the schoolhouse 
and judge the specimen ears. Each time 
I would try to impress the fact that the 
winners were usually those who took the 
most pains in selecting the eurs of corn 
to have each exhibit uniform in appear¬ 
ance. The improvement was always 
noticeable. Last year I made especial 
effort to induce tbe boys to use their 
powers of observation and comparison as 
never before, and their exhibits of corn 
today proved that they remembered the 
suggestions and had put them into prac¬ 
tice. There was not a poor ear of corn 
in the whole collection. The winner of 
first prize was Louis Pegelow, whose 
father takes The IL N.-Y. This boy ex¬ 
hibited three ears of Cornell Eleven 
which were of exact length, the kernels 
were of uniform color and shape, the rows 
of kernels were straight from butt to 
covered tip, and each ear had 10 rows. 
Again I stressed the fact that, the win¬ 
ner had been careful to observe and com¬ 
pare oven to the smallest detail, and 
probably had spent quite a little time in 
looking for the three cars of corn that 
looked so much alike. Doubtless he had 
discarded many ears that didn’t quite 
meet his approval-: But in the end he 
won, not only first prize on his corn, but 
he won by cultivating the valuable mental 
quality of good judgment. 
I have no doubt but this lesson made 
an impression more or less deep and abid¬ 
ing on every one of the 30 pupils present. 
They were curious to see what was hap¬ 
pening, and I noticed that there was con¬ 
siderable discussion regarding the awards 
and very much comparison of different 
exhibits with the winning exhibit. I 
haven’t a doubt but that next year the 
competition will be keener and closer 
than it was this year. 
I think each farmer should visit his 
local school and contribute his mite to¬ 
ward the education of country boys and 
girls. Many bits «>f useful knowledge can 
thus be presented which are not found in 
books. A. It. KATKAMIER. 
New York. 
R. N.-Y.—A good suggestion—one that 
might well be followed by many farmers. 
We often have letters from people who 
abuse their local school, say it is “no 
good.” ami demand consolidation. Inves¬ 
tigation usually shows that such people 
have never taken any particular interest 
in the school, and have never made per¬ 
sonal effort to build it up or improve it. 
Naturally the local school will always be 
just about what the people try to make it. 
A Friend of the Cat 
I would like to say a word to that anti- 
cat person who hails from Hampden Co., 
Mass., page 139. Though I’m not an old 
maid. I own three cats, and think a lot 
of them. Why should 6, V. destroy cats 
because they catch birds? It is sometimes 
their only way of securing food, and is no 
different from the instinct which makes a 
bird eat a bug or worm, or u man eat a 
pig or a chicken. 
In regard to their being licensed— 
mercy! With the high cost <>f living and 
the speed with which these animals mul¬ 
tiply, we would all become murderers. 
I’m not so sure G. V. ought not to take 
out a license for trying to corral nil the 
birds on his premises. It is also just 
possible that some of his neighbors who 
lmve gardens entertain a few murderous 
inclinations in regard to him (T know 
lie's a him). My personal experience with 
his favorite little pets has been, to say the 
least, annoying. I replanted my onion 
sets every day for two weeks, because 
the birds enjoyed digging them up so 
much, and I once lost my whole crop of 
spinach because one of these little dar¬ 
lings found the end of the seed tape and 
ripped up the whole thing. I presume 
wp ought to be glad to donate tbe best 
cherries and strawberries and raspberries 
to the birds every Summer. It probably 
makes their voices sweeter. How about 
that, Mr. G. Y.? SAN TERRELL REED. 
Connecticut. 
R. N.-Y.—In New Jersey a law is be¬ 
fore the Legislature to compel cat owners 
to pay a license of $1.15—all unlicensed 
cats to be killed. Theife is a fair chance 
for its passage, unless the friends of the 
cat interest themselves. 
Hunter’s Rights in a Fox 
Will you permit me to correct your un¬ 
derstanding of the law as to hunting 
foxes, by the following extract from 
Corpus Juris: 
“Law of the Chase.—The natural right 
to pursue und take any wild animal ex¬ 
ists in every individual except so far as 
restrained by express provisions of law, 
and a person who has once seized such an 
animal becomes the owner thereof. While 
pursuit alone gives no right of property 
in animals l’era> naturae, the possession 
necessary to acquire such right does not 
mean actual bodily seizure, but wounding 
or ensnaring an animal so as to prevent 
its escape is sufficient, provided the hunt¬ 
er does not abandon the chase. The prop¬ 
erty of the hunter will not be divested by 
the capturing or killing of the animal by 
another, if, at the time, its capture by 
the hunter is reasonably probable on ac¬ 
count of wounds inflicted by him, or if 
tbe person capturing it does so for the 
hunter’s benefit.” 
0. L. BREMER. 
We are always ready to he corrected. 
What we said in regard to property rights 
in a fox which was being pursued by a 
dog was: 
"There is no legal penalty for shooting 
a fox running ahead of a hunter's dog, 
hut such an act is against nil the rules of 
decent sportsmanship. There is a law or 
habit among hunters that such a fox or 
other game belongs to the owner of the 
dog. If is his game, and no man who 
believes in fair play and reasonable agree¬ 
ment would kill the fox. If brought to 
trial in any country neighborhood, the 
jury would without doubt decide in favor 
of the hunter, of the dog owner. There 
are many recognized habits of this sort 
which are stronger than law.” 
We can see no reason for changing this 
answer. It would bo quite difficult, for 
any hunter to prove that he had actually 
wounded a fox ahead of a clog. 
The Question of Sound 
The question of sound vibrations as 
defined by Dr. F. D. Crane is not a mat¬ 
ter of debate, but a matter of scientific 
definition. From the viewpoint of pure 
applied physics, sound is vibration pro¬ 
duced by the rapid oscillation or motion 
of bodies. From the viewpoint of psy¬ 
chology or physiology, vibration is not 
sound until it reaches the auditory nerve 
of some creature and is so recognized. 
It is quite generally accepted that if a 
tree were felled, and no creature were 
within hearing distance, it would produce 
vibration of the air only, but that no 
sound would follow unless the vibration 
reacted on the ear of man or some cre¬ 
ature. and was recognized ns a sound. 
To the totally deaf there is no sound, 
for they have no ears to hear with. The 
deaf may learn to sense vibration of the 
different steps of members of a household 
and be able to detect, the difference be¬ 
tween the stride of a tall sedate person 
and a short, stout person or a child. I 
know a deaf man who cannot hear the 
noises made by an automobile, but who, 
in driving, often can tell differences by 
the vibration communicated by the ma¬ 
chine. Ill’s range of detection is, of course, 
limited. Ho senses changes of vibration, 
but does not. hear sound. 
Certain lower forms of animals are not 
believed to hear with ears, but to rely 
solely on vibration. These animals may 
be able with their highly developed vibra¬ 
tory sense to detect vibration not discern¬ 
ible by people of good hearing. 
The writer has “felt" earthquakes 
through the communicated vibration ; he 
has “heard” the noise of falling dishes, 
etc., caused by these vibrations. In the 
rase of a passing train, we feel the vi¬ 
bration through our “muscular sense.” 
We may “hear” the noises with our ears. 
A train may and does set up sensible, 
measurable vibrations in the earth, of a 
local character; these are never heard. 
Those vibrations may be communicated 
to dishes, window panes, etc., and cause 
them to “rattle.” i, e., produce noise. 
The suhjeets of noise, inusie and vibra¬ 
tions are very interesting, and will re¬ 
ward study. The study of these phe¬ 
nomena is by no means completed. 
u. o. s. 
Let the Hunters Pay 
I am especially interested in your ar¬ 
ticles on the city hunters and fishermen. 
I know some of them are unworthy of 
being called “sportsmen.” But don’t be 
too hard on ns—after treading pavements 
six days a week, we must get into the 
open occasionally. Ir seems to me that 
some of these farmers who have good 
trout streams flowing through their land 
could derive considerable revenue from 
them if they let it be known that they 
would permit fishermen ou the streams 
at a dollar a head a day. It's the rare 
fisherman who takes more than a dollar’s 
worth of fish out of a stream. We would 
gladly pay that for a day’s fun in the 
open. l» K. POBRITT. 
Sunshine, warm water and milk represent the great health trio for the baby. He 
should have his daily bath and a chance to drink a quart of milk a day if he wants it. 
Then, when he is clean and fat and happy, put a fur of some sort on the grass in 
front of some fragrant shrub or clump of flowers, and let the sun play on him. _ It 
is wonderful for baby to sit in the fragrant air and take his sun batli ; It is his right 
and privilege as the most important member of the family ! 
