612 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
April 20, 1922 
Pastoral Parson and His Country Folks 
By Rev. George B. Gilbert 
Raster. —Well, here it is Raster even¬ 
ing. It has been absolutely a perfect day 
as far as the weather was concerned. 
The Parson went to three places and sent 
another man to two of the others -cover¬ 
ing five in all. To go to the first place he 
started in a ear and then took the trolley, 
for the freshet in the river is up higher 
than for 10 years and it covered the road 
in one plaee about a foot deep. This 
would not he so serious, but the road has 
sunken and there is a very had hole under 
water. Into this hole every auto drops 
and stays, as far as getting itself out. 
Put a truck is there nil the time and pulls 
you out for $1.50. and a boy is there to 
wade around in the water, and lu* gets 50 
cents for tying the rope to your car. The 
Parson is glad he took no chances with 
such a hole as that. 
The Old Church. —Down at the old 
church in the country we certainly had 
a line time. The Parson, having an extra 
service to attend that he did not expert, 
was jost an hour late, hut this did not 
matter. The ladies had the table all set 
and the coffee merrily steeping on the old 
box stove, and everybody was visiting and. 
having a nice time. No one goes in and 
sits in the pews till tunc to begin church 
—that is too unsociable. The yard was 
full of autos and horses and it looked like 
a real country church comeback. One 
man claimed there were over 50 in tlie 
congregation, and the Parson thinks there 
were lust about that. Some had to go 
home, but about 40 stayed to dinner. Be¬ 
fore we went away we had a business 
meeting in the church and voted to set 
about painting the interior. 
Keeping !'p a Church. —This keeping 
these old country churches: in repair and 
painted is certainly no small job. This 
church needs painting on the outside, too. 
But that can wait till Fall. Then, too. 
water leaks down through the belfry. 
The heavy bell makes the floor of the 
belfry settle in the middle, and the water 
runs toward the center instead of shed¬ 
ding, and the tin pipe the bell rope runs 
through rusts out and the water runs 
right down the rope. Then the plaster¬ 
ing falls off in spots and to get a mason 
to patch it up way down country 15 mile* 
is no small job. 
Renovating a Church. —The Parson 
has l>een spending most of the time for 
two weeks inside of another old church. 
Years ago it was papered, cei’ing and all. 
and it was a terrible job to get this paper 
all off and walls clean. We had to build 
a plank staging to reach it. We gave it 
two coats of white lead aud oil and a 
little burnt umber to color it. enough .so 
it would not turn vellowish, as oil and 
white lead will inside. As the walls had 
been sized before, we had to paper them. 
We sized them again aud put on a dark¬ 
ish oatmeal paper with a cut-out border 
on top and a narrow border at bottom. 
The window casings and window frames 
are all the same as the ceiling. Cream 
white trimming and darkish oatmeal 
paper make a fine combination for any 
room in the house. Unless the celling in 
the room is very high, a white moulding 
along the top is better than a border, and 
once on will last forever. We shall prob¬ 
ably paint the pews and wainscoting of 
the church a mahogany, which will not 
show dirt, and one coat of which will 
cover most anything. Wc get this ma¬ 
hogany made up for us. 
The Sheds. —The horse sheds in the 
country are a real problem at the present 
time. They are the first to begin to run 
down, and' in most cases present a de¬ 
plorable appearance. The country church 
will hardly need as many sheds as it used 
to. The number of sheds around’some of 
these old churches is a thing the Parson 
views with wonder. Yet it will not do 
to discard thpin altogether. They are 
needed for wood and for those few autos 
that breast the weather on rainy days. 
We shall probably leave about .’SO feet of 
sheds at the old church we are bringing 
back. It will cost nearly $50 to shingle 
just one side of these- In the old days, 
when they probably made their own 
shingles, if was quite a different matter. 
Music in Cimtcri.—We certainly had 
nice music down in the old church today. 
Shelley played the organ and (leorge his 
comet, and Flossie his violin, and we had 
another violinist with us. Mrs. l’nrson led 
the singing. The congregation were the 
choir. This having a choir to do your 
singing for you—especially a paid choir— 
is a poor proposition in the country, to 
the Parson's way of thinking. "flow 
many did you have down at that church 
Sunday?” he asked a minister the other 
day. ’‘Well.” he said, “there were most 
as many in the congregation as there were 
in the choir.” You can hire a minister 
and a choir, and a sexton and an organist, 
and some churches before long will have 
to pay for the congregation to come. In 
none of the Parson's places is there a cent 
paid out for any of the w”‘ ers—if they 
cannot do it without pay, ici it go. 
A Change. — What a good many 
churches need is a variation of program. 
Tiipre is a terriblp sameness to most serv¬ 
ices. Sunday after Sunday. Even the 
sermons are apt not to vary much. The 
Parson heard a layman, who had studied 
the church situation for years, once say 
that if lie were to give one word of ad¬ 
vice to the churches, he would say, “Vary 
your program more.” 
A Favorite Text. —The Parson has a 
few favorite texts that he preaches on at 
least once a year. As he never writes a 
sermon and has not a written sermon in 
tl e world, it can hardly be the same ser¬ 
mon ; yet the general plan of thought is 
the same from year to year. It is a great 
thing (o work over a text year after year, 
and after preaching on it for 15 dr 20 
years one might have a sermon fairly 
worth while. Such a text is St. Paul's 
phrase. “Nailing it to the cross," Col. 
2:14. We had a great time with that 
text yesterday. We went oyer all our 
shortcomings together and decided to take 
them out to the cross. On the way out 
we paused to look at the people who sat 
down and “watched him there.” There 
are plenty in this world who sit around 
and watch others try to make things bet¬ 
ter. They won’t do anything to help or. 
as they would put it. to harm. They just 
sit down and watch the poor old world 
try to get along with such tugging as 
others might give. 
Head Waggers. —Then there were 
those who went by and wagged their 
heads. There are a lot of head-waggers 
now. They jeer and make fun of those 
who are trying. They think it is no use 
and those are fools who try. so they make 
fun of them. It is hard to be trying aud 
to he made fun of. Poking fun is apt to 
hurt more than anything. We decided 
yesterday wo would not stop and join the 
head-waggers. 
Real Carpenter Work, —But we 
would go right along up to the cross with 
our negligences and ignorances and pre¬ 
pare to nail them there. It is no tuck- 
hammer proposition. Nor even shingle 
nails, or clapboard nails, or eights or tens 
or twelves. We are going to nail our sins 
there so they never will come off. Let us 
look at spikes—20-penny, 30-penny, 40- 
penn.v. yes, 60-penny. Now we are get¬ 
ting down to business. A 60-penny is a 
real nail, a real snike, and it really needs 
a sledge to drive it with. The old winds 
of habit will try to tear it away from his 
Cross and blow it back to us again. But 
wo will spike it so it will stay. 
Rtgiit in Front. —Let’s not put it 
down at the bottom of the cross—leave 
that partly hidden place for children. 
Nor will we go round to the back side of 
the eross as though we didn't want people 
to sec. Make a clean breast of tin* mat¬ 
ter. Reach way up on the cross as high 
as over we can and spike our greatest sin 
there—to stay there forever and ever. 
A Welcome Letter. —Just as we all 
sat at dinner Monday the mail came and 
Sit handed the Parson a letter from down 
in the southwest part of the State. In it 
there was a check for $15 from a man who 
also sent, the Parson the same amount at 
Christmas to use among his people. Me 
surmises that someone will need some seed 
potatoes or something of that sort this 
Spring. The Parson thinks this man does 
wonderfully well—sending this money to 
help people he has never seen and who 
will never thank him—not on this side of 
the Great River anyway. This is cer¬ 
tainly a short time of year in the Par¬ 
son's big family. There seems to be noth¬ 
ing to sell in the Spring— save possibly 
eggs, and what are they worth? They 
got down to 20 cents a dozen round here. 
The Parson heard that in one town they 
were IS cents. The lowest we Sold for 
was 25 cents, hut we had to put down a 
lot wc could not even get that. for. So 
it is very hard to get money to buy seeds. 
The Parson can make great use of that 
money. 
Monday Morning. —Here it is Mon¬ 
day after Master andi a cold rain is on. 
It is just pouring. The boys have vaca¬ 
tion and the Parson wants to get much 
work done on the farm. lie has hut little 
time to do much so far. We have some 
peas planted and some few potatoes in 
the garden. The ground is cold yet and 
the season backward. Two of the geese 
are sitting, and Sit, who has the goose 
money, has sold quite a few eggs. We 
shall not try to raise many chickens — 
perhaps not any, as the Parson is away 
so much and I he children all in school, 
and Mrs. Parson certainly has enough to 
do in the house. 
Exit Daredevil— The Parson looks 
out of the window in the downpour aud 
there is poor old Daredevil over the wood- 
pile. He has just sawed some 10 cords 
of hard oak and hickory and lias about 
three more to saw. The Parson has ex¬ 
cused him from ever going to church 
again. It would be 12 years next August 
since he first hit tile trail, and many a 
wild ride has he and the Parson had to¬ 
gether. and many a fearful load has he 
carried. The last trip up the river the 
boys claimed we passed every car on 
the road with one exception. Old Dare¬ 
devil would trail them along on the level 
and then when a hill loomed up ahead, 
more probably from the roar of his wide- 
open cut-out and the primeval appear¬ 
ance of his top than from fear of his 
speed, the cars were willing he could go 
by. Like most regular churchgoers, he 
was always a hparty eater, and the Par¬ 
son has often thought that if Samuel had 
owned a Ford car he could never have 
spared even a vial of oil to pour upon 
Saul s head. 
Hooked Rugs 
The accompanying pictures show 
hooked nigs. My mother has made seven 
this YV inter. She is 78 years old, and 
these are the first she has made for 50 
years. The pattern is drawn out On 
heavy doth or burlap with a black 
crayon. She dyes the rags to obtain the 
colors desired. Several of them have a 
tan color background, one has a light 
blue and another a gray, with red, pink 
and yellow flowers and green leaves. 
They are greatly admired by visitors. 
MRS. WILLIAM DURANT. 
Getting Rid of Warts 
I wish to say that the nitric acid cure, 
as described by A. 11. Pe Graff, is both 
effective and safe. Get chemically pure 
nitric acid at the drugstore, ami apply a 
drop at a time to the top of the wart. 
The acid will burn the morbid tissue of 
the wart, but has almost no effect on 
healthy skin, except to stain it a bright 
yellow. The tenderer skin of the hack of 
the hand may be burned if the acid is 
let spread to it from the wart. After one 
or two applications sunk the parts well 
and scrape off the burned parts of the 
wart, apply more uciil and repeat the 
process till all the roots of the wart are 
killed and removed. I removed, perma¬ 
nently, about two dozen seed warts from 
iny hands more than 25 years ago with 
nitric acid, when other means had failed. 
They started from thorn nr brier pricks, 
and seemed to spread because some con¬ 
dition of my skin favored their growth. 
Moles should not he treated, and some 
care is needed in the ease of warts and 
corns if the blood is not in good con¬ 
dition. The hlood should coagulate 
quickly, and a recent wound should heal 
rapidly without swelling or much sore¬ 
ness. Unless the system has the proper 
tone surgeous refuse to operate, because 
if the hlood docs not coagulate normally 
the patient may bleed to death, or if the 
resistance to infection he low septicemia, 
or hlood poisoning, may result. 
Years ago iodine was considered a 
great antiseptic and healing agent, and 
after a long procession of other remedies 
iodine is coming into favor again. While 
good for warts, its chief uses are cauter¬ 
izing and disinfecting wounds and sores, 
and as a counter-irritant for bruises, 
pimples and glandular swellings. When 
used in the mouth for painful gums or 
in decayed teeth, iodine should not be 
swallowed, as it is a caustic poison. 
White of eggs, milk, starch or flour 
stirred in water are recommended as 
antidotes. All poisons should be pro¬ 
perly labeled aud kept out of the reach 
of children. W. E. DUCKWAIA. 
A NEAR-siciHTED man lost his hat in a 
strong wind. He gave chase, but every 
time* lie thought he was catching up with 
it. it was whisked from under his very 
hand. A woman screamed from a near¬ 
by farmhouse: “What are you doing 
there?" He mildly replied that be was 
trying to retrieve his nat. "Your hat,” 
exclaimed the woman. “There it is over 
there under that stone wall; that’s our 
little black hen you’ve been chasing.”— 
Credit Lost. 
Bui tern of Run on Burlap Foundation 
