The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1173 
The Benefit of Change 
Yesterday was sunny, cry.si ;il-idJi*Ai\ 
and ilit* air smaeked of frost. The sky 
was a blue sea sailed by fleets of white 
ships under snowy canvas. The distant 
city "littered against the background of 
hills that surround Seneca Lake, spewed 
steam and pulled smoke like the fiery old 
dragon of fairy lore, a symbol too well 
carried out at present. Hut today is a 
different story. We awoke with the 
whisper of rain in our ears, and the 
heavens are screened with a veil of gray 
mist. There was no frost at all. Nature 
has changed her mind. 
Change, they say. is what keeps us in¬ 
terested. our thoughts sane and happy. 
It doesn’t matter so much what the shift 
of fortune so long as we can find a wholly 
now pasturing ground for our mind’s ef¬ 
forts. Strangely enough, we are apt to 
complain at being pushed out of our 
narrow groove of habit and. in fact, if 
there was any way of getting around it. 
we would make use of Hint way. which 
would not be the best after all. The 
reason why rich people are so miserable 
(witness the headlines in our daily 
papers) is because they eau use their 
money in most cases to buy oil' change 
and live little lives in the same old rut. 
Change is ■what makes character of one 
kind or another. Not. a change in farms, 
which might not be a change in living, 
but a real divergence in line of thought. 
For example, take the present instance. 
We are leaving the era of high prices; 
no Government report can change that. 
Cabbage that once sold at a Fail price 
of S.V!.-» per ton is going to the 'kraut fac¬ 
tory for $•’!, and from the stampede at 
the bins I would say it could be bought 
for b'ss. The potatoes that used to sell 
in Ho* Fall at SI are being loaded at the 
car for 2S cents. Appalling? 1 don't 
know. There do not appear to be very 
many silk stockings and lipsticks in those 
prices. Fewer movies and less pink pow¬ 
der. More evenings at home with a good 
book or magazine and Jess camouflage. 
Moi e sincerity and less gasoline 
I confess that ne'ng poor, with coal 
about to go sky-high, does not sound very 
pleasant when one remembers the Win¬ 
ter. Jtiit I love the way a wood lire roars 
under the griddles and up in the fireplace 
chimney. And there is my long-ignored 
bent for economy that 1 shall be able to 
reinstate uuseolTed at. You know, when 
a mother begins to lie thrifty, there is a 
thrill of pleasure for her every time she 
counts her pennies and finds that she 
will have to make a way to avoid buying. 
Grandmother loves to knit, for the same 
feeling, and buys great quantities of real 
wool yarn to make into sweaters, caps 
and mittens for her large family of grand¬ 
children. And, ah, the lasting qualities of 
said sweaters make Imt daughters glad! 
Another thing we must all he interested 
in,is the making of comforters with real 
wool, instead of cotton. It is possible 
to buy wool bats, anil which would you 
choose to curl up under any stormy night 
next Winter—wool or cotton? I can't 
tell yet just what the cost will be of this 
comforter at present writing, but I sus¬ 
pect it may lie a little more than if made 
with cotton hatting. 
One feels a sense of panic in the dry- 
goods stores. Cotton sheeting is higher 
than ever, and it seems as if gingham 
never would come back to normal. I 
won't say that the storekeeper is to blame 
for prices; I doubt if be is. but be will 
have to sutler almost as if lie were. On 
the floor at my feet lies a certain bulky 
book that is coming more and more into 
use in country families. It is the first 
one ever brought into our home, ami the 
kiddies are devouring the pages with 
hungry eyes, especially the doll page. 
Little Jane sits up to rest her elbow. “Oh, 
mother.” she wonders, “has the mail man 
got any more books like this?” T cannot 
help a certain feeling of having failed the 
little town in our community as I glance 
down. The stores there need everyone's 
trade, hut what can I do? The money 
wouldn’t go more than half or two-thirds 
as far, and 1 want to see my family well 
eared for. Time was this catalog was 
the symbol of the cheap, poorly-made 
article. In the beginning the people who 
used it were in the habit of buying what 
cost the least money. They were not the 
class of buyer who demands good things. 
Now a housewife who has watched the 
store windows for prices can look in the 
big catalog and find guaranteed all-linen 
toweling for half as much. If the towel¬ 
ing should not be satisfactory she may 
return it without expense, but actually 
it is just about what she bargained for, 
anil the storekeeper in her little town 
loses out. She is not to blame, but in 
most eases neither is the storekeeper, 
wlm will in the end suffer from the cost 
of labor in the mills. Apparently the 
large mail order houses are able to buy 
in such quantities as to get their own 
prices. It is being done in the produce 
business, and why not in tiiis line? 
When the little-town storekeeper who is 
now bringing the factory owner the 
money for high wages is deserted by the 
farmer, who lias no money to pay for 
high-priced drygoods, there will In* trou¬ 
ble. Organized labor can do nothing in 
such a crisis to ward off the change, Imt 
they will make a great deal of misery 
ami poverty in trying to. Flioap wheat 
always means low wages, ami there is no 
way for labor to get around that. Since 
the coal strike and the shopmen's strike 
the suggestion of a fanning strike does 
not listen as well as it did. It sounds 
like win—-between organized armies. 
(Continued on Page It S3) 
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Send for FREE BOOKLET 
and Name of Neareat Dealer 
FULLER & WARREN 
CO.,TROY, N.Y., SINCE 1832 
Makers of STEWART Stoves and Ranges 
COLO AIR 
COLO^AIR 
ff 
•• v.- 
H 
Jpr ; 
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^ u 
ARATOR. ETC. 
pomps. One Farm Engine Does It A11 WM5WOOD 
RUNS WASHER, Write now for fact* about ibu wonder rotme. Gircil^to FEED C,R1N DFR 
| CREAM SEP — 6 horsepower. Gaaolme or Iceroncnr. No cranking. Porta- - * 
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of power for every purpose Easy to operate. 
Price Now Lower Thao Pre-War 
Tremendous value. Money-back guarantee. Write at 
’ once for catalog and special Oder. 
^ Tte Edwa rds ■olor Co.. 4121am St. SpriagfieU. OUo 
GENERATOR. FODDER 
COTTER ETC. si 
WEATHER FORECASTER 
You can tell wliat 
kind of weather 
there will hu front, 
S to 24 hours 
tu ndvttuvF. 
Lady cornea out when 
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man with u m h r « 11 a 
when it la e»in«r to nun. 
Warn* you <n tlntc. 
Work* automatically. 
Unlit JijnI like tdetura, 
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Sent anywhere In th« 
United Slutca. Poat- 
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hack if not «ntlaHett 
ARCOE IMPORT CO. 
290 Fifth Avenue 
New York City 
, JJew illus. book tefls 
. TRAPPERS: how to trap mink, 
skunk, muskrat, for, etc. make 
g T M y_ deadfalls, snatvs ami baits : ns is. 
skunkiaml foxes; gather root* and 
herbs; many ..riser things, funs... and Outdoor World. 
hiK llliis. i,sagsuune, tells about fur markets; trapping: 
hunting: dishing: woodcraft; doafs, filr farming; lots of 
good sMriea. Send tOc fnr cep. u t hook .nd sssstude copy of 
ma*azin.. FUR NEWS AND OUTDOOR MTORIO, 370 Seventh 
Ave., New Torts. Room 3S1. 
The Farmer His 
Own Builder 
By H. Armstrong Roberto 
A practical and 
handy book of all 
kiiult*. of building 
information from 
<N>Ut*ret* to carpen¬ 
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For sale by 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER 
333 W 30th St.. N. Y 
you Can Moke 
Money Milting Flour 
One of the best paying and most dignified busi- 
». nesses you ran get in. 
or P ut y°or boy in »w- 
a| rer asisiys, is flour milling, 
j If! 1 | On a comparatively 
Pw VI 1 1 smat! investment, anil 
A .W - —A without any previous 
•tl.JHtk' V*|V. .V, milling experience you 
ni 1 -I 1 can own and run the 
B lM Ml_1—Jl wonderful “ Midget ” 
Li, Hi I-A- —*1 Marvel Mill and make 
w* good money from the 
** Midget** Marvel 
Self-Contained Roller Flour Mill 
Saves the high freights on wheat out and flour 
and feed in. “The first eight montlss 1 made a 
net profit of over $.'001,” gays A. II. Ling, Jet- 
more, Kan.; “My profits from the ''Midge;'* 
Matvei average right around An) per day,” Chas_ 
M. McKinney, Cooper. Tex.: '"Was $v*M) in debt 
when I bought my 25 barrel “Midget.” and the 
little mill polled ice dean out of the bole long 
before I bought mv to harrel mill from you, 
says M. A. K»mm. Oxford, Mich. 
Capacities: 15. is. fO and llM barrels of as Goo 
roller putent flour a day as any mill can make. 
Write for free book, “The Story of a Wonderful 
Flour Mill,’’ trial offer, terms, etc. 
Anglo-American Mill Company. Inc. 
2215-2*221 Trust Building, Owensboro, Ky. 
When you write advertisers mention 
The Rural /Veit*- Yorker and you ‘11 get 
a Quick reply and a “square deal." See 
guaran'ee editorial page 
