November 11, 1922 
his bent back ami active little 
Where had 1 seen that man before? 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
Are you among 
these thousands? 
' I stood there trying to puzzle it out un¬ 
til my friend the saleslady came to the 
rescue, 
"Say, uncle, you’d bettor move on, or 
the floor manager will list you lor a gay- 
bird trying to make an appointment, or 
some gunman trying to get the big boss. 
That man you’re watching is the big boss, 
see? He owns the whole outfit. Know 
him V” 
"I think I have seen him before.” 
“Well, forget it. They say that’s what 
lie’s done with his early years. Forget 
it. and now move on !” 
It was good advice, and I moved on, 
trying to remember where I had seen that 
bent back and those shuffling feet before. 
"The big boss! 'Wanted to forget his 
early days!” Where had I seen him be¬ 
fore ? 
That night l had occasion to hunt 
through the Bible for a familiar (imita¬ 
tion. and I came to the Rook of Esther. 
There, in the fifth chapter and thirteenth 
verse. I found this: 
"Yet nil this availeth me nothing, so 
long as l see Mordecai, the Jew, sitting 
at the Icing's gate." 
Of course you are all thorough students 
of Bible history, so that I need not tell 
you that ir was Hatha a who made this 
remark, lie had gained great power and 
wealth, he was next in importance to the 
king, yet this man who simply sat at the 
king’s gate "got on his nerves," and the 
thought that he knew too much about the 
past rook all the joy out of 1 Inman's 
position and power. 
Somehow as I read that 1 remembered 
where I had seen that stooping figure be¬ 
fore. It must havp been that pack ped¬ 
dler I met in Mississippi. Let me see— 
it must have been nearly 40 years ago. 
That:\s*the man! lie called himself Joe 
Solomon at that time. Mother says it 
cannot be possible, but if that "big boss” 
who shuffled through the store has not, in 
his earlier days, staggered along under a 
heavy pack, all my study of humanity has 
gone wrong. At any rate, here is the 
story: 
"Mordecai” 
Faht X. 
The other day I happened to be in a 
great department store in New York 
City. Now and then, when things go 
wrong and work will not shape itself 
properly. I drop everything and walk 
out on the streets on what I call an 
"adventure." At such times I like to 
stand for a moment in crowded places 
and see the great tide of humanity sweep 
past. The great railroad stations and 
the department stores will give a student 
of humanity an entire library for his 
reading. At the Pennsylvania Station 
you find people from the West ami Smith. 
All the arrangements for service, includ¬ 
ing the food, are designed to meet the 
habits peculiar to these sections. At the 
Grand Central most, of the people arc 
from the North and Fast, and here in like 
manner tlie service caters to the habits 
of New England rather than Virginia 
and Pennsylvania. You will find more 
people lunching on baked beans, fish balls 
and doughnuts and coffee. They serve 
pancakes instead of "waffles," and call 
them "griddle” cakes at that. For these 
habits of a section seem to be bred into 
the bone, and they crop out in manner¬ 
isms which we cannot shed. The aver¬ 
age human does not molt his fine feathers 
as the hen does. They stay by him. and 
the pinfeathers often prick him when he 
get- into “good society” iu a new section, 
where he would gladly be like others. 
T HOUSANDS of people keep on trying, 
year after year, to build health from food 
that has been robbed of certain elements re¬ 
quired for perfect nutrition. 
If your food doesn’t contain the mineral 
properties that go to build up nerve, tooth and 
bone structure, there is no other means by which 
you can get these vital elements . 
This is one reason why so many well-informed 
people eat Grape-Nuts — the food that enriches 
the blood, and builds sound, healthy bodies. 
Grape-Nuts is made from whole wheat flour 
and malted barley—baked for 20 hours, which 
develops the natural richness of the grains and 
makes for ready digestibility. 
And Grape-Nuts is perfectly delicious— 
served with milk or cream, or made into an 
appetizing pudding for dinner. 
Get a package of Grape-Nuts from your grocer 
today, and give the family a help to health. 
The department store is a place where 
all grades and classes meet. All are there 
—rich and poor, fat and lean, sick and 
well—every land aud elirne are repre¬ 
sented. I have seen women stand and 
compel a “saleslady” to pull down every 
sample on her counter. A fat hand will 
paw them all over, with many a sniff and 
complaint, and finally, after half an 
hour's examination, the "customer” will 
walk away with: 
"There ain’t nothin' there I want.” 
My women foiks criticize me because I 
buy what 1 want without a word of bar¬ 
gaining. They like to talk and consider, 
though that seems like time wasted for 
me. The other day I saw one of these 
critical customers march away after pull¬ 
ing over something like 75 shirts—leaving 
them spread’all over the counter. 1 did 
not exactly need one, but the look on that 
"saleslady’s” face made me think her 
mind contained something of literary in¬ 
terest. So 1 picked tip the first one of my 
size 1 could find ami paid for it, and while 
the saleslady was waiting for the change 
I found her quite ready to talk. 
"This must be a tiresome job.” 
"Fnde, you said it. 1 get bone- 
tired standing here, and these *gilks’ make, 
me heart-tired.” 
.J ust what a "gilk” is I do not pretend 
to know, but apparently there are many 
of them iu the world. 
"Wouldn’t you have a pleasanter time 
and make more money if you took some 
job at housekeeping?”. 
"Who? Me?" I>o 1 look like it? I’m 
a business woman. I am. When you 
catch me cooking and washing dishes aud 
playing servant to some lazy boss iu 
skirts I’ll be in jail. As for living in the 
country—say. Podunk Corners is too far 
from the movies.” 
Evidently this was not an agreeable 
subject. This girl was strong and well 
built, with ltd intelligent fact, and at¬ 
tractive but for her cheap jewelry and 
foolish bobbed hair. She was unit israk- 
ably of Polish or Austrian blood, showing 
the true peasant type. It was easy to 
understand that her parents must have 
been small farmers or farm workers. 
“Rut did not your father and mother 
come from a farm?” 
"What if they did? Ain’t that my 
business? They ain’t there now, and 1 
ain't going. My sister punches a type¬ 
writer and Pm here. She's got a literary 
job and I'm iu business. Here’s your 
change.” 
"Rut now tell me. when these women 
turn over your stock, take your time and 
then walk off, don’t you feel like-’’ 
"Say. uncle, where'd you get that psy¬ 
chology? Do you know what I'd do to 
some of them 'gilks' if I was-" 
Rut the saleslady suddenly stopped 
talking and began a frantic effort to re¬ 
arrange her stock. 1 glanced up the aisle 
and noted a wonderful activity among all 
the clerks. Coming past the counters was 
a short, thick-set man with n gray heard. 
•His black eyes glanced quickly about as 
he passed, and I noticed it peculiar stoop 
to his shoulders, lie walked as though 
he was carryiug a burden of some sort on 
his back. 
Perhaps you know how at times did 
memories bob up out of Lite past. The 
psychologists call this subconscious 
thought. A thought or a mental picture 
may be buried deep in tin 1 ntind. beneath 
thousands of other thoughts which have 
piled in above it. Then suddenly, without 
warning, you run upon something which 
reaches down into memory and releases 
that anchored thought so that, it rises to 
the top And there 1 stood, watching 
Hint man shuffling through the store with 
Nearly 40 years ago I went to live in a 
small town in Mississippi. I was new 
to the country and the people, and nat¬ 
urally the strange things 1 saw and heard 
have remained iu memory. I boarded at 
a "hotel" which had formerly been one 
of those old-time Southern mansions, dat¬ 
ing far back to slavery days. They 
roomed me in what we would call the 
attic if we lived in a New England house 
—that is, right up under the roof. These 
Southern houses were built so thar this 
upper room had more Space, and you 
might have called it the wastebasket of 
the hotel. There were three beds there, 
and it was a good place to house the 
strays and the transients. It was a 
gloomy old place, with haunting mem¬ 
ories and shivers that ran through the 
dark. 
Sargent Hill was my boss iu those 
days, and he -took some interest in his 
workmen. 
"Where you stopping ut?” 
"At the hotel, with Mrs, Jones.” 
"Seen anything of that h’aut yet?” 
It was some little time before I eouhl 
realize that what we called a ghost in 
New England might be a "h'ant” iu the 
South. 1 bad not seen it, 
“Well, they say old ‘man Smith comes 
back an’ plays his act now and again. 
Must have-been 25 years ago that old man 
Smith Conic up by uight and shot John 
Rogers down. Polks say that come a 
moonlight night, they see something 
creeping out by the trees. There comes 
the flash of a pistol, but nary a sound. 1 
ain't never seen ir. but that's what they 
say!” 
Very likely you will laugh at the idea 
of seeing a ghost, yet when you have the 
story told "before an open tire, with the 
blaze gone aud the room in darkness, and 
when a fat matt, telling the story, takes 
his pipe, from his mouth aud listens for 
some faint sound, you get something of a 
thrill in spite of all your bravery. At 
home or iu your own country it would be 
different, but in a strange place, where 
people viewed you with suspicion, 
"ghosts” are more likely to seem real. 1 
will admit that I did not quite fancy 
climbing up those dark stairs to my lonely 
room. It was to be a night of adventure. 
I could not have slept more than half 
an hour when i was suddenly wakened by 
a feeling that someone was in the room. 
1 roused up in time to see a colored man 
standing at the head of the stairs. The 
moonlight fell on his face, and it was 
easy to see that he was far more fright¬ 
ened than I was. He pointed his finger 
at the wall over my bed, 
“Woof!” It sounded like the snort of 
a frightened hog, and he went down those 
stairs head first. Up over my bed on the 
wall hung a large mutch box. It was a 
block representing a rude human face, 
and was covered with a phosphorescent 
paint. That was long before we knew 
the word radium, but that, paint surely 
did shine out in the dark. 1 never did 
know what that colored mail wanted. He 
may have started to bring up water or 
towels, or he may have been some petty 
thief. At any rate, he got out at sight 
of that match box. You will find iu 
Charles Reade's "Cloister and the 
Hearth" the story of how an artist 
painted “Death” in French on the face 
of a dead man, using a shining paint 
which gleamed in the dark. u.w. C. 
(To Be Continued) 
Grape-Nuts 
—the Body Builder 
Postum Cereal Co., Inc 
Battle Creek, Mich. 
F0RDS0N Governor 
JSOtO J*00 r.ivU’ 
tiaRSJSwWiGuaranteed life of 
(raptor, 
H*» «trrw stall' ol»l it new typi» FortUon, yrtur Kordaoo 
•letilcr, or 
THE DAILEY GOVERNOR CO. 
49 Chestnut Street - - Rochester, N. Y. 
Keep Warm While Driving 
this Winter 
Install this simple hcotcr on your 
Ford, and it will be ascosyasa nicely 
heated room, even in zero weather. 
HEATER 
For Ford and Dodge Cars 
fits over the exhaust manifold and 
furnishes an even dlsti ihurmn of 
warm fresh air throughout the car. 
Easily installed by anyone in a few 
minutes. Can be turned off when 
not wanted and removed entirely in 
summer. Complete instructions and 
guarantee with every heater. If your 
dealer can't supply you. send $2 00 
(foe Dodge cars, send $3.00) and 
your dealer's name and we will ship 
prepaid. 
The Manex Co. - Dayton, Ohio 
913 Valley Street 
1 The Farmer 
| His Own Builder 
= By II. ARMSTRONG ROBERTS 
;; A practical and handy book of all kinds 
“ of building information from concrete to 
= carpentry. PRICE $1.50 
~ for sale by 
| THE RURAL NEW - YORKER 
333 West 30lh Street, New York 
viiiiiiHimimmmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 
This attractive 234-page book has some of the 
best of the Hope Farm Man’s popular sketches 
— philosophy, humor, and sympathetic 
[human touch. Price $1.50, 
For Sale by 
Rural New-Yorker, 335 W.30th St., New York 
MiiiiiiiiiiillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllliiilllllilT: 
