388 
May 31 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Herbeht w. Collingwood, Editor. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet, / . _ 
Mrs. E. T. Roylk, \ Associates. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.01, 
equal to 8s. 6d., or 8 % marks, or lOVfc francs. 
“A SQUARE DEAL.” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper is 
hacked by a responsible person. But to make doubly 
sure we will make good any loss to paid subscribers 
sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler advertising 
in our columns, and any such swindler will be publicly 
exposed. We protect subscribers against rogues, but w : e 
do not guarantee to adjust trilling differences between 
subscribers and honest responsible advertisers. Neither 
will we be responsible for the debts of honest bankrupts 
sanctioned by the courts. Notice of the complaint must 
be sent us within one month of the time of the trans¬ 
action, and you must have mentioned The Rural New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
Name and address of sender, and what the remittance 
is for, should appear in every letter. 
Remittances may be made in money order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, MAY 31, 1902 
Why, no; we do not want to “rub it in” when we 
come to discuss that fountain pen scheme. There 
were some good people who found fault with The R. 
N.-Y. for the course it took in this matter. All we 
say to them is that they should read the notes on 
page 386. 
* 
Can it be that Lake Ontario is growing lazy? Are 
they tapping too much of its energy on the electric 
wire? It usually stands guard over the fruit orchards 
of western New York and pulls the sting from the 
tail of Jack Frost. It lost its grip somehow this year. 
Frost got past it and did what it nas not done in years 
before. The loss to the early fruit is serious, though 
not so bad as was at first feared. There will be a fair 
supply of late fruit. Let every member of the Apple 
Consumers’ League get ready for business and help 
the grower to get back in his apples part of what 
Jack Frost stole in the earlier fruit. 
* 
On page 389 some of the old-line fire insurance 
companies give their reasons for refusing to write 
policies on farm property. They make no distinction 
between a farmhouse with a well-arranged water 
supply and one without, though such things are al¬ 
ways considered in a town. One reason why Grange 
or cooperative insurance is likely to prove more suc¬ 
cessful is the fact that greater care is taken in as¬ 
suming the risk. If these old-line companies would 
be as careful in selecting property for insurance as the 
Massachusetts Grange is they would have fewer losses. 
We doubt wnether there will ever again be a great 
profit in fire insurance. 
* 
It is said that Secretary of the Treasury Shaw was 
at one time a tree agent. He went about selling fruit 
trees, and what is strangest of all, went back in after 
years and settled where he sold most stock. As a 
rule, tree agents find it convenient to keep away from 
their customers, but Mr. Shaw grew up with his or¬ 
chards and gained the respect of his neighbors as his 
trees came into bearing! People are telling this story 
as though all the credit belongs to Mr. Shaw, but it 
doesn’t. The honest old nurseryman who grew those 
trees true to name and never got his labels mixed is 
the man to put on the high seat of fame. It is ever 
thus, however, the handler is sure to obtain a larger 
slice than the producer! But think of it—a tree agent 
in the Cabinet! 
* 
Another chapter in the farm labor question! On 
page 382 an Oregon reader tells how he was driven 
from the farm by his inability to obtain good help in 
the house. We know that there are many farmers 
willing to pay for good service, yet unable to obtain 
it. It is almost as bad in the town. Here is a note 
from a storekeeper in a large city: 
Girls to do housework are very scarce here. I can get 
plenty of girls to work in the store for $3 per week and 
board themselves, while I have a lot of trouble to get a 
girl to do our housework for $4 per week and board. 
There is another side to this matter. What about 
the future? We appear to have a great surplus of 
nervous, delicate women who are either too weak or 
too “refined” to do housework. Their ambition is ap¬ 
parently satisfied when they learn to do average work 
on a typewriter or “fill a position” as clerk in a store. 
They crowd to town and city, swelling the ranks of 
common laborers and often crowding deserving peo¬ 
ple out of needed incomes. On the other hand there 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKE 
is a shortage of strong, capable women who are need¬ 
ed to help in our homes. Two things are greatly re¬ 
sponsible for this unfortunate state of affairs. Our so- 
called modern system of “education” turns many a boy 
and girl from honorable and useful occupations and 
perhaps tbe worst of all are the absurd “business” 
courses which form a feature of many public schools. 
Students are fed too many “fads” and too few sound 
facts! Another, and the most unhappy thing of all 
is the deliberate effort which some parents make to 
ruin their children by mistaken kindness. Father or 
mother will scrimp and toil in order that John and 
Mary may dress well and “receive an education.” No 
“education” is worth a cent that is fed in with a sil¬ 
ver spoon as a child takes its food. What a sad thing 
it is to see children who have been turned into silly 
and conceited idlers by the foolish kindness of fond 
and doting parents! The noblest thing that a man 
can have on his education or life work is the stain of 
honest sweat. 
* 
For years the corporation that owns cue cable cars 
in this city has subjected passengers to a petty an¬ 
noyance. A car would be stopped abruptly and the 
passengers ordered to get out and “take the car 
ahead!” This would often occur in cold and stormy 
weather. While passengers grumbled, they made tne 
change. Finally one man when ordered to change re¬ 
fused to do so. He stood by the door and addressed 
the other passengers about as follows: “Gentlemen, 
this company has no right to make us get out of this 
car! We have paid our fare and should be carried 
to the end of our journey. We have submitted to this 
petty outrage too long. Let us now refuse to move 
and stay right in this car until we are carried home!” 
All the other passengers needed was one strong man 
to make such a stand. In spite of bluff and bluster 
they stayed where they were, and at last the car went 
on with them. As soon as this was known hundreds 
of others took the same stand. The idea spread like 
a fire, and the result is a city ordinance compelling 
the corporation to send their cars through or mark 
their destination plainly. That shows what can be 
done by standing up for your rights! When will 
farmers learn the lesson? 
♦ 
Few hoof animals are now shipped to eastern mar¬ 
kets. Meat comes mostly in refrigerator cars from 
Chicago and Kansas City. The slaughtering and 
packing business in these cities is in the hands of 
five or six large concerns. The live stock men send 
their cattle, sheep and hogs to these markets for sale. 
The assumption is that there would be competition in 
the buying from these different concerns. Instead, 
representatives of these houses meet and say what the 
price shall be. There is no one else to buy. The situ¬ 
ation is in control of the combination. The stockman 
accepts the one and only bid. Then the combination 
turns its attention to the eastern markets. Receiving 
houses are established, agents put in control, and 
prices made to the consumer. The retail butcher is 
served with the understanding that he charges prices 
fixed by the trust. If he violates the rules he is black¬ 
listed, and, if not driven out of the business at once 
he continues at a disadvantage until he complies with 
the terms. No competition with this combination of 
packers is permitted. Let a butcher in a town of any 
importance slaughter his own meat, the trust sets 
up an opposition shop and sells so cheaply in compe¬ 
tition that our local man soon sells out or is sold out. 
Special freight rates—the foster mother of all trusts— 
and transportation facilities, denied others, protect 
them from further competition from the West. Hence, 
they control the situation at both ends. The grower 
accepts what is offered; the consumer pays what is 
demanded. It is true that owing to the advance in 
the price of corn and shortage in pasturage live stock 
is bringing better prices now than for several years 
back, but this advance is in no way proportionate to 
the advance in the price of meat to consumers. This 
abnormal advance in the price of meat is unduly re¬ 
stricting consumption, ana this must again reduce the 
price of fat cattle. Consumers would pay a legitimate 
advance cheerfully if they could feel that the pro¬ 
ducers were receiving the benefit, but they object to 
being held up and forced to deliver by the meat trust. 
The United States authorities and also the Governor 
of the State of New York are now investigating the 
meat trust to discover what everybody knows already; 
whether or not the trust has violated existing laws. 
Every man who has given the subject any thought 
knows that there are two conditions that make the 
meat trust possible—special freight rates and a tariff 
on meats from other countries. This tariff was orig¬ 
inally intended for the benefit of the producers. It 
now favors the trust, and inasmuch as it strengthens 
the trust and makes it more independent, it is to that 
extent an actual injury to the independent live stock 
grower. The producer and consumer must first un¬ 
it. 
derstand that the life of this and other trusts depends 
on these special conditions. While these concessions 
last no State or National law, no Federal or State in¬ 
vestigation will disturb the monopoly. As well might 
our forefathers have permitted the Indians to tie them 
hand and foot, and then pass laws to prevent them¬ 
selves from being scalped. Probably the best we can 
hope for in the near future is the regulation of freight 
rates by public officials, which, unless the trusts get 
too bold, will probably precede public ownership of 
railroads. 
* 
The Health Department of New York City is 
making an investigation of the headache “cures” so 
freely sold and used by all classes. The active base 
of these preparations is usually a coal tar product, 
such as acetanilid, well known for its dangerously 
depressing action of the heart, but often associated 
with caffein, strychnine or a nux vomica extract as 
a heart stimulant. These are very potent remedies, 
and should not often be used without the sanction of 
a competent physician. There are few records of 
death from these preparations, as the doses are care¬ 
fully proportioned for the average constitution, but 
they do not affect everyone alike, and serious injury 
to the vital organs of susceptible persons may follow 
excessive or even ordinary use. Headaches and neu¬ 
ralgias are very common in cold, moist or windy 
weather, and in some conditions of the digestion. 
They are often so distressing that one is willing to 
run considerable risk for prompt relief, and these 
powders and ready-made cures are likely to be used 
without recourse to a doctor, whose advice costs more 
than many feel they can afford. The health anthqri- 
ties may do much good by making public full infor¬ 
mation concerning these handy “cures,” setting forth 
their good as well as dangerous qualities, but are 
scarcely justified in trying to prohibit the sale of 
remedies so potent in relieving acute suffering. It 
is, of course, better to consult an experienced doctor 
when the system is deranged, but the matter of ex¬ 
pense is often prohibitive, and one feels justified in 
using convenient remedies. The nerve energy wasting 
in "wearing out” a sharp headache or keen neuralgic 
attack is at times more injurious to the system than 
such drugs taken in safe moderation. If you must 
take ready-made headache cures find out as much as 
you can about the action of the special remedy, and 
if moderate doses fail to relieve the symptoms 
promptly abandon it. The real danger lies in exces¬ 
sive dosing on the principle that if a small quantity 
is good more will be better. Most powerful drugs 
have a dangerous secondary action, which should 
never be roused by the inexperienced. 
• 
BREVITIES. 
The concrete barn—page 384. * 
The dun Is disrespectfully submitted. 
Green Greenings scald worst—page 383. 
Fraud dwells in the two-storied man’s house. 
The frost checked the clover, but did not kill it. 
Michigan forbids the importation of a docked horse. 
Special privilege knocks the “co” all out of coopera¬ 
tion. 
How about taking the assessor’s valuation of property 
as the limit for fire insurance? 
The judge should charge the jury from the evidence 
before the lawyers make their arguments. 
“Mapes, the Hen Man!’’ You can’t convince him that 
there is any better hen food than skim-milk. 
There are two kinds of tariff protection—direct and in¬ 
direct. The farmer’s share has been mostly Indirect. 
If you find yourself drifting into a row with another, 
put on sail and walk away until you, at least, are cooled 
off! 
In North Dakota the law requires that legal notices 
must be sent by registered mail. That is a good measure 
to prevent fraud! 
What is the difference between land plaster and plaster 
of Paris? Heat! Roast land plaster, driving off the 
water, and you have plaster of Paris. Mix water with 
this and it will “set” into a hard chunk. 
A neighbor wished to buy a piece of country property. 
He proposed that the owner go to a mortgage company 
and see how much they would loan on it in cash. He 
would guarantee to pay twice this amount for the prop¬ 
erty. The owner refused! 
Only a few years ago farmers felt that the telephone 
was for city folks entirely. Now they wonder how they 
ever got on without it. Better bring these good things 
to the farm rather than run to town after them. 
The California papers advise their readers not to buy 
asparagus seed of eastern dealers for fear of bringing in 
the rust. Let’s see—it was California that sent us the 
San Jos6 scale. Bound to come anyway? So is the rust! 
Rev E. M. Chapman is credited with the following, 
which some farmers who forget household duties may 
ponder over: 
“There’s a sadness in her sadness when she’s sad, 
There’s a gladness in her gladness when she’s glad, 
But her sadness when she sad 
Or her gladness when she’s glad, 
Isn’t in it with her madness when she’s mad.” 
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