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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
485 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—Congressman R. P. Bland, the famous sil¬ 
ver advocate, died at his home, Lebanon, Mo., June 15, 
aged 64. He was a country boy, and made his first start 
in life by working on a farm for $1.50 a week. . . During 
a fire in New York June 15, a woman, 75 years old, rescued 
three children by going through smoke-filled halls, and 
chopping open with an ax the room in which these chil¬ 
dren were locked. . . The Cleveland street-car strikers 
are increasing in violence, and there is no sign of adjust¬ 
ment. Women have greased the tracks to prevent the 
running of cars. June 20, rioting proceeded without check, 
the new employees being repeatedly attacked by the mob. 
One conductor - , while taking up fares, was struck from 
behind with a coupling-pin, and then other strikers, in 
the guise of passengers, jumped on his prostrate body, 
and pounded him into insensibility. A motorman was 
dragged from his car and beaten insensible by the mob, 
who then attacked the conductor, who was finally rescued 
by a citizen armed with a pitchfork. The police seem un¬ 
able to control the mob. June 21, the car company offered 
to make terms and take back 60 per cent of the strikers, 
but refused to discharge the men who had taken their 
places, and worked during the strike. The strikers refused 
tl cse terms, and insist that the company take all the men 
back. June 24, the strike approached settlement, the company 
agreeing to recognize the union, but refusing to discharge 
new men. . . The United States cruiser Columbia, while 
lying at the League Island Navy Yard, Philadelphia, took 
fire June 16, sparks from an engine igniting oily waste on 
her deck. The fire was extinguished, after badly charring 
the deck for a distance of 115 feet. . . The trial of the 
criminals concerned in the kidnapping of Baby Clarke, 
at New York, resulted first in the conviction of Geoige 
Beauregard Barrow, who tried to put the blame on his 
wife and the nursegirl, Bella Anderson, known as Carrie 
Jones. He received a sentence of 14 years and 10 months 
in Sing Sing. Barrow is the son of an Arkansas judge, 
but has always been vicious. His trial was brief, and 
motion for a new trial was denied. His friends desired 
to make a defense of insanity. Bella Anderson, the nurse, 
who turned State’s evidence, was regarded as the tool of 
the other prisoners, and received a sentence of four 
years in the women's prison at Auburn. . . An ink trust 
has been formed with a capital of $18,500,000. . . Train 
rubbers held up a passenger train on the Kansas City, 
Pittsburg & Gulf Railroad near Shady, I. T., June 16. 
They got only $5 and a registered letter. . . The over¬ 
flow of the Rio Grande is causing devastation in Texan 
valley land. . . Capt. Wm. A. Andrews has started 
across the Atlantic in a 12-foot boat, sailing from Atlantic 
City, N. J., June 17. . . C. E. Edwards, a restaurant 
keeper at St. Mary's, W. Va., has brought suit in the 
United States Court against the local courts, and obtained 
an injunction against the sheriff, in consequence of an 
alleged conspiracy to injure his person and ruin his 
business because he employs colored help. He states that 
a mob, led by the sheriff, threatened to lynch him June 
16, because he would not discharge and drive out of the 
county two negro cooks in his employ. . . A band of 
desperadoes bound and gagged the employees of the Fair- 
mount Park Transportation Co., of Philadelphia, in its 
barns early in the morning of June 19, blowing open the 
safe and securing about $3,090. Other men aiding them 
destroyed telephone and telegraph wires so as to prevent 
an immediate alarm, the robbers all escaping. . . Ter¬ 
rible stories of suffering and privation are now reaching 
us from the Klondike trail, the horrors related including 
cannibalism in one party of which there are no survi¬ 
vors. . . The Pennsylvania State Court decides that 
army canteens are subject to State tax. The War De¬ 
partment opposes this decision. . . A severe earthquake 
shock was felt June 20 at Pearisburg, W. Va. . . One 
soldier was killed and four men badly hurt by the blowing 
up of a powder magazine at Fort Pickens, Fla., June 20; 
damage $75,000. . . Violent storms occurred in several 
localities June 20. In Pennsylvania, several persons were 
killed by lightning. At Shelby, Loudonville and Mans¬ 
field, Ohio, cloudbursts flooded the towns, wrecked crops 
and drowned live stock. Damage at Loudonville over 
$300,000. Near New York, several casualties were reported 
from lightning, and the electric-light wires were burned 
out in many places, leaving suburban towns Hooded and 
in darkness. . . A new “green goods” game has been 
practiced in West Virginia. Two men, one described as a 
minister, managed a supposed secret society, charging $10 
for admission, and binding members by terrific oaths. 
The chief secret was that plates for printing Government 
money had been stolen, and money printed from these 
plates was offered for sale sealed in envelopes. When 
opened, the envelopes contained worthless paper. The 
two swindlers have been indicted by the grand jury of 
Pleasants County. . . At Evansville, lnd., negro miners, 
brought from Kentucky to fill the place of strikers, were 
fired upon from ambush, and seven wounded, three mor¬ 
tally. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—Near Huntington, lnd., a 
farmer and his wife were killed June 15 by a wild steer. 
The animal had no horns, but trampled them to death in 
his stall. . . It is reported that farmers In Salem 
County, N. J., are erecting windmills, and will try irri¬ 
gating their crops. . . Mayor Lacoste of Havana, Cuba, 
has asked Gen. Brooke for permission to forbid the im¬ 
portation of cattle from Texan ports and from New Or¬ 
leans, on the ground that many of the cattle from those 
places have been found to be suffering from a dangerous 
sickness. . . James Barrett, vice-president of the 
Georgia State Agricultural Society, testifying before the 
Industrial Commission, stated that conditions among 
southern farmers are worse than ever before; he said 
that there was no money in cotton raising. . . A farmer 
near Sassafras, Md., had 11 sheep killed by lightning 
during a storm June 15. . . Gooseberries gave good re¬ 
turns in Maryland this year; one farmer is said to have 
realized $464 from 2,000 plants. . . “June drop” was said 
to be very severe with Maryland peach orchards, and the 
Peninsula crop is said to be short. . . An extraordinary 
rise in the Mississippi River at Dubuque, Iowa, is caus¬ 
ing inland streams to overflow their banks and injure 
crops. . . Orchards and hops in central New York and 
the Hudson River Valley were injured by a furious storm 
of wind and rain June 20. . . The oleo prosecutions of 
the State of New York against Armour & Co. are now 
likely to be pushed. The penalties involved since prosecu¬ 
tion was first begun now amount to about $1,530,000. 
PHILIPPINES.—The rebels attacked San Fernando 
June 16, and, after hard fighting, were driven back with 
heavy loss. Our loss was 14 wounded. A severe earth¬ 
quake occurred at Iloilo June 17. The volcano of Canlaon, 
on the Island of Negros, is in a state of eruption. June 
19 a scouting party was attacked by rebels, keeping up 
a running fight for five miles. Our men were saved by 
re-enforcements when their ammunition was exhausted; 
five killed and 35 wounded. The rebel loss was heavy. . . 
It is reported that all the Spaniards on the Island of 
Balabac have been massacred by the natives. . . Gen. 
Wheaton continues to advance, but the country south of 
Imus is composed of rice fields and bamboo swamps, mak¬ 
ing progress very difficult. . . The insurgents captured 
two Englishmen on the Island of Samar, and refused their 
release until the British cruiser Grafton cleared for action 
and landed marines, upon which the prisoners were freed. 
. . It is reported that the Spanish garrison at Baler, 
which had been reduced to 33 men, finally surrendered to 
the Filipinos, after holding out for one year. 
OLD TIMES AT FARMERS’ INSTITUTES. 
A VETERAN “TEI.LS IIOW FIELDS WERE WON.” 
They Needed a Cast-Iron Speaker. 
At the meeting of Institute managers, at Rochester, 
Mr. T. B. Terry, of Ohio, read an interesting paper on 
the development of the farmers institute. We give be¬ 
low a portion of his description of old-time methods: 
A HARD STRUGGLE.—When the institute work 
first began in Ohio, it was in a very small way. The 
State Board of Agriculture appropriated a small sum 
for this purpose. The speakers received no pay, for 
a time. Later they were allowed enough to pay a 
man to do their work at home. They had to board 
around, too, as the local people paid all local expenses. 
Once, for example, the speaker was met at the sta¬ 
tion by a committee just at noon. They took him to 
a cheap restaurant, although there was a good hotel 
in town. Something to eat was placed before him, 
but it was in such shape that he could do little more 
than look at it. At night, he thought surely they 
would take him to the hotel, and he would get a good 
supper. But no, he was kept in the hall talking with 
out-of-town people, who stayed over to the night ses¬ 
sion, until six o’clock. Then all hands repaired to 
the restaurant again. The waiter asked the speaker 
if he would have oysters. He said that he would, and 
some warm water and two or three oysters were soon 
swallowed, and a regular supper expected, but it 
never came. He learned that to have soup and a 
15-cent supper was too extravagant for farmers, but 
he got decidedly hungry while learning. 
The night session closed about 10 o’clock. The 
speaker was put in a carriage with a farmer’s wife, 
while the farmer himself got in with some neighbors. 
After riding half an hour or so, he ventured to in¬ 
quire how far it might be to their home. The an¬ 
swer was: “Nine miles.” “It was a beautiful moon¬ 
light night, and the road ran along the banks of the 
Muskingum, and with a charming woman tucked in 
by one’s side—it wasn’t so bad. Of course, we had to 
get warm and chat awhile after arriving at the home, 
and it was 1 A. M. before I found myself in bed. A 
short time afterwards, we had breakfast, and then 
sat and waited an hour or so for daylight, while the 
wife was getting her work done so we could start 
early for the institute. All of which was well enough 
for them, for a day or two, but terribly hard on the 
speakers, who had it six days in a week and some¬ 
times seven. 
SELF ADVERTISERS.—“We were not always met 
by a committee. More often we had to hunt up the 
place of meeting, get it opened, and sometimes build 
the fires. Sometimes no hall had been engaged, and 
we had to find one. We used to go out on the streets 
and ask people to come in. Quite often, in one State, 
a boy was hired to ring a bell through the streets, 
and cry the meeting. Sometimes we got out little 
hand-bills ourselves after arriving, and distributed 
them. Sometimes the sheriff called out the meeting 
from the court-house window. Six or eight people 
might come in. If we got a dozen or two, we were 
quite well satisfied in some places. These people, 
gathered in from the town partly, of course were not 
particularly interested often—old men, perhaps, who 
dropped in because they hadn’t anything else to do. 
One speaker remarked, after trying his best on a 
handful of such men: ‘One might as well try to talk 
to so many saw-logs.’ And it did seem then that he 
was about right. But I have since seen 500 or 000 
bright, interested people at an institute in the opera- 
house of the same town, and I know that, in later 
years, the agriculture of that section was greatly im¬ 
proved through the interest in better methods that 
was worked up finally in these meetings. The speaker 
who made the ‘saw-log’ remark has gone to his rest, 
but his works remain to bless his memory. 
FARMERS HELD OFF.—“Farmers were very much 
afraid of the institutes at first. They suspected some¬ 
thing was wrong, and did not take stock in book 
farming, or kid-glove farming, as they sometimes 
called it. At one meeting in a church, there were two 
swing doors opening from the vestibule directly into 
the main aisle. When speaking to a handful of peo¬ 
ple, 1 saw a farmer push one door slightly and peep 
in. Just as he decided that it wasn’t a safe place for 
him, his little dog slipped through the door and came 
trotting up to the pulpit. The speaker behind me was 
so much amused that he whispered to me: ‘Terry, 
don’t you think the dog showed the most sense?’ I 
have been to that place about six times since, and 
have seen the interest and audience increase, until the 
largest hall is crowded with enthusiastic men and wo¬ 
men. Yes, there are many places where one must go 
an hour or so ahead of time to be sure of getting in. 
I have seen hundreds obliged to go home without 
hearing a word, a number of times. I have even had 
to get a ladder and climb in a window on the stage, 
because every inch of standing room was so packed 
that one could not possibly get in by the door. Fur¬ 
ther, I have seen men outside oblige the insiders to 
open doors and windows, on a cold day, so they could 
hear from the outside. They helped pay for the meet¬ 
ing, and proposed to have some benefit any way. Still 
only a few years before, your speaker went over to a 
meeting at night in that same county, and found only 
a farmer and his wife present. After chatting with 
them awhile, 1 said: ‘We may as well go home, as 
evidently, there will be no audience to-night,’ 
“ ‘Go home,’ says the man, ‘why wife and I came 
six miles to hear you on the wife’s share.’ I did not 
say any more about going home, but got up and talk¬ 
ed to them me best I could for an hour. If that hus¬ 
band has not done the proper thing since, it is not my 
fault. 
SOWING THE SEED.—“This reminds me that one 
never knows how much good he may be doing, and 
never will know to any extent. We must sow the best 
seed possible, and hope for an abundant harvest. One 
terribly stormy day, I went to an institute. There 
were only a few men present, and apparently, no in¬ 
terest was taken in what was said. It really seemed 
as though the meeting had been a failure, a waste of 
time and money. But a few weeks afterwards, a let¬ 
ter full of gratitude came from a farmer who had 
been there. He said his only son was at the meeting 
with him. The son did not think much of farming, 
and was anxious to go to town, and get into some 
work there. But his eyes were opened a little at the 
institute, as to what could be done on the farm, and 
he went home full of enthusiasm, which the father 
only too gladly seconded, and inrew all his youthful 
energy into improving the old farm, and he has since 
gradually taken the burden from his father’s shoul¬ 
ders and is a very successful farmer. 
LOCAL MANAGEMENT.—“In some States, the in¬ 
stitute is managed by a local organization. Officers 
are elected each year to serve the following year. 
They have a president, vice-president, secretary and 
treasurer. Sometimes a vice-president is elected from 
each township in the county to work up an interest at- 
home. They have a committee, perhaps, on pro¬ 
gramme, and one on music and one on entertainment 
of visitors, etc. Then the State speakers go and help 
these officers to carry on the meeting. The officers 
naturally take pride in making their meetings a 
grand success. Local interest is aroused, and very 
large audiences are the rule. The State Board 
in Ohio felt that this was a wise plan, as it 
was encouraging the farmers to help themselves. 
The Indiana and Michigan plan is much the same. 
The home people are expected to take up about half 
the time, and I assure you many fine papers are 
read. The tendency of this plan is towards develop¬ 
ing institute workers. Prof. W. C. Latta, of Indiana, 
always instructs the State speakers to report any 
local person who promises to make a good regular 
worker. The weak point in this plan at first was the 
danger of getting a poor chairman. But then a little 
tact on the part of the State speakers could prevent 
any serious trouble. One rarely sees a chairman now 
wno does not handle the meeting as well as could be 
asked for. There is, however, too much of a ten¬ 
dency to make the meeting an entertainment some¬ 
times. So well has this plan of encouraging the farm¬ 
ers to help themselves worked out, that many insti¬ 
tutes are now run independently, witnout State aid. 
Sometimes the expenses are met by having a drawing 
evening programme, and charging an admission fee. 
It always is unfortunate when a collection must be 
taken up to defray local expenses. Far better raise 
the money privately beforehand. In some States, the 
local people are allowed some money, by the State, to 
meet local expenses. This does away with the old 
passing around of the hat. I remember a collection 
being taken up once, and they got mostly pennies. 
The hat was passed the second time with no better 
success, and they were still short, and the president 
ordered a third trial. This time the collectors held 
out their hands for the money. One farmer put in a 
cent. The collector stood and looked at him curious¬ 
ly, and the farmer went on to explain that he was go¬ 
ing out in a minute, and he wouldn’t get more than a 
cent’s worth.” 
