5i6 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
July 23 
The Rural New-Yorker. 
THE BUSINESS EARN EES' PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1860 . 
Elbert 8. Carman, EdItor-in-Chlef. 
Herbert W. Collinswood, Managing Editor. 
V ,£S™*’ } a-~****«*•«• 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
8UB8CRirTION8. 
PRICE, ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, 32.04, equal to 
8s. 6d., or 8*4 marks, or 10% francs. 
ADVERTISING RATES. 
Thirty cents per agate line (14 lines to the inch). Yearly orders 
of 10 or more lines, and 1,000-line orders, 25 cents per line. 
Reading Notices, ending with “ Adv.,” 75 cents per 
count line. Absolutely One Price Only. 
Ad vertisements inserted only for responsible and honorable houses 
We must have copy one week before the date of issue. 
Be sure that the name and address of sender, with name of 
Post-oflice and State, and what the remittance is for, appear in 
every letter. Money orders and bank drafts on New York are the 
safest means of transmitting money. 
Address all business communications and make all orders pay¬ 
able to THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Corner Chambers and Pearl Streets, New York. 
SATURDAY, JULY 23, 1898. 
The war is teaching- us new words and meaning-s. 
An “Imperialist” seems to be one who wants his 
country to branch out, adopt a “ colonial policy”, and 
g-overn the Spanish islands and about everything- else 
in sight. “ A small American” appears to be an old- 
fashioned fellow who believes that Uncle Sam should 
stay at home and clear up his own backyard before 
branching out to take hold of his neighbor's premises. 
There is too much of our own country already un¬ 
developed. We have plenty of elbow room at home. 
0 
On page 510, C. E. C. speaks of having an incubator 
lamp that has not been out for seven weeks. When 
does he fill it ? Evidently while it is burning. He 
may be saving time and matches by this means, but 
it is dangerous business, and some day, there may be 
an explosion that will destroy all the savings of years. 
Many explosions of kerosene lamps, lanterns and 
stoves have occurred from filling them while lighted. 
The poorer the oil, the greater the danger, but no oil 
was ever made that is absolutely safe. Don’t take any 
chances. Never fill any kind of a lamp while lighted. 
O 
“ Appeakance sells the berries, the sugar does the 
rest”, says Kuralisms, on page 498. This is true of 
other fruits than strawberries. In judging a market 
fruit, fine appearance and good shipping qualities 
rank first, and quality second. The Cuthbert stands 
high among market raspberries, yet its flavor is in¬ 
different when compared with Shaffer. The Shaffer, 
however, is dull and dark in color, and cannot be re¬ 
commended for shipping, but it is fine for cooking and 
preserving, the flavor having a piquancy lacking in 
Cuthbert. The housewife says that Cuthbert needs 
the admixture of a few currants, to make acceptable 
preserves or jelly. 
0 
One of New York’s -working philanthropists, who 
devotes himself to prison reform, is urging the pur¬ 
chase of a farm to be colonized by ex-convicts who 
are desirous of leading better lives. It is held that 
farm life, above all others, gives the most wholesome 
surroundings, both for mind and body, and that, en¬ 
gaged in active outdoor work, a man gains strength 
of moral fiber, as well as of muscle, so that he is 
much less likely to fall into evil ways again. It is 
surprising to note how many modern philanthropic 
enterprises are founded upon th - basis that farm life 
offers the best chance for mental, moral and physical 
development. 
© 
The papers are telling of another wealthy farmer 
who came near being fleeced out of .$5,000 by a vener¬ 
able old game played by a pair of sharpers. You no¬ 
tice it’s always the wealthy that are attacked in this 
way. A smooth-talking stranger called on him, and 
claimed to wish to buy a farm for a Summer residence. 
The wealthy farmer had farms to sell, and they started 
to look at one of them. On the way, they met another 
stranger, with whom they became engaged in conver¬ 
sation. A game of cards was finally proposed, and the 
farmer was invited to join. Before they finished, the 
latter had won $5,000. The sharpers seemed willing 
to pay him his winnings, but insisted that, before 
doing so, the farmer should show $5,000 as a guarantee 
that, had he lost, he would have been able to pay. 
This he consented to do, and drove them to town. He 
went to the bank, drew his check for the $5,000, and 
while the gamesters waited outside, presented it for 
payment. The cashier noticed the strangers, smelled 
a rat, and—tore up the check. The strangers became 
alarmed and fled, and the farmer is richer by $5,000 
than he would have been had not the scheme miscar¬ 
ried. It’s an old, old game played often with varia¬ 
tions, and generally successful. The cupidity of the 
dupe renders it possible. 
© 
Delaware is having a pe- uliar experience. One of 
her United States Senatorsison trial in a United States 
Court for complicity in robbing a bank. He didn’t 
break into the safe with dynamite and drill in the 
dead of night; that would have been too plebeian 
—and too dangerous. But it is charged that he, with 
his accomplices, conspired with the cashier, and that 
the bank was wrecked in consequence. Some of the 
accomplices have been tried, found guilty and sen¬ 
tenced to the penitentiary. It will be a sad blow to 
the boasted dignity of the Senate if he be convicted 
as a common felon. It is said that such a thing has 
never been known, although, if history reads true, 
some of these high and mighty ones didn’t get their 
just desserts. May the testimony be true, the verdict 
honest, the judgment sure and swift ! 
© 
Prof. Snyder told us last week that pork and beans 
and brown bread make a perfect balanced ration for 
a working man. The pork baked with the beans 
supplies the fat. and balances the beans, which are 
“stronger” food. There are dairymen who secern to 
regard the silo as a large bean pot. They want to know 
why cow peas or So 5 r beans cannot be mixed with corn 
in the silo, and thus make ensilage that would need 
but little grain. This plan has been tried, but does 
not seem to grow in favor. Dairymen generally seem 
to agree that corn is by far the best ensilage crop. It 
is better economy to fill the silo with corn, and balance 
it with strong feeds like linseed, cotton-seed meal or 
bran. The nitrogenous fodders are better made into 
hay. We are told, as a general rule of advice, to raise 
all the protein that is possible on the farm. There 
are cases where it will pay better to raise corn for the 
silo, and buy the protein in the form of grain. 
© 
In a town in Massachusetts, two “ creamery pro¬ 
moters” have been at work among farmers, seeking 
to sell shares in a proposed cooperative creamery. 
They want to sell 100 shares at $00 each, and thus 
raise $0,000. For this they will build and equip a 
creamery, promising to fit it for both butter and 
cheesemaking, and with a sterilizing plant to sterilize 
the surplus milk. They also offer to furnish a butter- 
maker for the first year at $(55 per month. Farmers 
want to know whether this is a fraud. No doubt a 
good cooperative creamery would benefit the neigh¬ 
borhood. While many of the statements made by these 
promoters are, doubtless, exaggerated, it is usually 
possible to make a good creamery pay. The promoters 
will, probably, charge, at least, $1,000 for organizing 
the creamery. In other words, the fixtures and build¬ 
ing could, doubtless, be bought for less than $5,000, 
if these farmers would do their own organizing and 
buying. The trouble is that many farmers are natur¬ 
ally distrustful. They cannot get together with old 
neighbors and friends who have lived near them for 
years, until some stranger comes along and acts as a 
mutual friend or “ go-between”. The creamery pro¬ 
moter does this often in a legitimate way, but he 
makes the community pay for his services. When he 
demands 10 times as much as he ought, and builds his 
creamery on a foundation of lies and false promises, 
he is a “ creamery shark”. Most of our agricultural 
colleges have dairy schools. Our advice to farmers 
who want a cooperative creamery, and are new at the 
business, would be to get the advice of the director of 
their experiment station about buying, and to secure 
as buttermaker some graduate of their own agricul¬ 
tural college. It is a great mistake to take only the 
word of strangers who are interested in selling goods. 
© 
A rout 5 o’clock on the morning of July 4, a terrible 
catastrophe occurred off Sable Island, east of Nova 
Scotia, by which about 600 people lost their lives. The 
French steamship, La Bourgogne, which sailed from 
this port the previous Saturday, collided with the 
British ship, Cromartyshire, and sunk a few minutes 
after. The ghastly story has been told and retold in 
all its harrowing details, and in many different ver¬ 
sions, by the newspapers. About 200 people were 
picked up by the Cromartyshire, which was so badly 
disabled that it had to be towed into Halifax. Nearly 
every officer of the Frenchman was lost, but a large 
per cent of the saved were members of the crew. 
Ugly stories have been told of how the latter saved 
themselves at the expense of the passengers, and an 
investigation is now in progress at Halifax. But one 
woman was saved, and she only through the efforts of 
her husband, and both were in the water eight hours. 
It is such an accident as ought to be impossible with 
all our modern vessels. The real responsibility may 
never be fixed, but a few facts are plainly evident. 
The vessel was at least 75 miles out of the usual course 
of transatlantic steamers, where she had no business 
to be, evidently for the purpose of saving a few hours’ 
time. She was running at about full speed through a 
dense fog. Her watertight compartments, provided 
for just such emergencies, were open, therefore use¬ 
less. Her crew, from all accounts, were undisciplined. 
Off the Jersey coast a few days later, an American 
vessel caught fire at dead of night, and was burned to 
the water’s edge, but every soul on board was saved. 
The discipline was perfect. Every woman and child 
was first put into the lifeboats, then the male pas¬ 
sengers ; and lastly the crew escaped on rafts made 
from gratings and boards, some of them badly burned. 
What a contrast! In the latter ease, not so many 
were in peril, but when we contrast these and other 
occurrences, we can but feel that the Anglo-Saxon 
race has in it those elements that lift it above the 
common plane, and render possible heroic deeds that 
brighten the pages of history. 
0 
BREVITIES. 
When Cervera stuck his nose out of Santiago Bay, 
He ba<l judged the Yankee sailors by his own; 
For no sign of suioke arose from the warships as they lay, 
And he hoped to find their boilers cold as stone. 
So be boldly steamed ahead, and began his raee with death, 
Never dreaming that the Yankees could pursue; 
But their fires were never dead, and the scalding, eager breath 
From the lungs within the warships fiercely blew 
Through the engines, till each ship, like a hound behind its prey, 
Felt the mighty heart within it swell and throb, 
And the cannon’s blackened lip shouted through the smoke and 
spray— 
“ We were ready and we’ve finished up the job.” 
If those boilers had been cold—had the Y'ankee fires been low, 
In Havana, bold Cervera now would be. 
And his fame would long be told—but they caught him, and I know 
That the tale adorns a moral, as you see, 
There are habits that we hate—craftily they lie in wait 
For a chance to dash against us unawares; 
Do not dawdle, then, or dream, but keep up a head of steam, 
Feed the fire beneath your boiler with your prayers. 
Don’t flirt with dirt. 
A popular loan-—personal advice. 
Who furnishes the sin news of war? 
Food stuffs—the hungry baby’s meals. 
Get ready for Crimson clover seedlug! 
How heat does cool off the hens’ eggishuess. 
The original Sheldon pear tree is still standing. 
As dangerous as dynamite—a good-natured bull. 
Can’t go together—a clean hand and mud slinging. 
Does it pay to feed grain with pasture ? Ask the cow. 
Respect begins at home. Self-respect must come first. 
Sunday influences are a weekly need for the weak kneed. 
The battle of life represents eternal vs. infernal vigilance. 
A heavy meal is an internal tax. You serve your country best 
by refusing it. 
Now let some one tell us why the horns on a Short-horn cow or 
steer are desirable. 
When seed is mixed in thrashing, it’s more the fault of the man 
than of the machine. 
What is the darkey in the wood pile that makes some men so 
afraid to use the ax ? 
All honor to the baker who will not use adulterated flour! 
That’s a good baker's doesn’t. 
Wanted! Advice from those who have sown barley for late fod¬ 
der. Shall we sow it after July 15? * 
Oh, what a blessed privilege it is to rightly know in all of life’s 
vicissitudes—the proper time to crow! 
There are still $40,691 of the old paper fractional currencj* out¬ 
standing. Now let the Government multiply that by !,000. 
They say the Spanish sailors have had no drill at firing then- 
guns. That’s less dangerous to Americans than the lack of drill 
on French sailors who are supposed to take care of passengers. 
La Drones— that strikes us as an appropriate name for islands 
owned by Spain. The Americans should at once change the 
name to La Hustlers, and then make the inhabitants represent 
the name! 
The war scare is over so far as American tourists are con¬ 
cerned. Thousands are now rushing to Europe. Far better for 
them to stay here. Their presence is not absolutely necessary, 
but their money can be handled here to advantage. 
Most of the European journals refer to our present difficulty 
as the Hispano-American war. The Loudon comic papers appear 
to have hit the matter more accurately; they call it the Yaukee- 
Spankie war, and current history is bearing out the title. 
A “chalder ” represents the stipend of a Scotch minister. Its 
value is based on the average prices of barley and oat meal for a 
period of seven years. How would American ministers like to 
have their salaries thus based ? Some do without being consulted. 
A jobber in goat skins tells us that the skins of the Angoras 
are of little value for leather; they are too soft and spongy. The 
wool or hair is so light that a fleece doesn’t bring a very large 
price. The breeding of these animals doesn’t seem to increase 
very rapidly in the North and West. 
A member of the New York City Council has introduced an or¬ 
dinance whicli compels street railroad companies to display a 
sign whenever a car is filled. When a passenger boards a car, 
he need not pav his fare unless accommodated with a seat. We 
would like to see New York City begin a reform of this kind, and 
have it spread all over the country. 
Why do bicyclists chew gum ? That question has often been 
asked, and some inquiring fiend has interviewed a number of 
wheelmen. The chief reasons given are that a bit of gum in the 
mouth increases the flow of saliva, keeps the throat moist and 
thus keeps thirst from becoming intense. This view of the matter 
would certainly bring even a prohibitionist to look upon gum- 
chewing with favor. 
