1901 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
663 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
Pan-American. —I am writing these 
notes on the Exposition grounds. This 
i? a long distance from home for the 
Hope h’arm man. The Madame and the 
Bud could not come with me, but Aunt 
Eleanor came along and is now having 
the greatest play-time of the last 25 
years. As I write we are all saddened 
by the news of the President’s death. 
That seems to throw a shadow over the 
whole place. Saturday promised to be 
the greatest day of the Exposition. It 
was “Railroad Day,” and tnouaands 
were on tne incoming trains cheered by 
the reports from the President’s bed¬ 
side. As soon as it was known that 
death was at hand orders were given to 
close the gates. The fountains stopped 
playing, the buildings were shut, and 
the beautiful city stood silent as the 
grave. One could wander about the 
great enclosure with barely the sight 
of a human being save the soldiers and 
guards. The silence was most depress¬ 
ing on the usually noisy “Midway.” a. i 
the life and spirit had dropped out of 
the scene, leaving only a melancholy 
and depressing silence. How one of 
those black-hearted anarchists would 
have enjoyed himself there! 
To me the saddest part of it all is the 
appearance of the old soldiers who are 
here by the thousand. These gray¬ 
haired men who faced the storm 40 years 
ago, and saved the Union, now seem to 
be in doubt as to whether other influ¬ 
ences have not undermined their work. 
Is there not a crack or a flaw in our 
system of government when some 
worthless wretch, whose life is not 
worth 10 cents to the community, can 
and will step up and shoot a man like 
President McKinley? It has been the 
boast of our people that our Govern- 
menlt is such that any man can easily 
do such things, but our theory has been 
that no one mill do it. That is where 
we have made our mistake. It is that 
thought Which saddens the heart of the 
old soldiers—and well it may. 
What it Means. —We suddenly wake 
up to find that we have many of the so¬ 
cial and political dangers of the old 
world, without the strong, imn-hand d 
government which on the other side of 
the water holds them in check. My 
fear is that in trying to square matters 
and prevent the anarchists from repeat¬ 
ing their awful work Congress is likely 
to go too far in preventing free speech 
and fair discussion. It has been my 
conviction for some years that Ameri¬ 
cans have, as a nation, been playing too 
many tunes on the prosperity and 
money-making strings of our National 
harp. The moral, God-loving strings 
and fiber have become too slack. Hu¬ 
man life has been held too cheap. All 
lynch law, mob rule, crushing out the 
rights of the poor, the unpopular or the 
helpless, without giving them a fa r 
show—-all these things have been sow¬ 
ing the seed from which grew this awful 
tragedy. There is and there has been 
too much of placing money above true 
morality. Congress will and should pass 
strict laws absolutely prohibiting trea¬ 
son or murderous talk. It should also 
export these cursed murderers—'and I 
suggest the North Pole as a good place 
to cool them off. That is right, but it 
will prove, in the end, like painting the 
face of a consumptive, unless the Ameri¬ 
can people themselves get some of the 
dollars out of their eyes. We need not 
only morals in public life, but more of 
the true God-fearing spirit of old. That 
is what makes it so hard to understand 
why a man like President McKinley 
should be killed in such a cowardly way. 
The closing of this pure and hopeful 
life is to my mind one of the saddest 
pictures in all history. His wife was 
herself at death’s door. She has been 
ill for years. They have no children, 
and the husband has given a father’s 
care to the wife. She did not even 
know how he was hurt. The thought 
of these sad, home feelings will go far 
into the hearts and souls of the com¬ 
mon home-loving people of America. 
Our good President will not have died 
in vain if such people realize the true 
significance oi this awful warning. And 
what an opportunity the new President 
has for strong and earnest work! 
Wonderful Fruit. —^^To pa^ from 
this dreadful affair to the living and 
material side of the Exposition, I have 
been greatly interested in the fruit 
show. The Horticulture Building is 
one of the best on the grounds. Fortu¬ 
nately no gallery was built around it, 
and the exhibits have the benefit of 
perfect light. As a result there was as 
large a crowd in this building at all 
times as one could find anywhere—even 
in the Art Building. Why should not 
this be so, since no human hand ever 
painted such beautifui colors as Nature 
has painted on these fruits? Nature 
does love an apple, and she reserves her 
most delicate brush for its dress. Some 
specimens of Ciairgeau pears from Idaho 
struck me as the finest specimen of sun 
painting I ever saw untii I got around 
to the exhibit of apples from Maine. 
Why, some of those Alexanders were 
certainly like the man they were named 
for—great. There were figs and dates 
from Arizona and Caiifornia, nuts, 
grapes, peacues— a. bewiidering dispiay. 
Up over the Illinois exhibition was a 
picture in colors taken from the draw¬ 
ing of Ben Davis and Miss Kieffer Pear 
printed in hie R. N.-Y. two years ago. 
They had wisely omitted the verse that 
went with the picture. The exhibit 
showed that every corner of this great 
country is prepared to raise fine fruit 
and pour it into our eastern markets. 
What are we going to do at nope Farm 
and similar places when the rush comes? 
Why, plant trees on the hillsides and 
take good care of them! These exhibi¬ 
tions wili educate the people. I notice 
thait they are learning to distinguish va¬ 
rieties already. That is just what we 
want to build a discriminating market. 
Agriculture. —Some of the big West¬ 
ern States had fine displays of farm 
products, but I doubt whether many 
eastern farmers can now be induced to 
“go West,” for the States east of the 
great lakes made a good sihowing. Our 
New Jersey exhibit was a good one. 
Some of our corn had stalks that were 
perfect sky-scrapers. The ears were so 
long that a man would be close to a 
donkey to think he could beat them. I 
had a talk with some farmers fi-om Illi¬ 
nois. They were astonished at the corn 
we can grow. They had to admit that 
they couidn’t beat it. When they were 
told What corn and other farm products 
will bring in our markets, and how it 
is impossible for any Jerseyman to get 
seven miles from a railroad without 
leaving the State, one of them could 
only say that the map shows that “Jer¬ 
sey is all corners, anyway!” That’s 
right—it is easy to get a farmer into a 
corner in New Jersey, and mat is just 
the situation in which he does his best 
work! That is true of most people. 
The People. —There were all sorts 
and kinds—in fact, the crowd itself was 
the best exhibit of all. What a mixed- 
up citizen the American is! I sat and 
watched the crowd. Here were people 
from Maine to California, and no one 
could pick out any single person as the 
typical American. The bean-fed Yan¬ 
kee and the corn and bacon man from 
Iowa are getting to be as different in ap¬ 
pearance an^ habits as the Jei-sey and 
the Short-horn cattle. To my mind the 
types are not coming together, but are 
becoming more distinct. Two things 
that seem to be acting as advance agents 
for a sort of universal democracy are 
the modern shirt waist and the culture 
of fine apples. The women show more 
independence and uniformity in dress 
than they used to, and to-day you can¬ 
not tell from her clothes where a woman 
is from. Too many of the men still 
stick to the black suit with its long- 
tailed coat. .... I was pleased to 
see how farmers and their wives are in¬ 
terested in the exhibits of household 
conveniences and fixtures. They ask 
many questions about bathroom contri¬ 
vances, acetylene gas machines, heaters, 
etc. That is right! The farmhouse 
should be made more comfortable. 
Money that is invested in a mortgage on 
Neighbor Jones’s farm would often pay 
better in securing a mortgage on home 
comforts.There were, on ex¬ 
hibition, sod houses and log cabins 
showing how the pioneers in wood or 
on prairie were forced to deny them¬ 
selves comforts and even necessities. 
There were men and women there who 
faced the frost and the blizzard in just 
such rough shelters. Now tney came 
with a well-earned competence—able to 
purchase the blessings that go with 
light, heat and water. As I watched 
them I often wondered what their life 
history would have been could they have 
enjoyed these blessings in partnership 
with youth and full strength. 
People like to “follow the crowd.” I 
watched the crowd around one show on 
the Midway. The “barker” told his 
story in glowing language. His voice 
v/as cracked by hard usage, but he 
made up in noise what he lacked in tone. 
I sympathized with him, for I came 
somewhat near that business myself 
once! When he finally stopped, the 
band struck up and a small crowd of 
people started in, many of the others 
following them. I found that there were 
about a dozen young men and women 
who drew the crowd in, and then 
sneaked out of a side door and acted as 
decoys again. They did this so well 
that few suspected the trick, and they 
led hundreds into a very poor show who 
otherwise never would have started. 
Now, on a much larger scale this same 
game is played again and again in hu¬ 
man society. Sometimes people make 
noble uses of the decoy system by lead¬ 
ing the people on after desirable things. 
. . . . There was an exhibit of real 
Indians that would have delighted the 
Graft and the Scion. These little fel¬ 
lows get out behind the barn with 
wooden guns and knives, and slaughter 
dozens of imaginary Indians. How 
they would run for shelter could they 
see one of these genuine redskins! This 
was undoubtedly the real article. 
Among others was old Geronimo, the 
old rascal who killed and thieved for 
many years. This old scamp is now a 
“good Indian.” He came out and 
grinned at the crowd and made a 
speech which was about as follows— 
‘‘Money, money! Give money!” Surely 
money seems to be a sure thing with 
which to tame a red man—or a white 
one! 
I was introduced to a civilized Indian 
who had b^n well educated. He wore 
good black‘ clothes and looked like a 
college professor. I watched him as old 
Geronimo passed by in review. The 
young man took off his black hat and 
made a low bow to the murderous old 
rascal. What do you suppose the civil¬ 
ized Indian saw in the brutal savage 
that was noble enough to commend such 
a salute? . . . Three Eskimos took 
a day off on Saturday and walked about 
to see tne sights. Of all tough looking 
specimens of humanity I have yet seen 
they go up head. No doubt the lady 
looked at her husband and then at the 
Hope Farm man and concluded that af¬ 
ter all she had the handsomer specimen 
—from her point of view—so it’s all 
right. This lubberly citizen walked in¬ 
to the famous Longfellow House, and 
to the surprise of all sat down to the 
piano (over 150 years old), spread his 
big fingers over the keys, and played 
many simple tunes. Surely music is the 
universal language! He was taught to 
play far up among the ice by a mission¬ 
ary! H. w. c. 
V *• ^ 
Full Heads 
Strong grain re¬ 
sults only when a 
liberal amount of 
Potash 
is present in the 
fertilizer used. 
Our books tell the 
rest. They are free. 
German Kali Works, 
93 Nassau St., New York. 
LIME FERTILIZER. 
Special preparation giving splendid satisfaction. 
Correspondence solicited. THE SNOW FLAKE 
LIME CO., Bowling Green, Ohio. 
Cider Machinery.—Send for catalogue to Boomer* 
Boschert Press Co.,118 West Water St..Syracuse.N.Y. 
A HEN GOUGH 
is fatal to poultry suc- 
rosg. This is equally 
true of roup, frozen 
combs, etc. Your poul¬ 
try wili have none of 
these If their house Is 
sided up and roofed 
over with 
SWAN’S EXTRA HEAVY 
FELT ROOFING. 
You can put it on your¬ 
self. It only takes a 
knife and a hammer— 
no experience necessary. Keeps out wind and water 
and Is are-proof. Soft and pliable; becomes as hard 
as slate. The ideal light structure roof. Send for 
free sample and circulars. 
THE A. F. SWAN CO., lU Nassau St., New York. 
TOJJ^ FAWT^OUnW-BUILfilNCS 
WATERPROOFS 
WlNDPROOF.Ai^^M 
Noihin^ ihin' 
^NEPONSET 
‘SJJ^ROOFING 
A postal brings sample and 
_ I name of nearest dealer. 
F. W. BIRD 4 SON, East Walpole, Mass. Chicago, 
RUBEROID 
THE 
POULTRY-HOUSE 
ROOFING 
As a water-proof covering for Poultry-1 
Houses, RUBEROID has no equal. Keeps 
tne houses cool during the warm weather, 
and warm In Winter, and the chicks dry and | 
I comfortable. The sun cannot melt It. 
THE STANDARD PAINT CO., 
100 WlUiam Street, 
NEW YORK. 
Howto Drain Land Profitably. 
On every farm there is probably some land 
that could be made more productive by under- 
drainage. Pi’operly drained land can always 
be worked earlier, and more profitably. The 
2 best and most 
f fcsl economical way 
to drain is ex¬ 
plained In the 
book, “Benefits of Drainage and How to Drain,” 
which is sent/rdd by JOHN H. JACKSON, 
76 Third Avenue, Albany, N. Y. 
A 2 million increase 
In the past two years the sale of “Ball-Band” goods increased over two 
millions. Honesty, quality and fair prices made this Increase possible. 
** Ball-Band** 
Knit Boots, Socks, Rubber 
Boots, Shoes, and Arctics 
have won the favor of farmers, nvnolimen.lumhermen. etc., in every part of the country, 
through sterling merit. Made in many styles. Insist on getting the genmne “BuU-Bund” 
Brand. Look for tlie Red Ball in tlie tnide-niark. (Jet tlieni of your dealer. 
MISHAWAKA WOOLEN MFC. CO., Mishawaka, Ind. 
