346 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
MAY 24 
Rough on Rogues .” 
LOOKOUT 
ALMANAC 
LOOKING OUT FOR NUMBER ONE. 
MAY, 
26. 
Look out for “Mutual Helper” 
of Zanesville, Ohio. This is the 
party we mentioned last week. 
From information now at hand we do not 
hesitate to call him a fraud. This man 
says he has tried about every kind of wind¬ 
mill and has found none equal to “The 
Farmers’ Own.” He made this one him¬ 
self and it cost him only $12 and was so 
good that it pumped water for 80 cattle, 
ground and cut all their feed and also ran 
a saw for cutting wood. “ Mutual Helper” 
feels so good over this that he wants to be 
true to his name, and will, for one dollar, 
send the plans and diagrams showing how 
to make “The Farmers’ Own.” The fact 
is that not one person in 20,000 could make 
a wiud-mill, even if he had the most ap¬ 
proved plans. A plan for building a wind¬ 
mill would certainly be worth no more 
than a plan for building a thrashing ma¬ 
chine or a locomotive. If you don’t believe 
this just send your dollar to this fraud 
and buy 100 cents’ worth of experience. 
* * * 
Tnesdav we out i° r o. 
* Wehosky of Providence, R. I., 
2 / • who advertises a “ series of grand 
entertainments ” with total cash prizes of 
$5,025 P Well the R. N.-Y. proposes to look 
out for him with both eyes. This scheme 
is a lottery pure and simple. In Rhode 
Island lotteries under the name of draw¬ 
ings are still permitted. The little State 
had better wake up and clean herself. The 
postmaster of Providence says he can do 
nothing as long as the correspondence is 
sealed. It is a scheme for gamblers, not for 
honest people. 
* 
* * 
Wednesday kook out for a slick swindler 
q J who passes as an insurance 
2o« agent. He is after country 
doctors. His scheme is to appoint them 
medical examiners for his company. The 
condition accompanying this appointment 
is that the doctor should put his name on 
the “ official list.” This costs him $5.00. 
Up to date over 40 doctors have paid this 
lee. Of course the fellow is a fraud. All the 
authority he had for collecting money was 
“ in his eye.” 
» 
« * 
Thursday kook ° ut f° r a g am e that is 
1 being played in Austria just 
now. It will doubtless be im¬ 
ported into this country free of duty. Put 
a double tariff of bull-dog and shot-gun 
on it. A very nice man comes to town 
with trunks full of fine cloth. He sells it 
at astonishingly low prices. He will only sell 
enough for one suit of clothes to one per¬ 
son, and only on condition that the clothes 
are to be made by a tailor who is to follow 
him. The price of the cloth and the tailor’s 
work will be just about half what one 
would be called to pay for a ready-made 
suit. Customers know they are getting 
great bargains and sales are readily made. 
In a few weeks along comes the tailor and 
proceeds to measure all the patrons of the 
first man. The tailor says he must take 
the cloth to the neigboring town to make 
the suits. He seems to be a fine Christian 
gentleman, so the people let him take their 
cloth and off he goes with it. They never 
see him again, for he takes a “ bee line ” 
for some point hundreds of miles away, 
where the same game is played over. That 
cloth will probably be sold a dozen times 
before it becomes “shop worn.” The peo¬ 
ple wait for their suits till they are forced 
to buy new clothes; then they kick them¬ 
selves because they didn’t have sense 
enough to realize that honorable home 
merchants are the folks to deal with. This 
game is sure to be played here. This is 
why we enlarge upon it. 
* 
* * 
Friday kook out * or “boomed” West- 
* ern cities. Several of our readers 
30. have received “ warranty deeds ” 
of township lots in a Colorado “city.” 
There is no charge for the lot, but it will 
cost $5.85 to record the deed! The “ Board 
of Trade” sending the deed are generous 
people. They will record your deed for 
$5.35; if you did it yourself it would cost 
you $7,50 I They hope to give away so many 
deeds that in two years time the city will 
contain 20,000 people! 
Saturday In the circular which accom- 
J panies the deed we find this 
3 1, startling announcement: 
“ Besides these essential advantages to 
build up an immense city we have millions 
of acres of the very best farming land in 
the world pouring its produce daily into 
our place which is the natural market for 
this vast tract. Draw on your imagination, 
if you can, and picture in the Far West a 
town whose rapid progress seems to cause 
the sun, as it peeps over the mountain hori¬ 
zon, to stop in astonishment at the im¬ 
provements of the day before, and you have 
such a town as ours really appears and is 
to-day.” 
This is good considering the fact that the 
town is East of the mountains. What 
absurd nonsense this whole business is. 
Can it be possible that American farmers 
support such things? 
NEW YORK’S NEW BALLOT LAW. 
After many delays the New York legis 
lature passed a “ Ballot Reform Law ” 
which, though not fully satisfactory to the 
extreme “ Ballot Reformers,” is decidedly 
a step in advance of our present system of 
charged. An American election is too im¬ 
portant a matter to be controlled by fraud 
and roguery. Under the new system the 
County Clerk is obliged to see that the bal¬ 
lots are printed correctly and given out to 
all who call for them. It he does not do so 
he can be severely punished. Each political 
party will have its own ballot—Republican, 
Democratic, Prohibition,Labor and perhaps 
others. There will also be an extra blank 
ballot on which our Mugwump friends may 
write the names of persons they wish to 
vote for. The polling place will look much 
like our picture. No one but the election 
officers and the voter can step inside the 
rail or come within 100 feet of the polls. 
There are no ballots to be given out by can¬ 
vassers. Back against the wall, where we 
see two men writing, is built a long shelf 
which is divided by board walls into many 
small compartments in which the voters 
stand while they fix their ballots. There 
should be doors in front of these compart¬ 
ments. 
Now suppose a man w r ants to vote, how 
will he proceed ? The Reform Club of this 
city, which organization has been mainly 
instrumental in securing this law, gives 
the following statement as to the probable 
course of a voter: 
“ When Mr. Smith presents himself at his 
polling place, and announces himself ready 
Fig. 104. 
voting. We cdpy from the New York 
Herald two rough drawings, one showing 
the old method of voting, and the other 
how voting will probably be done under the 
new system. At Figure 104 we have a scene 
which is about as true to life as it well can 
be. In times past at an election in the 
lower wards of this city the citizen was 
obliged to push his way to the polls t hrough 
gangs of “ heelers,” roughs, ballot peddlers 
and drunken men. It is not surprising that 
many voters preferred to stay away from 
the polls rather than fight their way 
through such a crowd as we see in the pic¬ 
ture. Under the new law these toughs and 
strikers will find their occupation gone, 
and we shall witness the scene illustrated 
at Figure 105. 
The new ballots are to be printed by the 
to vote, the polling clerk calls out his name, 
and he may then be challenged if anybody 
so desires. If not, the polling clerk marks 
opposite his name on the list a number 
which indicates how many have thus far 
voted. Thus, if Mr. Smith is the thirty- 
seventh man who has voted that day, he is 
No. 87. The polling clerk calls out this 
number and the ballot clerk, to whom Mr. 
Smith next goes, writes that number on 
the stub which is attached to each of the 
several ballots which he gives to Mr. Smith. 
Mr. Smith is obliged to accept and sub¬ 
sequently account for all the ballots which 
are handed him. If there are six tickets in 
the field, Mr. Smith receives six ballots 
bearing the names of the respective can¬ 
didates, and also one blank ballot, upon 
which are printed the names of the offices 
to be filled, but no names of candidates. 
None of the ballots given him are designated 
by any party title He must pick out the 
ticket ne wants by the names thereon. 
Each detachable stub upon each ballot 
Fig. 
city and county governments. The politi¬ 
cal parties have nothing to do with this 
matter. It is assumed that the government 
may just as reasonably provide ballots as 
provide ballot boxes or other furniture. 
When the ballots were printed by the dif¬ 
ferent political parties all sorts of roguery 
were indulged in. The writer once worked 
in a printing office where thousands of bal¬ 
lots were to be printed the night before the 
election. Great precautions were taken to 
prevent the opposition from tampering with 
the printing presses. Doors were closed 
and no one was admitted. The opposition 
induced the engineer to get drunk, steam 
ran out, and the result was that many bal¬ 
lots were not printed, thus losing the elec¬ 
tion for that particular candidate, as he 
1 05. 
bears not only Mr. Smith’s number, 37, but 
the initials ot the ballot clerk. The ballots 
themselves, after the stubs have been torn 
off. can in no way be identified. 
Having received these official ballots, Mr. 
Smith is beyond the reach of any assistance 
in preparing his ballot or casting it. He 
goes forthwith into a booth at one side of 
the room. This booth is three feet square, 
and it has walls at least six feet high on 
three sides, while the door, which swings 
outward, reaches to within two feet of the 
floor. When Mr. Smith is inside nothing 
of him is visible except his legs from the 
knees down, unless he happens to be a very 
tall man. 
Once inside he must remain there at least 
three minutes. The law compels him to 
make of himself a prisoner for that length 
of time. He may stay 10 minutes if he 
likes, but not longer if others are waiting 
to use the booths. During his retirement, 
if he wishes to paste, he pastes; if he wishes 
to write, he writes. There is a small shelf 
in the booth and a lead pencil. If he spoils 
his ballot in preparation, he can come out 
and surrender the entire set and get a new 
one. He can have four sets in all if he 
needs them, but that is the legal limit. 
When his ballot is prepared to his satis¬ 
faction he is required to fold it so that its 
contents are invisible. Then he must fold 
all the other ballots which he doesn’t want 
in the same way. He must be careful about 
this, for if he should disclose on coming 
out of the booth what ticket he intended to 
cast he would forfeit his vote as the penalty. 
All the offices to be filled at that election 
are included on one ballot, National, State, 
local, and all, so that there is only one bal¬ 
lot to cast in any event. 
“ When he comes out of the booth with 
the various ballots in bis hands, he goes to 
the inspector. His name is again called 
out, and there is another opportunity for 
challenge before the ballot is cast. The 
inspector also calls the number on the stubs 
of the ballots which Mr. Smith holds, and 
if the number is not the same as the one 
opposite Mr. Smith’s name, No. 37 in this 
case, then Mr. Smith goes to jail. The 
stubs are torn off of all the ballots, and are 
preserved by the election officers. Mr 
Smith puts the ballot be desires to vote 
into the ballot box and the ballots he 
doesn’t want into another big box. Of 
course he must be careful with so many 
ballots, apparently all alike in his hands, 
that he puts the right one into the right 
box, otherwise he will unwittingly have 
voted the wrong ticket. 
When the polls are closed the stubs and 
the unused ballots must all be accounted 
for by the election officers. Otherwise 
somebody goes to jail. Pasters always 
count wffierever they may appear on a ticket. 
The size, type, paper, etc., to be used in 
making pasters are prescribed by law. The 
illiterate voter may come to the polls with 
his entire ticket printed as a paster with a 
gummed back in his pocket. When he gets 
into the booth he can paste this ticket on 
any one of the official ballots given him, 
fold it properly, and it will be counted as 
he intends to have it.” 
This, in substance, is the new ballot law. 
It will enable a voter to cast a secret ballot 
without interference. It will also enable 
him to make sure that he is voting for the 
men that his party has selected. There 
may be a dozen ballots in the field, as when¬ 
ever 300 voters petition the County Clerk 
to print ballots bearing the names of a new 
set of candidates he is obliged to do so. 
Election officers will have to be intelligent 
men or they will get themselves into 
trouble. 
Please mention R. N.-Y. to our adver¬ 
tisers. 
Ease, Comfort and. Thrift! 
THE BEST. CATTLE FASTENING! 
SMITH'S SELF-ADJUSTING SWING STANCHION. 
J The only practical Steiner Stanchion invented. 
Thousands In use. Illustrated Circular free. Meu- 
tlon Rural Nkw-Yorkkr. 
F. G. PARSONS CO.. Addison, Steuben Co.,N.Y. 
Pennsylvania Agricultural Works, York, Pa.' 
Farqahar’a Standard Engines and Saw Mills, 
Send for C»i»logue. Poruble, Sta¬ 
tionary, Traction and Automatic Ka- 
gine. a.peclaity. Warranted equal or 
•uperlarta 
any made. 
Address A. B. FABQUHAR A SON, fork, Pa. 
THE ADVANCE HAY TEDDER 
The most perfect utricle of its kind made. Ease of 
movement and satisfaction guaranteed. Also tnanu 
facturers of Mowers. Rakes, Hay Presses, Feed Cut¬ 
ters, Plows, etc. Write for Free Circular. Agents 
wanted lit every ocallty. Address 
ANN ARBOR AGRICULTURAL CO., AH W 0R ‘ 
HAY AND STRAW PRESS 
Guaranteed to press three tons more of hay In one 
day (10 hours), than any other portable two-horse 
press, with the same amount of help. Give It a trial. 
Satisfaction guaranteed, or no sale and freight 
refunded. For conditions, circulars, etc., address 
J. A. SPENCER, Dwight, Ill. 
