714 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
OCT. 18 
THE PIE HUNTER’S PROFIT. 
A TALE OF PLUNDER. 
Being an account of the Farmers' Movement of 1S90- 
1900, viewed from the standpoint, of a citizen of 
America, A.D. 1930. 
(< Continued .) 
There was enough mystery about this young lady to 
make Mary impatient to know what it was all about. 
She might have forgotten the old blank-book if John had 
not walked up and taken it from her hand. “ What’s the 
matter, Mary; anything wrong ?” 
*' Nothing, only a young man has just made a singular 
request of me ?” 
“ Wanted you to watch somebody while he talked 
through the telephone?” 
“ W hy, how did you know ?” 
“ Why he asked me the same thing—a young fellow with 
dark hair and eyes and a little budding moustache—that’s 
my man.” 
“Why, no, John, my man had light hair and blue eyes and 
just a little faint attempt at a beard.” 
“Why that’s the man I was to keep busy while my man 
talked at the telephone.” 
“ And my man certainly pointed towards a dark-haired 
person when he spoke to me. It is evident that my man is 
trying to beat your man.” 
“And there’s a young lady in the case too.” 
“ I have it. Both these young fellows are in love with 
this remarkable young lady. They are both trying to get 
a chance to talk to her, but each one is afraid the other 
will overhear the conversation. Now I am going to try to 
have my man win her.” 
“And I give you fair notice that I shall do what I can 
for my man. But come now, ‘ fair chance.’ Let it be an 
even thing. I’ll agree not to use force and drag your 
man away by the collar, if you will agree not to smile too 
sweetly on mine, but if you do resort to sweet smiles, of 
course I shall be justified in using just a little force.” 
“ And then run the risk of arrest, eh f I’m afraid I can’t 
regulate my smiles as well as you can regulate your 
strength; but I’ll agree to be fair. But come, Mr. Duncan 
is waiting to learn about the pie hunting in his pedigree, as 
he calls it.” 
The book Mary had brought was a large, square volume 
bound in rough leather covers. The paper was blue in 
color with a rough surface on which lines had evidently 
been made with a quill pen. The ink with which the records 
had been written was faded, so much so, in fact, that Mr. 
Duncan had trouble in reading. John seemed to know the 
whole story by heart, so closing the book he leaned back in 
his chair and began telling the story of the pie hunters, 
while Mary sat near him, roguishly waiting for a chance to 
interview John’s young man. 
CHAPTER II. 
The Story of the Pie Hunters. 
“ It appears from this old diary,” said John, “that the 
Hawk Mining Company sailed from a little port on the 
New England coast in 1849. Here we have a careful rec¬ 
ord of all their agreements and disagreements. They 
chartered a brig and sailed around Cape Horn to San 
Francisco. Think of sailing for months to reach a place 
that we, in this age, can drop into in four hours ! Before 
these miners started they drew up and signed what they 
thought was a model constitution. Their plan was to fix 
things so that there should be an equal division of labor 
and profits, so they tried to tie themselves up so carefully 
that ‘share and share alike’ would be a reality.” 
“ My idea is,” broke in Mary, “ that these men made the 
great mistake of assuming that their comrades were all 
dishonest and selfish. If they had been all fair and true, 
without reserve, these restrictions and laws would not 
have been needed.” 
“ Exactly ! but don’t you see that these men lived in an 
age when people felt that it really paid to be selfish and 
exacting. I am very sure that this record is a fair state¬ 
ment of the way men acted 100 years ago. But let’s go 
on.” 
“Well, after along voyage the miners reached SanFran- 
ciso and marched inland for the gold diggings. After 
weeks of weary tramping they came to a lonely valley 
where a few Mexicans and Indians were digging gold. The 
white men outnumbered the yellow men two to one. Now 
you all see these miners discovered the first power of or¬ 
ganization and co operation. They drew their weapons 
and charged the yellow men, driving them completely out 
of the valley. If they had not combined, but had come 
into the valley one or two at a time, the yellow fellows 
would doubtless have killed them all. They combined to 
accumulate, but they proposed to separate to spend. Under 
the existing conditions of society, wealth was so unevenly 
distributed that the love of gold was stronger than almost 
anything else. One of the Mexicans was killed in the 
fight. In digging a grave for him the miners found their 
first trace of the yellow metal. The record states that this 
sight had such an effect on them that they forgot to bury 
the dead. Horrible thought that—I can not conceive any¬ 
thing like it in our day.” 
“Ah! But you did not live in the days when wealth 
was one-sided,” said Mr. Duncan sadly. “ The possibility 
of gaining more than an honest share of wealth was what 
caused the trouble. Men grew money-mad as they accu¬ 
mulated property. When it was no longer possible to ob¬ 
tain more than a proper share, selfishness gradually 
dropped out of business. People used to make the mistake 
of confounding selfishness with ambition.” 
“ Now, with this rich valley in their hands, the associa¬ 
tion prospered. The most respected member was elected 
treasurer, and ail the gold was turned over to him. A 
large amount of the precious metal was taken from the 
ground, and as it was ‘ share and share alike ’-” 
“But there comes a thing I don’t understand,” put iu 
Mr. Duncan. “ If the shares were equal, how did it hap¬ 
pen that the ultimate division was unequal ? My grand¬ 
father came home with plenty of money, while others had 
to borrow some in order to get home. A singular result 
that, of co-operation and business association. These men 
pledged themselves to share alike in work and profits, yet 
the division was most unequal.” 
“ That is the most singular part of the whole thing,” 
said John. “This diary gives us a first-rate idea of the 
way things were run in those old days. It seems that 
while the miners were working iu this valley they could 
find only the coarsest of food. Baked or boiled beans, salt 
pork, sour bread and game—that was all they could get. 
They were all New England men, born with an inbred 
love for doughnuts and pies, and I don’t much wonder that 
after a steady bean diet of a month or more these two 
articles of food came to represent the highest possible 
standard of value. They had plenty of gold which in a 
bake shop could be exchanged for any amount of pies: 
but when the pies were hundreds of miles away, the gold 
was little better than dirt as a medium of exchange. 
Now, between the valley and the bakery lay miles of rough 
mountain paths beset with dreadful dangers. They could 
not all go, for the yellow men that they had driven out 
were watching from the hills eager for a chance to fall 
upon the valley again.” 
“You see,” said Mary, “their boasted co-operation was 
a failure because it was too exclusive. Suppose they had 
taken the yellow men into partnership too 1 There were 
gold enough and work enough for all. By forcing two 
organizations they made it necessary to spend at least 
one-third of their working time in either fighting or 
watching.” 
“ Exactly ! And, so far as I can see, this idea was the 
hardest lesson our good ancestors had to learn. They 
were evidently very smart at forming small combinations, 
but they had an idea that one combination was formed 
simply to fight another. The object of combination was 
to fight, not, as we believe, to make peace. But now for 
the pie hunters.” 
“There were two strong, active and courageous men, 
who saw in this emergency a chance to ‘ make some 
money,’ as it was called in those days. These men started 
out one dark night and crept through the Mexicans and 
over the mountains to Stockton where they invested all 
their money in cakes and pies. These they strapped on 
pack-mules and started back towards the valley. And 
they had a great time. If I should stop to tell you about 
the dangers and trouble they passed through you would 
be astonished. It is enough to say that they reached the 
valley at last and offered their wares for sale. And now 
we see how this unequal division started.” 
“But come, said Mary at this point, “there goes the 
bell for dinner. Having brought the pie hunters safely 
back to camp, let’s discuss their profits after our meal.” 
She touched a spring in the back of her chair and it at 
once began moving slowly along the deck. By means of 
the same spring she was able to direct its course and to 
stop it at the head of the stairs leading to the dining room. 
Her husband and Mr. Duncan followed, and they all took 
seats at the table, where, to their great amusement, they 
found that John’s young man had been given a seat at 
Mary’s right, while Mary’s young man sat at John’s left. 
There were no waiters about the table. A series of little 
tracks similar to those formerly used in conveying cash 
from the counter to the cashier’s desk in our city stores, 
ran from above each plate to the kitchen. It was only 
necessary to write one’s order on a piece of thick card-board 
and send it down the track to the kitchen. The various 
dishes then came traveling back when desired. 
Our friends made an excellent meal and the first contest 
over the two young men was decidedly a draw. Mary’s 
young man started from the table first and had a good 
start for the telephone, but John’s young man saw him 
going and made very short work of Mary’s conversation, 
in his haste to head off his rival. After dinner our friends 
went back to their old place on the deck. 
“Now, of course,” continued John, “we, in our day, 
would naturally say that these two men did not try to 
make any great profit out of this operation. In this 
brotherhood that they hjid formed to combine their 
strength and power, of course each was ready to do all he 
could to add to the happiness of the others. But no, these 
men demanded for their pies more than 50 times as much 
as they had paid for them and the strangest part of it all 
is that the law and usage of that day seemed to uphold 
them.” 
“ That proves a conclusion I have come to,” said Mr. 
Duncan. “ People of that age possessed two distinct 
traits: they charged exorbitant prices for what they called 
* risk,’ demanding the right to name their own price, 
and they measured the value of tbeir goods by what they 
thought they could make the buyer pay. Just at that 
moment those miners wanted the pies more than they 
wanted the gold; when, later on, they got to a place where 
pies were cheap and gold meant nothing but the hardest 
sort of labor, they doubtless cursed themselves for their 
thoughtless folly.” 
" But nobody seemed to think the pie hunters had done 
an unjust thing in charging a high price for the pies. 
Those two men who absorbed so much of the gold were re¬ 
garded simply as * smart’ men, who were keen enough to 
know a good thing when they saw it.” 
(To be continued.) 
A thick piece of cloth will strain the impurities out of 
milk. Unless it is washed and kept clean, however, it will 
hurt the milk more than it will help it. 
IVoman s Work. 
SOME PHASES OF IT. 
T HE rapidity with which organizations of women are 
multiplying of late is almost startling, and this 
organizing is one of the most powerful agencies in for¬ 
warding the cause of women everywhere. Clubs and in¬ 
stitutions started by women are not always successful, for 
often the zeal of the promoters of the various schemes out¬ 
runs their knowledge ; but when they fail it may at least 
be said that they have been a source of experience, and that 
knowledge and zeal are more nearly equal than at the time 
of their inception. Even men have been known to admit 
that experience is a dear though a good teacher. 
It is perhaps not generally known that the Young 
Women’s Christian Associations, in many of the cities, 
furnish lodgings by night for those who need such accom¬ 
modation. The usual charge for a single room is perhaps 
50 cents a night; a bed in a dormitory can be had for 25 
cents ; and if the applicant is not able to pay, she will be 
cared for gratis if she is respectable. She may have the 
use of the parlors and reading-rooms, and she has a safe 
shelter from the dangers of a large city at night. 
One of these associations has established a “ Noon Rest” 
in Indianapolis, which is a sort of woman’s club. The 
rooms are open from 10 o’clock in the morning until 3 in 
the afternoon, and all youug women who work in stores 
and shops are invited to spend their noon hours there. 
Lunch tables are provided, and milk, tea, coffee and 
chocolate are furnished for three cents a cup. This is 
practical help for the workers, and is not so much of a 
“charity” as to be injurious to those who avail them¬ 
selves of it. 
Somethiug in the same line has been done by the 
“Kings’ Daughters” iu New Orleans. In one of the chief 
business streets they have established an exchange con¬ 
sisting of lunch and toilet rooms for the use of women 
clerks, book-keepers and type-writers. They supply tables, 
with table-cloths, knives, forks, glasses, etc., to those who 
desire to bring their lunches there to be eaten. The room 
is also a reception room, and is supplied with a writing 
desk, and with papers and magazines. Working women 
are charged 25 cents a month for the use of the rooms, 
and others who desire to rest and refresh themselves at 
the exchange may do so by paying a fee of two cents. 
A broader organization, a sort of national club, is an in¬ 
corporated stock company, which has been formed in 
Washington, D. C. It is said to be the scheme of “seven 
wise women,” prominent among whom are Susan B. An¬ 
thony and the Rev. Anna Shaw. The association is called 
“ Wimodaughsis.” It is said that the word is a combina¬ 
tion of the first syllables of the words “wife,” “mother,” 
“daughter,” and “sister,” which fact the seven were to 
keep a profound secret! As nothing is safe from the omni¬ 
present newspaper man, the secret is already an open one. 
The dream thus assuming tangibility is to erect a fine 
building with a large audience room, in which all women’s 
national conventions shall be held, and it is also to have a 
grand music hall, an art chamber, a library and reading- 
room, a restaurant and reception room, a gymnasium, a 
place for baths, etc., and everything is to be thoroughly 
equipped. No man can ever become an officer in this com¬ 
pany. It is to be devoted to the instruction and elevation 
of women, and to making them familiar with all public 
affairs, professions, politics, etc. It is a grand project. 
Let us hope that it may succeed beyond the wildest dreams 
of the originators. • 
We have given but a glimpse into some of the avenues of 
interest and occupation which women are entering, en¬ 
tirely aside from the business world, but it is enough to 
show that tbeir activity is increasing, and that they are no 
longer waiting, like Micawber, for “something to turn 
up;” but are turning things up as fast as they can. 
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