73o 
OCT. 25 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
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.) 
“Well,” asked Mary, “what was the difference between 
this * smartness ’ and crime ?” 
“Nothing but degree, so far as I can see. The man who 
carried his methods up to a certain point was simply 
' smartwhen he carried them out on a larger scale and 
consequently interfered with more people, he became a 
criminal. People made criminals by encouraging ‘ smart ’ 
people. For example, take those two pie hunters. With 
their equal share of the gold and what they were able to 
obtain for their pies, they became capitalists—that is, they 
had more than any other two. So they became money¬ 
lenders. If some unfortunate miner, through sickness or 
trouble and death in his far away New England home, 
needed ready money, these lenders were prepared to ad¬ 
vance it from their little hoard. With us this idea of 
helping a friend in need would be the most pleasurable 
thing in the world ; but these men actually used the ne¬ 
cessities of their friends as a means of gaining more gold. 
For the use of their gold, which was of no immediate 
benefit to them, their unfortunate friends were compelled 
to pay what was called ‘interest’—that is, the borrower 
had to pay back not only the original loan, but a certain 
sum in addition. Tue longer it was kept the more of this 
extra money had to be paid, and the more unfortunate the 
borrower was, and hence the more urgent his need of 
money the greater the percentage he was called upon to 
pay. A strange thing about it is that the law upheld the 
lender and gave him power to take anything the borrower 
had in order to satisfy his claim. Under this curious 
system the capital of the pie hunters grew faster and 
faster as it increased in size. It was not until they had 
accumulated more than half of all the money in the com¬ 
pany that the others seemed to realize what was going 
on.” 
“Then, of course, they had a revolution and righted 
things,” said Mr. Duncan. 
“ Well no, not exactly; the records show that they merely 
began to grumble, and accuse the two pie hunters of fraud. 
But where’s my wife ?” 
During the story Mary had quietly slipped away and as 
John looked about him he saw her walking along the deck 
with his young man. They were talking so earnestly that 
the young gentleman seemed to have forgotten his mis¬ 
sion. As John glanced in the direction of the telephone 
office he saw Mary’s young man cautiously making his 
way towards the door. 
“Oh, Mary! Mary I Come here a moment, please,” 
shouted John. John’s voice seemed to recall the young 
fellow to his senses. He started, looked about him hur¬ 
riedly, and then, bowing to his companion, started at a 
brisk walk for the telephone office, while Mary held up 
her hands in comical despair. 
“That’s mean, John 1” said she, with mock severity, as 
she rejoined her husband. “Five minutes more and my 
man would be safely at the telephone.” 
“Perfectly fair, my dear ! Come now, I think we’ll have 
to tie you to your chair. No, as I was saying, Mr. Dun¬ 
can, there was no revolution at that time. The miners did 
try to remedy matters by making new rules and regula¬ 
tions as they saw the money-lenders gathering more and 
more of the gold. The original agreement had been 
signed by all. They had such a reverence for this that they 
could not bring themselves to change its main features, 
but they tried to tack little rules on here and there, that 
they thought would answer. It was hard work to pass 
these. Some of the members became very much in de >t to 
the money-lenders. It got so at last that they could do 
only one of two things—repudiate the debt or give the 
money lenders value in something besides gold. The great 
majority opposed the repudiation, because such a policy 
would set a bad example, as they called it. None of them 
had quite given up the hope that some day, by some sudden 
change of affairs, they might secure money enough to be¬ 
come money-lenders themselves. In that case they would 
be as eager to collect their debts as they were now anxious 
to avoid paying them.” 
“So they were forced to adopt and invent a new money 
standard, eh ?” 
“Yes. These hopeless debtors found that by voting 
with the money-lenders on all questions of public policy 
they gained their good will and were not strongly pressed 
for their debts.” 
But do you mean to tell me that these ‘ hopeless debt¬ 
ors,’ as you call them, comprised the majority ?” 
No, but their very constitution made the majority 
powerless. They had agreed at first that their constitution 
should not be changed except by the vote of three-fourths 
of all the members. At first, when everything was even, 
this seemed like a wise provision, but when the pie hunters 
secured such a large share of the gold, it merely lessened 
the number of votes which they must hold in order to pre¬ 
vent a change. By purposely making it difficult to change 
their constitution and then carelessly letting * smartness ’ 
grow to ‘crime’ under their very noses, they tied their own 
hands. The original pie hunters took into partnership 
three of the men who seemed most logical in their state¬ 
ment of the case. These five, with the hopeless debtors, 
made two more than one-fourth of the company ; the con¬ 
stitution could not be changed therefore without a revolu¬ 
tion, and that was opposed by many good men because 
it set a ‘ bad example.’ ” 
But did they make no effort to establish a new money 
standard? That ought to have remedied matters by forc¬ 
ing the pie-hunters to accept some cheaper material for 
their gold.” 
“Yes, they tried that in various ways. One scheme was 
to take a number of chips and write on each * this is one 
dollar.’ These they said should pass as money, and thus 
clear up their old debts. But while they could make these 
chips and offer them, they could not get anybody to accept 
them. A pair of boots cost $20 in that place. No man 
would give them a pair for 20 of the chips. When they 
stood ready to give chips enough to provide $20 worth of 
heat they might make the trade, provided the shoe-maker 
was out of fuel. Again, they all wanted to use the chips 
to pay their own debts, but none of them cared to accept 
them in payment for accounts he had against others. 
Value represented labor—the labor expended in writing 
on the chips seemed to have no value at all. 
One old man, a heavy debtor, who had borrowed money 
to send home to educate his son, proposed a scheme that 
met with some favor at first. His plan was that they 
should all club together, take all their money and pay the 
money-lenders in full and then form a new organiz itiou 
under the laws of which no person could hold more than 
$10,000, all above that sum should be turned into the pub¬ 
lic funds. Some objected seriously to this, because those 
who had money preferred to hold on to it instead of spend¬ 
ing it to help their unfortunate neighbors, and they also 
stated that it was possible for a man to lie about his prop¬ 
erty, and cheat the community by hiding some of the gold 
in the ground. They also said that unless each man had a 
right to the proceeds of his own work and business there 
would be no such thing as ambition. So without know¬ 
ing it, they decided that while selfishness reigned and 
men regarded gold as the most desirable reward of life and 
labor, such a brotherhood was impossible.” 
“Well,” said Mr. Duncan, “I’m inclined to think that 
was the wisest decision those miners made. They had a 
wrong idea of life and a wrong theory of true brotherly 
feeling to hold together for any length of time. You can’t 
have any one-sided brotherhood. If we are going to share 
another’s good fortune, we must expect to share any pos¬ 
sible bad fortune that may befall him as well.” 
“ Exactly; it was this wrong idea that started the whole 
trouble. With them it was a contest to see how much one 
could make out of another. In our age it is rather a con¬ 
test to see how much one can do for another. Now, take 
my farm : I am told that many years ago the policy was to 
see just how little fertilizer and manure could be used in 
order to get a crop. Farmers would not trust their soil 
and the consequence was it would not trust them. The 
present plan is to use all you possibly can and trust the 
soil fully to pay it back. Strange, isn’t it, that our old 
ancestors felt that our system meant ruin and death to 
them ?” 
“Then, do I understand that these pie hunters finally 
got control of all the gold and made the others merely 
servants ?” 
“ Not exactly, though it looked as though it might end 
so. The old man’s plan of forming a new association 
struck the miners as being very sensible. To this scheme 
a number proposed to add a re-division of all the funds 
in the community. They said that the pie hunters ought 
to be ready to share because they had already had fun 
enough with their gold. But this meant a revolution, and 
the conservative members refused to submit to it.” 
“ But now look out for the most important point,” broke 
in Mary. “ Notice that it was a woman that finally in¬ 
spired the solution of the problem.” 
“There was one young man,” continued John, “who 
had the greatest inducement to secure a good share of the 
gold. A little woman back in the New England town had 
promised to marry him when he returned with money 
enough to pay off the mortgage on the old homestead. He 
might have joined the pie hunters but for the fact that she 
had also informed him that she would sooner give up the 
place forever than to have it paid for with money that was 
not honestly and justly earned. This young fellow had 
very hard luck. He had been sick and was in debt to the 
pie hunters with small cbance of paying the debt with its 
terrible rate of interest. In fact, this interest was what 
caused the trouble. The principal could be paid in time, 
leaving all with a fair division of property, but by means 
of this interest a bad division got worse and worse because 
the greater one man’s share became the faster it grew and 
the more rapidly it absorbed the rest. This young fellow 
concluded that the only way to handle the pie hunters was 
to stop their power of drawing interest. Increase the 
power of the debtor class to produce gold, and then, by 
means of a wise combination, stop borrowing from the 
pie hunters and the latter’s capital would lie idle—no 
longer able to absorb the rest.” 
“That seems sensible,” said Mr. Duncan, “did he accom¬ 
plish anything ? 
“ One day, while working on a hill-side at some distance 
from the camp, he struck his pick deep into the ground. 
As he drew it out, the water spurted up with a rush. In 
an instant a great idea flashed over him. This stream of 
water carried through a pipe and driven against the hill¬ 
side would wash out more sand and bring to light more 
gold than 200 men could find with picks, shovels and hand 
washers. Here was the chance to do away with hand labor 
and produce gold faster. As quickly as possible he closed the 
spouting spring and went back to the valley. What should 
he do? Undoubtedly the pie hunters would pay him well 
for his secret. They had the capital to develop and work 
the water. Once started, they with a few of their hopeless 
debtors might run the whole system; the others would be 
forced to work for what they offered or go elsewhere. On 
the other hand, suppose this power were made free to all— 
what then?” 
(To be continued.) 
The second cash-prize offer of $100 will be read with 
interest by those who care to make a little money in an 
easy way. It appears on page 732. 
Womans Work. 
SOME PHASES OF IT—II. 
N experiment in the line df making Bellamy’s ideal 
dining-room assume a tangible form has lately taken 
shape in one of the middle-west cities. Fifty-four of the 
leading people of the city formed a club, and each paid a 
membership fee of $2 to furnish a co-operative kitchen and 
dining-room. Excellent meals are served, a breakfast bill- 
of-fare including, for instance: Lamb chops, broiled steak, 
French fried potatoes, hot cakes with maple syrup, coffee 
and tea. The best of home-made bread, good butter and 
cream are also supplied. Only the best of provisions are 
purchased, and the cooking is first-class, and the food well- 
served. All this, it is asserted, is had for $2 75 per week 
for each person. 
The servant girl question seems to be giving women 
more trouble than perhaps any other, after the temper¬ 
ance problem. Many have been the schemes looking 
toward its solution, but Done of them has as yet been the 
great success hoped for. It is passed about as a very good 
joke in one of the cities, that a society of benevolent women 
spent over $20,000 for what proved in the end to he the 
education of two kitchen servants. A training school was 
equipped, and a great effort was made in the direction of 
training girls for domestic service. It is said that it all 
worked well except that no pupils could be induced to 
attend the school; but this of course was a fatal hindrance 
to the success of the project. 
Still one failure in the midst of many successes should 
be in effect like the exception that proves the rule, and 
success is certainly “the rule,” in the enterprises so freely 
started by the women of late. Many of these enterprises 
take the form of charities, or of organizations for work ; 
but occasionally one, like the “ Ladies’New York Club,” 
is started on a different basis. This club, formed but a few 
months ago, and now having a membership of 400, started 
out to establish a gathering-place where women out shop¬ 
ping or on business, might drop in for lunch, or to meet 
some other women by appointment, and which might even 
serve as a hotel for those residing in other towns who found 
themselves temporarily in this city. There are many 
women from New England and the Middle States on 
its list, and one even from Mississippi. Although it has 
400 members, they are not so exclusive as “the 400,” the 
requisites for admission being simply that an applicant 
shall be a gentle-woman and that she shall be personally 
known by three of the present members, who can vouch 
for her. The yearly dues are $30. Of course, this club is of 
little help to those whose means are limited, and it would 
not pay except for those who are likely to be in the city 
quite frequently, but it is very good as far as it goes. 
A very different Washington club was “mothered” by 
some Washington ladies of fashion last season. This was 
a lunch club of nine members, each of whom furnished a 
lunch to the others at an outside limit of $3. The cost of 
each article was marked on the m6nu card, and any 
hostess who spent more than the regulation sum was fined 
$1 for each offense. The ladies found much interest in 
vying with each other to produce lunches which should 
be varied, simple, plentiful and satisfying. 
The failure noted above in connection with the training- 
school for servants, is balanced by a success in the same 
line in Boston. The Young Women’s Christian Associa- 
tiion of that city, has lately graduated a second class from 
its School of Domestic Science, and although the class 
numbers but 10, yet if it follows out its class motto, 
“ Hope and Keep Busy,” it may make quite a stir in the 
world. The scheme is to raise domestic service to the 
rank of a trade, as has already been done for the nurse’s 
work. While it is yet in its infancy, most of the graduates 
will be likely to be snapped up for teachers in similar 
schools. It is already stated that most of the present class 
are to work in this line. 
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