i89o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
735 
filled with earth. At A is a door with a 
window on the opposite corner, both closed 
with wooden shutters. The five rooms, R, 
are for business, where buying and selling 
are done. The brick walls are two feet 
thick and sixteen high. One of the rooms, 
R, is filled with finely cut straw, which is 
used for fuel. The parts, B B, are built 
to brace and strengthen the structure, and 
C is designed to preserve the heat. At P is 
a small man-hole, through which the hen- 
men crawl from the “ office ” into the 
passage, P P. The ovens, O, are square 
rooms, 12 feet each way, surrounded by the 
brick walls, which begin to narrow at a 
hight of eight feet, gradually growing to¬ 
gether until they form heat escapes or 
chimneys, only 10 inches in diameter, one 
foot above the roof. In the floor of each 
oven, close to the walls and extending all 
around, is a groove about eight inches wide 
and five deep. In this the finely cut straw 
Is burned, and produces the necessary 
heat. When the oven is once thoroughly 
heated but little fire is needed to maintain 
the proper temperature. From the ovens 
to the outer walls are more than 10 feet of 
brick and earth, which will not only main¬ 
tain heat when once thoroughly warmed, 
but will afford protection against atmos¬ 
pheric changes. 
Eggs and Hatching.— The hatching 
season is from March to June. During this 
period about 234,000 chicks are hatched. 
The eggs cost five cents per dozen, while 
small chicks sell at 15 cents per dozen. 
After the chicks begin to hatch people come 
from all the surrounding country and buy 
the little things, paying for them with more 
eggs. To prepare for hatching, fires are 
kept burning in the grooves of the ovens 
for eight or ten days. These heat the walls 
and floors thoroughly and after this first 
heating a little fire every day or two is all 
that is needed. No thermometer is ever 
Artificial Incubatory. Fig. 327. 
used, the skin of the well bred hen-man 
being sensitive enough to record any change 
In temperature. When the ovens are hot 
enough, the mortar floors are covered about 
two inches deep with fine straw, and on this 
the eggs are deposited. They are laid two 
or three deep and are frequently changed 
by being shifted eight or ten inches at a time 
around the oven. The infertile ones are 
taken out at the end of a few days and sold 
for eating purposes. The chicks, when 
hatched, are kept in the ovens for a few 
days, food being scattered over the floors 
for them. They are then sold to dealers 
and others who desire to raise chicks for 
market. 
Economy of the System.—A building 
like that above described, costs, in Egypt 
about $1,000. The business could never 
thrive in any other country, because the 
Egyptian climate is just suited to such 
work, and the Egyptians are about the 
only people who can do it. One must be 
rather more chicken than man to live in 
one of these buildings for three mouths at 
* a time. The hen-man never leaves the 
building; he works amid darkness and 
smoke ; he can instantly tell the character 
of each egg, the degree of temperature and 
every other necessary detail. One man and 
one boy do all the work about this in¬ 
cubatory; they live in the ovens day and 
night, keeping up the fires, placing the 
eggs and moving them, feeding the little 
chicks and buying and selling eggs and 
chickens; in short, doing the work that 
among us would require the services of 000 
incubators or 25,000 hens and 50 attendants 
and book-keepers. Mr. Cardwell rather 
hints at the idea that this plan might be 
carried out in this country. This is non¬ 
sense, except possibly on the dry deserts 
of the far West. It would pay our poultry- 
men better to go to Egypt and buy these 
young chicks at 15 cents per dozeu and bring 
them here to fatten. 
SHOULD THE GOVERNMENT OWN 
THE TELEGRAPHS AND 
RAILROADS t 
( Concluded .) 
But even if the railroads have so grossly 
abused their vast opportunities for public 
benefaction as to have incurred deep and 
widespread dissatisfaction among the 
people; if they have so far violated the 
terms of their charters as to have, as a rule, 
rendered themselves liable to a forfeiture 
of their franchises; if in return for the 
great favors and large grants of land and 
money made to them by national, State 
and local governments,'they have made un¬ 
grateful and very inadequate returns; if 
while claiming all the rights of semi-public 
organizations, they insist on exercising all 
the privileges of private individuals; if the 
administration of their affairs has all along 
been disgraced by wastefulness, corruption, 
trickery, insincerity, partiality, bribery, 
disregard alike of the lives and interests of 
their employees and of the convenience and 
welfare of the public, as well as by the un¬ 
just aggrandizement of the managers and 
shameful spoliation of the security-holders; 
even if all this is notoriously true, would a 
transfer of the roads to the General Govern- 
ment be likely to be followed by any im¬ 
provements, and if so, what ? 
The experience of other countries in 
which the government either built the 
roads originally or assumed possession of 
them after they had been built by private 
enterprise, affords the truest indication of 
what the results of federal ownership of 
the roads would be here. Without an ex¬ 
ception, this has been favorable. Indeed, 
the strongest proofs of the popularity of the 
system lie in the satisfaction of the people 
with their management, the general ap¬ 
proval of the steady acquisition of other 
roads by the government, and the growing 
inclination to adopt the same course, 
shown by neighboring nations which would 
have laughed at such a proposal a quarter 
of a century ago. Moreover, the plan has, 
to a considerable extent, been already tried 
in this country, with excellent results. 
Over-speculation, dishonesty and misman¬ 
agement have reduced a large number of 
roads in this country to bankruptcy. Be¬ 
tween 1876 and 1SS9 nearly 450 roads were 
sold under foreclosure. In many cases, 
also, where it has been important that 
commerce should be maintained and trade 
kept up, the Nation, acting through the 
United States Courts, has appointed receiv¬ 
ers to manage the bankrupt roads in the 
interests of the public and of the security- 
holders. In every case of the kind the Re¬ 
ceiver, having no capital, has had to depend 
on the daily earnings to pay the daily ex¬ 
penses ; yet in nearly all cases, though not 
generally trained to railroad management, 
he has carried on the work more success¬ 
fully than tne owners had done, and not 
only made both ends meet, but often re¬ 
stored the finances of the roads to such a 
sound basis that the Courts have turned 
them over to the owners in a promising, 
if not a prosperous condition. 
Then again, the intolerable exactions and 
unjust local and personal discriminations 
of the railroads as well as their persistent 
efforts to subsidize and corrupt the legisla¬ 
tures, judiciary, press and all influential 
public officials have already compelled 
many of the States to assume greater or 
less control of the lines within their borders 
through commissioners whose duty it is 
to supervise their management. In 10 of 
the States power to fix rates have been 
conferred on the commissioners, and in all 
the granting of special rates, rebates, draw¬ 
backs, commodity tariffs and other expedi¬ 
ents for unfairly discriminating between 
customers and favoring commercial monop¬ 
olies, have been forbidden. The railroad 
law of Iowa is a fair example of those of 
the nine others in which the commissioners 
have power to fix passenger and freight 
rates. It provides that the charges for 
transportation shall be just and reasonable; 
defines and prohibits discrimination; de¬ 
mands equal facilities for interchange of 
traffic between different lines ; forbids a 
greater charge for a short than a long haul 
on the lines of the same company; makes 
pools and combinations unlawful; requires 
publicity of rates ; and imposes on the 
railroad commissioners the duty of in¬ 
quiring into the business of all common 
carriers and of making for each railroad 
corporation a schedule of prima facie 
reasonable rates. This law has been in 
operation in Iowa two years, and ex- 
Goveruor Larrabee tells us that under 
its unfluence the milliug and mining 
industries which had been sadly crippled 
by the unchecked mismanagement of the 
roads, have revived, land has appreciated 
in value, the jobbing business has in¬ 
creased, a new impetus has been given to 
the retail trade, and all classes look with 
confidence to the future. Meanwhile the 
property of the railroads within the State 
has kept pace with that of the people. 
Their gross and net earnings have increased, 
and last year on an assessed capital of $42,858,- 
000, their net earnings were $11,885,000, one- 
third of their value. The results would have 
been more satisfactory to the public were 
it not that discriminations still exist in 
inter-State traffic, and It is urged in the 
interests of the stock-holders as well as of 
the people rather than of the railroad 
managers and manipulators, that the 
General Government should supervise 
inter-State rates. There is a growing convic¬ 
tion that if a partial State control produces 
such good results, complete federal control, 
which could be uniformly strong where 
the States are Impotent, would afford still 
greater satisfaction. 
The stockholders of the roads require as 
much protection as the public against the 
managers. To them the affairs of their 
companies have been “ blind pools,” 
Hundreds of roads have been run more in 
the interests of their directors aDd manag¬ 
ers, many of whom are also notorious stock 
gamblers and manipulators, than for the 
benefit of the security-holders. It has often 
been their policy by treacherous, underhand 
means to designedly bankrupt the roads, 
so that when they are sold at auction to 
the bondholders for the amount of their 
bonds, the stock-holders are “ frozen out ” 
and lose their entire investments. How 
many towns, cities, counties and States 
which have contributed liberally for the 
construction of roads and taken stock as 
security, have thus been swindled, and how 
many poor investors, widows and orphans, 
have been impoverished in the same way! 
Such outrages would be impossible under 
government control. Public management 
would be necessarily open. Every detail 
would be laid before the people. A hostile 
party and an independent, unsuhsidized 
press would be prompt to expatiate on all 
abuses; practices which are now indulged 
in with impunity would then send the 
offenders to the penitentiary. Experience 
has shown that where one person has suf¬ 
fered from dishonest or incapable govern¬ 
ment management, one hundred have suf¬ 
fered from dishonest or incapable manage¬ 
ment of railroads. 
The spasms of disastrous competition 
which benefit nobody in the long run, 
while they inflict enormous losses on the 
security-holders, would no longer be possi¬ 
ble. It is claimed by railroad managers 
that a harmonious policy between the vari¬ 
ous lines would effect an annual saving of 
$ 200 , 000 , 000 , equivalent to the interest on, 
say, $5,000,000,000 ! The construction of 
needless parallel lines also, often built 
merely for blackmailing purposes, and in 
which land, labor and capital are, to a 
great extent, forever lost, would then be 
an evil of the past. 
Under government control a general im¬ 
provement of railroad service might reason¬ 
ably be expected. It is characteristic of 
private enterprise to furnish luxuries for 
the few and neglect the many; but the 
government must be impartial in its serv¬ 
ices. Again, like the post office service, 
the railroad services would be expended to 
points where their aid might be needed, 
even if for the present no adequate returns 
might be made for the outlay. That gov¬ 
ernment officials, the servants of the 
public, would show greater civility than 
railroad officers, who care only for their 
employers, would be an inevitable boon. 
Who has not been impressed with the 
pleasant difference between the politeness 
of the post-office clerk and the gruffness of 
the ticket agent ? 
LINCOLN’S MELANCHOLY. 
HIS SYMPATHETIC NATURE AND HIS EARLY 
MISFORTUNES. 
Those who saw much of Abraham Lin¬ 
coln during the later years of his life, were 
greatly impressed with the expression of 
profound melancholy his face always wore 
in repose. 
Mr. Lincoln was of a peculiarly sympa¬ 
thetic and kindly nature. These strong 
characteristics influenced, very happily, as 
it proved, his entire political eareer. 
They would not seem, at first glance, to be 
efficient aids to political success; but in 
the peculiar emergency which Lincoln, in 
the providence of God, was called to meet, 
no vessel of common clay could possibly 
have become the “ chosen of the Lord.” 
Those acquainted with him from boyhood 
knew that early griefs tinged his whole 
life with sadness. His partner in the 
grocery business at Salem, was “Uncle” 
Billy Green, of Tallula, Ill., who used at 
night, when the customers were few, to 
hold the grammar while Lincoln recited 
his lessons. 
It was to his sympathetic ear Lincoln 
told the story of his love for sweet Ann 
Rutlidge; and he, in return, offered what 
comfort he could when poor Ann died, and 
Lincoln’s great heart nearly broke. 
“After Ann died,” says “ Uncle” Billy, 
“ on stormy nights, when the wind blew 
the rain against the roof, Abe would set 
thar in the grocery, his elbows on his 
knees, his face in his hands, and the tears 
runnin’ through his fingers. I hated to see 
him feel bad, an’ I’d say, ‘Abe, don’t cry ;” 
an’ he’d look up an’ say, ‘I can’t help it, 
Bill, the rain’s a-fallin’ on her.’ ” 
There are many who can sympathize 
with this overpowering grief, as they think 
of a lost loved one, when “the rain’s a 
failin’ on her.” What adds poignancy to 
the grief sometimes is the thought that 
the lost one might have been saved. 
Fortunate, indeed, is William Johnson, 
of Corona, L. I., a builder, who writes, 
June 28, 1890: “ Last February, on return¬ 
ing from church one night, my daughter 
complained of having a pain in her ankle. 
The pain gradually extended until her en¬ 
tire limb was swollen and very painful to 
the touch. We called a physician, who 
after careful examination, pronounced it 
disease of the kidneys of long standing. 
All we could do, did not seem to benefit 
her until we tried Warner’s Safe Cure; 
from the first she commenced to improve. 
When she commenced taking it she could 
not turn over in bed, and could just move 
her hands a little, but to day she is as well 
as she ever was. I believe I owe the re¬ 
covery of my daughter to its use.” 
ESTABLISHED 1865. 
MIDDLETOWN NURSERY AND FRUIT FARM, 
Peach Trees our Specialty. 
250,0 0 first cla s s Peach Trees of best varieties at low 
prices. Special inducements on large lots, or will sell 
our entire Nursery of trees now ready, and 85’ ,0iU 
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Salesmen wanted; special aids; magnificent outfit free. 
CTADIf MIIDCCDirC Stark Bros. Nursery 
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NO TREES 
^ X E 
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$50 TO $(00 A MONTH. 
For local and traveling men to sell Fruit and Orna¬ 
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Winter Address for terms. E. B. RICHARDSON & 
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IflijsccUattcoujS gUverti.sittg, 
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mailed uartles meaning business. (Folio 5,169 ) 
PHILLIPS & WELLS, Tribune Building, New York. 
THOMAS P. SIMPSON, Washington. 
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1 71 REBERIC E. WARD, Produce Commission Mer- 
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and Instruction for shipping. Consignments solicited 
M OR MORPHINE HABIT Cured at Home. 
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