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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
NOV. 22 
THE PIE HUNTERS’ PROFIT. 
A TALE OF PLUNDER. 
Being an account of the Farmers' Movement of 1890- 
1900. viewed from the standpoint of a citizen of 
America, A.D. 1930. 
( Continued.) 
“ What came then—a revolution ?” 
“Yes, but a bloodless one. Hundreds of good men 
thought that all freedom was lost after that election.” 
“ Yes, my father was one of them ” 
“ It did seem like a hopeless outlook, but things were 
working out that most people thought nothing about. 
I told you about a small section of the farmers who had a 
scheme for obtaining control of the waste and abandoned 
farms of the Northern New England States. In a quiet 
way this plan was settled. A number of thoughtful and 
well to-do men—mostly farmers, or, at least, owners of 
country property—began gradually to buy up deserted 
farms in these States and in central and northern New 
York. Rich business men contributed to the movement by 
buying homesteads and summer homes, and some of them 
moved their businesses away from the city to the country, 
where their employees could find homes and small plots of 
land. An organization was formed, small at first, but 
strong because of the character of the men that went into 
it, for the purpose of colonizing these States.” 
“ How did they proceed ?” 
“ They prepared lists of the men of intelligence and good 
character that had unfortunately mortgaged their homes. 
They found many such who had become desperate and 
discouraged, and hence without ambition or enterprise. 
The mortgage had frequently been given in better days 
when money was easier, crops larger and prices higher. 
Sickness, death, bad seasons and other causes had fre¬ 
quently combined to ruin the health and courage of the 
farmer, and he struggled wearily along into a blank and 
hopeless future. When the holder of the mortgage de¬ 
manded payment from such a man, this association coun¬ 
seled him to let the farm go for what it would bring. If it 
did not bring enough to settle the mortgage they advanced 
him enough, and also advanced him a farm—all on such 
easy terms of payment that he did not need to worry. In 
the majority of cases, these men, freed from their wretched 
debts, straightened up, took fresh courage, and went at the 
new work witn zeal. They became active and useful mem¬ 
bers of the association.” 
“ But where did the profits of the association come in ?” 
“ There were no profits save the satisfaction of knowing 
that they were doing good and giving life, strength and 
courage to their fellow men. It is true that the great 
majority of the people laughed and sneered at the move¬ 
ment because it upset all their ideas of business and money 
making.” 
“Did the movement grow rapidly ?” 
“No, not very. Men had to be made for such work. 
Slowly but surely the men who believed in the brother¬ 
hood and true justice gathered in Vermont and New 
Hampshire and these States began to lead the Nation 
in thought as New England had done many years before. 
The people of the country listened, half incredulous, to 
what was said and written, but slowly they began to say— 
‘ There is something in this idea of brotherhood ; we have 
been looking at life in a selfish way; we have been trying 
to see what we can make out of our neighbors instead of 
how much we can do for them.’ ” 
“ Well, but what did these brotherhood people do ? 
What plans did they have for making the public wrongs 
right? Theory is all well enough, but what was there back 
of it?” 
“ They had plans, definite enough, too. The first Senator 
they sent to Washington was a man who had been a fine 
machinist, and who had invented several useful devices. 
By this time this successful scheme of repopulating the 
Northern New England States had attracted great atten¬ 
tion and people eagerly asked the new Senator for his 
views on the public policy. Things were badly mixed up 
just then, as the government employees’ party had carried 
all before them. People were disgusted when this new 
Senator merely advocated some changes in the patent laws 
and an enlargement of the powers of the Agricultural 
Department.” 
“ He proposed to cure the ills of the people by legislation 
too, eh? ” 
" Yes, but his scheme was new, to say the least.” 
“ What was it ? ” 
“ Well, In the first place, he said that our patent system 
was the worst tax on the people that we had. He said the 
people paid more to inventors and manufacturers for the 
privilege of using necessary tools and devices than they did 
for their food and clothes.” 
“ Was not such a statement as that absurd?” 
“ Not wholly so. The patent si stem did take thousands 
of dollars out of the pockets of the people, while the in¬ 
ventor seldom got anything like a share of the proceeds.” 
“ Who did, then ?” 
“The manufacturers who bought the invention for a 
nominal price and then, being protected by the govern¬ 
ment, charged for the goods all the public <vould pay. Let 
a new machine be brought out that saved labor and made 
life easier and better, and the makers immediately saw in 
it a chance to make a fortune—not a chance to help the 
public and save the toilers who stood in such need. Our 
patent laws protected the inventor, assuming that he 
should be paid for his toil with all that he could make the 
public pay him for a term of years. The extent to which 
this patent system was carried was simply astounding. 
Hundreds of articles in every-day use were so protected by 
patents that the cost was considerably increased. It is 
true that the difference on a single article was not very 
great, but it all “counted up,” and made a great burden 
on the public.” 
“ What did this Senator propose to do about it ?” 
“ His plan was to have the government buy up useful in¬ 
ventions and make them free and even to employ skilled 
experts to think out labor saving devices and particularly 
machines for generating and transmitting power.” 
“ Was there any precedent for such a thing ?” 
“ Yes indeed; some years before the government had es¬ 
tablished a number of agricultural experiment stations 
for the pupose of testing and improving methods of agri¬ 
culture. These stations, after groping about in the dark 
for awhile, had led the way up to a great improvement in 
farming ; they had taught new methods, found new ma¬ 
terials, originated new varieties of plants and new breeds 
of animals and given the public many very useful tools 
and household devices. One or two of their tools had come 
into such general use that the difference in price at which 
they were sold and the price at which they would have 
been sold had they been patented, had paid the entire cost 
of the experiment stations. Now this Senator said that if 
the government could pay for these experiments, it could 
just as well pay for inventions and could employ expert 
mechanics as well as expert scientists. He gave figures to 
show what the public were paying to support the patent 
system, which startled the people into attention.” 
“But why was he so anxious to get machines for trans¬ 
mitting power ? ” 
“ Well, he claimed that one reason why the rich grew 
richer, while the poor grew poorer, was that the cost of 
producing and maintaining power or force was so heavy 
that only the great capitalist could afford to use the ex¬ 
pensive machinery needed. Wealth, he said, was nothing 
but the representative of labor, and labor was made valu¬ 
able in proportion as power was controlled and properly 
directed. At present, he said, our power came from expen¬ 
sive sources, requiring heat, steam, or expensive water¬ 
works to generate it, and still more expensive apparatus 
to transmit it. Consequently it was the servant of the 
rich—the capitalists—all the time, and money spent in de¬ 
veloping it from inert substances, like coal and other fuel, 
was simply added to the cost of the articles furnished by 
it, and practically to the profits of the manufacturing 
class. Make power cheaper ; place it under the control of 
the poor, with suitable machinery to do their bidding, and 
you cut off a large slice of the cost of life.” 
“ What did he mean by cheap power ?” 
“ Why,” he said, “ as well talk of the justice of charging 
me for the air I breathe as to make me pay a price for 
force when the winds blow over the land, the ocean beats 
against the shore, and rivers run down hill. In the beat¬ 
ing of the ocean alone we have more force than is con¬ 
tained in all the coal that lies underground, while the 
wind is hardly less strong. Now the force is here—mil¬ 
lions of horse-power of it are wasted every day ; we want 
tools with which to harness it and enable us to send it 
about the country as we now send coal, oil, or sugar. It 
will take the place of fuel and provide light and make 
every home a factory, besides doing much of the work 
that is now done by expensive animals. And the govern¬ 
ment can as well store and supply this power as it can 
make and supply money for the use of the people.” 
“ Was that really tne beginning of our present system of 
manufacturing ?” 
“ Yes, and you have no idea how hard it was to get the 
thing started. Of course, the men who worked the coal 
and oil fields and the railroads for the government as well 
as the manufacturers were opposed to it; but the people 
favored it and at last, as a compromise, the new feature 
was added to the Agricultural Department and the patent 
laws were changed.” 
“ Was it then believed that a machine could be found 
for storing power ?” 
“No, most inventors laughed at the idea of improving 
upon the ordinary electrical dynamo, and that was con¬ 
sidered too dangerous for the people in general to handle. The 
inventors in the Agricultural Department first tried to 
perfect some mechanical device.” 
“ Now, as a matter of curiosity, I would like to know 
what they first hit upon.” , 
“ Well, you would hardly guess it. It was nothing but a 
combination of powerful springs—like those found in an 
ordinary alarm clock. They made a machine about as 
large as a flour barrel, filled w r ith coiled springs of the 
strongest steel. These were to be wound up, just as the 
people in those days wound up their clocks. There were 
suitable contrivances for holding the springs after winding 
and other contrivances for regulating their work when it 
was necessary for them to “run down,” and give out the 
foice stored in them. These machines were to be attached 
to windmills and water wheels and thus wound up, when 
they could be rolled about wherever needed and made to 
do any work that required turning wheels. After a good 
deal of tinkering and experimenting the Department an¬ 
nounced that it had perfected a machine, at a cost of $25, 
which could store up powerenough to run a heavy train of 
cars from Boston to New York, the force all to be gener¬ 
ated by the motion of the ocean waves.” 
“ How did they make the waves work ?” 
“ Simple enough. They had a loug, hollow wooden tube 
like the chamber of a pump. This floated on the water; as 
the waves came in they rushed through the tube, forcing 
the rod before them and as they receded they forced the 
rod back. This rod was connected with a huge driving 
wheel on shore and forced it to revolve—suitable gearing 
winding up the coils in the barrel machine.” 
Now, as I said, the Department stated what it had done 
and agreed to make a public test. 
(To be continued.) 
One cent will mail this paper to your friend in 
any part of the United States, Canada or Mexico , 
after you have read it and written your name on 
the corner. 
Come, ye thankful people, come ! 
Rulse the sonit of Uarvent, Home ; 
Come »o God’s own temple, come, 
Raise the song of Harvest Home : 
Come, ten thousand angels, come. 
Raise the glorious Harvest Home ; 
Grant, O Harvest Lord that we 
Wholesome grain and pure may be.— Alford. 
THANKSGIVING THOUGHTS. 
I T is a little humiliating to feel that so much of the feel¬ 
ing of thankfulness manifested upon this day comes 
from a good dinner. And what shall we say of those who 
are so far forgetful of the mercies which have been abun¬ 
dantly lavished upon them as to regard it only as a day of 
feasting ? The notably slender attendance at many of the 
churches on the morning of the feast, points too clearly to 
the fact that many, even in the church itself, forget to 
“ render thanks unto the Lord for all His benefits.” 
* # * 
An idea to make a note of is one put forth in the Home- 
Maker by the mother of a city gentleman (with a very 
fashionable wife and a French cook) in response to her 
young daughter’s expressed fear that the city relatives 
might not care to accept the proposed invitation to their 
old-fashioned Thanksgiving feast: “A Thanksgiving 
dinner with a lot of ‘patties’ would not be any Thanks¬ 
giving dinner at all. If I had to live on such things the 
year round I would not insult my ancestors and all my 
memories of home by doing it on Thanksgiving Day, and 
I guess Tom will enjoy our mince pies.” Of course he 
will. Invite him home to Thanksgiving . 
* * * 
The Thanksgiving turkey may be called the pidee de 
resistance in more senses than one. It is the one thing 
that could not be spared from the feast, but its resistance 
of the carver’s efforts to dismember it, are sometimes to be 
attributed to nothing less than natural depravity. We re¬ 
call an instance of a frolic at school when a young and 
uninitiated student was invited to carve the turkey under 
the fire of the observation and comments of three gay 
girls. The situation was embarrassing in the extreme for 
the novice carver, and older hands often find it not much 
less so. It often happens that the wife is a better carver 
than the reputed head of the family, a fact no doubt due 
to a loug course of private practice in dissecting the va¬ 
rious members of the gallinaceous family, and if she does 
not wish to do the carving, it might be well for the other 
member of the family partnership to mortify his flesh far 
enough to take a few lessons from her. It requires only a 
sharp knife, a strong fork, and a knowledge of the exact 
position of the joints to be severed, to make the art of 
carving a mere pastime. 
* * * 
If one is so situated as to be able to choose, it is much 
wiser to select a hen turkey to grace the Thanksgiving 
board. The plump young hen is usually nearer that point 
of youthful maturity at which the fowl is at its best, than 
is the case with the male bird. The meat is whiter and 
sweeter; the size, which may run as low as eight pounds, 
may more readily be suited to the wants of small or 
medium sized families, aud the round, well-filled, compact 
shape is much more pleasing to the eye when the bird is 
placed on the table to be carved. Besides, the fat, which 
is so difficult to secure in the young male, helps make a 
dressing for basting, aud gives a flavor wldch can be at¬ 
tained in no other way. 
PisrcUuncouss gulwtisiuQ. 
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