190S. 
THE RURAL IMI £ W-YORKER 
807 
Hope Farm Notes 
Is it Gambling? —I am glad to print 
the following letter from a farmer’s wife 
in Nebraska. I do not know that I ever 
read a clearer statement of the woman’s 
side of this question. If there is any 
farmer who wants to justify himself or 
defend such practices he may have the 
space in which to do it. 
A little thing happened this morning 
which has decided me to write to you about 
something which has been puzzling me for 
some time. To begin at the beginning, or at 
the point which began to interest me, in Illi¬ 
nois, where we have lived all our lives until 
this past Spring there was a small village 
called R-, consisting of store, postoffice, 
depot, elevator, and stock yards. It was in 
the midst of a rich farming and stock-feed¬ 
ing country, and the principal business car¬ 
ried on there was the shipping of stock, fed 
by the surrounding farmers. These farmers 
came from what is generally called the 
“best” families of the neighborhood; many 
were church members, even the deacons and 
elders of different denominations being 
among the number that finally made up the 
daily crowd in the postoffice and store. They 
all had their ’phones and daily papers, and 
it became the custom when it was known 
that some one was “going to ship" for all to 
gather at It- and get the prices by 
‘phone or the papers, and after viewing the 
stock to make comments on the probable 
price to be received in Chicago. Of course 
they often got into wordy disputes, and it 
was only a short time until, when a bunch 
of stock was brought in to ship, if the price 
was advancing by latest ’phone advices, 
some one would say to another, “I’ll give 
you $5 for the profit in Chicago,’’ or per¬ 
haps it would be .$10, $15 or even $50, de¬ 
pending on the market and condition of the 
stock. Then the deacon or church member, 
or perhaps just ordinary “sinner” would say 
“I’ll take that.” The next day the same old 
crowd would gather again to see how that 
particular bunch of stock sold, and talk 
it all over and make more—what? Bets? I 
scarcely know just what I should call them. 
The next day they met again, to see the 
shipper return and see him “pay up,” and 
also to view any fistic exercises that might 
take place. 
Occasionally a “Madam” would object to 
the daily absences of her husband, and called 
his operations “gambliug.” They became 
highly indignant; would say that a woman 
knew nothing anyway, that it was no worse 
than “contracting” stock—the contracting 
being something like this, for instance : Mr. 
A goes to Mr. B and offers him $5 per 100 
for his hogs and “take them any time the 
latter half of January.” Mr. B accepts. Mr. 
A rides away and probably before reaching 
home meets Mr. C; tells him of his trade 
with B. C offers him 5% for his trade. A 
accepts, and in this way the hogs will be 
sold four or five times before marketing, yet 
never leave B’s yards. Is this “gambling?” 
or “honest money making,” as the adherents 
call it. But wait; don’t answer yet. I 
want to say something more. 
Here in the little town near where we 
live, is a board of tirade office conducted by 
two church members. Their minister plead¬ 
ed with them to give up their business. Mr. 
A promised to do so. Mr. B refused. Their 
pastor resigned his pulpit, saying he didn’t 
want money made by such means. A col¬ 
lection was taken in the church some time 
after. Mr. B gave $10; after the deacons 
had finished their task, Mr. B stood up and 
said : “You take my money just the same 
as any other man's money and it is just as 
good to you.” A few more “madams” are 
extolling the minister, and condemning the 
board of trade and Mr. B, but I have not 
heard one man agree with them (the 
women). Just a few days ago, a son of the 
board of trade man shot himself, after a 
short degraded life, in a most heartrend¬ 
ing disgraceful affair, although he had a 
sweet Christian mother; this is, of course, 
causing a great deal of discussion. Last 
night I heard a young man declare most 
angrily and emphatically, after his mother 
had condemned the board of trade, that it 
was no more a sin to deal with the board 
than it was to sow a crop; that a man took 
a chance on a crop, and that was what he 
did on the board of trade, and that dealing 
with the board was not gambling, any more 
than sowing seed was. Other young men 
come to my house and say the same thing. 
One has asked me if the Bible says any¬ 
where that it was wrong to gamble, and if 
it was wrong to try to make money: that 
he couldn’t see that the board of trade was 
any worse than “contracting” hogs or cat¬ 
tle. Now what is it? Is it all gambling? 
IIow shall we convince young men, to whom 
it seems to be so attractive, that it is 
wrong? You may be a great board of trade 
nan, although if you have those strawberries 
clean I donT believe you are, but I have 
made bold to ask your opinion of this busi¬ 
ness (not because I think your opinion or 
any other man's opinion is going to send any 
one to Heaven or the other place), but be¬ 
cause I believe you have had the opportunity 
to get more information on this subject and 
to weigh matters better than I, a farmer’s 
ignorant wife, could possibly do. We do 
not often have anyone to discuss matters 
with, one whom we feel knows and if we did 
we would be much too timid to express our 
thoughts; and, too, knowing The R. N.-Y. 
as I do, I believe you will give the subject 
“a square deal.” 
Is not the board of trade in the small 
town conducted 'on the same principles as 
the larger concern on Wall Street? Did not 
the newspapers lead us to believe that the 
cause of our recent panic was President 
Roosevelt’s offending the “gamblers” on Wall 
Street? The little incident mentioned at the 
beginning of my rambling epistle was this: 
One of my neighbors’ little boys, eight or 
nine years old, on his way to school, 
stopped to talk to me a few minutes as lie 
does twice each day. He had a small green 
pumpkin about the size of a cocoanut. He 
said he was taking it to school with him 
and when I asked him what he intended do¬ 
ing with it, he said, “I am going to make a 
hole in one side and have the kids throw at 
it, and when a kid throws into the hole I am 
going to give him a peach or a bunch of 
grapes.” You may say I am very pious, but 
a cold chill passed over me that I could not 
help. I was afraid of saying the wrong 
thing, but realizing that we can grow in the 
wrong as much as in the right, I said, “I 
am afraid you’ll be gambling if you’re not 
careful.” He laughed, seeming to consider 
it a great joke, and said: “O, they are 
pitching horseshoes at school already.” Now 
this boy will be old enough before many 
years so that the board of trade will be very 
attractive to him likewise, and I shall be 
very happy if I can drop a word occasionally 
to him to help him along the “straight 
road,” but when you can’t come out with a 
plain Bible statement like “Thou shalt not 
kill,” or “Thou shalt not steal,” what are 
you going to say? What are you saying for 
your boys? What do you say to little boys, 
big boys and old boys? I hope you will re¬ 
ceive this in the spirit in which it is writ¬ 
ten, and that you will have time to give it 
your most careful consideration, j. j. j. 
Nebraska. 
I do not know exactly what is done on 
this ‘'Board of Trade,” and I would not 
do them an injustice. I think a combi¬ 
nation of business men might be a great 
help to any town by doing legitimate 
things to advertise or bring people to¬ 
gether, or sell actual produce on a co¬ 
operative plan. If, however, this “board” 
is run for the purpose of putting up 
money on the rise or fall of farm pro¬ 
duce, without delivering anything, as 
is done on Wall Street, it is no better 
than a “bucket shop” or petty gambler’s 
office! The only difference that I can 
see between big operations in Wall 
Street and little ones on the local 
“board” is in the size of the gamble. 
There is no one of all the devilish op¬ 
erations of “high finance” that works a 
greater injury to farmers than this gam¬ 
bling in prices. The cost of it, repre¬ 
sented by the vast fortunes which the 
operators make, is all finally paid by the 
producers. Just as the water from the 
little brooks and springs finds its way to 
lake or ocean, this gambling money 
finally comes into the control of the large 
operators. A hired man at a fair loses a 
dollar to a faker with some gambling de¬ 
vice. The faker waits till he has a 
“wad” and then bets it at some “blind 
tiger” or bucket shop or on some horse 
race. In the end he always loses, and 
the winner with his larger sum puts it 
on some “board of trade” or with some 
stock broker. The losings grow larger 
and larger as the game goes higher, and 
in the end “Wall Street” gets it all. God 
only knows of the suffering, if not crime, 
caused in the country by the drain of 
this “sporting” money from the little 
towns to the big money centers. 
There is another side to it even worse. 
Every farmer who has given the subject 
10 minutes’ thought knows that this big 
gambling in prices is an evil which must 
some day be done away with. No sound 
argument can be advanced by a farmer 
in defense of the operations by Wall 
Street gamblers. Yet any one of the 
men mentioned by this good woman will 
be forced to admit that in order to have 
clear water in the lake you must first see 
that the springs and brooks are clean! 
What right has any man to find fault 
with “Wall Street” when, up to the limit 
of his small capacity he is imitating its 
methods? If men would only see it, 
there is the worst feature of this whole 
business. So long as men are willing to 
let the big rascals make $1,000 in order 
that farmers may have the chance to try 
to make $5 without work, the larger 
evils cannot be put down. I do not know 
how to classify right or wrong by the 
size of the operation. I used to wonder 
how the fakes and frauds with their 
“gold bricks” and watered stock are able 
to get money out of the people. I am 
afraid that this gambling spirit is being 
bred and trained by the “board of trade” 
and similar places where people expect 
to get money without working for it! 
You will see from this that I am not 
a very strong “board of trade” man, if 
you mean one who gambles on future 
prices. Frankly, I do not know what 
argument to give those boys and young 
men if their fathers cannot see what this 
public gambling spirit is leading us to. 
There are too many boys who follow 
father in habits and ideals only to wake 
up too late to find that after all mother 
was wiser and truer in her advice. I 
will tell these men right now that unless 
these great national gambling evils are 
corrected we shall eventually have no 
Republic worthy the name. Let me tell 
them further that these large evils will 
never be done away with while common 
men are willing to make money without 
working for it by practicing a small imi¬ 
tation of the larger gambling methods. 
This farmer’s Wife is more than right 
in saying that my opinion will never send 
another to judgment. I can lay down no 
laws of conduct since I know only too 
well that my own course needs looking 
after. It is evident that the women of 
the country must settle many of these 
moral questions, and I say God speed 
them in their work. Probably most of 
those who read this have heard the story 
of the little girl at the Sunday-school. 
The lesson stated that Eve was made 
from Adam’s rib. 
“What was Eve made of?” asked the 
teacher. 
“I know!” answered the smallest girl. 
“Tell us, Mary!” 
“Eve rvas made out of Adam’s back¬ 
bone!” 
I presume all of us after watching 
the public actions of big, strong men 
have wondered where the old original 
backbone has gone to. It appears to be 
in good keeping after all. 
Big Strawberries. —I am glad I got 
the following note in time: 
I am carefully following the Hope Farm 
experiment of growing strawberries on the 
Kevitt plan, and hope for better success 
than I had with it. Oswego strawberries 
are second to none, but I thought I would 
show them a new wrinkle with the Kevitt 
system. I certainly did, then took a back 
seat, got my second wind, and now grow 
strawberries on the Oswego plan, viz., 
Spring-set plants in matted rows. I set iy 2 
acre on the Kevitt plan and treated them 
as at Hope Farm. I swelled with pride as 
the season progressed, so did the straw¬ 
berry plants. In October they were a splen¬ 
did sight. The following May we swelled 
some more, and in June we “busted.” There 
was not 50 quarts of berries on the 1% 
acre, and small at that, but my conscience, 
what fine plants they were ! I kicked my¬ 
self across that strawberry patch, plowed 
them under and raised a fine crop of buck¬ 
wheat. After my strawberry-growing 
friends ceased laughing at me, we had a 
big talkee, and concluded that the ground 
was too rich for the blood of the Kevitt 
system, making immense growth of foliage, 
but no berries. I respectfully suggest to 
the Hope Farm man that one-half of the 
foliage be cut out on a few plants and note 
the result. oswego. 
I confess that in spite of the fact that 
I have gone through this “swelling with 
pride” operation until I ought to know 
better I was just at the point of letting 
out a gentle brag about those plants. 
They surely do look fine, and if I am any 
judge fruit buds are forming. How¬ 
ever, they may go just as that field in 
Oswego did—all to vine—and I will wait 
and see—giving them the best care I can 
this Winter. If I had owned that field 
I would have stuck to at least part of 
them another year with the soil just as 
it was. I do not know what variety our 
friend had. I am quite sure this makes 
much difference, for we have never been 
able to grow Marshall successfully in 
matted rows. However, I am not yet 
convinced that this system cannot be 
worked successfully. If my patch turns 
out like this Oswego field next June and 
I think of all our sweat and toil—I shall 
go up to the top of my hill and try to 
forget it. Then I shall come back and 
stay by those plants another season. 
h. w. c. 
Roofed- 
Well Housed 
A building is only as good 
as its roof. If you would 
have your buildings storm- 
tight—protected against wind 
and rain, and protected to 
stay, put on a roofing that 
will give complete and lasting 
protection. 
REX 
FLINTKOTE 
ROOFING 
will not rust or rot; it is durable 
and permanent. 
Everything needed to lay REX 
Flintkote Roofing comes in the roll. 
One man and one hammer is all that 
No Barn is Complete Without a 
Porter Feed and Litter Carrier 
Greatest capacity 
easiest to operate 
and strongest of lit¬ 
ter carriers. Carrier 
wheels are roller- 
bearing and are 
swivelled in such a 
manner as to round 
a curve with perfect 
ease. Runs on our 
celebrated “Colum¬ 
bian” track, which 
can be bent to any 
curve, and will sus¬ 
tain any reasonable 
weight. The hopper 
is held automatical¬ 
ly at any height and can be tripped at will of 
operator. Send for Descriptive catalogue of car¬ 
riers, hay tools, etc. 
J. E. POUTER COMPANY, OTTAWA. TEL,. 
TheDREW Carrier 
It saves the wages of one man, and lightens the 
labor of another. The worker is at all times in the 
shelter of the barn, in rain or shine, hot weather or 
cold. He loads the Drew Carrier, gives it a push at 
the barn door, it goes to the manure pile, dumps auto¬ 
matically and returns, while he is getting another 
load together. 
Edgerton.Wis., Aug. 29, 1908. 
Drew Elevated Carrier Co. 
During the past two years of daily usage on our 
farm, we have never had a bit of trouble with it 
and are so well pleased that 
enclosed you will find an 
order for another. 
J.Q. Emery'&Son. 
(Mr.Emery is Wis.State Dairy 
and Food Commissioner.) 
The Drew Carrier takes the manure away 
from the barna, thus removing danger of disease 
in live stock and infection of milk. It saves all the 
elements of the manure, carrying the valuable liquid 
parts with the solids to the manure dump or spreader. 
There is no machinery to get out of order, simply 
an automatic carrier, a suspended cable track and 
an anchored post at the end. 
Be¬ 
sides car- 
ryingmanure, 
feed, milk cans, 
water casks, earth, 
anything can be moved 
from place to placewithease. 
With the Swivel Trolley, an 2 
original feature with the Drew, the car may be 
turned around without lifting from the track, and 
the difficulty of turning cor¬ 
ners is entirely overcome. 
Our new booklet, fully illus¬ 
trated, is FREE. It describes 
besides the Drew Carrier, a 
number of new money-making 
and money-saving Drew Farm Implements. Write 
a card for the booklet today. Address all corre¬ 
spondence to the home office, Waterloo,Wisconsin. 
DREW ELEVATED CARRIER COMPANY 
115 Monroe Street, Waterloo, Wisconsin. 
Eastern Branch: Rome, New York. 
Pacific Br: Mitchell, Lewis & Stavcr Co., Portland, Ore. 
{T Remember there is only one 
^ Drew Carrier and that is made 
by the Drew Elevated Carrier Co., 
Waterloo, Wisconsin. 
WHY NOT USE HUBBARD’S? 
