1908. 
THE RURAL* NEW-YORKER 
©IT 
Hope Farm Notes 
Taxes.—" There is nothing sure in 
this country but death ajid taxes.” If 
there is any truer or more universal 
saying in the language I want to know 
what it is. I have heard it in every 
State from Maine to Florida. It was 
the first thing that occurred to me when 
my tax bill came last week. I print 
the items for comparison. 
Rate per $100. 
County Tax .273 
State School .196 
County Poor .010 
Borough .820 
Special School . .'390 
$1,689 
In addition I pay 25 cents for Shep 
and $1 for the privilege of casting my 
ballot. When I first came to the farm 
my property, at that time heavily mort¬ 
gaged, was assessed at $4,500 and the 
rate was about $1.20. I have put up a 
building and made some improvements 
and reduced the mortgage. Now I am 
assessed at $8,000, with the rate at 
$1.69. I give these figures so that farm¬ 
ers further back from “civilization” 
may realize what it means to live in 
the shadow of a town. Our jump in 
assessment is as nothing compared 
with some others on the main road. 
A man who bought a little place for a 
home a few years ago would now be 
ruined by the taxes, without ability to 
sell at a profit! 
Some of you good people who hear 
that there is no State tax in New Jer¬ 
sey should study my figures. We are 
told that the corporations pay our taxes 
for us, but here are a few items they 
have forgotten. Our county expenses 
keep increasing, as do those of the 
township. We have a mayor, a “coun¬ 
cil,” and other features of a great city, 
though only 93 votes were polled at the 
last election. I spoke last week of the 
problem of getting children to under¬ 
stand what “interest” really is. You 
will have a bigger job in making them 
see what taxes are and what is done 
with the money. While direct taxation 
comes hard I wish all our revenues 
could be collected that way. We, as a 
nation, pay millions of indirect taxes 
through tariffs and various legalized 
hold-ups. As it is, we do not know 
where the money goes to, all we do 
know is that when we figure up we 
haven’t got it! If all this vast tribute 
could be levied directly upon our prop¬ 
erty or upon the land alone it would 
just about swamp us at first, but the 
knowledge of what we are doing would 
compel economy and reform. In the 
end we would be better off! 
“Railroading.” —The history of the 
railroad which runs through our sec¬ 
tion is a good thing to go over in con¬ 
nection with the tax bills. Some years 
ago a little one-horse road was built 
to our county town. It could not af¬ 
ford a city entrance of its own so it 
connected with the Erie, and ran its 
few trains over that road. It borrowed 
$1,000,000, secured by bonds, and sold 
stock. As is usual, much of this stock 
was taken by farmers and others along 
the line. You know how country peo¬ 
ple are led to believe the Golden Age 
is knocking right on the barn door 
when a railroad is promised. Then 
the road was built a little further, and 
another loan was made, then further on, 
with still another loan, until there were 
three mortgages. The farmers along 
the route gave right of way and bought 
a good share of the stock—piling in 
their savings, expecting to have a good 
investment, and of course to control 
the road through their directors so 
that it would develop their country. 
With its terminal in the hands of the 
Erie the road could not be independ¬ 
ent. _ It finally went into the hands of a 
receiver. Through some manipulations 
a lot of preferred stock was issued 
and in the end the Erie obtained con¬ 
trol of this stock—and the road. The 
farmers who put up their money so 
hopefully and gave the right to run 
through the country have now lost what 
they put up and see their road taken 
from them by a hard corporation. The 
loss occasioned by the failure of the 
old road brought suicide, poverty and 
misfortune into our county. The sav¬ 
ings of a life time were swept away, 
and when the “rainy day” came people 
found themselves under a mosquito net¬ 
ting instead of a tight roof. Now, I 
am safe in saying that we have the 
poorest service on the whole of any rail¬ 
road run out of New York, while the 
political power of the Erie is evidently 
used to prevent the building of inde¬ 
pendent trolley lines which would de¬ 
velop our country. Now this with some 
other details is the history of hun¬ 
dreds of similar deals. The people 
have put up their money to build rail¬ 
roads only to see the power which they 
created taken from their hands and 
given to corporations who use the prop¬ 
erty for their own selfish purposes. 
I am not able to suggest a remedy, but 
if I had a horse stolen I should buy a 
padlock and put it on and save the rest. 
The trouble is that people are still will¬ 
ing to take their money out of savings 
banks and buy stock in untried schemes 
over which they cannot possibly have 
any control. In nine cases out of 10 
they are losers, or if the .scheme suc¬ 
ceeds they will see some one else step 
in and take the liar’s and the lion’s 
share. We can safely add that to death 
and taxes as one of the “sure things.” 
Commuters. —In our country we 
have a class of people who commute— 
that is, travel every day to the city 
and back. Some of them live 30 miles 
out and travel 60 miles a day, or 360 a 
week to reach their job. You will 
realize that this means 18,000 miles a 
year, ^or two-thirds around the world. 
I he “globe trotter” who can compass 
the earth at his leisure has an unending 
round of novelty passing before him. 
1 lie commuter, however, sees the same 
things day after day in one round of 
monotony. Year after year he ob¬ 
serves his fellow travelers—sees gray 
hair creep upon young heads and 
children grown up to manhood and 
womanhood. And it is all a long 
struggle for family and home. At one 
place up the road beyond us I am told 
of people who take a train at five 
every morning. They do not get home 
before seven at night, and you can 
imagine the length of their day. Few 
farmers who think they work hard 
could stand the long cold ride and the 
nerve strain through the day. Some¬ 
times the wife grows discouraged. The 
burden becomes too heavy and she 
grows careless and fretful. The man 
does not get the food and care that 
he should, yet still he goes on—often 
silent, uncomplaining, and putting up a 
good front to the world. It often hap¬ 
pens that there are no savings except 
the life and accident insurance. Us¬ 
ually such men locate in the country 
in order that the children may have a 
chance in the air. You can readily see 
that no ordinary, selfish ambition could 
keep a man at this cheerless work. 
There must be some spirit back of it 
all to hold him up to it. I often watch 
these men pouring into the city in the 
morning and coming wearily home at 
night In a way there is no finer citi¬ 
zenship than some of them show. A 
man in the country with a good farm 
and home has no reason to envy such 
men. He knows little of their worry 
and trouble, or the haunting fears 
which often chase them home. The 
man with the farm home is far better 
off, and most of these commuters would 
be the first to tell you so if you could 
get at them honestly. 
Farm and Home. —The first fall of 
snow began November 14. There wasn’t 
much to it—just about enough for the 
baby to throw his first snowball. He 
never saw snow before, and it is a 
curious thing to see a person get his 
first introduction to the “flaky.” The 
snow did no damage. The cabbage have 
all been pulled, and are now standing 
head down ready to be sold or packed 
in furrows for Winter. The yellow tur¬ 
nips have been dug. We shall sell 
what we can and store the rest by piling 
them on a well-drained spot, throwing 
straw over the pile and then covering 
with about five inches of soil. A “vent” 
at the top lets off the steam and the 
turnips keep well. They sell at 75 to 90 
cents per bushel—quite a number of 
people taking them in place of pota¬ 
toes. We shall now begin to cover 
the strawberries for Winter. The al¬ 
leys or lanes between the plants will 
be. covered with fine manure while the 
soil is frozen. Then, later, the plants 
themselves will be covered with coarse 
trash like straw or vines. I see that 
forest leaves are recommended, but I 
do not like them. T. hey pack down too 
hard on the plants and smother them. 
We are developing a fair trade in stove 
wood. Here is a way to make some¬ 
thing out of those dead chestnuts. In 
most of our towns we find people who 
still use more or less split wood for 
the kitchen stove. Others have a fire¬ 
place an cl want long sticks of hard tim¬ 
ber. These people are willing to pay 
the price, and it makes a good business. 
. .. . I mentioned my way of inter¬ 
esting the baby by feeding him a baked 
apple when he appeared restless. 
Mother vetoed that game at once when 
she heard of it. “Nothing between 
meals!” That is her pronouncement— 
and she will not change it—even for an 
apple! The baby makes up for it at 
meal time and is better off. Another 
old-time method of mine is tabooed. 
That, is rocking the child and singing 
to him. My impression is that our 
folks really object to my singing, but 
they are very nice about it, and argue 
that the child must learn to go to sleep 
without rocking, or he will make a 
slave of his nurse! That seems to be 
part of the “new child culture.” They 
tell me that there is no such thing 
left as a cradle. The hand that form¬ 
erly rocked it and incidentally rocked 
the world, has now put it out of busi¬ 
ness as a part of woman’s emancipa¬ 
tion. Some years ago I worked as 
hired man for a farmer who had a 
large family of small children. Many 
a night after the cows were milked 
and while the farmer’s wife was un¬ 
dressing her brood, the farmer would 
take one twin and I the other. We 
would walk up and down the kitchen, 
each carrying a child, singing such old 
timers as “Come Where My Love Lies 
Dreaming,” or “Larboard Watch, 
Ahoy!” Too bad—we didn’t know about 
this new child culture or we would 
have put these twins down and let 
them howl themselves to sleep. I often 
think I would like to hear from my 
old boss as to whether those children 
developed into good musicians! 
H. w. c. 
S AW your own 
wood 
and save 
time, coal and 
money; or saw 
your neighbors’ 
wood and 
MAKE 
$5 TO SI5 
A DAY 
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Here’s Delight for a Boy or Girl at 
Christmas—Fine Fun All Winter Long 
There is one gift which 
will make any boy, or any 
girl, supremely happy. 
It’s a gift that lets them 
enjoy out-of-doors to the 
utmost. 
Boys and girls who are 
much in the open air 
grow strong in body, 
sturdy of limb and sound 
of lung. Outdoors-and- 
exercise a-plenty is nat¬ 
ure’s great tonic and in* 
vigorant. 
What gives them out¬ 
door fun is what a boy or 
girl likes most. 
Skating is the finest of 
all Winter fun. The 
grandest of all outdoor 
sports. 
Then let your boy and 
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sport to the fullest. 
Get them for Christmas 
each a pair of Barney & 
Berry Skates. 
The skates that will 
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the kind any knowing boy 
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the kind boys and girls for 
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known as the keenest, 
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They cost but little. 
And nothing else would 
please half as much. 
Moreover, the delight 
they give is not for Christ¬ 
mas Day only. They 
bring huge fun all Winter 
long. And for many 
Winters to come. 
For skating is the most 
ready-at-hand of all Win¬ 
ter pleasures. Where 
there’s water there’s 
bound to be ice, and lots 
of it. Always our full 
share of skating weather. 
Most any dealer will 
show you these skates. 
They’re made in all styles. 
Should your dealer not 
have the particular kind 
you want, he will get 
them for you. 
Our free catalogue will 
help you to choose the 
right style. Better write 
for it to-day. Christmas 
will soon be here. 
BARNEY & BERRY 
143 Broad Street, Springfield. Mass. 
Barney & Berry 
Skates 
FARQUHAR PORTABLE SAW MILLS 
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ft. B. Fabquhur Co., tin., tork, pa. 
HIDES 
AND 
HIDES 
MADE INTO WARMTH for the WHOLE FAMILY 
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