1910. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
541 
WHY SHINGLES WORK LOOSE. 
0. P. P-, Table Rock, Xeb .—Would gal¬ 
vanized slioe.t steel pressed to represent 
shingles do to cover a dwelling house? I 
have tried the standing seam steel sheets 
on a stable, and when a very strong wind 
blows it blows them loose. Do you know 
if there is any way to fasten them on a 
house so that the wind could not blow 
them off? I think that metal would make 
an ideal roof if it can be nailed on securely 
enough to hold against a high wind. I 
would like any information regarding roof¬ 
ing in general, and the best way of ap¬ 
plying. 
Axs.—When a strong, gusty wind is 
blowing the conditions are identical in 
kind, though less intense, with those 
which prevail at the time of a tornado. 
When a tornado approaches very close 
to a building the extremely low pressure 
of the air inside the tornado sud¬ 
denly removes the pressure on the 
air in the building, and this re¬ 
ducing of the pressure allows the air 
in the budding to expand with a pres¬ 
sure proportionate to the vacuum which 
has been produced. If a perfect vacuum 
could be produced suddenly the air on 
the inside of a house would press out¬ 
ward with a force of 15 pounds to the 
square inch. If half a complete vacuum 
were produced the outward pressure 
would be seven pounds to the square 
inch, or more than 1,000 pounds per 
square foot. In this way houses are 
often injured in tornadoes by one side 
of the house actually blowing out, as 
if the house had explod’d. When a 
strong wind is blowing, which is not 
steady, the hard gusts are always pre¬ 
ceded by low pressure waves, and when 
one of these comes suddenly over a 
roof the pressure is reduced on the out¬ 
side, which allows the air on the under 
side erf the roofing suddenly to expand; 
and if the air cannot readily escape, as 
it may in the case of ordinary shingles, 
a pressure results which tends to lift 
the metal roofing off. Sudden pres¬ 
sures of this kind equal to % and even 
half an inch of barometric pressure are 
not infrequent, and a change of one- 
quarter of an inch of barometer would 
mean a lifting force equal to 18 pounds 
per square foot on the metal roofing, 
which, of course, tends to draw the 
nails, and the only remedy for this dif¬ 
ficulty in the case of the type of roof¬ 
ing your correspondent has on his barn 
is to use narrower strips and to nail 
more closely and strongly. The sheet 
metal pressed to imitate shingles would 
be subject to the same difficulty that 
the plain metal would have. Of course, 
if the galvanized iron were cut so as to 
lay in the same manner as shingles and 
slate are laid the difficulty would be 
removed to the same extent that it is in 
ordinary shingles. If the ordinary 
cypress and Oregon cedar shingles are 
nailed on with galvanized iron nails 
which do not rust and rot out the wood, 
these shingles should last a long time 
in the drier climate of the West, and 
it is clear that this type of shingling is 
safest against injury from wind. 
F. H. KING. 
COUNTRY MERCHANTS AND PARCELS 
POST. 
A large proportion of the Congressmen 
who reply to our readers state that the 
chief opposition to a parcels post comes 
from country storekeepers. We wish to 
analyze this question and see what justifi¬ 
cation these merchants have for their posi¬ 
tion. We first present. 
The Tale of a Country Merchant. 
I think you and a great many others 
are wrong in surmising that country store¬ 
keepers are behind the opposition to “parcels 
post." 1 am and have been many years a 
“country storekeeper.” So far as my ex¬ 
perience goes the rural free delivery did 
more to injure the country store than par¬ 
cels post would. In my case it simply 
forced me out of business. It. F. D. is a 
good thing for a few people who take 
a cheap paper, but on this route our mail 
is later going out and coming in than it 
was under old Star Route free delivery 
which we had for years. This It. F. D. 
was established against a written protest 
signed by every patron of the post office 
except one. Politics did it and politics 
established nearly all the It. F. I). routes. 
With Star Route for delivery anyone could 
put a box on the route and have this mail. 
They have to do the same thing with R. F. D. 
The Star Route came from county seat 
with three railroads and a dozen mails per 
day. Tiie It. F. D. comes from a little 
town away back over the hills, on a one- 
horse railroad with one mail per day. Now 
take R. F. I), and Star parcels post and 
what is left for the country storekeeper? 
lie can still sell "Standard oil,” sugar and 
flour and on none of these is there any 
profit. Consequently he quits. What then? 
The farmer who has parcels post must 
drive 10 and 15 miles to get a gallon of 
oil or five pounds of sugar. Again, wipe 
out the country store and what are the 
farms worth? Right here is a 200-acre 
farm, good buildings, one of the best loca¬ 
tions in valley; it is for sale and has been 
for two years. A man comes to buy It, 
likes it, likes the price and says: “There 
is a store right over there, is there not?*’ 
Answer is “no. there was. but he had to quit, 
but you will have R. F. D. right at door.” 
“I don’t want the farm at all. I don't 
propose to buy a farm where I have to 
drive miles to get to a store”—and there 
you are. When you drive out the country 
stores you depress the value of farms. It 
is not always convenient for a farmer to 
wait for a spool of thread or five pounds of 
nails, until he can send to some mail 
order place for them to be delivered by 
parcels post. Our great statesmen (?| 
including Mr. Taft, are very insistent for 
a “ship subsidy” to help out .1. I’. Morgan 
& Co. Why not subsidize the country stores 
that they are driving out of business? The 
cry is that our poor ship owners and ship 
builders cannot compete with the wicked 
foreigners, but I notice that the store¬ 
keepers, the business men all over our land, 
have to work against strong competition, 
and it does not worry our great men. You 
will find the real opposition to parcels 
post comes from the express combine, which 
is the biggest robber trust in the country. 
J. A. B. 
We give full space to this typicftl com¬ 
plaint and leave our readers to discuss it. 
On the other side we now give 
The Tale of a Country Buyer. 
I wanted for hotbed sash five boxes of 
No. B, 12x10 window glass. I went to our 
home hardware merchant for prices on 
same. After some figuring, he replied $35, 
I remarked that seemed high, and he re¬ 
plied that glass was very high. He knew 
it was a cash deal if he sold me the glass. 
I went to another dealer in our village, 
and he offered me the glass for $22, a drop 
of $13 from the former's price, and I 
again suggested it seemed high, and he 
spoke of freight, broken glass and cartage, 
and said he must have something to come 
out whole on it. I thought if each dealer 
in glass in our village should cut the 
former's price $13 by the time I get around 
they would give me the glass, so I went 
to our druggist for prices, and he said so 
many were selling glass he had cut it out, 
as the sales were so slow. He gave me a 
glass list and advised me to send an order 
to a New York house, which I did, who 
gave the five boxes for $17.50, just one-half 
of the first dealer's price. If parcels post 
does hurt the country merchants can the 
farmers afford to give one-half of the 
products of the farm to maintain the 
country merchants? If one-half of our 
village merchants would close their stores 
and go out on the farm to work, our com¬ 
munity would be far better off. k. v. f. 
Sullivan Co., N. Y. 
In this connection we give part of a 
correspondence between one of our readers 
and Congressman W. .T. Cary of Wisconsin. 
Mr. Cary says as others do that nothing 
is heard from the express companies, but 
that all opposition comes from the country 
merchants. He received the following 
reply : 
“As regards the other proposition of par¬ 
cels post I am sorry to learn you are not 
willing to express yourself definitely. Prac¬ 
tically your opposition is that the general 
public should be inconvenienced and made 
to pay higher prices for the benefit of 
country merchants. Now of course you and 
every statesman of intelligence know very 
well that such an argument cannot stand 
very long in the face of discussion. If a 
public economy can be made for the benefit 
of the people at large, any class or classes 
who will be injured thereby cannot stand 
iu the way of it, but can act accordingly." 
When you write advertisers mention The 
U. N.-Y. and you’ll get a quick reply nud 
“a square deal.” See guarantee page 12. 
A Fifteen 
Minute 
Course 
in Paint 
Economy 
HE first lesson in 
paint economy is 
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lead, guaranteed 
by the “ D u t c h 
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The second and third les¬ 
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all short and easily learned, 
are contained in the collec¬ 
tion of booklets which we 
call "Dutch Boy Paint Ad¬ 
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adviser. It is free and will 
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become paint-wise. To be 
paint-wise is no trivial thing. 
It is mighty easy to waste 
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Be paint-wise. 
Write for " Dutch Boy 
Paint Adviser No. 8 ” to¬ 
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Our Pure While Lead ("Dutch Bo U 
Painter’’ trademark) is now packed 
In sleet kegs, dark gun-metal finish, 
instead of in oak kegs as heretofore. 
National Lead Company 
An office in each of the following cities: 
New York Boston Buffalo Cincinnati Chicago 
Cleveland St. Louis 
(John T. Lewis & Bros. Co.. Philadelphia) 
(National Lead and Oil Company, Pittsburgh) 
PORTER 
HAY CARRIER 
Has wide open mouth and 
swinging fork pulley. Fills 
hay mow full to the roof. Is 
without exception best hay 
carrier in the United States. Send 
for illustrated booklet of POR- 
TBR’S up-to-date hay tools. 
J. E. PORTER CO., Ottawa, III. 
H. C. Phelp# 
M anufaclurer 
Split 
Hickory 
Bug. 
aics _ 
am 
facturer 
every 
H. C 
Don’t Get Me Confused 
with Retail Dealers or 
General Catalog Houses 
a manu- 
. I make 
vehicle I sell 
and sell every vehicle 
to user. 
Let me pay postage on 
my 1910 Split Hickory 
Book to Your Home. It’s 
Free. Shows 125 Styles. 
All at Factory Prices. 
Phelps 
AM a manufacturer of vehicles. With my big volume 
of business I can sell the dealer at lower prices than he 
could buy from any other manufacturer—but I don’t 
do business through the dealer. 
You may hear a lot of this home-patronage talk—but 
what does it mean to you?— $26.50 out of your own 
pocket. 
That $26.50 I’ll save you. 
If you love the dealer—or he happens to be your 
brother-in-law—you may want him to have that extra 
profit—but 1 want people to know that I can save them 
that amount of money if they want to save it. 
And don’t get the idea that because the general “Cat” 
house sells by mail that it saves you money on vehicles. 
They don’t manufacture vehicles. They must add their 
profit to the maker’s price. Don’t pay anybody an 
extra profit— 
One of My 
125 Styles 
at a Saving 
to You of 
$26.50 
Buy Your Buggy Direct 
From the Manufacturer 
My factory is the largest in 
America making vehicles and 
harness exclusively. I make 
every vehicle I sell and sell every 
vehicle I make direct to the 
users. That’s why I’ll save you 
from 25% to 40% on any style of 
bu g&y. carriage or road wagon 
you want. Make your road 
tests and your comparisons 
in quality and price. If the 
buggy I send isn’t right in every way; if I haven’t saved 
you at least 25%, send it back and I’ll return every cent of 
your money. Can you afford to deliberately pass up this— 
25 °Jc Guaranteed Saving. Let Me Pay Post¬ 
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Send Postal Today for my Big, Free Book, the finest 
vehicle portfolio and catalog ever issued. Get my 1910 
prices first and see my 125 styles of quality Split Hickories. 
It costs only a penny to know. You can always buy from 
the other fellow if you choose. 
I’ve been in this business eleven years. I’ve saved 
millions for vehicle buyers and can prove it. I have 
200,000 customers. I’ll refer you to some near you. 
Write for book by next mail. 
H. C. Phelps, President 
The Ohio Carriage Mfg. Co., Station 290, Columbus, Ohio 
