070 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 2, 
Hope Farm Notes 
During the past year I am sure there 
have been at least 50 letters much like 
the following: 
“I want to write for the papers and 
magazines, and perhaps write a bowk or 
two. Tell me all you can about it. IIow 
do yon advise row* to startV” 
In many cases I would not advise you 
to start at all. .My advice is not worth 
much anyway. Writing good articles is 
like farming in one tiling—unless you 
have “instinct” for it. all the study and 
labor in the world will never make tire 
finished product. It will always be raw. 
I am no expert, and cannot analyze the 
subject, but here are a few suggestions: 
Message.- In the first place no one 
should try to write articles or stories 
unless he can put au honest and true 
message into them. What is a mes¬ 
sage? Truth! The dictionary calls it 
‘‘an official communication.” In a writer 
it means an honest, self-denying desire to 
give his fellow men something that will 
help them to think or act along better 
ami higher lines. Unless you earr feel in 
your heart that you can deliver that sort 
of a message do not try to write articles 
or stories. There are writers who spin 
out words as a spider spins his web. The 
spider may catch flies by his spinning, 
but these words catch few human souls, 
for unless there is a message in them the 
words are soon blown out of memory. 
Where Is Tick Mekhabe? In your 
own life and experience. Every week we 
have letters from people who say they 
want to write. They usually enHnse let¬ 
ters of recommendation from people who 
say they have ability. My reply usually 
is to sail in and send a sample of their 
work. If 1 were buying a horse- I should 
want to see him and drive him before 
paying the money. No use buying man¬ 
uscripts “sight unseen.” Most of these 
people ask us to give them a subject to 
write about. Now, with our great out¬ 
fit of advisers, we know where to go with 
any ordinary question. We want origin¬ 
al ideas most of all. So 1 toll these peo¬ 
ple to write not more than 500 words on 
some topic that they know about from 
actual experience, and which farmers 
oiif/lit to know! That simple test seems 
to discourage eight out of 10. 
Your Own I.ike!- It shakes a man up 
sometimes to sit. down and ask himself — 
“Wlmt do 1 actually know which other 
men do not know? What can I give 
them as experience or advice which l 
know J can stand for even if the opinion 
wore to carry me to the stake?” Out of 
that: honest thought, will come what I 
call the “message.” Of course there are 
bumptious or “smart” people who have 
such a high estimate of their awn opin¬ 
ion that they call it experience. 1 do 
not speak of them. They find their place 
for a “message” built iifx>n any conceited 
Opinion will finally change with a com¬ 
mand to go far back to the rear seats of 
oblivion and sit down. What 1 mean by 
a message therefore comes out of your 
own life -not cut and dried Bike bay. but 
fresh and fragrant as clover—with a true 
desire to benefit someone. The young 
may come with a hopeful message of 
faith and confidence in that great beauti¬ 
ful future which opens before them. Old¬ 
er people may come with fire-tested ex¬ 
perience hardened by the years, yet true 
as steel. So the first point is -never try 
to write unless you have something to 
say—a message. 
IIow Oeljvkk It. Here you come to 
the art of expression, which is a natural 
part of the writer. Many people kill 
themselves off through their “introduc¬ 
tion.” J had a tine old friend who could 
not start a letter without beginning: "I 
now take my pen in hand to write you a 
few lines.” That was vvbat you might 
call a self-evident fact. < >f course he did. 
Everybody knew it. Who cares to be 
told what he knew before? Many a 
reader 1ms dodged a fine article because 
the first part of it contained one of those 
dull and stale “introductions.” Senator 
Roscoe Colliding had a great reputation 
as a forcible orator. His plan was to 
open with the strongest brief statement 
of his ease, and then go on and prove it. 
That startled his audience, and they had 
to go on with him. At the great con¬ 
vention where (Barfield was nominated in 
IN,NO, Senator ('onkling supported Hen. 
Grant for a third term. He got tip to 
make his speech tinder the most depres¬ 
sing conditions. The convention was 
against Grant, and the delegates were 
tired out by long speeches. Had Conk- 
ling led up to bis subject as others had 
done, few would luive listened to him. 
He knew liow to put (lowers on his “mes¬ 
sage.” He looked over that great angry 
audience and said slowlv and deliberate¬ 
ly: 
“lot/ ask whence eomctt our candidate? 
Our answer it shall be 
He comes from .1 pi>onull tor 
And its famous apple tree." 
What a yell went up. The great building 
rocked. In 20 wonts (‘onkling bad put 
before them a glorious vision of Grant 
the soldier. ft obscured their view of 
Grant the mail, and they listened breath¬ 
less for what, was to follow. In many 
eas-'s. not all, our writers may imitate 
('onkling and start off with a forcible 
paragraph to attract attention. At any 
rate, get into the heart of your subject 
at mice and do not spend good words 
bowing and scraping and clearing your 
throat at tin* door of your reader’s mind. 
That might have answered years ago 
when papers and magazines were few. 
Now there are half a dozen chasing each 
reader. 
Be Natural.— 1 cannot understand 
why the- average writer thinks he must 
get. up on stilts whenever In.* starts to 
write his thoughts oil paper. Some years 
ago l had studied so-called French for 
two terms at an agricultural college. 
Quite a distinguished Frenchman came 
to town, and I was brought out to talk 
to him. I should have known better, but 
I started what I now realize must have 
been something awful to tin* Frenchman. 
That polite gentleman listened in a puz¬ 
zled way and then shrugged bis shoulders 
and said: “Pardon me, but I do not un¬ 
derstand dis new language. My English 
In' quite bad, but I do my best.” 
Now many of onr farm writers have t* 
glorious message to present, but they seem 
to spoil it as I ruined my reputation as a 
French scholar. The message they have 
is a part of them—a sweet, homely, 
heart-pulling story just fitted to their 
plain words and shrewd expressions. 
W hen they write it out they use strained, 
stilted expressions, great big words and 
disjointed sentences which do not fit the 
thought at all. I have bad people tell 
me that they were on the watch for 
big new words that they might fire them 
off in their writings, and thus gain a 
reputation for wisdom. A very foolish 
plan that: I would take great pleasure 
in chopping such words out of manu¬ 
script. There is a paper printed at the 
Ttiskegee, Ala., negro college called “The 
Negro Farmer.” One of its departments 
has this heading: 
THE “BIG WORDS” AND 
EVENTS EXPLAINED. 
Farmers’ 1 dictionary. 
That is one of (lie most sensible tilings 
1 have yet seen. There is hardly a paper 
in the country that would not do well 
to start, siieli a dictionary, and in each 
issue 1 will agree to find a dozen words 
which ought to lx* explained to 80 per¬ 
cent. of the readers. 
Plain Talk.— I cannot make it too 
plain to tin* would-be writer that 75 per 
cent, of tin* people of this country think 
in words of one syllable. They read long 
words and understand some of them, but 
their thoughts run upon the wheels of 
short and common words. The average 
man and woman may really understand 
-4(M) different words. Nine-tenths of their 
talking and thinking will be done inside 
this limited list of tongue tools. If you 
want to carry your message to them get 
down whore they live into the language 
they speak. I cannot tell you how to 
write or how to put words together. The 
truth is 1 never was taught. At 25 years 
old L doubt if I could have given the 
distinction between a verb and adverb or 
an adjective. I shall have to confess that 
in place of flu* analysis of sentences 
which grammars give us I put words to¬ 
gether by instinct or by the way they 
looked in groups. 1 read good English 
by the square acre and in this way came 
to group words together as I suppose an 
artist groups colors or a carpenter joins 
pieces of wood. There never was any 
excuse for this. A thorough study of 
grammar and the analysis of a language 
is the true way to understand it. 1 be¬ 
gan at the other end and tried to work 
down. A great mistake—which my chil¬ 
dren shall not repeat. My daughter at 
college is selecting her studies for till* 
second year. My advice is to make a 
thorough study of English the foundation 
of her education, and to group around 
this those things which are closest to it, 
and which will help her most in giving 
expression to a message. For that is 
about all there is in life giving the mes¬ 
sage which we work out with toil and 
pain, or which cornea to us by inspiration. 
Good Nature.—D o not hand out a 
“grouch” In the public or to your friends. 
A "grouch” is the germ of a mental dis¬ 
ease. There should he a law against 
spreading all Bitch. The world loves a 
cheerful writer, and will follow him if 
he carry a message which they need. In 
time of adversity they may come hack 
t<>_ Jeremiah for a time, hut their life 
will be east with the hopeful heart and 
the patient, mind. Be good until red, 
“loosen tip” and learn the true distinction 
between fun and foolishness. Hut it 
short. Take up one tiling at a time. Tell 
wliat you know and then stop. Make a 
mental anayfsis before you start, and 
have clearly in mind what you are going 
to try to prove. Stay on the ground, use 
short words, cut out introductions ami 
tell it naturally. Never preach at your 
audience. Never play schoolmaster, and 
do not sneer at anyone. The best way 
to begin is to study your impel- or maga¬ 
zine, and if you find a statement which 
you know to be wrong write u short and 
pleasant article correcting it. Do not 
criticise opinions so much as facts. 
If you can, from your own knowledge, 
prove that a printed statement is not 
correct you will help the paper and what 
you write will receive attention. 1 tut 
make it short and to the point. Do not 
write long articles and then count the 
words and write the number on the first 
page. The editor does not care how 
many words you wrilt—it’s their quality 
that he is after. To sum it up, boll 
yourself dowu and tell it naturally, be 
honest and keep good-natured, n. \v. c. ! 
POTATO GROWERS 
Everywhere realize that the profits from any 
stand depend, largely upon chocsing the tools 
that are designed especially for potatoes— 
that carry every convenience and 
every adjustment to handle the crop 
in the most practical way, from 
planting until after the harvest. 
You can find everything that is 
needed in the full line of 
Potato 
Machinery 
ISON ABE 
100% Planters place one seed piece in every 
space and one only—no skips to eat up fertilizer, 
labor and land, or doubles to waste expensive seed. 
Steel-Frame Riding Cultivators are made 
with high or low, pivot or fixed wheels, grooved, 
flat or zig-zag gangs, for one or two rows, etc. 
Traction Sprayers cover four or six rows at 
a time. Special spray bars for different crops 
including a new one that covers the underside 
of the leaves as well 
the top. 
Low Pivot Wheels 
Potato Diggers 
are made in four 
styles and when 
rightly 
chose n 
each is 
guaranteed 
t o d o as 
as any other digger of the same 
size and capacity on the market 
■—better than most. 
We have thorough distribution of 
stocks. Now is the time to order. 
Ask your local dealer to show you 
these tools and write us for set of booklets showing them in 
illustrated form. 
BATEMAN M’F’G CO. 
For heaviest 
conditions 
102 I* 
Orenlooli, JNT. J. 
^Tfimivc you bix money on your tarm gutes. M y new catalog Quotes such I 
astonishingly low price" on OAN’T-.HAG OATES AN1> GATE STEELS that you simply 
in’t »(Tiir<l to build another clumuy, nil uouil ftnU. My KUHlCiUT VAIL) I’KiCES aro half wliat otUoru 
N'T-HAG GATES. ll«atiy U» hum* any huitrht. 
order Jirit the* GATE STF.KI*! I which Includmi -A. v fiowa i*T€M 
cvorytnlnir but tho hourda). With tlmnn you cun build your own 
Galon in 60 minuted uud SAVE lilG MONEY. 
Note These Special Features 
Each board double bolted between 4 imfm of ANGLE STEEL 
upriirhta and 0 TttfANfItILAU TRU8H BRACKS. Patent re¬ 
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worn nlwnynhnnir iMqu.tr.* and plumb. Klovntinu Attachment 
(f urnixheti at nlight additional contl permit* Kaf«*u to ho rained 
over deep snow or n|l<>wa nip nil slock to pnda under. Wrltti lor 
Ere*Cuts.loirnndFREIGHT PUEPAIDOFKKKTODAY.Addrena 
M Bows.Pres. Rowe Mts.Co .^OfiUdamsSl..Galesburg. III. 
Last 5 Times as Long 
GUARANTEED 
DMT Why Pay Two Prices For Fences? 
„.t* vf♦8 
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for Free Catalog, First ()rdcr and K.arly Buyer's Otter! 
Word Fonco Mtg. Co., I 37 Ponn SC, Locator, Ind. 
I Dtnot from! 
I factory, freight 
prepaid. Over 1 
150 alyl, n for ovary r 
purpoiio, nil I tmblv pa l~ r 
VOftfMli. lilc i .t i od up. New | 
Hnrx.iinCntiiloKnnd Hnim-lo totoat. 
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r AU 
I THE HWnwM FENCE C. WIRE CO. 
Dopt. GD ClttvoInmJ, Ohio 
Fdrces Sanitation 
Bolster Springs 
The trash pile, the garbage can, the 
mud hole in the back yard or front yard, 
do not harmonize with Republic Ornamental 
Wire Fence. Sunlight and freali air can pnoa 
over every par tof y o ur premises unobti tr uc ted. 
REPUBLIC FENCE 
lm Bader Than thm “Fljr «wader" 
It helps to correct tho conditions that 
breed dies and disease. Does not hold mois¬ 
ture; does not decay. 
Built of Heavy Galvanized Wire 
Closely spaced, firmly woven. No other 
fence like it. MhIcoh a life-time improve¬ 
ment—a daily delight. Costs so little 
you can't afford to do without it. 
Fidlyguaranteod; many da 
signs. Illustrated Catalog. 
REPUBLIC FENCE I GATE CO. 
34 Bsputilie St., Norik Ckicogo, III. 
When you write advertisers mention Thu 
U. N.-Y. ami you'll get u quick reply and a 
“scu:i r<* den I.” See gun run tee editorial page. 
prevent da mu go to egga, garden 
trunk, Irultl or llvo stock on toad to 
market. Make any wagon a spring wagon. Soon, 
save cost—produce brings l»lgg~r prices—.igoa 
last:, longer- horses lwn.-i.tril. Thou .antis tu use. 
"My wagon rides like atitu" says one user. 
MADE LIKE FINEST AUTO SPRINGS 
Same principle—same cate—same big Iv-qiiutity steel 
In Harvey Holnrcr Spring* nit la finest a atom o bile 
springs. In resiliency, durability and .ippearaiu e they 
cannot possibly be <r*c riled- The Htaiulard Spring* 
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to 10,000 ll»s. C.italokf nnd fistful of proof free. 
HAJWtY SHK.HU CO., 116 17th Struct. Racist. Wit. | 
