1474 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 19, 
A Prayer. 
Lord, not for light in darkness do we 
pray, 
Not that the veil be lifted from our eyes, 
Nor that the slow ascension of our day 
Be otherwise. 
Not for a clearer vision of the things 
Whereof the fashioning shall make us 
great, 
Not for remission of the peril and stings 
Of time and fate. 
Not for a fuller knowledge, of the end 
Whereto we travel, bruised yet unafraid, 
Nor that the little healing that we lend 
Shall be repaid. 
Not these, O Lord. We would not break 
the bars 
Thy wisdom sets about us; we shall climb 
Unfettered to the secrets of the stars 
In Thy good time. 
We do not crave the high perception 
swift 
When to refrain were well, and when 
fulfill, 
Nor yet the understanding strong to sift 
The good from ill. 
Not these, O Lord. For these Thou hast 
revealed. 
We know the golden season when to reap 
The heavy-fruited treasure of the field. 
The hour to sleep. 
Not these. We know the hemlock from 
the rose, 
The pure from stained, the noble from 
the base. 
The tranquil holy light of truth that 
glows 
On Pity’s face. 
We know the paths wherein our feet 
should press, 
Across our hearts are written Thy de¬ 
crees, 
Yet now. O Lord, be merciful to bless 
With more than these. 
Grant us the will to fashion as we feel, 
Grant us the strength to labor as we 
know, 
Grant us the purpose, ribbed and edged 
with steel. 
To strike the blow. 
Knowledge we ask not—knowledge Thou 
has lent. 
But. Lord, the will—there lies our bitter 
need. 
Give us to build the deep intent 
The deed, the deed. 
—John Drinkwater, in London Spectator. 
* 
A Farmer’s Wife on Dogs. 
W E were awakened this morning at 4 
o’clock by the usual farm chorus: 
Hens singing, roosters crowing, turkeys 
“gobbling.” robins and orioles “making 
melody in their hearts.” and in the morn¬ 
ing. Lambs, too, were' bleating, and we 
noticed the nagging bark of a dog. Inves¬ 
tigation showed the sheep and lambs hud¬ 
dled in a tired, terrified bunch on the side 
of the meadow nearest the house, and 
two curs harrowing them. A bulldog 
had a lamb by the throat; one other lamb 
and a fine ewe so heavily burdened with 
motherhood that she could run no longer, 
had been sacrificed. I could have shed 
bitter tears of sorrow and indignation at 
the outrage. Of course, we shot at the 
dogs and did what we could to locate 
them. There will be a process of “recov¬ 
ering damage,” so-called, but looking at 
the matter in a wider sense there is no 
reparation. We have made a practice of 
saving the best ewe lambs with a view to 
“building up the flock,” but what is the 
use when every farmer’s flock is prey to 
any and every yellow cur in the neighbor¬ 
hood? Every other farm paper we get 
has an article exploiting “sheep husban¬ 
dry for the Eastern farmer,” and again 
what’s the use? "Farm credits,” “farm 
bureaus,” and a lot of other big things 
are good and desirable no doubt, and will 
tend to the advancement of agricultural 
interests, but when will legislative “pow¬ 
ers that be” stop studying the moon for 
a few minutes and attend to the jobs that 
need doing right under their noses, so to 
speak? For the sake of the families that 
keep the dogs and the farmers that would 
like to keep sheep we want a tax on dogs 
so high that 90 per cent, of them all 
through the country will be dispensed 
with, and the rest counted valuable 
enough to be cared for and restrained, 
like a horse or other valuable live stock. 
Poor, hard-working people cannot af¬ 
ford to board dogs, so they allow them to 
go half starved. The great middle class 
of people can get along without them, 
and should be obliged to until they can 
afford to pay for them at the rate they 
would for a motor boat or automobile. 
So far as the wealthy men are concerned 
who want their hunting dogs, and my 
lady that wants her poodle, let them, too, 
"pay the fiddler,” as they do when they 
want fancy guns, diamond pendants or 
other luxuries. a farmer's wife. 
R ECENTLY a woman asked advice 
about buying a small farm. She asked 
in good faith, and really wants to locate 
in the country, though she did not wish 
personal correspondence. There have 
been already over 20 letters for her. 
Three men express a more or less well- 
formed desire to marry her. A dozen 
people want to sell her a farm—two or 
three say they can invest her little sum 
of money to advantage. Such personal 
problems always bring out a flood of ques¬ 
tions. Our plan is to send such letters 
direct to the party most interested, leav¬ 
ing her to reply as she sees fit. We do 
not give the address without consent. 
Some of the writers complain because we 
will not give this personal address, but 
a little thought will show them why the 
party who is most interested should have 
the right to decide the correspondence. 
In one case a business man wanted a 
farmer. Over 50 persons responded. It 
would have been impossible for this busy 
man to reply fully to all, yet some of 
these writers were grieved because we 
would not give this man’s address with¬ 
out his consent. 
* 
O NE of our readers, a woman in a 
Pennsylvania town, is greatly 
troubled because a whiskey company in 
Kentucky persists in sending her adver¬ 
tising literature soliciting trade. These 
circulars also come in large number to 
other people in the same community. This 
woman, a strong temperance advocate, is 
greatly annoyed by these circulars, but 
although she has written the company to 
stop sending them, they still come. She 
has written us to know if it is not against 
the law to mail these whiskey advertise¬ 
ments. She reads in the papers what the 
government is doing in shutting off fakes 
and frauds who offer patent medicines or 
other fraudulent goods. As she believes 
that whiskey is worse than any of these, 
she thinks the mails ought to shut out 
such matter. On referring, this to Wash¬ 
ington, we received the following brief 
communication : 
You are informed that there is no law 
authorizing, the exclusion from the mails 
of whiskey advertisements, as such. 
W. II. LAMAR, Solicitor. 
The law, as we understand it, at pres¬ 
ent permits the mailing of these whiskey 
advertisements. Under the law the mails 
can be denied to people who undertake 
to distribute or advertise a fraud, that 
is, something which deceives the buyer. 
Many of us consider whiskey as the 
crowning fraud of all. but under our pres¬ 
ent laws, mails continue to carry the 
advertisements. 
:Je 
I F the dollar was all I got out of my 
farm I’d quit it to-morrow. The joy 
of winning is the satisfaction of life. 
Don’t concentrate all your energies in 
making money. Make your lives broader, 
have something besides work to think of. 
I’ve taken more pleasure in producing 
new varieties of fruit, even though they 
were commercially valueless, than in all 
the fruit I’ve grown for market 
This is taken from a talk by Herbert 
O. Mead before a Grange meeting in 
Massachusetts. Mr. Mead is a very suc¬ 
cessful fruit grower, and he talks gospel 
truth in the above. There is no finer 
thought that can come before us at 
Christmas. Many of us are hard pressed 
for money, and the future may seem dark 
at times, but have you ever thought that 
the only way to rise above and out of the 
depression is to take some higher ground 
in thought, and try to make your farm 
produce something which money with all 
its power cannot buy? 
* 
U OCNNY MONDAY” is the latest 
O name for washing day—where you 
have all the fixtures and power. It is a 
wonder our enthusiastic friend who tells 
us of his wonderful electrical kitchen 
helpers does not mention some device for 
cleaning the dirt out of clothes by “light¬ 
ening.” We have no doubt that will come 
in time. In the meantime can you not 
manage some way to dodge the wash 
board? The big colored woman who helps 
with the rougher washing, will not use 
the machine. She prefers to “scrub ’em 
out,” yet there is nearly always a “misery 
in de back !” 
* 
T HE question of the relation between 
the owner and the farm manager is 
bringing some skeletons out of the closet. 
Several “managers,” who seem to have 
failed, say the worst trouble was caused 
by the women folks who interfered with 
suggestions or commands that were not 
practical. Some of them say the owner 
or farmer was bossed by his wife and 
daughters, and the manager could not 
take orders from a woman. What do the 
women have to say to that? They are in¬ 
terested parties, and their opinions are 
worth while. 
* 
I T is more than remarkable how certain 
“feminists” are laying down the law 
to their sisters. The latest is the demand 
that matrimony and housekeeping be con¬ 
sidered a profession. Here is one state¬ 
ment of the case: 
Especially, it seems to me, young wom¬ 
en contemplating matrimony should be 
made to realize that they are choosing a 
profession, just as they might choose 
medicine, law, business and so forth. So 
firmly do I believe this that if it were 
feasible I should like to see a preparatory 
course required before granting the cer¬ 
tificate to practice the profession of ■wife 
and mother. <>r some sort ot an examina¬ 
tion passed. It is required in professions 
far less vital to the welfare of the State. 
What sort of an examination would 
this feminist suggest? Our mothers and 
grandmothers dignified the “profession” 
without knowing they had entered one. 
The modern young woman must have her 
feet on solid ground or she will be swept 
away by these floods of advice. 
* 
A WOMAN. Mrs. Annette Abbott 
Adams, has been appointed Assist¬ 
ant U. S. Attorney at San Francisco. 
As women have the ballot in California 
they ought to take public responsibilities. 
It is said that the District Attorney in 
appointing Mrs. Adams said: '‘She is 
the only woman 1 hare ever known who 
can think on her feet!” The District At¬ 
torney seems to have had a very limited 
experience. We can easily find him hun¬ 
dreds of farm women who do clear and ac¬ 
curate thinking while walking through 
their household tasks! 
* 
“Shades of the Pilgrim Fathers ! ” 
T HAT is the opening of a news dis¬ 
patch from Chicago. It states that 
roast ostrich took the place of turkey at 
many a Thanksgiving table: 
According to connoisseurs, the ostrich 
is a dainty morsel for the banquet board, 
there being many juicy cuts that are even 
sweeter than those of the gobbler. The 
first shipment of ostriches has arrived 
from a farm in Arizona, and others are 
to follow. Three restaurants have taken 
all of the first consignment at prices 
around 50 cents a pound. The most deli¬ 
cate ostrich will dress about 50 pounds, 
according to the commission men. 
There is little use worrying about the 
Pilgrim Fathers or their shades. They 
were practical men. and had they landed 
in Africa instead of at Plymouth, they 
would have been thankful for ostrich and 
made it the “national bird.” It is said 
that the ostrich can digest shingle nails or 
door knobs. On the homeopathic prin¬ 
ciple therefore it ought to make “good 
digestion wait on appetite.” 
* 
A Bread-sponge Sermon. 
HE minister’s cheery-faced wife found 
a sermon in her bread-sponge, and 
she told it to a neighbor, something after 
this fashion : 
“My bread-sponge has risen beautifully, 
and as I worked it down I thought how 
much I treated it as God sometimes treats 
us. I set it in a nice warm place, cover¬ 
ing it well and it rose, just as I expected 
it would. When I found it light and 
white I pressed it down. I could imag¬ 
ine it saying to me: ‘Why! I thought you 
wanted me to rise. Why do you put me 
back where I was before?’ 
“Yes, I did want it to rise. It pleased 
me perfectly. Yet to the sponge, if it 
could think, it would seem as if I were 
displeased, and as if its efforts were 
wasted, or worse. Suppose, then. I as¬ 
sured it that it was doing right, and as I 
wished. It would, as soon as it was 
down, begin again to obey its good im¬ 
pulse to rise. Just as it reached its point 
of perfection, down I press it again. Now 
what would the sponge think? 
“ ‘Am I wrong this time? Was I 
wrong at first? Am I not wasting my 
labor? I have accomplished nothing by 
all my efforts, and apparently have dis¬ 
pleased my maker.’ But such a soliloquy 
would be all a mistake. I was pleased 
—much pleased—with my sponge. The 
efforts were not wasted, for each time 
that it rose it was better fitted to be made 
into light, sweet, nutty loaves. More¬ 
over, if it had not been pressed down at 
the right time, its efforts would surely 
have been wasted, for too much continued 
success in rising would have spoiled it, 
and caused it to become usei is to its 
maker.” 
It is more than 25 years since this ser¬ 
mon was preached in the parsonage din¬ 
ing room, and the preacher has long since 
gone to her rest, but the words have 
stayed in the memory of her neighbor, 
who now passes them on for the encour¬ 
agement of any who may have been 
“pressed down.” mrs. e. f. miller. 
Vermont. 
* 
Don’t Forget the Poor 
I N our zeal for the poor of other lands 
we are apt to forget that there may be 
much poverty within our home neighbor¬ 
hoods; possibly even beneath the shad¬ 
ows of our home cities. Two years ago, 
after the purchase of a new market 
wagon, we decided to dedicate the wagon 
by hauling the first load to the poor. We 
have a list of our own of worthy poor, 
but in this case we offered to supply to 
worthy people selected by the King’s 
Daughters’ stipulating only that they 
should not take us to a home where we 
would find a lot of men playing cards or 
sleeping off a drunken spree. Of the 20 
families we visited all seemed very worthy 
and surprisingly in need. I had not be¬ 
fore believed it possible that so much pov¬ 
erty could be found in our fair city. 
This year we visited 34 families, a com¬ 
mittee of the King’s Daughters provid¬ 
ing the list with the assistance of the 
pastors of the two largest churches of the 
city. We carried a load of apples, pota¬ 
toes, pears and squash. All those visited 
were profuse in thanks, but some much 
more given to expression of it than others. 
May all who are blessed with a super¬ 
abundance of any crop, far beyond any 
possible family needs, find it in their hearts 
to divide with the worthy poor that with 
which the Lord has blessed them so abun¬ 
dantly. I am slow to give to those who 
are poor because they have wasted their 
earnings for tobacco, strong drink or gam¬ 
bling dens, or to those who are too lazy 
to work, but there are enough of those 
who are poor from some other cause such 
as continued sickness, accidents, lock-outs 
and strikes. Let those who can aid them 
gladly. A farmer. 
