966 
THE RURAL- NEW-YORKER 
July 31, lmr.. 
Sharp Practice on the Lonely Road 
As the Pastoral 
By Rev. Geo 
Parson Sees It 
. B. Gilbert 
A COMMUNITY SPIRIT.—Yes, we 
had that neighborhood gathering and din¬ 
ner I said I would tell you about. All 
we had for a place was the district school 
house, and there is hardly a community 
in the counti’y but what has this. It did 
not rain, but if it had we should have 
gathered the food in the entry and at din¬ 
ner time let the whole crowd eat at the 
desks. It was the occasion of the an¬ 
nual county (Episcopal) ministers’ 
meeting. We began with a celebration 
of the Holy Communion and two ad¬ 
dresses (short), then a business session 
and then the dinner. The girls had come 
early and trimmed the place all up, and 
boys and men folk had brought tables 
and chairs. It seemed to be just fun and 
happiness for everybody. We had a 
dozen broilers, roast chicken, a huge 
freezer of ice cream and an abundance 
of luscious strawberries, besides all the 
other good things. Hasn’t your neigh¬ 
borhood its quota of quarrels, feuds, and 
jealousies, families that hardly speak? 
The spirit of all such places is pessimis¬ 
tic. “This place is dead.” “There is 
nothing for a young man here,” etc. “We 
are too far away from everybody and 
everything.” A man 87 years old in this 
district where we had the dinner said 
there had not been a big community 
gathering and eating together in that 
locality in his memory ! lias there been 
one in your neighborhood? With this af¬ 
fair written up in the local papers, with 
a social for the young people every two 
weeks, with a big community lawn party 
under the twin oaks at the cross roads in 
the woods, this “dead” place is getting 
on the map! Every community has a 
soul. What kind of one has yours? 
Community Spirit and Back-to-the 
Lander. —As long as you don’t swear or 
work on Sunday, or believe in dancing, 
you are of course all saved now, and you 
can treat the new comer just as you 
please! What if he is coming out into 
God’s open country to try to save the 
lives of his children and escape the rush 
and grind and heartless landlord, or 
worse yet "agent” of the city? That is 
his business of course, not yours. What 
if he has nothing to do with, no tools or 
stock or knowledge about farming, and 
you have everything (which you in¬ 
herited and never earned), what is that 
to you? The Pastoral Parson has seen 
so much of this that he wants to give 
these people some pointers at their own 
game, and then they can see for them¬ 
selves how they are playing with those 
most sacred things—human joy or 
human sorrow. As the seller of a farm 
ask in cash down all the place is worth 
and then put a mortgage on it that you 
know can never be paid, but you can 
sap the man for the interest as long as 
you like! If the place is a long way 
from a town, hurry the man out in an 
auto, calling his attention to the scenery 
all the time. If the well goes dry and 
is dry then, bring water from a neigh¬ 
bors and pour in, giving the man a quaff 
as a test of its superior quality. (I 
know of this being done). Sell off every¬ 
thing you can and what you cannot sell 
give to your relations. Don’t let him 
see these tools and things, as he might 
want you to “throw them in.” But above 
oil keeD back part of the laud. If there 
is a pasture or above all a woodlot, a 
little detached from the main property, 
never mention it. Don’t give him a 
chance to buy it even. Again he might 
expect it to go with the place. What 
will he do for wood, or boards, posts to 
fix up the fences you have let go for 
years? That is nothing to you. You 
need the last cent so you can live in the 
city and have an auto. Sell these lots 
off to the neighbors as soon as you can, 
as there might be unpleasant questions 
asked. Let them make money on the 
woodlot rather than the baek-to-the- 
lander. as he might pay the mortgage 
and then you could not get the place 
back provided you may want to return 
to it some time. You would better go to 
church pretty regularly now and have 
long talks with the minister on how to 
get the newcomers interested. “Queer 
these people don’t come and help out on 
the minister’s salary.” 
The Tragedy of the Soil. —The 
Pastoral Parson knows of one case where 
a place originally sold for $.‘>00 was sold 
for $1,500, and the buyer found he had 
only a house and lot. On threatening 
suit and paying $250 more the real farm 
was deeded to him. I have been told of 
a man who owned a place four times in 
one year and at the end of the year had 
the place and $1,800. I have heard of 
another case wdiere a man after toiling 
for five years walked out of the place in 
utter despair, leaving the door open be¬ 
hind him, and was never heard of again ! 
After a fearful tragedy in which a 
woman set her house afire, threw her 
little girl in the flames and went raving 
crazy, a neighbor’s boy said to me, “She 
was awful worried over the mortgage.” 
I know of a man now who is working 
away in town in a factory and will wear 
his fingers off before, as he says, he will 
let “that man get the farm away from 
me.” This is the great tragedy of the 
soil to-day. Town clerks are unwilling 
parties to these underhand transactions, 
and complain to me of their powerless¬ 
ness. I have heard of one, however, who 
had the boldness to caution the buyer 
as to the value of property. This is the 
great ache in the heart that is so hard 
him enough so that he will not come 
again soon. Don’t offer that corn planter 
to him Let him work and sweat for 
days with a hoe. “Time enough to loan 
a thing when it is asked for.” And keep 
saying to yourself, “If he does not want 
a thing enough to ask for it, he better 
go without.” If you have seeds left 
(and who hasn’t after planting?) don’t 
give them away to him, they might be 
good next year. But above all watch 
for a chance to catch him with too little 
feed for his stock. Here is your golden 
opportunity! Take advantage of his mis¬ 
fortune to get his living—his cow—and 
chuckle over your Yankee cunning. Talk 
smooth for a long time, and have the 
bills right with you, and you can prob¬ 
ably get it. Of course you could spare 
him a ton of that meadow hay and not 
seriously feel it, and he could work it 
out next Spring, but you can’t make 
money that way ! “I shall never get an¬ 
other cow” the Pastoral Parson heard 
a mother of a large family say as she 
faced a long Winter with little hay in 
the barn. But she will not have to look 
for another, as she still has that one. 
It was boarded for her and returned in 
full milk, and her boy worked out the 
bill. It’s all a difference of mothers and 
children on the one hand and money in 
the bank on the other. 
Two Lonely Road Mothers. —I must 
tell you about two Lonely Road mothers 
I called on the other day. I had no¬ 
ticed an especially good piece of potatoes 
beside the road for some time, and quite 
JSS* t; - 
If 
Copyright, 1J13. by the Wheeler syndicate. Ino. 
This picture is taken from the N. Y. Evening Sun, and is a long story with few words. 
If the scarecrow could only talk! 
to remove, for with it goes a bitterness 
and cursing toward fellow men. Who 
will preach that asking more than a 
thing is worth is trying to steal, and 
taking more or giving less than a thing is 
worth is stealing? Zaceheus restored 
fourfold, but who has passed an out¬ 
rageous interest or cancelled an exces¬ 
sive mortgage? 
Neighbor and Newcomer. —Now if 
you are a neighbor of the newcomer 
don’t say a word about the place till 
after it is sold and papers drawn. No 
matter if the city man with a big family 
is paying half as much again as the 
sworn valuation to the tax assessor, it 
is “none of your business.” But when 
it is sold then begin to run it down 
Take the farming enthusiasm out of him 
as soon as you can. If the land is sandy, 
tell him it is so dry that it will not 
raise anything. If it is low land, tell 
him he has got a swamp. Tell him if he 
raises anything he is so far from market 
he cannot sell it. Very likely the greatest 
immediate need of the new neighbor will 
be that of tools. Here is a great expense 
he did not count on. Be very cautious. 
You see him sowing phosphate by hand 
and your spreader stands under the shed. 
Don’t offer it to him! Your minister 
never preached that you should. He con¬ 
fines his sermons to the Ten Command¬ 
ments and higher criticism. If the man 
comes and asks for it, hem and haw a 
while. Talk about other things. At last 
let him take it, but you have embarrassed 
a large field of corn too. What was my 
surprise to learn that this woman and 
her two little boys had been quite alone 
since last March. She is six miles from 
town and not a neighbor in sight or 
within a mile. Having had that land 
plowed, she had done all the rest entirely 
by hand—no horse on the place. When 
the boys were at school all day she was 
entirely alone. Conveniences! Well, 
there is wood in the woods and water at 
the bottom of a well in the yard. “You 
pull up the water with a rope?” I asked. 
“Oh, not with a rope,” she said cheer¬ 
fully, “it wears off too soon. I pull it 
up with a chain.” And down on Pea 
Hill, I stopped again. The boy was out 
hoeing potatoes, stony, weedy, no culti¬ 
vator, and alone. I saw a curious-look¬ 
ing sort of a handmade sled in the yard. 
It was wooden shod, had a singletree at¬ 
tached and an old piece of sawmill belting 
for sort of a breast plate to drag it with. 
“What do you do with this?” said I, 
“it’s pretty late for coasting.” “Oh,” 
said he, “mother and I draw manure with 
that. We put it in a bag and then I pull 
and she pushes behind!” And so they 
strive to make a living. She too, pulls 
the water straight up from the well, but 
has a small rope to do it with. 
What a supreme delight to travel 
through the country and stop to see such 
people as these, to cheer them, advise 
them, and to leave them something to 
read! Are we made to get something out 
of people or to give something to them? 
And does this not apply to the church? 
Do the people exist for the church or 
dsses the church exist for the people? 
Are the people made to fill up her empty 
pews and pay her bills or is she made to 
help the people, so vitally and faithfully 
that they will see to it that her bills are 
paid? Is it a case of more pay for the 
country minister or a need of his first 
earning what he now gets? Is it a ser¬ 
mon from the dust-covered books of the 
shelves or from the striving, aching 
hearts of human life, that will keep the 
people awake? 
The Pastoral Parson has just been mak¬ 
ing out his schedule for another year, 
which begins in July. He will visit at 
least once a month and many of them 
twice, eight schoolhouses and two 
churches. He will travel a little over 35 
miles a Sunday. This with the farm will 
keep him both happy and well. And next 
time he hopes to tell you how he thinks 
people away from market on the Lonely 
Road can make a living. 
Good Words. 
You certainly have my approval. I 
swear by The It. N.-Y. m. s. 
Connecticut. 
I appreciate the good work you are 
doing, especially along the lint's of clean 
advertising, as that point has long been 
a hobby with me. r. e. g. 
Maine. 
I have felt for some time that I ought 
to write you a word of appreciation. I 
do so enjoy the “Woman and Home” de¬ 
partment, and the stories also. 
Pennsylvania. mrs. e. i. b. 
I take a number of agricultural papers, 
but. find The R. N.-Y. the best and most 
helpful of all. I especially appreciate 
your articles -on rural credits, banks for 
farmers and cooperation; and wish you 
every success in dealing with the Foods 
and Markets problem. J. M. H. 
Washington. 
I am a clergyman and you may infer 
that I am not much of a farmer, but I 
like the paper. Your fight on “fakes” of 
various kinds is most opportune and 
serviceable. Also I appreciate the many 
wholesome suggestions for building up 
soil without the commercial fertilizers. 
Illinois. v. w. b. 
I cannot forbear a word of praise for 
your paper. It is. I think, the standard 
of high quality' in the agricultural paper 
world. May its successful usefulness con¬ 
tinue! L. K. w. 
New J ersey. 
The thousand facts that the country 
boy knows, it would be of great help to 
men. like myself, who are willing to 
learn. Your paper gets the first attention 
among the many fine magazines coming 
to my table. I wish you abundant suc¬ 
cess. B. A. W. 
Massachusetts. 
I find The R. N.-Y. the paper that 
stands up for what is right, as well as 
to expose all firms that are on the dead 
beat order. A dollar invested in the 
paper is as good, seems to me, as an in¬ 
surance policy, if the reader will only 
take time to look over the valuable items 
of interest. C. M. K. 
New York. 
I was greatly pleased with that story 
about Mrs. Wescott’s bonnet. That g;ive 
a very true analysis of the feeling which 
many farm women have regarding their 
children and music. mrs. n. a. s. 
The “Suggestions on Summer Clothes” 
this week is good and helpful. A friend 
visiting here—a dressmaker—was pleased 
with the article also. K. c. w. 
Ohio. 
I am taking so many farm papers (all 
good), but can find so little time to read 
them that I was about to pay my sub¬ 
scription to July 1 and ask you to stop 
sending it, but when I received the issue 
of June 20, I was so much pleased with 
the doggerel, “The Farmer Goes Up 
Head,” that I said that selection alone 
was well worth the other six months’ 
subscription. G. F. V. 
Maine. 
I like those articles by the Rev. 
George B. Gilbert. I think they are 
genuine and true to life. Too many of 
our country churches are dead, and they 
have no real hold upon the people. I 
do not think we should always blame 
the people for this, for in many cases 
the church has not grasped the real 
spirit of the times, and does not take hold 
of the real daily life of its people as 
should be done. MRS. J. M. A. 
Vermont. 
That was a good article in your last 
business department about the chicken 
business. There was a good deal to this, 
and a careful man or woman can, I am 
sure, develop a nice trade if located near 
a town or city of fair size. It will mean 
lots of work and sometimes as the 
writer states, other jobs will have to be 
neglected, but it is a good business and 
the idea is well brought out in that 
article. S. B. R. 
New Jersey. 
