250 
0>c RURAL NEW-YORKER 
February 17, 1017. 
Business 
School Tax and the Supervisor 
The following true incident is related 
by a reader in Virginia. Did you over 
hear anything like it in your county? 
\s an evidence of the need of education 
in the affaii’.s of the county, even h. the 
county officials themselves, the following 
might serve a purpose : A few years ago 
our school board wanted an increase in 
the school levy of three cents on the 
hundred dollars in order to perfect the 
high school course. The Board of Super¬ 
visors refu.sed the request on the ground 
that it would he an imposition on the 
jaior people. One day I undertook to 
change the opinion of one of the board 
and swing liim around to the schools. lie 
became much excited over my wish to bur¬ 
den the people with such heavy taxation. 
The Business of Tending a Vermont Grandchild 
I ilsked him if he knew what was the av¬ 
erage family asscs.sment in the county. 
He did not. I told him it was I 
then asked him if he knew what an in¬ 
crease of three cents would mean to each 
taxpayer on this basis. He tried to tell 
me. but got hopelessly confused. I told 
him 15 cents a year. He could not un¬ 
derstand, so I asked him how mimh to¬ 
bacco he chewed a week ; he said 25 cents 
worth. I then told him that all he would 
have to do to meet this extra tax burden 
was to stop chewing for about four days 
each year. I then asked him how much 
whisky he had bought for (’hristmas. He 
said he was not a drinking man, but he 
did buy two gallons. At how much a gal¬ 
lon? $2.50. “Now,” said I, “do you 
know how long that five dollars spent in 
whisky would have carried your chi’.dren 
through that extra high school year that 
they are a.sking you for ?’’ No, he did not. 
“Well, just 23 years and four months.” 
But. just the same, we did not get the 
thri'c cents’ increase because of the sup¬ 
posed burden on the poor people, until we 
went to the Legislature the next year and 
had a law passed making the minimum 
school levy 15 cents on the hundred dol¬ 
lars. These men were honest in their 
<-onviction. but it was such ignorance that 
sent six young men away from home the 
next year to finish their high school 
course at a cost of around $500 each. 
Th(“se six all came from one town. There 
were scores in the county that did the 
same thing. 
Shorter Life of Country Women 
The remarkable longevity of a false 
statement, if it happens to be striking 
and to touch upon something concerning 
which the public is not well informed, 
is well illustrated by the still frequent 
reix'tition of the foolish assertion that 
the majority of women in our insane 
asylums are from farm homes. Despite 
the denials of those in charge of such 
institutions, this falsehood hits a run¬ 
ning start that will take the truth a 
hing time to overcome. 
That rural women are not as long 
lived as their sisters of the city is now 
asserted, however, by Prof. Glover of the 
T’niversity of Michigan, and special 
agent of the TJ. S. Census Bureau. The 
expectation of life, as the average dura¬ 
tion of life beyond any given age is 
called, is higher for women, as a sex, 
than for men. But, when coxmtry wom¬ 
en alone are considered, their expecta¬ 
tion of life falls markedly, and, at cer¬ 
tain ages, is below that of men. Ac¬ 
cording to the .authority above (pioted, 
a study of both European and American 
life tables shows that the expectation of 
life in the country is far higher than 
that of the city. Thus, out of each 
100,000 men born, 14.603 more reach 
the age of 60 if reared in the country 
than if city bred. But country women 
do not share in this increase, else, like 
the rest of their sex, they would live 
longer than the men. As a matter of 
fact, the death rate among country wom¬ 
en is almost as high as that of men, 
and. between the ages of 25 and 31. it 
is higher. The same thing occurs in 
negro women between the ages of 10 and 
20 . 
Prof. Glover does not attempt to ex¬ 
plain these facts but records them as 
an outcome of the study of vital statis¬ 
tics extending over a long period of 
time and covering many thousands of 
lives. He does assert, however, that the 
comparatively excessive death rate of the 
city is worthy of careful attention on 
the part of sanitarians, and his state¬ 
ments appear somewhat contradictory of 
those recently made that in New York 
Htate rural health is on a level below 
that of tlie town. M. B. D. 
A Prohibition Problem 
While we read with interest about the 
widespread li(iuor reforms and the many 
States going dry, I have never seen the 
.subject of cider discus.sed. It is the 
greatest evil in the rural districts. I 
have heard the remark made several 
times that they could not deprive a farm¬ 
er of his cider. I know farmers who put 
in from one to 15 barrels of cider every 
year. Many plan to hire cheap labor 
and give plenty of cider. In some parts 
the first question the help ask is, “Have 
they any cider?” 
without a cent in their pockets, and by 
night came home without “a foot under 
them.” Where they have cider as soon as 
a man calls the pitcher is tilled and all 
help themselves. Many men can trace 
their downfall to the pitcher of cider. 
While attending a social gathering at a 
farmer’s, where the cider was plentiful, a 
boy of 10 asked for a drink of water and 
was asked if he did not want a glass of 
cider. Ilis mother overheard it and 
stopped the first glass, but will he be able 
to resist the next? Hdw many farmers’ 
wives dread the Fall and Winter, with the 
flow of cider and many callers! 
New York. aunt Elizabeth. 
Drying Clothes Indoors 
I have been wondering if my way of 
drying clothes indoors might not be of 
use to some of The R. N.-Y. readers. We 
have a room ui)stairs 12x15. that the 
children use for a play-room. In the cen¬ 
ter of the floor is a hot-air register, we 
having a hot-air furnace. There are tlu’ee 
windows and two doors in the room. 
When I wash I have all the clothes ready 
to hang up at one time, and leave the reg¬ 
ister closed until all the clothes are hung 
up. When all the clothes are on the line 
I open wide all windows and doors, also 
the register, and leave windows open for 
two or three hours, then shut them down. 
I always hang the woolens and thick 
pieces near the register and the white 
clothes as near the windows as possible. 
A couple of dozen of closet hooks and 
a ball of husband’s binder twine make 
good hanging equipment, as the twine is 
easily taken down when done. My clothes 
are white and nice dried this way, and I 
avoid many discomforts, besides saving 
quite a bit of time and a great deal of 
wear and tear on clothes. 
Michigan. sius. M. Kennedy. 
Easy Pin Money 
The industrious housewife of the rural 
districts is invariably casting about for 
some means of obtaining some loose 
change for odds and ends, usually bought 
at the five and 10c. store, without in¬ 
fringing upon the bank account saved up 
for a rainy day or calling upon her hus¬ 
band for the nece.ssary funds. This is 
calh'd pin money. In some households, 
butter, eggs, garden stuff and, before the 
evaporator’s day, dried fruit, were the 
sources from which thig pin money was 
obtained. But a change has come over all 
this, at least in the fruit belt of Western 
New York, which in the past season of 
1016 has become very pronounced, espe- 
cnally along State road highways. While 
passing over Route 30, better known as 
the $1,000,000 highway between Niagara 
Falls and Rochester, we came upon a sec¬ 
tion of the old ridge road which the above 
highway follows over a stretch of about 
20 miles. Along this stretch here and 
there on the roadside, would appear little 
stands similar to the picture, laden with 
th(' wares that the good housewife has for 
sale. I understand it has been a vei-y 
profitable ventu-re, as a great many dol¬ 
lars’ worth, of fruit and vegetables that 
would have gone to waste have been dis¬ 
posed of to the delight of both seller and 
buyer. Of course, this has been made pos¬ 
sible by the large traffic in automobiles 
passing over this route everj' day, and 
from nearly every State in the Union. 
But I believe it can be done on nearly 
every road in the country. The consumer 
wants your products! Place them in a 
conspicuous i)osition near the farmhouse, 
and they will stop and get them. 
New York. w. c. eaton. 
The High Cost of Living 
iMen and women food experts are going 
from city to ciyt trying to teach women 
to set a table with different and cheaper 
food to help reduce the high cost of living. 
1 do not think it a success. The wives of 
the working class as a rule can manage 
to live on their income better than any¬ 
one can tell them. Mo.st of these demon¬ 
strators buy in quantities and that makes 
a difference in the i)rice. There is an¬ 
other side of the question, the men and 
children of these housekeepers. Having 
had a large family and boarders I know 
from exi)erience that you can put a differ¬ 
ent article of food on the table once in a 
while, but the family has grown accus¬ 
tomed to mother’s cooking and does not 
want any fancy or experimental dishes, 
in my opinion if .some of the mothers 
could get up and explain, and do some 
cooking, they would make the best 
teachers. aunt Elizabeth. 
Prices for Old Paper 
Our Sunday School boys are organizing 
to gather waste paper and magazines, 
which they expect to sell and use the 
money to buy various articles for the 
Sunday School and church. AA’e can sell 
this paper in Fort Wayne, seven miles 
away, but would it pay us to ship it? 
Can some R. N.-Y. reader help me? 
Indiana. ii. II. 
The AV. L. Loeser Co. give us the fol¬ 
lowing facts about scrap paper : 
The mills do not buy small lots of 
paper stock. This is left to dealers, who 
are located in almost all towns, and 
whose i)aying prices are quite generally 
the same. Old magazines and books 
(heavy covers torn off) should be packed 
in solid bundles, and are worth about 
$1.50 per cwt.. delivered to buyers’ rail¬ 
road station. Newspapers packed flat in 
solid bundles. 75c. j>er cwt. Aliscellaneous 
scrap papers are worth about 6.5c.. but 
cannot be packed in bundles. If shipped 
in sacks, the freight rate is very high. 
Small paper balers are now on the mar¬ 
ket from .$15 upward. It would pay many 
people to buy these, for, as .stated above, 
shipment in any other form than bales is 
.almost out of the question. Freight rate 
on hundles of magazines and newspapers 
is quite low. These prices, while they 
are about double the normal paying prices 
prior to last year, are still lower than 
they really ought to be, in our opinion. 
There are evidently combinations among 
the consumers of this material, which ap¬ 
pear to be quite successful in maintaining 
the prices on their finished product and 
at the same time by “gentlemen’s agree¬ 
ment” or otherwise, refraining from 
costly competition on the buying end. 
I- 
I Legal Questions 
Renewal or Lease 
I am a tenant farmer. My lease ex¬ 
pires March 1, 1917. The owner died in 
August, leaving only a widow, with 
whom I did not get along very well. She 
sold her belongings (all but a few cows 
which are under lease) and moved 
away, not telling where she went. She 
has not notified me to move. In my 
lease it is stated “In the event of a i-e- 
newal of this lease.” Do I have to move 
without a notice, or does the widow 
have to give me notice to move? I am 
told by neighbors that I should remain 
unless I am notified to move. From a 
reliable source I have it that the farm 
in under foreclo.sure. AA^’otild that make 
a difference to me? J. s. 
New ,1 ersey. 
The general rule is that where by the 
tei’ms of a lease it expires at a certain 
date, neither party has to give the other 
notice beforehand. On her part she may 
expect you to move without notice, and 
she could dispossess you if you held over 
without her permission. On the other 
hand, you may move on the date without 
giving her previous notice. If you hold 
over and pay rent you on your part in 
effect renew the terms of the old lease 
for another year, and if she accepts rent 
she on her part ratifies the old lease and 
cannot thei-eafter put you off until the 
year is up. If the mortgage is fore¬ 
closed, it would terminate your rights un¬ 
der the lease, and you would have to 
leave after the transfer of title, unless 
you could nuike terms with the owner. 
Distribution of Property 
A man dies leaving a widow whom he 
married in 1876, and six daughters all 
of age, and an estate consisting of a 
hou.se and two acres of land worth less 
than two thousand dollars and about one 
hundred dollars personal property. AA'hat 
interest has the widow in the estate? 
Should the widow be appointed admin- 
stratrix if she wishes to be, all of the 
heirs wanting her excei)t one If some 
ether person is appointed administrator, 
'.as he any right to sell the real estate 
which is used .as a home if all the hcir.s 
excej)t one object? The widow has paid 
all the bills of the estate. AA’hat can 
! 3 e done to stop him from stdling the 
A Farm Woman’s Advertising 
real estate if he gets the right to sell 
from the judge of probate? J. w. 
Gonnecticut. 
The wife's interest is as follows: Gne- 
third of the personal estate absolutely 
and one-third of the real estate for life. 
The widow should be appointed admin¬ 
istratrix in preference to any one else. 
AA'here all the bills are paid. I hardly 
think the administrator can sell the real 
estate against the objection of all the heirs 
but one, but I am iu)t conversant enough 
with your laws to be sure of this. 
If he gets the right to sell from the 
probate judge, there is hardly anything 
that can stop him. The only thing to 
do w’ould be to offer to buy at the sale: 
but it is hardly probable that he will 
be appointed administrator. 
Men have started out in the morning 
The Business of Training Steers 
