478 
Alarch 23, 191R 
PUBLISHER’S DESK. 
Last Fall a slick-tonftucd chap callinK 
himself “Alien” came through this place 
selling the “Vertical Feed” sewing ma¬ 
chine. The machine was represented as 
being far superior to anything on the 
market. The price was $08. The agree¬ 
ment was that if it was not satisfactory 
in every way, the company would at 
once take it away and return the amount 
I»aid. He induced me to sign a note for 
.84’3. promising to hold it. and give me as 
much more time as 1 wanted if not con¬ 
venient to i)ay when due. This note was 
immediately transferred to F. O. Martin 
Company. ' The enclosed correspondence 
explains the I'est. A letter addressed to 
O. B. Smith Company. Dayton. Ohio, 
was returned unclaimed. Another .sent 
to “A>rtical Feed Hewing Machine Com- 
I>any” was never answered. The enclosed 
letter, sign<*d O. B. Hmith and counter¬ 
signed (). B. S., is in the handwriting of 
Allen, although he is careful to conceal 
his whereabouts. Can these parties take 
anything more than the nuichine they left 
for this note?. It is a very cheap affair, 
not worth over .$20 ar most. Can you 
help me any? Or if these people are not 
straight, will you show them ui» iind^ save 
somebody else from being taken in? 
Maryland. J. E. i.. 
The above letter is a sample of the 
way farnu'rs' are deceived by traveling 
agents representing various business 
houses that have little regard for their 
reputation. It is a mo.st foolhardy thing 
for any farmer to sign a note, or any 
other paper, with a stranger in this way. 
The rule is the houses sending out agents 
in this way will assume no responsibility 
for the representations made by the agent 
but will hold the farmer signing the paper 
up strictly to the conditions of the docu¬ 
ment itself. The courts uphold the 
houses doing business in this way, on the 
theoi-y that the signed document is the 
best evidence of the conditions of what 
the agreement was. M e are publishing 
this letter as a warning to all farmers 
NC)T to sign notes or contracts with 
strangers in this way. 
I placed in your hands for cfdlection 
three claims against the Adam.s Express 
Company. The consignee claims that 
they had not been offered for delivery. 
It would seem that in these days of gov¬ 
ernment control, our lawmakers should at 
least make an effort to plijce a law on the 
statute books compelling express compa¬ 
nies either to deliver the goods receipted 
for within a reasonable time or settle 
with the shipper within 80 days froni the 
date of filing claim. Hh^iuld an ordinary 
sne.ak thief be detected in confiscating a 
case of eggs from the Adams Express 
Company. I venture the prediction that 
thev would see to it that he was either 
fined or sent to jail, and that speedily. 
Why, mav I ask, should shippers be com- 
pellWl to' accept the dilatory tactics re¬ 
sorted to by the Adams Express Company, 
evidentlv with a view of tiring out the 
shipper to such an extent that he gives up 
the claim, and thus increases the express 
company’s dividends, as a legitimate busi- 
ne.ss transaction? ll. l- F. 
New York. 
Enclosed you will find claims for ship¬ 
ments of eggs smashed and not delivered. 
I have sent in claims long ago. but do 
not hear anything from them. If you can 
move them' I shall be very grateful to 
you. The treatment received from the 
express company has caused so much loss 
to me that I am forcert out of business; 
am selling all of my stock and closing up. 
I cannot possibly continue under such 
conditions. I have hung on year after 
yeju’, hoping things would get better, Init 
can see no hope. E. a. c. 
Connecticut. 
The above letters .show the tempera¬ 
ment of shippers toward the transporta¬ 
tion companies. If there is any greater 
menace to the poultry or other business 
depending upon express service than the 
Adams Express Co. we do not know of 
it. If food is to win the war. as is so 
often stated by* the officials of the gov¬ 
ernment, then the Adams Express Co. 
is an ally of the Kaiser in the destruc¬ 
tion of food placed in their care and a 
discouragement to producers by refus¬ 
ing to pay for what they destroy or 
allow to be stolen. 
I am sending you under separate cover 
an offer of N. A. Reinert & Co., brokers, 
of Chicago, Ill. Please let me know what 
you think of this investment through your 
Publisher’s Desk. This is the first thing 
I read in The R. N.-Y. e. r. 
New York. 
The offer referred to is for the purchase 
of Mayfield Oil and Refining Company’s 
stock, under what the brokers call the 
“Reinert Syndicate Mayfield Pool.” To 
judge of the Mayfield Oil and Refining 
Company by the advertising matter of the 
fiscal agent, we should put it among the 
IShe RURAL N E W-Y O R K E R 
class of “Blue Sky” investments. The 
mails are flooded with the promotion lit¬ 
erature of oil concerns at the present 
time. The proposition.s that are appealing 
to couTitry people in this way are those 
that men of experience in the oil business 
would not risk a penny in. The inex¬ 
perienced are easy victims. 
In your November papers were ads. 
for “dry hand milkers.” L. T. Ilallock, 
Clayton. N. .1., which I answered. I 
went there and under the direction of a 
new foreman, worked hard in straighten¬ 
ing out the dairy. The foreman was also 
there, through the ad. in your paper. 
I signed no contract but agreed to 
work for .$4.") per month. On account of 
the conditions at the place, when the 
foreman left. I quit also before my month 
was up. Mr. Ilallock refuses to pay 
me for the little more than three weeks 
I worked for him. v'^an you collect what 
is due me? G. M. i). 
Philadelphia. 
Fnle.ss the conditions were Intolerable, 
this party should have workei^his month 
out; but the fact of his leaving before the 
month was completed does not justif.v 
the employer in withholding payment for 
the work actually performed. Air. Ilal¬ 
lock takes the position that if the money 
is due O. M. D. he can collect it by 
legal process. 'I'his is the arbitrary posi¬ 
tion nuiny men of means take when deal¬ 
ing with poor peoi)le. It would cost this 
young man more than the amount of his 
wages to fight his case in court. Air. 
Ilallock will not be allowed to advertise 
for help in the columns of The Rural 
New-Yorker in the future. It is im- 
jiractical to investigate the reliability 
and fair dealing of advertisers in the 
Subscribers’ Exchange Department, but in 
any case where we receive evidence that 
either em|)lo.ver or emi>loyee has not 
acted honorably or fairly, the individual 
will be denied the .service of this depart¬ 
ment in the future. 
I.iast Alarch I sent the Ileneta Bone 
Co., Newjirk, N. .1.. .$2.25 for one bag of 
Ileneta, and received an answer that The 
goods would be shipped from the Nowah 
AIfiling Corp. of Buffalo. 1 got notice 
from the Nowah pc'ople that they had re¬ 
ceived the order and goods would be sent 
at once. I have written the Ileneta Co. 
.six or seven letters and have not had an 
answer to the last two. The la.st one I 
wrote.I told them if I did not get a re¬ 
fund I would leave it to .vou to collect, so 
if there is a chance, will you try to col¬ 
lect this account? o. G. 
New York. 
AVe have written the Ileneta Bone Co. 
several times with reference to this order. 
The company replied to our original let¬ 
ter, saying that if the order had not been 
filled the money would be refunded. This 
was two months ago, and our letters in 
the meantime have been ignored. A few 
years ago we refused the advertising of 
the Ileneta Bone Co. because we did not 
regard the claims made for the product 
were justified. The experience of C). G. 
is further reason why poultrymen should 
not favor the firm with their orders. 
A^our Publisher’s Desk is worth all 
your paper costs. I read letter of II. P., 
'N. Y., in regard to The Atheneum, Ft. 
AA’'ayne, Ind. Aly daughter had about 
the same experience. A man calling 
himself Claude E. Beam came to her 
school early one morning and stayed until 
almost recess explaining the advantages 
she would get by taking their course. 
She gave him a check for $2.5. He hur¬ 
ried to the bank to collect and the 
banker said he had several checks, some 
for $50. He gave them nothing to show 
that he had received the money, only a 
receipt; promised to send them lessons 
the first of April if they would send $50 
more. He also promised to find them a 
position. Could we write to the post¬ 
master and get them to prosecute for 
fraudulent u.se of the mail? It shows 
that they are working in several States, 
and there ought to be some way to get 
at them and stop their defrauding young 
teachers. If all papers would expose 
them, it would warn others, and they 
would not make such easy money. 
Kansas. MRS. u. s. 
Transactions, such as the above, not 
being conducted j)rimarily through the 
mails, we fear the Postoffice Department 
would not haver jurisdiction to act, even 
though it could be clearly shown that a 
fraud had been perpetrated. As a rule 
the correspondence school peddlers are 
careful not to leave themselves liable to 
prosecution under the criminal law. As 
this good mother suggests, it is little less 
than an outrage that young .schoolteachers 
should be defrauded of a large i)ortion 
of their year’s salary on this sort of a 
scheme. 
T^aynyay'i “fith Jlooy 
Concr^Jfi sih iy 
Save Feed and Manure 
Now is the time to conserve feed and fertilizer. To 
consume less and produce more is the need of the hour. 
Save feed and prevent waste of fertilizer by building a 
Concrete Barnyard Floor 
It saves feed and manure. Does away with mud 
and filth. Is easily cleaned, costs little to build and 
lasts a lifetime. 
A barnyard floor—say 20 feet by 25 feet and 6 inches 
thick—takes 55 bags of Atlas Portland Cement (ask 
your dealer what this will cost), no cubic feet of sand 
and 220 cubic feet of gravel or crushed stone. There’s 
probably enough sand and gravel on your own place. 
Use Atlas Portland Cement 
The high uniform quality of Atlas makes it best to use. Full instruc¬ 
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barn floor cellar floor dipping vat 
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This org.mizatiou lias over thousand (mplic.ants 
on its lists: .Superintendents, Working Managers. 
Couples, CTardeuers,etc. All services rendered free. 
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