TShe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
999 
Wild Stories Ahoul Food Arrests 
T have just come from my home in 
Northern New York, where my people 
live. They take The It. N.-Y. I found 
when I reached home from my Winter 
teaching that the home people were much 
upset by stories which are being passed 
about. The neighbors tell them one to 
the other—and indeed, they are the chief 
topic of conversation. Then they get ex¬ 
cited and are very unreasonable. Here 
are some samples of the stories: The 
minister’s wife is telling of some man 
back in her home who is a “nice, good 
man,” who has bought Liberty bonds, is 
liberal in giving, and so on. The Red 
Cross people asked him for money and 
with a laugh (all good-natured, of course) 
he said. “Why, one might as well live in 
Germany.” So there was a complaint en¬ 
tered against him and he was taken to a 
nearby city, fined $50 and costs and 
warned, etc. Then the common story is 
of men who come and ask to stay to din¬ 
ner, and if it is a meatless day, the people 
are arrested and fined if they are found 
with meat at the meal. Again, it is 
campers who ask to stay to dinner and 
after eating the meal of meat arrest the 
people. Again it is a tramp who asks for 
something to eat, and Avhen wheat bread 
is given him complains of the family. 
Will you kindly tell me if in any of these 
cases people could be arrested for the 
reasons given if that was all the reason 
and nothing more? So long as people buy 
the flour substitutes cannot they use the 
flour which they can get in any way they 
please? Can a man be arrested if he has 
not signed a pledge if he does not keep 
the meatless days? The people are loyal 
as loyal can be, but they feel that they 
are losing their freedom if such small 
things cause arrests while greater crimes 
are passing unnoticed. If I venture to 
suggest that they have no proof of the 
stories and then do not know the circum¬ 
stances they think that I am not sympa¬ 
thetic. E. n. 
We doubt if any of these stories could 
he proved. The Government would not 
arrest people for such things. The most 
that would be done would be a warning 
and we have no thought that any of these 
incidents ever happened. A number of 
frauds are or were going about pretend¬ 
ing to he Government agents, frightening 
people into paying them money or giving 
up a share of their canned goods. Most 
of these frauds have been run down, but 
it is never safe for women and children 
to have dealings with strangers. The 
Government has too much to do besides 
sending its agents from house to house to 
observe the habits of people. If any 
family have the reputation of being pro- 
German they will be watched, and pro¬ 
perly so, but no loyal person need fear 
arrest under any such circumstances as 
you name. Many people are nervous and 
excited over the war situation, and the 
Food Administration and other depart¬ 
ments have issued so many orders and so 
much advice that people are confused and 
upset. We are told that just before the 
French Revolution a sort of terror seized 
the country people. All sorts of stories 
were told, and these stories grew the more 
they were passed along, until people be¬ 
came nervous and frightened. In most 
cases such stories are started and kept 
going by pro-Germans. It is part of a 
regular programme to frighten people and 
make them discontented, and loyal people 
should not fall into any such ti'ap and 
help it along. The stories have no foun¬ 
dation, as a rule. We have run several 
of them down—always finding them fakes. 
The best way to stop them is to refuse 
to listen to them and nevet' repeat them. 
We have the following letter from the 
Food Administration which settles it: 
I have looked the matter up (although 
I knew there could be no basis in fact 
for the stories) and you can assure the 
enquirer that they are entirely without 
foundation. Whenever the Food Admin¬ 
istration has occasion to bring about in¬ 
vestigations of suspected unpatriotic or 
pro-German activities it does so through 
the regiilar channels of the Department 
of .Justice, and not by any dime novel 
tricks such as those that are ascribed to 
it by these rumors. And such violations 
of alleged regulations as those mentioned 
would certainly be no grounds for any in¬ 
vestigation at all. 
There is. of course, absolutely no regu¬ 
lation against people eating wheat bread 
or meat in their own homes. So far as 
the IT. S. Food Administration is con¬ 
cerned. there is no such thing now as a 
wheatless day or a meatless day, and I 
doubt if there are such days by local 
regulation in New York. 
When the Food Administration was 
asking the people to observe wheatless 
and meatless days a d meals, there were 
never any arrests. Outside of the prohi¬ 
bition against hoarding foods, our regu¬ 
lations of the householders have been 
largely of a voluntary nature. The fifty- 
fifty rule of course was obligatory, but 
was managed through the retailer; as for 
meat now, we are asking householders to 
keep down to not more than 1^4 pounds 
of clear beef a week; in wheat wo are 
still urging as small a use in the house- 
liold as possible, with an “honor” ration, 
I believe, of 1% pounds. E. w. smith. 
Hair Removers 
(Continued from page 997) 
often rather red, but a little cold cream 
helps that. The hair is usually removed 
a little below the surface, so that it is 
several days before it shows up again, 
but it will show and then the temptation 
is to fly to the little SO-cent bottle. Here 
is where the trouble begins, for repeated 
treatments are very apt to produce a 
.stiTbborn skin inflammation which is more 
disfiguring than the original pubescence. 
There are other sulphides which will 
dissolve hair, hut the trouble is that they 
soon break down in solution, and hence 
cannot easily be bottled for sale. A five 
per cent solution of the sulphide of either 
potash or soda is a very good hair solvent, 
and not very caustic if used with care 
and followed with a little weak and harm¬ 
less acid, such as vinegar. But the so¬ 
lutions are very unstable. They keep a 
good deal better if a strong solution of 
glucose, starch sugar, is used as a sol¬ 
vent, and this mixture makes a very good 
hair remover, but will also irritate the 
skin more or less. It is said that the 
continued use of these solvents tends to 
discourage the growth of the hair, but it 
is easy to produce a bad condition of the 
skin by resorting to them too often. There 
is one body, thallium acetate, which is 
used in one per cent solution with a little 
water and the rest lanoliue and vaseline, 
which is said to have a specific action on 
the hair roots and slowly to weaken them 
so that the hair becomes fainter and 
finally ceases. But this is certainly an 
irritant poison, and the general public 
has no business to fool with it. Human 
hair differs from that of many animals in 
having its secreting glands well beneath 
the skin, practically on the other side 
of it, in fact, so that anything which 
reaches the gland is pretty sure to injure 
the skin on the way. The oue^ sure and 
safe thing to remove hair which grows 
where you don’t want it is a keen razor. 
To be sure, the hair will show up in 
from one to three days, but the repeated 
removal is quick and harmless, and fre¬ 
quent shaving does not encourage, in 
itself, the growth of hair. The short hair 
simply seems stiffen than the uncut, that 
is all. The growth of the hair itself is 
a matter of the general bodily health, and 
of the local supply of blood to the “roots,” 
that is. to the little gland at the base of 
each hair. 
Straining Vinegar 
I have some good cider vinegar which 
I wish to sell at retail; it is in barrels 
as it came from the press. I wish to get 
rid of the .sediment and the “mother.” 
Should' this be put in with the strained 
vinegar? c. K. w. 
Get your clean bottles ready and also 
a small plug just the size of a small bit. 
Bore in one end about four inches up, 
and put in the “spile” just as you draw 
out the bit. A pan beneath will help if 
you are not quite quick enough. Unless 
you have a groat deal more sediment than 
is usual the vinegar will run very clear 
and bright till nearly all is out and the 
“mother” begins to come in shreds. This 
is, of course, if you have not turned or 
disturbed the barrels for a few days. 
The mother should not be in the vinegar 
to be sold. It has done its woi‘k and is 
a waste. It is really a minute plant 
which lives on the alcohol which the 
yeast makes from the sugar of the apples. 
After the vinegar has become rather 
strong, 04 per cent acetic acid, if there is 
enough alcohol for that, the “mother” 
ceases to grow. The last ol the vinegar 
in the barrel can be set in another vessel 
to settle, or it can be strained through 
several thicknesses of cheesecloth and will 
come quite clear. If “vinegar worms” 
appear, by all means kill them by heating 
tl^e ^ vinegar quickly just to .scalding, 
cooling as quickly as you can and strain¬ 
ing. If the heating and cooling are done 
rapidly, there will be only a slight loss 
of the aromatic bodies which give the 
pleasant flavor to cider vinegar. It is 
worth while to sterilize fancy vinegar 
anyway, but be sure to do it in an enam¬ 
eled iron or earthen vessel. 
Boric Acid in Septic Tank 
I have a modern bathroom equipment 
in my farm home. One member of the, 
family^ has to use a wash of boric acid 
three times a day. Would this wash harm 
the bacteria in the septic tank? E. T. il. 
Indiana. 
Probably not, but you do not say how 
much the volume of the boric acid solu¬ 
tion is, nor its strength, so it is hard to 
judge the probable effect, nor do you tell 
the cubic contents of the tank, so we can¬ 
not figure the dilution. 
Low or High Wheels 
Is the draft heavier for a wagon with 
low wheels than for one with high wheels, 
other things being equal? F. A.W. 
New Jersey. 
The actual work is going to be the 
same, as you cannot get something for 
nothing, but the high wheels get the work 
done easier because other things are not 
equal, nor can they be made so. That is, 
the two conditions are not comparable, 
since there are too many variables. 
“How you do stutter, my poor lad. 
Did you ever go to a stammering school?” 
“No-n-no, sir. I dud-dud-do this n-natu- 
rally.”—Boston Transcript. 
Wes tern Electric 
Power and Light 
the 
Western Electric man 
show ^ou the kind 
of*plant^ou need 
T here is as much difference in electric 
light plants as there is in automobiles or 
gas engines. No one type is equally suited to 
all farms, and your power and light require¬ 
ments may be different from your neighbors’. 
Like every farmer, you want electric power 
and light, but you don’t want an outfit either 
too large or too small for your needs. Start 
right! Get all the facts! Let the Western 
Electric man show you the kind of plant 
you need ! 
Our business is bigger than the mere selling 
of any particular electric plant. We sell elec¬ 
tricity for the farm. There are all sizes and 
types of Western Electric outfits. We are not 
forced by policy to sell one type for every 
purpose. We can sell you an outfit with or 
without a gas engine. 
If you have a gas engine, it may be a need¬ 
less expense to buy another engine as a part of 
an outfit. On the other hand, if you want an 
outfit with built-in engine, the Western Elec¬ 
tric man will tell you about a new outfit of 
this type ready for delivery this Fall. In any 
case, it is just a matter of fitting our equip¬ 
ments to your needs. 
More than forty years of electrical manufac¬ 
turing experience is back of all these Western 
Electric Power and Light Outfits. 
Make your entire equipment “Western 
Electric.” You can get Western Electric 
Motors, Water Systems, Milking Machines, 
etc., to save labor on the farm; as well as Irons, 
Vacuum Cleaners, Washing Machines and 
other electrical helps to save time and labor in 
the home. 
There is a Western Electric man near you. Mail the coupon for 
Booklet No. RNY-7, and we will tell him to get in touch with you. 
WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY 
INCORPORATED 
195 Broadway, New York, N. Y. 
410 South Clinton St., Syracuse, N. Y. 
11th and York Sts., Phila., Pa. 
910 River Ave., Pittsburgh, Pa. 
413 Huron Road, Cleveland, O. 
129 Government Square, Cincinnati, O. 
I WESTERN ELECTRIC CO., Inc. 
I I want to know more about your electric plants, so pleas# 
I send your book No. RNY-7, “Power and Light.” 
I Name_- 
I 
P. O. Address- 
County_ 
State. 
