1432 
7fit RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Grketixg.— The I’arson sits <lo\vn to 
the desk o^ico more to write to his many 
Hural New-Yorker friends. It seems a 
long time since he has had a talk with 
them, and certainly much history has 
been riiade in the last few months. Who 
ever dared hope that the war would come 
to a close so soon ! One can hai dly be¬ 
lieve it yet. And when the boys come 
marcliing home with all the celebration 
that will go with it. how hard it will be 
for tho.se whose boy will never come 
The Parson's Well-Filled Corncrih 
home. How 
them and do 
much we must 
all we can for 
marching 
think of 
them. 
IIo.ME CAStiAETiES. —When the Parson 
reads tho.se long lists of ca.sualtie.s in the 
papers, he thinks of the ca.sualties of 
heart and body that follow in the home. 
In one case down the county, the mother 
was very blue about the boy going; she 
was sure he would never come back. But 
the father was quite the other way; he 
was sure he would come, all happy and 
unharmed. And when the telegram came 
it was too much for him; he could not 
even .see to read it. With loving memory 
of the one and sad mourning for the other 
we had our service in the little (duircli. 
“Love’s ties are very strong and in this 
case were so tightly woven and bound, 
that death itself could not i-end them 
asunder, to keep the two apart.” That 
was what the Parson said. 
The New Church.— No. not a new 
church building; we have far too many 
of these now, but there is going to be a 
new kind of church. That is what we 
will have to have after the war. What 
id(‘as of church work will those (>0,000 
imrsons have who have been with the 
army? What will they think of the mint, 
anise and cumin that so many spend 
their time fussing about? Will they be 
content to carry a kid glove in one hand 
and lead around a cane in the other and 
sip green tea with the ladies? What 
will the boys think of the men who have 
nothing else to do but shout about denom¬ 
inational dilTereuces! 
The Y. M. C. A. .'4ort.—C an the 
church here earn the enthu.siastic support 
that the Y. M. C. A. receives? Of course 
it can, if it will go about its job in the 
same spirit, though it may not seem the 
sanie thing; quite likely not any of the 
things. Let its motto lx*, not so much 
“Get money out of everybody. Avhether 
poor or rich,” but ratiier “Let us do ev¬ 
erything for everybody that anybody 
needs.” Last Sunday down at the old 
chui'ch there Avas a man from over into 
the next county Avho quite likely was in 
need of religion, or more of it than he 
had in store, but he Avas also very much 
in need of something else, and that AA'as a 
coAv. So after service we had a consulta¬ 
tion about the old box stove. Avhich ended 
in the Parson taking his car and the man 
and going on an expedition to find a cow. 
After apparently satisfying him Avith a 
promi.sing four-year-old and giving him a 
fine chicken dinner Avith red cabbage and 
baked apples throAvn in. the m.an went off 
home, ruminating on the quite apparent 
advantages of attending meetin’. 
Tx THE Coffee.—T here seems to be lit¬ 
tle doubt that the church that does a real, 
useful, necessary Avork is the church of 
th(' future. The community church is 
coming very fast. People are sick and 
tired of supporting three or four churches 
where there is only enough Avork for one. 
I’liey care very little Avhat kind of a 
church it is. The main thing Avith them 
is. does it deliver the goods? Many min¬ 
isters have gone over to do trench Avork 
and rather squirmed at the methods used 
there. One b'attle-AVorn Avorker Avas hand¬ 
ing out hot coffee to the boys from the 
trenches and such a one came up to him 
and Avhispered: “Can’t you speak a Avord 
for .Tesus—just one word for Him?” “Y"ou 
don’t haA'e to.” said the man, Avithout 
turning his head, “Jesus is in the cof¬ 
fee.” 
Din IT Pay?— Yes, the Parson thinks 
it did pay, and pay aa'oII. Though the lit¬ 
tle mother Avas afraid it didn’t. Such a 
long ride as they had—father and mother 
and tAVO sturdy boys, coming 14 mile.s to 
go to the movies. But it had been years 
since they left Ncav York and the moA’ies 
behind them. And every day the boys 
read in the paper about the wonderful 
shoAVs. and this time had they not read 
of Charlie Chaplin himself? Will they 
go, or Avill they not go? 
A Great Prixcipee.—T he Parson 
thinks that the most important decision 
the back-to-the-lander has made for a 
very long time—perhaps since he came to 
the farm. Down in the pasture Avas the 
wood lot, and the bo.vs at home for a day 
to be .such a great help. Fourteen miles 
.aAvay was the movies and Charlie Chap¬ 
lin. BetAA'cen. lay a hard and Aveary 
road to be covered with a heavy Avork 
hoise. And that father and mother de¬ 
cided, and they decided right; they Avent 
to the movies and they saAV Charlie and 
roared Avith laughter, and they saAV the 
city and they bought candy, and they 
headed the work horse toward home at 
ju.st half-past six and pulled off his har¬ 
ness and stiirted in on the chores at just 
a quarter past eleven, and it Avas the best 
paying day that farmer eA’^er put in in his 
life. 
It Last.s.—-I t Avas a long trip, but 
how long Avill it bust in the minds of the 
boys? lIoAV they think of it, how they 
talk of it! Ami, more than all else, it 
means that the city boy is not seeing 
things that they can never see, and hear¬ 
ing funny things that they can never 
hear. And when the days grow longer, 
before the rush of Spring work is on, 
they must come to the city once more 
and be part and parcel of the great Avorld 
outside. 
A Discovery.—W ith the farm Avork 
this Fall Ave made a real discovery. It 
AA'as ahvays so hard to get the engine 
I)o\A’er to fill the silo and do the thrash¬ 
ing. In silo time e.specially, every outfit 
and strong again, the Parson takes him 
on his lap and rocks him and cheers him 
till he is like himself once more. Some¬ 
times he sees mother looking at him. so 
thin and Avhite. till her eyes are filled 
Avith tears. Sometimes he and Daddy 
take a walk about the farm. dov.Hi along 
the brook to see the muskrat runs, over 
by his turnip patch to see if the small 
ones are still groAving. and back by way of 
the Early Harvest apple tree. Quite likely 
it Avill take the Avarin air and the bright 
sunshine of .Spring to make him leap and 
Avalk once more. 
_ Ciiarlesie Boy. —Little Charles is sit¬ 
ting in front of the Ibirson and trying to 
peek around the back of tl.c tyncAvriter. 
Hoav good and cunning and sweet oe is ! 
The children fairly Avorshi)) him and play 
Avith him all day long. Through all the 
infiuenza he has kejit Avell and strong and 
happy. IIoAv terrible if anything should 
happen to him! And yet hoAv many, 
many families in this terrible Avar have 
lost all their little ones. 
Christmas Time.—I t was after just 
such little boys as Charlesie. just as cun¬ 
ning and happy and sAveet. that the sol¬ 
diers of Herod ran down the streets of 
Bethlehem to ransack through the houses 
and draw out these little ones and dash 
them against the stones. Hoav terrible 
it Avas for .Joseph and Mary, and Avith 
Avhat weariness and strain they started 
out on that long, perilous journey to 
Egypt. Hoav many, many families 
through the years of Avar have been Avan- 
dering like .Joseph and Mary AA’ith their 
little ones, not knowing Avhat AA'ould be¬ 
come of them. And noAV at Christmas 
time they will be home again. Who is 
going to make Christmas for them Avith 
their country waste and desolate? Why, 
Ave are. From our farms and fj'om our 
cellars Ave are going to send them some 
twenty million tons of food to keep them 
alive. This is more than three times as 
much as Ave used to send them. 
The Chri.stmas Spirit.—O ne great 
thing this Avar has done for us—it has 
taught us Avhat a blessed thing it is to 
keep the Christmas .spirit Avith us all the 
year round. Some still complain that it 
is giA'e, give, give, all the time. Of course 
it’s give. give, give all the time. God gives 
to us all the time. The earth gives to us 
The Car Furnishes the 'Needed Enpine Power 
is in use at the same time. But uoav avo 
do all these things and saAV Avood with 
the old car. We even saAved Avood and 
thrashed for a neighbor to help him out. 
Down county l.o miles Ave found an old 
felloAV in great distress to get his Avood 
saAved. .So one of the boys and the Par¬ 
son went down and saAved it up for him 
with the car. The att.achment connects 
lip with the crank shaft in front, and docs 
not use the tires or transmission at all. 
The (Jorxcrir. —In the picture you 
can see the end of the Parson’s corncrib 
quite bursting Avith corn. It also shoAvs 
the brook right back of the barn. The 
brook is a grand thing to have, and Ave 
think everything of it—all except Mrs. 
Par.son. At this very instant as the I’ar- 
son Avrites sounds of great weeping and 
lamentation are heard toAvard the barn. 
Little Clossie. for the second time Avithin 
a Aveek, has fallen plump into the brook. 
This time he Avas getting Avater for a 
calf; the other time he was reaching for 
the football. This jieriodical immersion 
in hot Aveather is all very well, but Moms 
objects to it in December. 
The M 11 SKRAT.S.—The boys have come 
in to tease the Parson to go Avith them to 
set the trap.s down in the meadoAV. They 
have caught quite a number. Of carrots 
and corn and apple for bait, apple seems 
to be the most attractive. They seem to 
come out early in the evening, and by 
going to the traps just before going to 
bed one finds all the game he is likely to 
find at all, and can secure them before 
they get aAAmy. If this cannot be done, it 
is Avell to go round Avith a lantern before 
daylight, as they break away generally 
after dawn. 
The Grippe. —Such a terrible lot of 
sickness this Fall. The Parson’s family 
ha.s had fully its share. The second boy 
is not yet able to go back to school, and 
may not be able to go before Spring, if 
at all this year. Hoav much patience and 
labor and cheer a long sickness in a fam¬ 
ily requires. Again it is mother’s infinite 
patience and persistence and .self-denial 
that makes it possible that Ave are all here 
at all. And Avhen the little boy gets dis¬ 
couraged and thinks he will never be Avell 
all the time, and Ave shall only learn lliat 
life is Avorth living Avhen Ave give all the 
time. _^ 
Adoption 
Inherent in the huimin race is a desire 
for fair play. From that instinctive de¬ 
sire or Avish on the part of every man and 
woman has sprung the effort to care for 
those less alile to protect themselves. The 
most terrible Avar in history, now ending, 
is the hallowed protest on the part of tin* 
Allied nations in behalf of fair play and 
right. From the knoAvledge of Ihe casualty 
lists and of Avhat tho.se silent newspisper 
columns rejire.si'nt. there groAvs in (he 
heart of every true American a desire at 
least to do our jiart in fathering and 
mothering the children Avho. ofttimes un¬ 
consciously, have made the bigge.st sacri¬ 
fice. 
Biick in the earliest records of history, 
clouded Avith fables and myths, there 
stands out as clear and sharply defined as 
the star.s on a Winter night, the family 
group. As civilization ascends, the rela¬ 
tion of the family to society as a Avhole 
becomes more intricate and comiilicated. 
but ncA'cr once does the identity of the 
family di.sappear. It is the one founda¬ 
tion upon Avhich has rested the govern- 
me.nt and social organization of eA'ery 
nation and race from the Garden of Edeii 
to the twentieth century. IntertAvined 
Avith this history of the family group is 
the history of adoption and the care of 
the children by others than members of 
the family, and the regulations Avith 
which the care and upbringing of the 
younger generation has been circum¬ 
scribed and surrounded by the government 
or tribal laivs and customs. 
The laAA’s of the IlebreAv nation Avere the 
highest type of any of the ancient races 
of Avhich there is a record. Throughout 
the Old Testament, and especially in Ia*- 
vjticus and Jeremiah, are there continual 
references to the adoption of children. In 
the Code of Hammurabi, which was Avrit- 
ten in the years of 2285 to 2242 B. C., 
in Chaldea, occurs the folloAviug: 
“If a man has taken a young child from 
his Avnters (possibly like Moses Ava.s taken 
December 28, 1018 
by the daughter of Pharoah) to sonship. 
and has reared him up. no one has any 
claim against that nursling.” 
This custom of adopting children exist¬ 
ed in all of the nations of antiquitv. in 
the history of the Chaldeans, of the Babv- 
loniams, later, of the Egyptians, the 
Greeks, the Romans and early German 
races. Prom the Roman laiv it spread 
along the Mediterranean coast to Spain 
and France, and, through the iAoman 
conquests in Germany, to the early Saxon 
races. The Saxons carried the custom 
into England, and then occurs a peculiar 
circumstance. During the first century 
of the Christian era England AA'as under 
Roman dominion. Rome, at this time. 
Avas becoming corrupt. The people, and 
especially the governing class. AA'ere Aveak 
and dissipated. The birth rate decrea.sed 
and the upper clas.s at Rome augmented 
their numbers by adoption. England or 
Britain experienced to the full the plun¬ 
dering oorruption of the Roman nobilitv : 
the consequent AA'oakening of the grip of 
Ttome on her provinces; the use of the 
provinces merely as a source of wealth 
and plunder; the dissipation of the child¬ 
less nobles sent to England as governors, 
and the custom of the nobility of adopt¬ 
ing groAvn men as Avell as children for the 
sole purpose of perpetuating their family 
name and Avealth. The inevitable result 
AA'as that the early Britons conceiA'cd 
and cherished so deep and profound a 
disgust for the Roman practices that Avitli 
the generations following it became so 
much a part of their thought as to appear 
in their law. The custom of adoption dis¬ 
appeared in England in the early cen¬ 
turies of the Christian era. and noAvhere 
appears in the English common Iuav. Thi.s 
common laAV is really the moral laiv of the 
English race, and is the laiv under Avhich 
we are living. JVe are goveimed by this 
laAV in so far as it is not changed by the 
statutes of the Federal GoA'ernment and 
of the different State.s. 
As the common law did not recognize 
the adoption of children nor alloAV the 
cu.stom, there Avas no method by Avhich a 
child could be adopted until the means 
AA'as given through the legislatures. In 
the ,State of Noaa' York, the first statute 
alloAving the general adoption of childi’en 
was enacted in 1S7.S. About that time 
the States throughout the United States 
enacted similar law.s. and a child may 
now be adopted under these Iuaa's in eA'erv 
State in the JTnion. The laivs of the 
State of Jjouisiana Avere .an exception to 
Hiis general rule. The Iuav bv Avhich that 
State was governed did not come from 
but from France and Spain. 
The laiA's of these tiA'o coutries AA'ere the 
outgroAVth of the Roman laiv. (^onse- 
<iuently the practice of adopting children 
III Louisiana exi.sted until 1825, Avhen it 
disappeared, and Avas not subsequently re¬ 
established until the year 18(15. the period 
during which the adoption biAA's AA-ere en¬ 
acted in the various other States of this 
country. 
A belief is common among people un- 
fiuniliar Avith the courts and the practice 
of laAV. that anything legal is surrounded 
Avith a .sort of nebulous mystery. This is 
not .so. Our legal practice anil our laws 
are the nearest approach we have made to 
obtain fairness and right for all con¬ 
cerned. This is as true in rel.ation to 
the adoption of children as to any other 
legal procedure. In all of the stiitutorv 
provisions throughout the TIniti'd State.« 
there is the one general idea or scheme, 
namely, the Avritten consent of the jia- 
rents who are giving up the child, and 
the consent in writing of the parents 
Avho are accejiting the child as their own. 
Any iieople who are contemplating the 
adoption of a child can go to the clerk of 
A Sodus, N. y., Younpster at Phnj 
the court having charge of the adoption 
of children, Avhich is generally the pro¬ 
bate court, the surrogate’s court or tin* 
county court, and learn all of the facts 
necessary for the preparation of the pa¬ 
pers, or cojiy the papers for their own 
case from those already on file in that 
ollice. These men are almost AA'ithout ex- 
cojition ahvays Avilling and glad to give 
their help, and as they are paid by the 
public there is no reason Avhatsoever Avhy 
they should not be asked for this or sim¬ 
ilar information whenever it is needed. 
alrert aa’oodruff gray. 
