The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
999 
j| WOMAN AND HOME 
I note your suggestion that fathers 
should have some consideration as well as 
mothers. That is correct, and we had a 
“Father's and Son's Day" in Michigan 
only a little while before Mother’s Day. 
If you will get out that encyclopedia of 
yours and read the lines of (J ray’s 
“Elegy in a Country Churchyard" you 
will agree with me that the fathers have 
not been neglected entirely. That's a good 
tribute to the rural man. from the first 
verse to the epitaph. F. it. b. 
Michigan. 
Good! No one wants to stand as an 
unresponsive critic, but why not give 
father a day of his own? Why fasten 
him to the son for a celebration? As for 
Gray’s “Elegy,” it is a beautiful poem : 
“Far from the inadding crowd's ignoble 
strife 
Their sober wishes never learned to stray: 
Along the cool sequestered vale of life 
They kept the noiseless tenor of their 
way.” 
That is good and a well deserved state¬ 
ment. But why are these eulogies of the 
farmer kept until he is safely buried? 
We often wish they had made more noise 
and mixed a little more into that “ignoble 
strife.” 
* 
New York City made a good showing 
in the “doughnut drive” for the Salvation 
Army. The crowds gathered to hear the 
speakers and listen to the music were as 
a rule more enthusiastic even than those 
called together by the Liberty loan or the 
Red Cross, Doughnuts were sold at $1 
each and found ready buyers. New York 
papers relate the following incident, 
among others: 
One of the workers said Col. McIntyre, 
was collecting in a large theater when a 
woman in the audience became angry and 
said : “For heaven’s sake get out of my 
sight. Wherever I go you people are 
asking me for money. I don’t want to see 
another one of you.” 
Past this woman shuffled a soldier wear¬ 
ing two overseas chevrons and two wound 
stripes. lie was totally blind and was 
being guided by one of his comrades. lie 
heard the remark and. stopping, said : 
“Madam. I only wish that I could see 
on" more Salvation Army girl." 
The woman reached into her handbag 
and drew out a dollar bill, which she 
offered to the worker. Putting her hand 
over the collection box the girl said : "No, 
thank you. madam. You had your oppor¬ 
tunity to do a good deed a minute ago and 
you rejected it." 
* 
The following story will be appreciated 
by all who have ever eaten fried chicken, 
Southern style. Perhaps some of you have 
dropped in unexpected at an old-time 
Southern farm shortly before dinner. You 
hear a great commotion among the chick¬ 
ens and a few dying squawks. Half an 
hour later you are gnawing "fried chick¬ 
en.” This story is from the Saturday 
Evening Post: 
He was very black, and in his khaki he 
looked like coffee and chocolate ice cream. 
After eating a hearty meal in the Amer¬ 
ican Red Cross canteen he sat down with 
a book, near the counter. The kind- 
hearted directress looked once or twice in 
his direction and was surprised to see big 
tears rolling down his cheeks. 
"Why, now this will never do!" she 
said kindly. “Is there anything I can do 
to help you?" 
He dug his knuckles into his eyes and 
replied: 
'I sholy am ashamed to make a baby 
oaten myself ma'am. This yer book done 
make me so homesick !” 
She picked up the book he had been 
reading. It was the canteen cook book, 
and it was opened at the section on “I low 
to Fry Chicken.” 
■c 
It will help all speakers, and the audi¬ 
ence. too. if the chairs are all rearranged 
to face the front and as near to the front 
as possible. Do tiiis work during the re¬ 
cess preceding the lecturer’s hour. Speak¬ 
ers seldom are at their best with their au¬ 
dience grouped on all four sides of the 
loom. 
A very sensible suggestion from the 
Grange lecturers’ conference. No speaker 
can ever do his best when called on to 
stand at one end of a room and face an 
empty space, with a fringe of listeners 
along the walls. The members of some 
Granges become accustomed to this plan 
of seating the audience and do not realize 
how it may affect a speaker who is ac¬ 
customed to having his audience grouped 
in front of him. Often at halls or 
churches we find the audience grouped on 
the back seats, with a wide, empty space 
at the front. Why not get up closer to 
the speaker and help him out? 
Most country boys have a great'ambi¬ 
tion to go fishing, and they will often 
tramp miles for the chance of catching 
one small fish. City boys have a sort of 
“fishing” which the country boy knows 
nothing about. The other day on a crowd¬ 
ed city street we saw two boys busy with 
a line in an iron grating in front of a 
store. They had a fish line with a,small 
magnet tied to the end. They let this 
magnet down through the grating and 
with it pulled up nails and spikes on the 
ground below. Under nearly all these 
gratings may be found nails or small 
pieces of iron. The boys were “fishing" 
them up about as fast as they could let 
down the line, and they had a basket well 
filled. Some of the nails were nearly new. 
and all were salable, and the income from 
a day’s “catch” must be more than some 
older fishermen ever take in. 
to 
Mb. Wing's article in the last maga¬ 
zine number*on neighborly relations and 
the old-time flower gardens has called 
out many comments from readers. It is 
the common report that the old neigh¬ 
borly feeling formerly found in country 
communities has largely passed away. It 
was the fine old spirit which .1. Whitcomb 
Riley brought out in “Grigsby’s Station" 
—a poem which ranks next to "Home. 
Sweet Home" in its appeal to human 
sentiment. “Every neighbor ’round the 
place was dear as a relation.” It is 
hardly likely that these old times will 
ever return just as they were years ago. 
In some sections much the same spirit 
still prevails, and we shall, no doubt, be 
told of them. It is true, however, that 
the car. the telephone and road improve¬ 
ment have not only brought people to¬ 
gether in one way. but stand them up 
and shake them apart in another. One 
unfortunate thing is that country people 
have been too much inclined to let town 
and city decide their habits of thought 
and of entertainment for them. It ought 
to be the other way. for we still believe 
it is possible for a country community to 
be so original and simple in its plans for 
entertainment that town and city will 
envy it. 
$ 
I am glad that you are going to ad¬ 
vocate the improvement of tiie back 
country roads. Due reason The Rubai. 
New-Yorker is so popular in the back 
country is because it is so intensely 
human. You people seem to understand 
the rural folks and their troubles, both as 
producers and sellers. All the city papers 
seem to knock the farmer, and even some 
of the local papers think it is smart to 
lambaste the hill man. even if they and 
their towns depend upon him directly for 
their prosperity. b. l. ir. 
Alpine, N. Y. 
We certainly ought to understand the 
back country farms. It is fnere we were 
born and bred. No city-bred man ever 
did or ever will understand them or fully 
sympathize with them. How could the 
boy who always walked the city streets 
in calfskin shoes ever know the sensation 
of treading the fresh upturned earth be¬ 
hind the plow in his bare feet? 
to 
I do not know a farmer who was stingv 
with his family, or one who lmd his heair 
set on town interests or profits, but lost 
every child from the place. 
W. W. REYNOLDS. 
No doubt Brother Reynolds knows a 
good many farmers, but he doesn't know 
them all. Let us try to broaden the out¬ 
look. We have more than half a million 
readers, and we ask each and every on > 
of them if they ever knew such a farmer 
to keep his children on the farm? 
❖ 
We have the following note from a fine 
old Western friend: 
I am in my eightieth year, and have 
reared eight children, four girls and four 
boys. Early in my married life I planim.' 
as well as poverty would permit to supplx 
my children with three thing which I 
regarded as essential to rearing a family, 
viz., flowers, music and books. Thank- 
to hard labor and persistent effort 1 hav • 
succeeded, and today I have a small 
library of more than a thousand volumes 
of standard books, a fine piano and any 
amount of flowers. I have had these 
things all the course of my life while rear¬ 
ing eight children. May I say they are 
a good lot of children? 
They are. They could hardly help be¬ 
ing so—brought up in a family where 
such ideals ruled. Flowers, music and 
books ! Beauty, sentiment and knowledge. 
Many a farm family would get more out 
of posies than it ever could out of 
polities. 
* 
Every baek-to-the-lander will gladly 
read “The Confessions of an Optimist” 
on page 1002. Those of us who have been 
through the mill and tried to make a 
home iu the country on limited capital 
will know how true this is. The man or 
woman who has never had this experience 
may say that after all the reported gains 
are very small Avhen we consider those 
long and hard years of work. They are 
above the average, and we know, frpm 
experience, that the mere financial value 
is not at all a true measure of what 
they represent. This man and woman 
have found a new life and have done a 
worthy thing . It may be asked what they 
have done for others. That great farm 
would lie a paradise for one or two chil¬ 
dren—denied the right to a fair child¬ 
hood. After all. one of the finest things 
about going back to the land is the 
thought of getting someone on “the sunny 
side of the baru." 
* 
1. t tho Coy Study Farming 
T I'-’ve a boy 17*4 years of age who 
gradimfco from high school this year. For 
sevc-il Springs this boy has been very 
anxious to go on a farm to work. Last 
Spring I consented. He went .Tune 1 and 
stayed until latter part of August. Of 
course, under the Education Department 
laws in regard to farm work he received 
credit for his work. I thought that this 
experience would cure him of his desire 
for farm work. It proved the contrary. 
He is desirous this Summer of again go¬ 
ing on a farm; seems to want to take up 
this work: also is desirous of going to 
Cornell or some other farm school. I do 
not feel as if iu a position to have him 
put in four years at an agricultural 
school, first on account of the financial 
end of it. and secondly. I hesitate, won¬ 
dering what the opportunities are after 
getting through this work. My intentions 
are at present to arrange some way to get 
him on a farm this Summer until late in 
the Fall; and if he is still desirous of the 
farm life, to take the matter up with Cor¬ 
nell or some other college of this nature. 
The question is whether I should encour¬ 
age him in this line or seek to have him 
enter a business institute. The chances 
for a boy iu this line (farm) without any 
aid as to purchasing a farm. etc., seem to 
me rather poor. 
His work last Summer was no vacation. 
He was called at a. m. and worked till 
about r, :30 p. m.. but he came home in 
better shape by far than when he went 
awayi f. c. it. 
Long Island. 
should by all means encourage this 
boy to become a farmer and direct his ed¬ 
ucation to that end. That seems to be his 
natural tendency, just as some boys decide 
early in life that they want to he me¬ 
chanics. clerks, lawyers, engineers or busi¬ 
ness men. We think it a wise plan to en¬ 
courage a boy in any reasonable natural 
tendency of this sort. Our plan would be to 
let the boy work on some good farm this 
Summer and in the Fall try to arrange for 
him to enter one of the secondary farm 
schools, like the one at Farmingdale. Long 
Island. That is a practical institution, 
and the boy can learn the foundation ele¬ 
ments of good farming. We believe there 
is a good future in agriculture for a boy 
st this sort. 
* 
The Family Finances 
The R. N.-Y. was sent to us as a 
‘'hristmas gift, and we like the paper 
better than any other farm paper we 
take. I should like to say to G. B. A. 
that I feel sorry indeed for any woman, 
who feels she does not have some interest 
in the income of the home. I do not con- 
sider myself in the light of a hired girl 
to be paid a salary weekly, any more than 
my husband should consider himself a 
hired man to be paid monthly or yearly. 
Dm- plan, which we adopted at the time 
i f our marriage 10 years ago, and with 
which both parties are welk satisfied, is 
this: We both have access to all money 
pu baud at all times, my husband alwny- 
leaviug his pocketbook in the house unless 
he ics going to the village. We both 
have a knowledge of interest, insurance, 
bills, etc. to be paid, and plan according¬ 
ly. If there is an article of any value to 
be purchased, indoors or out. we consult 
each other as to the advisability of tin 
Purchase. The wife usually plans for the 
clothing for the entire family, as well as 
the food. The husband knows what tools, 
etc., are needed out of doors, as well as 
planning for the stock. 
Ir seems to me that husbands and wives 
have the same interests in their homes 
and family (or ought to have). Why 
not the same interest in the pocketbook? 
Of course there are women who might be 
considered very extravagant, but. ou the 
other hand, aren’t there men who seem 
very extravagant and selfish, providing 
every convenience out of doors, with lit¬ 
tle thought of any conveniences for the 
lions-'? I wonder how many husbands 
would be willing to let their wives have 
complete control of the pocketbook. com- 
i’» ,v *-•-» them when they wanted money for 
clothing, tobacco, etc. \r. f. b. 
llimrod. X Y. 
All Ready for Rations 
