540 
<Ik' RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 13, 1020 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
On page 4S5 is a statement about 
Liberty bonds which I think we may all 
consider with profit. It seems that these 
bonds are below par chiefly because some 
of the big holders have dumped great 
chunks of the bonds onto the market. The 
big corporations and banks did not buy 
these bonds out of pure patriotism, al¬ 
though they urged farmers and working 
men to buy for that motive. The Gov¬ 
ernment evidently made these big men 
buy bonds in order to obtain Government 
contracts. The banks had to buy to main¬ 
tain their standing and to induce others 
to invest. Some very rich men and some 
trustees of estates no doubt invested in 
certain issues in order to avoid paying 
any income tax. and thus avoid making 
their incomes public. Now some of the 
big holders are getting rid of their bonds 
in order to get more income from the 
money and use the “losses” in such sales 
to reduce their income tax. At the very 
time these big fellow's are selling bonds 
and beating down the market price they 
are advising the rest of us to hold on to 
the securities. The advice is all right, 
but it is a sad commentary on the way 
things are being done when these “leaders 
of finance” advise one thing while all the 
time they are doing the other. I regard 
these bonds as a better investment than 
ever, and think it a good thing to have 
them widely distributed. 
* if. if. * # 
But those big fellows are not the only 
ones that are selling—though their ex¬ 
ample is causing great mischief. Many 
poor people, or those of moderate means, 
are selling bonds. Some have to do it 
in order to live. Others are selling in 
order to buy luxuries, or things they do 
not need. I hear of cases where people 
sell bonds and buy diamonds or jewelry. 
They think the diamonds will rise in 
price. I know’ of cases where these bonds 
are sold in order to buy furs, stylish 
clothing, talking machines, fine furniture 
or similar things w'hich gratify vanity 
or pride. When I ask why people do 
such foolish things they laugh at me as 
an “old fogy.” Wages are now good. 
Money rattles all about, and “everybody 
is doing it.” That last argument is the 
clincher, and you cannot answer it to the 
average young man or woman. Strange 
that they cannot see how if they simply 
follow the crowd they cannot be original, 
and thus can never rise above the com¬ 
monplace. There are others who sell their 
bonds and speculate with the money. 
These people fall into the hands of sharp¬ 
ers who swindle them out of their bonds 
and load them up with wildcat securities. 
I am told that millions are lost in this 
way. All over New 7 York are offices with 
big signs. “Liberty Bonds Bought and 
Sold.” These so-called “bucket shops” 
exchange good bonds for worthless “se¬ 
curities” or take the money and gamble 
with it in stocks. As a rule the victim 
never tells of his loss, so it is impossible 
to tell how 7 much of this goes on, but it is 
a wicked business, and there seems to be 
no way of stopping it. 
$ * * * * 
People sometimes wonder how it is that 
intelligent men and women can be so fool¬ 
ish as to give up a gilt-edged security 
like a Liberty bond and go into the bonds 
of slavery with some worthless piece of 
paper. It is a peculiar trait of the hu¬ 
man race, and there has probably never 
been a time when one man could not by 
shrewd observation find another man’s 
tender spot and rob him through it. And 
there are capable men who make it the 
business of a lifetime to hunt for this ten¬ 
der spot! They find it. The Liberty 
bond has given these rascals a new chance 
to w 7 ork their frauds. These bonds are 
absolutely solid—better than any other 
paper in the world. They are now some¬ 
what below par. That makes them a bet¬ 
ter investment than ever, but some timid 
people are frightened when the price goes 
down. The robbers get after them while 
in this frame of mind, and make them be¬ 
lieve the bonds will be repudiated. Then 
they “exchange” these solid bonds for 
stock in some oil company—which has not 
even a hole in the ground to give it value. 
But this is no new thing. I saw it 
worked in somewhat different ways 50 
years ago. and the memory of at least one 
such incident gives a good line on the 
cupidity and credulity of hnman nature. 
* * * * * 
After our Civil War many of the farm¬ 
ers of New England held Government 
bonds. They were called coupon bonds, 
or, as the farmers often said, “eowpon 
bonds.” They were good as gold, but 
sometimes they went below par, as Lib¬ 
erty bonds have done. There was no bet¬ 
ter security in the world at that time, but 
some people became dissatisfied with the 
low rate of interest. Various sharpers 
took advantage of this and got hold of 
many of these bonds through one trick or 
another. The farmer I speak of had a 
few bonds. One Winter’s day there came 
a fine-looking stranger up the road. It 
was after dinner time, but he stopped and 
said his horse was tired. Couldn’t the 
farmer let him bait the horse in the barn 
and give him a bite of lunch? Of course 
he could; so they unharnessed the horse 
and fed him. and the woman got up a 
nice meal for the man. After dinner the 
farmer and the stranger had a little talk, 
and it was surprising how they agreed on 
politics. They both regarded Grant as a 
hero. Horace Greeley had better keep 
quiet; if they were in the White House 
they would make those “Southern brig¬ 
adiers” toe the mark ! It was wonderful 
bow they agreed. The stranger offered 
the farmer a cigar, but when the woman 
gave her opinion about tobacco the stran¬ 
ger started to throw his cigar into the 
stove, saying he never had heard such 
convincing arguments The woman stopped 
him and took the cigar. She had read in 
a farm paper that tobacco is a fine repel¬ 
lent for chicken lice. She would put the 
cigar under the old Brahma when she be¬ 
gan setting! Finally the woman started 
to clean the kerosene lamp, and that start¬ 
ed the benevolent stranger on a new one. 
We had the old-fashioned glass lamps in 
those days, with long woolen wicks, often 
knit by the women folks'. 
* * $ * * 
“Why,” said the benevolent stranger, 
“I am sorry to see you fine people losing 
money and time on tha_ old-fashioned 
lamp. I’ll guarantee your kerosene bill 
is $10 a year.” 
“More than that,” said the woman. 
“I knew it, and it's a shame. Now, I 
can show you how to cut that down to 
less than $2 a year.” 
“Don't believe it,” said the practical 
woman. 
“But I can prove it. I have one of the 
most wonderful inventions of the age. In 
my secret, laboratory I have discovered a 
new principle which is to revolutionize 
the lighting of the world—drive the gloom 
out of all solitary places and give new 
joy to humanity. I was on my way to 
deliver the great secret to a wealthy man 
who will pay me a vast sum of money for 
it, but, after enjoying the hospitality of 
your humble home, and observing the evi¬ 
dences of intelligent character and scrupu¬ 
lous integrity here in evidence. I am in¬ 
clined to drop my wealthy friend and 
make you worthy people the recipients of 
my great and invaluable secret!” 
It was a great speech, and if some ele¬ 
gant and impressive stranger had come 
into your lonely home and walked about, 
waving his arms and smiling, you would 
have done what this man and woman did 
—begged him to go on and tell what his 
secret was. After much hesitation and 
many impressive pledges to secrecy the 
great inventor drew his chair closer to 
them and told his story. 
* * $ * * 
Tie had discovered a process for turn¬ 
ing water into kerosene oil. Y T ou filled the 
lamp four-fifths full of water, put in a lit¬ 
tle oil as a starter, dropped in a teaspoon¬ 
ful of his powder, used one of his patent 
wicks, and you had a brilliant light for 
hours. The secret powder started a gal¬ 
vanic action with the metal in the patent 
wick, which changed the water into the 
finest oil! 
The idea of burning water caused the 
woman to sniff, but the inventor was pre¬ 
pared for her. 
“I understand.” he said to the farmer, 
“that you are the scientific man of this 
community, and that you have a library 
of chemical and philosophical works!” 
This farmer owned an old book entitled 
“A Dictionary of Scientific Wonders,” 
which certainly was a wonder—1 ut who 
would not feel a thrill of pride when some 
great inventor called him a “scientific 
man” before his wife? So the farmer 
got out his old book and put on bis spec¬ 
tacles. 
“Now.” said the stranger, “hunt up and 
tell us what flame or fire is!” 
They finally ran down the fact that hy¬ 
drogen burns in the presence of oxygen. 
“Now, tell us what water is.” 
There was no escaping the fact that 
water is hydrogen and oxygen—just the 
elements needed to produce a flame. 
“Now 7 , tell us what carbon is.” 
They found that charcoal is carbon. 
“Now 7 , then. w r hat is kerosene?” 
There wasn’t much about it in the 
scientific book, but the learned stranger 
explained that it was a hydro-carbon, com¬ 
posed of their old friends, hydrogen, oxy¬ 
gen and carbon. Then he pointed an im¬ 
pressive finger at them and proved his 
case. 
“We have proved by the highest au¬ 
thority that the flame of that lamp is com¬ 
posed of hydrogen and oxygen. It is also 
beyond the shadow of dispute that water 
contains these two marvelous elements. 
Then follows the clear fact that by the 
addition of carbon to the oxygen and hy¬ 
drogen of the water we have kerosene— 
the light giver. For ages men never even 
dreamed that water could be used to 
light our homes. It was given to me in 
a moment of inspiration to discover the 
secret process by means of which your 
well may be turned into a great lake of 
refined petroleum. In this town alone 
$1,500 worth of kerosene is consumed 
each year. You can produce it all and 
more, from your well, and change this 
humble home into the abode of luxury. 
The thought of what 1 have done for the 
W’orld is overpowering. Y'ou will pardon 
my emotion !” 
He pulled out his silk handkerchief and 
wiped bis eyes, all the time shrewdly 
W’atching his audience. He went on to 
tell how he had discovered a compound of 
charcoal and other chemicals and a wick 
with certain metals at the bottom. When 
this wuck was put into the lamp filled 
with water and a little oil and the powder 
dropped in, a “galvanic” action caused by 
the powder and the wick induced the car¬ 
bon in the powder to unite with the hy¬ 
drogen and oxygen in the water to form 
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