1142 
71* RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Pastoral Parson and His Country Folks 
By Rev. George B. Gilbert 
Decoration DAY.-^Sueh a flay as we 
had of it down at tin* old church on Sunday, 
Decoration Day. The Parson and George 
and Closson drove down good and early 
in the morning—12 miles—and rang the 
old bell to let them know we had opened 
for the day. No man need toll the bell 
for the Parson telling him when to begin 
church. We will begin when are good 
and ready. We are out for the day, any¬ 
way. and what does it matter? For some 
Reddie and Her Babied 
churches it. may be all right—to show that 
they are dying—but we do not intend to 
be lined up in that class. 
The Camp Fire.—W e took in some 
more boys before we got there, and with 
these we built up a campfire by the sheds 
and put on a big kettle of coffee. The people 
came from all around, till at noon, when 
we began service, the Parson counted 53. 
The children had prepared some singing 
and pieces at the school-house during the 
week. We had a short service, with a 
talk about co-operation. The _ Parson 
showed them how that, in buying and 
solliug together, sometimes you made, 
most generally you did, but sometimes 
you might lose. Then the tost came—* 
to see if they would still hold together. 
During the services the Parson appointed 
a committee to look after the co-operative 
buying of potato spray. Some men who 
had never been in the church before be¬ 
gan to .sit up and take notice. Potter 
spray at about half what it cost at the 
stores was a thing they were, looking for. 
When this committee sent in the names 
and the amount each wanted, the Parson 
noticed these men’s nano's on the list. 
Just after the regular service we had a 
baptismal service. And before we went 
home there was still another. The next 
on the program was dinner. Such a 
nice time we had—all eating about the 
church rooms. The old folks sat down 
first and the boys on the church lawn 
were bavin" a spirited game of baseball. 
The Parson brought the hall and bats 
along. It. was a soft, ball that would not 
seriously hurt anyone. Perhaps, with the 
children at least, the heart of the dinner 
might have been found in the three-gallon 
freezer of ice cream that the Parson had 
brought along. Fveryone of the 30 who 
ate had two good, big saucers of it. When 
had any of these little children, down 
from the Lonely Road, tasted ice cream 
before.? 
The Exercises. —After the dinner we 
all marched down to the church cemetery 
and had our speaking and singing by the 
children. After this program we had the 
County Club leader make an address to 
us. lie gave ns a good talk, and urged 
us all to raise as much food as we could. 
We decorated the soldier’s graves and 
about all the other graves of the little 
cemetery. It was a pretty sight to see 
those people and all those children down 
there by the woods. The Parson counted 
70 here. There was not a house in sight 
of the place anywhere. “Are there any 
native Americans here?” the Parson heard 
a mau ask. “I do not know of any,” 
came the answer. P»nt then there were 
a few. The County-Club-loader-speaker- 
of-the-dav was one, and lie is a deacon 
of a village Congregational church. Tie 
had his two girls with him. It seems 
likely that the next time he comes he 
may leave the girls at home. It was ru¬ 
mored that after a hearty dinner of 
notato salad, sandwiches, cake, rhubarb 
pie. coffee, icc cream and chewing gum. 
they begin to have leanings toward the 
Episcopal “method,” if not to the “faith.” 
Just Helping. —During the services 
today the Parson announced that that 
church stood there to help everybody in 
any way it could. It. would do anything 
in a religious line or in an economical 
line. It would buy anything for them 
or sell anything for them. Some surely 
took the Parson at his word, for in the 
afternoon another baby was brought, in 
to be baptized. One woman wanted four 
pigs sold for her. and one man wanted a 
horse-rake bought for him. The Parson 
looked after the first desire immediately. 
Since then he has sold the four pigs, and 
will bring them back and deliver them 
when he goes down next Sunday. Tie is 
on the track of a horse-rake. This week, 
having got the planting pretty well done, 
the Parson got at the old Ford. It has not 
been out since last October—a good rest. 
Monday was a holiday, and the boys 
helped in great shape. We scraped it 
and cleaned it and painted it and did a 
lot of repairing on it. The rear fenders 
were quite gone, and we took them off 
and threw them away. No new ones cau 
be bought, around here now; in fact, all 
Ford parts are. hard to get. With no top 
and no fenders. Mrs. Parson will probably 
leave her now Spring hat at home. We 
had to buy a new radiator, but the old one 
had stood for nine years, and really did 
not owe us much. We got the “old boat.” 
as the ho.vs call her, out on the road to¬ 
night, and she felt like a calf just let out 
to pasture in the Spring. 
REDDIE. —In the picture you will see 
some of “ReddieV’ babies. Poor Reddie 
raised some wonderful babies—for size 
and fatness the wonder of the neighbor¬ 
hood. Rut much feeding and little exer¬ 
cise were too much for her health. Just 
before taking tlmni away she was taken 
with paralysis in tin* hind limbs. The 
Parson has since learned that this is quite 
apt to happen in such cases. That very 
night the Parson found about such a case 
in The R. N.-Y. We got her out on the 
grass gouud and she gradually recovered. 
She is now lying in a mudhole over by 
the brook. We sold six pigs for $ >2. and 
have one left for ou’■selves. “Reddie” has 
always been called Shelley’s pig, so he 
had this money and has felt very happy 
over it. Reddie herself will probably 
grace the pork barrel in the Fall, as she 
might quite likely lie afflicted this way 
again. 
The Better Way.—T here is certainly 
more than one way in which to speak of 
the live things on the farm. “Old Sow” 
would designate what is meant, but why 
not Reddie or Mamma Piggie? As her 
fat children were scampering about sin- 
lay there all used up—all her life and 
vigor gone into them. The Parson would 
scratch her and talk to her and must 
upon many things. And there in the pond 
would be Mamma Goosie and Baby 
Goosie, and in the barn doorway sits 
Mamma Kittle, winking in the sun, and 
down in.the brook is the cunuingest tiling 
of all—Mamma Duckie and her babies. 
Great Excitement. —There was great 
excitement in the Parson’s family today. 
Mrs. Parson was washing on the back 
porch, and the Parson was doing up the 
morning dishes, when a great cry sum¬ 
moned him to the hack door. One of the 
little mallard (wild) ducks had been 
missing for some time, and the boys 
feared for lu*r safety. If she wasn’t right 
under the back porch with eight lovely 
little babies. It was one on the boys. 
She had laid there and set there for four 
weeks, and they never knew it. Sit was 
so tickled when she came to dinner and 
the family was all over swimming on the 
brook T The other mamma duckie is sit¬ 
ting somewhere down in the swamp, the 
boys not being able to find her. The 
Parson might add that for cunning and 
beauty these little ducks hold first prize, 
but as mortgage-lifters he would by no 
means recommend them. As the ther¬ 
mometer is just 00 this minute (June 11), 
he does not think swimming will hurt. 
The Geese. —Little Clossie feels quite 
well satisfied with his goose money, and 
they are still laying. He has sold about 
$18 worth of eggs and baby goslings, 
mostly eggs. If he should get $20 from 
the three geese, it would represent a fair 
profit for keeping them. During the 
Winter they have to have a little corn, 
but the rest of the season it really costs 
nothing to keep them. They love oyster 
shells when laying, and probably would 
lay some more eggs with plenty of hen 
dry mash, but we seldom bother to feed 
it to them—it costs too much now. We 
expect to nluek the down feathers from 
all three of them tomorrow, as the boys 
assure the Parson that they are just 
ready to fall out, anyway. 
Those Woot, Trousers. —The oldest 
boy is counting on some wool trousers— 
real wool at that. Today the County 
Agent came and helped him shear the two 
sheep. The boy will not need any help 
next time, as he got along first rate. The 
two fleeces certainly looked nice. This 
county is expeetd to produce about, two 
tons of wool this year. This is four times 
what it produced a few years ago. The 
wool is all pooled together and sold 
through the Farm Bureau. About 200 
pounds of the Camp Boys’ wool this year 
is going to be taken to the factory and 
there washed and made into cloth and 
brought back to the boys for them to have 
made into clothes. When every sheep 
means more nice all-wool cloth in the 
home, there will be a real tendency to 
raise more sheep. Our sheep and lambs 
have attracted no end of attention in the 
neighborhood, and most everybody wants 
to buy them. One never wants to get 
sheep, however, t|ll they have good fences 
to hold them. 
Changed Churches. —Even churches 
do change, though it takes a good while 
to do it. The Parson has returned from 
a church convention. It happened that 
the last church convention held in church 
was just about 100 years ago. At that 
convention most of the time was spent in 
a spirited discussion of the place of the 
so-called “aute-coimnuniou” service in 
morning worship. One hundred years 
later, what did the church talk about? 
Outside of routine matters the chief top¬ 
ics were the matter of the salmon can¬ 
nery at the mouth of the Yukon River, 
in Alaska, the matter of food production 
and big gardens, I he condition of the 
almshouses in the Stale, and what could 
be done about it, and child welfare as 
related to the county homes, homes for 
feeble-minded. Quite a sum of money 
was voted for instruction among the par¬ 
ishes on the social problems of the day. 
Thus have the times changed, and the 
churches are falling inlo the right spirit. 
Ta*t. us hope the country churches will 
not be last to get into line. 
Another Change. — Another change 
can be seen in the churches, and the 
faster it comes the better. The Parson 
was at a meeting where were gathered 
ministers of four denominations. At one 
stage of the game the meeting adjourned 
for five minutes, so that the Baptists 
could meet in o-’c corner and the Congre- 
gationalists in other and the Methodists 
in another am the Episcopalians in the 
other. Then each denomination chose a 
member to act on a committee for the 
consolidation of churches in small vil¬ 
lages where there now are far too many. 
How this will work out remains to l>e 
June 20, 1920 
seen. But it is a start In the right di¬ 
rection, and something will come of it. 
There are 13 such instances of consolida¬ 
tion in this State now—all working along 
fine. Let us hope it is not an unlucky 
number. Tn one case an Episcopal and 
Congregational church have joined hands, 
and still the world moves. 
That Smoke-House. —The Parson ap¬ 
preciates the kindly advice of a woman 
given in The It. N.-Y. as to the smoke¬ 
house difficulty. Y’es, he has used a bar¬ 
rel often, and his father used one before 
him. This year the barrel was put on 
top of a box, thus keeping the meat far? 
ther from the heat, as all the books say 
you should do. Last week the Parson 
got out the last ham. It was a fine, big 
one of the Berkshire brand. He would 
smoke it to a turn, or to a brown and 
certainly to delicious flavor. He put, the 
coals and some firebrands that would 
have turned Samson green wi h envy into 
an old coal hod and put under the ham. 
He put the bran sacks over it and went 
hoeing sweet corn, with the birds singing 
in his heart and on the clover. Mrs. 
Parson was washing dishes. She kept 
hearing a cracking and a roaring noise. 
At last she looked. The whole of that 
smoke-house was afire, and seven times 
hotter than that place Daniel was put 
into, and that was seven times hotter 
than it was wont to be heated. A pipe¬ 
less furnace agent ought to have seen it. 
A terrific scream brought the Parson from 
the field. He ran faster to save that, ham 
than he lias run for many a day. Cnlike 
Daniel, the smell of fire was decidedly 
upon it. and it was not. only badly singed, 
but partly cooked as well. Y’es, the Par¬ 
son still thinks he needs‘a smoke-house 
that will not catch afire. 
Diploma Time. —And this is diploma 
time of year, and the Parson has been to 
his divinity school commencement. They 
had him sit for a picture with the faculty 
of the school. Some company, for once! 
lie has been giving a course in this 
school. At the end of the first hour the 
students asked him what the name of the 
course was. “It is a course in ‘gump¬ 
tion’,” said the Parson. The attendance 
upon this course was unusually large. 
They wanted the Parson to march in the 
procession and wear a long, black gown 
and a “hood” hanging down his back, but 
he decided to keep his cultivator stride iu 
the background, and so sat back with 
Mrs. Parson. 
Diplomas.—A s they gave out the di¬ 
plomas the Parson mused on the number 
that had been handed t<> him in times past, 
and what had ever became of them. None 
of them was purposely thrown away, and 
yet only one out of the six seems to be in 
existence. That one Mrs. Parson found 
up in the attic one day and slipped it 
into a frame, and it hangs on the study 
wall. The whole of them would have 
made quite a showing on the wall— 
three of them were great, big ones, and 
really the Parson ought to have looked 
out for them. 
The Maternity Hospital. —The Par¬ 
son has just read in The R. N.-Y. a let¬ 
ter in which the writer advocates going 
to the hospital in maternity cases. This 
is all very well, and many about here 
do it. Mrs Parson much prefers to be at 
home if any help can be secured. She 
never wants to be away from her other 
babies a minute, and the Parson doesn’t 
know what would happen if they were 
away from lier. As for most of the hos¬ 
pital ideas about feeding babies just a 
minute, and letting them cry their heads 
off rather than cuddle them and love them 
a little, these Mrs. Parson despises with 
a vehemence that no words can describe. 
Then. too. let the Parson add a word of 
council to this good mother: Be sure 
you get your own baby. One of our 
friends had a baby brought to her in the 
night which she refused to own. and after 
much argument they brought another. 
Mrs. Person has never believed this one 
was the mother’s own baby, either. We 
know of another case where a good Yan¬ 
kee me ther. unusually white and pale, 
was rather startled when she looked down 
at the nursing baby they had just brought 
her and saw it was as black as the ace of 
spades! It was a colored baby belonging 
over in the next ward. 
Origin of American Negroes 
Can you, tell me the origin of the 
negroes now living in America? Where 
did their ancestors come from, and ay 
there any pure-blooded negroes left? We 
hear them spoken of as “Africans,” hut 
evidently there may be as wide a differ¬ 
ence between natives of different parts o’f 
Africa as between people from Newfound¬ 
land and Louisiana. J. b. 
The following report is made by Dr. J. 
Walter Fewkes of the Bureau of Amer¬ 
ican Ethnology. This gives the origin of 
most of our black people. There are un¬ 
doubtedly some “pure-bloods” loft: 
The negroes of the United States de¬ 
rive their negro ancestry chh'fly from the 
native tribes of the West African coast 
and back country from about 5° north to 
10° south of the equator, including the 
region of the lower Niger and Congo riv¬ 
ers. Very few in the United State derive 
from North, South or East Africa, ex¬ 
cepting those of Louisiana, who are in 
part derived from tribes of the Senegal 
and Upper Niger regions, brought over by 
the French colonists. A l.ugc part of the 
negroes of Brazil descend from tribes ot 
the Zambesi region and Mozambique ot 
East Africa. The proportion of white ad¬ 
mixture is very large, .with a less propor¬ 
tion of Indian and other blood. 
