1552 The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Pastoral Parson and His Country Folks 
By Rev. George B. Gilbert 
School Again; —Here it is the last 
week of vacation and school to begin again 
next week. It seems as though we had 
got about half the jobs done about the 
place we had planned, but we had a great 
deal more hay than we expected, and. 
what is much more important, the boys 
have had a fine time of it. The first 
thought in planning the work all Summer 
has been. “Will it tend to discourage the 
boys and tend to make them want to get 
away from the farm?” It seems to us 
that bur boys are wonderfully good about 
helping, and that they have done a lot 
of work this Summer, and it seems cer¬ 
tain that they love the little farm more 
and more each year. The oldest boy. now 
16. spends much time with his music, and 
has not seemed to be really cut out for 
a farmer, but each year he has quite taken 
to it. and of his own accord has suggested 
our buying more land and going into it 
more extensively. 
The Chief Factor. —The great thing 
in keeping boys content on the farm seems 
to be in working with them, instead of 
sending one or more of them on a job 
by themselves. It is very tempting to 
go off in town and spend half the day 
and set the boys to pulling weeds while 
you are gone, but it is a might bad plan. 
The Parson will send a boy in to do the 
errands with a team and he and the others 
tackle a job. If all cannot work on the 
same job, we can generally have work 
near by so that we can talk and have a 
good time. The other day George mowed 
a piece of roweu and Shelley cut bushes 
in the laneway near by, and the Parson 
and Clossie pulled a few weeds that were 
in the potatoes and picked up apples for 
the pigs. And we were all working so 
as to be company for each other. 
Pulling Weeds. —If you wanted to 
make a boy hate farming the rest of his 
born days, you can make him pull weeds 
alone. We have had a few weeds up in 
the corn all Summer—just here and there 
(some. The other day we tackled them. 
Armed with a can of water with a chunk 
of ice in it and pockets full of apples, live 
of us. including Sit. sallied forth to con¬ 
quer the foe. Clossie carried out the 
weeds and the rest pulled, handing to him. 
How he would scamper through the corn. 
It was really one of the best half-days 
we have had. We goj home so early for 
supper that we all had to take the old 
car and go in swimming. The Parson 
•remembers a man showing him a big piece 
of corn once, and boasting how one of 
his boys, incredibly young for the task, 
had pulled out all the weeds alone. The 
size of the field of corn and the thickness 
of the weeds and smallness of the boy 
has haunted the Parson ever since. Tie ' 
saw the father of that dun- the other day. j 
He noted that of a big family of boys, not 
one was helping on the old place, nor as 
far as the Parson knows, doing any farm¬ 
ing anywhere. 
The Washing Machine. — “Moms.” 
said the Pastoral Parson, “what have 
you got to do this afternoon?” It was 
terribly hot. and the Parson was thinking 
of doing a bit of reading for a change. 
“There is a big washing I must do.” said 
Mrs. Parson. And here it was noon al¬ 
ready. and so hot! “If I phone for that 
washing machine we have talked about, 
will you let that pesky wash go till it 
comes?” It was astonishing how quickly 
Mrs. Parson agreed ! The machine is of 
the vacuum plunger type, with no heavy 
insides to bother with. It is certainly a 
perfect delight, and the greatest help of 
all the things we have gotten. .When 
it comes to the question of better-looking 
car or an electric washing machine for 
the women folks, there is only one answer. 
The Difference. —It does not seem 
to be so ranch a matter of saving time 
with a washing machine as it does in not 
being tired out when it is done, and the 
housework has gone along about as usual. 
The electric wringer seems to be about 
as great a boon as the washing machine. 
The cost of the electricity is really trivial 
—about a cent an hour. Tt certainly gets 
the clothes beautiful and white, and is so 
easy to handle. The Parsoi# is really 
jnore pleased about this washing machine 
than anything we have got in years. If 
you have electricity, get the washing ma¬ 
chine before you do the automobile. We 
know of one place where they have a 
machine run by gasoline which does very 
satisfactory work. 
Auto Hints. —In the earlv Summer a 
minister went to a Western bishop and 
asked if he could use him during the 
Summer months. The bishop was most 
delighted, being in great need of help, but 
said he would have to ask him one ques¬ 
tion before they talked further. The min¬ 
ister was quite aghast, not knowing 
whether he was to be examined on the 
heresy of Tertullian or the irremissibility 
of post-baptismal sin. But the question 
was this: “Can you run a Ford car and 
make any ordinary repairs by the way- 
side?” The minister could not. and the 
deal came to a sudden end. One won¬ 
ders what Tertullian and a long list after 
him would have thought of such a ques¬ 
tion being, first on the examining chap¬ 
lain’s list. A divinity school near by 
expects as soon as possible to put in a 
regular course of study that would sat¬ 
isfy this bishop. In line, the “Helpful 
Hints in the Kitchen.” in some papers, 
why not have a column on helpful hints 
about autos-—especially Fords? 
For Instance. —Going into a garage 
the other day we found how to take off 
a tire in an easier jind quicker way than 
we knew. The man had the shortest leaf 
of an ordinary buggy spring. After de¬ 
flating the tire, he started on the side of 
the tire next the body and put this right 
through under the whole shoe. Then he 
put the tire iron through a few inches 
from this, and with one good pry off came 
the whole business. He put on the shoe 
an much the same fashion, putting the 
iron clear through between both sides of 
the shoe and the wheel. By keeping the 
shoe well closed and the inner tube up in 
its place when you withdraw this iron 
there is little danger of pinching the tube. 
Another Hint. —We learned another 
thing from this man. This particular tire 
had bothered him quite a little. Each time 
we found the least little bit of a puncture, 
about like a pinhead. Not knowing 
we had been so bothered, this man took 
the shoe and examined it most carefully, 
running his fingers along the inside, Sud¬ 
denly he stopped .pulled out his pliers and 
extracted the tiniest bit of steel that had 
worked its way in from the outside. One 
could not possibly have seen it with the 
naked eye. One thing about a Ford* car 
that is very apt to bother is that oil leaks 
around the transmission case. We have 
now found that there is a kind of liquid 
cement that they sell us in bulk at the 
garage that remedies this entirely, and 
makes really a solid case out of it. On 
undertaking to use it on the engine head, 
however, putting on quite a liberal dose, 
we got in no end of trouble, and had to 
clean it all off and grind the valves before 
the car would go at all. 
Food Prices. —The Parson was much 
interested in the case in The R. N.-Y. of 
the woman sending apples to New York 
if the grocer would soil them at a reason¬ 
able price, which he found he could not 
do. It seems to be this way with beef 
everywhere. Those who buy from the 
big packers must buy nowhere else. A 
rich man in this town went out West and 
brought in two carloads of steers, with 
which to bring down the II. (’. of I,. He 
was rather chagrined to find that not a 
regular dealer on Main street would touch 
them. He had to work them off as best 
he could on the foreign dealers. These 
men offer 10 cents a pound now for the 
best fat local steers, while round steak 
in the city costs 50 and 60 cents. The 
boys have two fat. nice lambs they would 
sell, but the dealers will not touch them 
at any price. Wool, of course, does not 
bring anything at all uow. If one could 
find a sale for it. I suppose the wool for 
a sweater that retails for, $14 would 
bring the farmer just 45 ' cents. The 
truth is. our whole system of competition, 
with its resulting monopoly and high 
artificial prices, with restricted produc¬ 
tion. is breaking down. A quite differ¬ 
ent economic system is going to take its 
place. How much disaster we face be¬ 
fore this comes about remains to be seen. 
A Sad Trial.— Down in one mission, 
after years of effort, we got to the point 
that we actually did some buying in com¬ 
mon. How did we come out? Although 
bought through the Farm Bureau, of a 
city dealer, the stuff was absolutely 
worthless, and every cent put into it a 
total loss, and the whole co-operative idea 
in this vicinity was given a black eye 
that will take years to get over. 
The Mail Box. —The Parson has had 
some most interesting mail lately from 
among our readers. One letter came 
from a man down in New Jersey who 
is going to. send the boys a printing out¬ 
fit. This is one he is no longer able to 
use himself, and so is ready and willing 
to «put it. to a good purpose. He not. 
only is going to give the boys the ma¬ 
chine, which would seem to be a very 
nice one. with a great deal of plain and 
fancy type, but he is going to pay the 
freight on it as well. Such a joy to 
find cases like this where money is not 
always first, and where a man who has 
no children is willing to do something 
for other children without regard to the 
dollar. After 2.000 years of Christi¬ 
anity. when anyone really shows symp¬ 
toms of practicing it. it quite takes one’s 
breath away. 
From Vermont. —Another letter comes 
from old Vermont, and its natural, un¬ 
affected way of picturing, the home life 
up above Bethel is most delightful. 
Hammers are also lost on that place, 
with seven children. (The Parson has 
been looking most of the afternoon for 
his best hammer, and has not found it— 
a brand-new one.) It did sound natural 
to read in this letter of going to Ran¬ 
dolph to sell some broilers. How many 
times as a boy has the Parson been there 
to sell things—winding up by giving 
them away or bringing them home 
again! For in those days Randolph 
certainly lield» the palm as a wretched 
market. We used to take down early 
apples—Duchess and Tetofsky. You 
could sell a few and the rest you could 
bring back home and feed to the hogs, 
as you should have done before you 
started. Once in a great while we tried 
Bethel, as we had an aunt there, and 
would be going down anyway with a 
little farm stuff. The Parson can see 
Mark Moody sitting on his grocery porch 
October 2, 1P20 
leaning back in his chair as though it 
were yesterday, instead of 40 years ago 
Mark has long since gone where groceries 
do not trouble—at least, we hope not 
Mark thought he could handle a barrei 
of Duchess early the next week. 
Little Late.— But whether the wind 
blew off the apples and the hens picked 
them or not. the horses were busy and 
could not. go. the Parson does not ' re¬ 
member. No apples went down to Mark 
and the Fall was gone and Winter came 
and Spring and Summer and Fall again 
with its crop of Duchess. The Parson 
headed for Bethel with a barrel to 
try his luck. Yes, there sat Mark in 
the same identical spot, on the same 
veranda., with the 'same chair tipped 
back at precisely the same angle. He 
saw the Parson coming; he also saw the 
apples in the back. “Are those the 
Duchess I bought of you?” lie calmly 
asked, without so much as a twinkle of 
the eye. ”1 expect they are,” came the 
answer. “You can put them here at the 
end of the steps.” he remarked, as he 
shuffled in to weigh out enough sugar 
to pay for them. 
Still Another Letter. —Yet another 
friend has written a much-appreciated 
letter to the Parson, approving of the 
kind of religion the Parson seems to 
preach. This man believes in a practical 
religion, and that practicing a practical 
religion counts for far more than preach¬ 
ing it. He also feels that the Parson 
has some practical ideas about farming. 
The Parson believes with this man in a 
practical religion. What we are all 
waiting for is to see Christianity given 
a trial by someone, so that we can see 
how it works. 
School I.ife. — Since writing the 
above school has begun, and would seem, 
too, that the trouble had begun with it ! 
We have had such a happy, nice time all 
Summer, working and playing about the 
farm together, and it did seem too bad 
after three days of school to hear George 
crying and sobbing for such a long time 
after getting home. T.ast year he was 
happy in his school, and got along nicely, 
but now it is all different. If it keeps 
on this way, it will wear him down sick. 
It all depends on the general atmos¬ 
phere and tone of the room—whether 
it is cheerful and appreciative or quite 
the reverse. Perhaps Jiis teacher doesn't 
really mean her terrible threats, but if 
she doesn’t, she shouldn’t utter them. 
The other night 21 out of 24 children 
were supposed to stay after school. 
What a flow of confidence and affection 
will soon be rampant in this room! 
After all probably the teacher is not to 
blame, but the whole grinding, mechan¬ 
ical system pf which both teacher and 
children are a part. 
. 
•■• ■,-,*< * ^ > : 
V. • * ■ • -Nx • 
Copyright 1920 
Henry Sonneboro 
& Co., lac. 
Medium 
prices 
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(Dept. V ) for name of local dealer. 
Henry Sonneborn & Co., Inc., Baltimore, Md. 
