470 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 19, 1921 
HOPE FARM NOTES \ 
I have met several eases of what we 
may call “suspended conversation”— 
where people refuse to speak to each 
other. It usually starts with some quar¬ 
rel or some misunderstanding. Both 
parties are proud and stubborn, and both 
register a vow that they will not '-peak 
first. So they go through life refusing to 
talk. If any communication necessary 
they conduct it through some third party. 
If you have ever seen one of these foolish 
and harmful contests of pride and selfish¬ 
ness you will understand fully what I 
am about to relate. I have seen quite a 
number of them—usually in the country. 
Years ago they seemed laughable, but 
time and experience have shown the trag¬ 
edy : the deep pathos and weakening of 
character which come from such a foolish 
way of living. I remember when I was 
acting as a book agent T came to a house 
in the woods where two old people lived 
alone. They had not spoken for years 
and they at once seized upon me to act 
as interpreter: 
“Tell her the buttons are all off my 
vest.' Tel] her the hog weighed 280 
pounds. Tell her the minister is coming 
to dinner tomorrow!”—These were sam¬ 
ples of the old man’s instructions, while 
his wife also made good use of me. 
“Ask him who that was went by this 
morning! Tell him I’ve got to have a 
new shawl. Ask him what he did with 
my broom. Tel] him Brown’s folks say 
they have two setting hens for him”— 
and so on. 
There was no scolding or trouble. They 
had both vowed that they never would 
speak the first word. No doubt they had 
forgotten what the original quarrel was 
all about. T stayed to dinner and sold 
them a book but it was a little embar- 
assing at the table. 
“Tell her I want some more tea.” 
“Tell him to give you another Alice of 
ham.” 
“Tell her these biscuits need a Little 
more shortening.” 
Tell him T run out of dry wood.” 
$ $ 3ft 9$ # 
Indeed, it seems to me pathetic beyond 
words to see these people living their lone¬ 
ly and drab lives just for the sake of keep¬ 
ing up a silly quarrel, the license for 
which expired years before. For I think 
this stubborn pride in family and in com¬ 
munity life is what keeps country people 
apart and prevents true oo-onerative 
work. Our great organizations will break 
apart like a pile of sand unless family 
and community life can rise above preju¬ 
dice and petty quarrels. The old couple 
that I shall tell about were both very 
deaf. If you make a study of deaf people 
you will discover that they absorb from 
the silence in which they live either a 
fierce suspicion and prejudice or a great 
confidence and faith in those who 
surround them. It seems to depend upon 
the way they occupy their minds and what 
they read and think. The old folks I 
speak of were rather narrow and not well 
read, and their affliction only made them 
suspicious. They had not spoken for 
years. I doubt, if either one of them could 
remember distinctly what the original 
quarrel was about. I think it resulted 
from the misunderstanding of a spoken 
word, but both were stubborn and both 
determined that the other must speak 
first. They were still fond of each other 
in their odd way. and T think each one 
was longing for the other to break down 
the foolish barrier by speaking the first 
word ; but habit was too strong for that. 
They had one ear trumpet between them. 
Sometimes the minister would call and 
offer up a prayer for the reconciliation, 
but the trouble was that when he was 
justifying the woman, the man would be 
holding the ear trumpet, while the woman 
usually had it while lie was saying a good 
word for the man. So these old people 
lived on in the silence nursing their fan¬ 
cied grievance when down in their hearts 
both of them would gladly have strangled 
the evil child. 
* * i'f * * 
But one day here came Charlie Graham, 
the neighbor’s boy. to borrow a quart of 
skim-milk. Tie got close to the old lady 
and screamed : 
“Ma wants to borrv some skim-milk so 
she can make a pnddin’, T T nele Nat is 
coming to visit.” 
The old lady guessed the meaning of 
his errand from the empty pail. 
“Tell him to lift those pans down from 
the top shelf.” That was their way of 
using a third party as an interpreter. 
She looked at her husband as she spoke, 
for he sat hy the window reading his farm 
paper. Charlie declares that he had a 
sore throat that day, and that made it 
hard for him to talk. So he went over 
to the farmer and shook his pail and then 
pointed to the high pantry shelf. The 
farmer was hungry, and that surely tem¬ 
pers the understanding of the sign lan¬ 
guage. 
“She wants ue to eat some of them hot 
cookies, eh? I call that kindly of her. jf 
I do say it. Ask her how long before 
we’ll have dinner.” 
Charlie went faithfully back and roared 
his message. The deaf usually get one 
or two important words and twine imagi¬ 
nation around them. 
“He says lie’s a miserable sinner, does 
he? I’m glad he begins to realize bis 
state of existence. Tell him my wood box 
is empty, and if he don’t fill it right up 
I’ll give him Cain. That’s just what he 
needs!” 
Charlie took the ear trumpet and went 
across the room to try to deliver this 
message. He says that his sore throat 
made it hard for him to talk, and about 
all the farmer got out of it were the words 
“give” and cain.” That was enough for 
him. 
“She’s going to five me a cane, you 
say? That’s kindly again. I need one 
when my rheumatism is bad. I hope it 
will be gold-headed, with my name on it. 
I’m glad she begins to see things as they 
ought to be. It’s time, or I’d have made 
her smart for all this! You tell her that. 
I knew she’d smart for it.” 
By this time Charlie had entered the 
spirit of the comedy. Ko he trudged over 
to the old lady with the ear trumpet and 
delivered this message : 
“Tie says he thinks you’re awful smart.” 
Ever since the days of Eve woman has 
appreciated an evidently true compliment. 
The admiring words are sometimes sung 
on moonlit nights below my lady’s bower 
to the soft accompaniment of tinkling 
strings. At. other times, as we see, they 
are roared through an ear trumpet. But 
whatever the route over which they travel, 
if they reach the heart all is well. Yet. 
when was any woman who is really worth 
while easily won? So the old lady was 
true to all traditions. 
“You just tell him to keep his soft soap 
for washing days!” 
Charlie did hie best, but all the old man 
got clearly was “days.” Soap sounded 
like hope, and “washing” for once made 
a happy day. Anyway, all deaf people 
will tell you that under excitement imagi¬ 
nation does strange things with the hear¬ 
ing 
“Tell him 1 hope for happy days. 
That was the way the old man got it. 
The shock of it actually smashed down 
the barrier of silence which had so long 
shut him in. ITe stood and looked at his 
wife for a moment, then hunted up tin- 
ear trumpet and marched across the room 
to her side. Few of us can ever know 
what it cost him to do it. He put the 
tube of the trumpet to her ear and 
shouted: 
“I’d like to make ’em ‘happy days. 
Mary, and I kinder think I was part in 
the wrong. At any rate, here I be speak¬ 
ing first.” 
And Miar.v took her turn at the trumpet, 
held it to his ear, and screamed : 
“Beuben. I’m awful glad you spoke 
first. Thinking it over I guess I was a 
little to blame, too. It’s been mighty 
lonesome here with no one to talk to.” 
But for the boy’s presence they would 
have been like young lovers instead of 
gray-haired, deaf people settling their life 
tragedy through an ear trumpet. I have 
seen the famous love scene in “Romeo 
and Juliet,” but—I don’t know—it al¬ 
most seems as if these old people passing 
their ear trumpet, back and forth in their 
efforts to bring truant love out, of his 
hiding place gave the more beautiful per¬ 
formance. 
And Charlie Graham had no cause to 
complain. For it. is no wonder that Mary 
was so flustered by the sudden happiness 
thus thrust upon her. that, instead of fill¬ 
ing the tin pail with ekim-milk, she 
brimmed it with sweet cream. And even 
when they discovered the mistake. Reuben 
refused to mention it because, as he said, 
“It was worth it all.” 
And thus here was a true case where 
they all lived happily ever after. No use 
talking, these cases of “suspended silence” 
have no place on the farm or off it. Keep 
them up and they will suspend human 
happiness by the neck until it is dead. 
Why not be a hero and speak the first 
word? I have an idea that some of you 
who can hear a pin drop are as ridiculous 
as old. deaf people in your efforts to keep 
from saying the needed word. H. w. c. 
Doughnuts and Crullers 
You have probably received from me a 
couple of doughnuts and a cruller. _ Ac¬ 
cording to my recollection, you said in 
The R.-Y. last Winter that if a dough¬ 
nut did not have a hole in it it would be 
soggy. It appeared to me you did not 
know what a New England doughnut 
was, and if you had lived in New Eng¬ 
land and didn’t know what one was your 
education had been sadly neglected. The 
cruller dough is cut out in strips, the 
ends lapped and fried in hot lard. The 
doughnuts are usually made early in the 
evening, put in a bread tray, covered 
with a woolen cloth, put where it is 
warm and left to rise until morning. 
The dough is kneaded again, the dough¬ 
nuts cut out. put on a molding board, 
covered with a woolen cloth and left to 
rise again. By night they are light and 
are cooked in hot lard. Yeast is used 
in making doughnuts, but not in crullers. 
Connecticut. w. S. 
It is a form of cruelty to tell one who 
was born close to Cape Cod that he dors 
not know what a New England doughnut 
is! We have eaten many thousands of 
the kind with the hole in it. and they 
were all called “doughnuts.” Our friend 
seems to have the dictionary on his side, 
but we have common usage all through 
New England. However, why quarrel 
over a hole? The little cakes sent by W. 
S. were excellent, but to our taste the one 
with the hole in it was the best. We al¬ 
ways like to conform to the use of good 
English, but—pass the doughnuts—the 
kind with the hole. The word “cruller” 
doesn’t seem to have the same strength. 
Its Appeal Grows! 
Many people start to use 
Instant Postum 
temporarily in place of coffee or 
tea for health reasons. But they 
soon learn to love its rich flavor 
and its pure, wholesome qualities 
are so apparent that they adopt 
Postum as their regular meal¬ 
time beverage. 
Theres a Reason 
Sold 
by grocers 
everywhere 
Made by 
Postum Cereal Co., Inc. 
Battle Creek.Mich. 
c 
Instant 
u.s.rst.Gff. — 
® POSTUM 
A BEVERAGE 
m *de of different parts of Wheal 
and o small portion of Molasse*. 
M«Nur«cru»tO tv 
Postum Cereal 
Battie Creek. Mich 
NET WEIGHT EIGHT 
Company, ffl 
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r ounces. , 
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quick reply and a “square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
