712 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 14 , 1021 
j HOPE FARM NOTES 
I had an experience yesterday which 
brought to mind one of those “adventures 
in silence” which we have referred to 
from time to time. I went to New York 
on an early train. Some of you do not 
realize how city and country run together 
here. Every day nearly half a million 
people travel from New Jersey to the 
great city, put in a day’s work, and then 
come home again. They pour in like a 
human flood from Jersey # towns and 
farms, and the transportation problem 
becomes an important item. We go to 
Jersey City over the Erie Railroad, and 
when we leave the train we have our 
choice of crossing the river on a ferry¬ 
boat or going under the river through a 
tunnel. The latter plan gives greater 
speed, and so most commuters dive und^r 
the river. In order to reach the tunnel 
' cars it is necessary to travel nearly a 
quarter <>f a mile through a long ‘‘sub¬ 
way” or cave under ground. At times 
several trains will arrive at the same mo¬ 
ment. and then this long cave will be 
packed with human beings, moving on as 
best they can to the trains at the further 
end. That is the way it happened yester¬ 
day. There was a jam such as I have 
rarely seen before—a solid mass of men 
and women, moving on slowly. All I could 
think of was some mighty tube of vaseline 
or tooth paste as the content* are 
squeezed out at the end. A crowd of this 
sort is usually quite orderly, for the city 
worker knows what a crowd means and 
naturally falls into something like mili¬ 
tary discipline. We were slowly squeez¬ 
ing through, when suddenly, without 
warning, all the electric lights snapped 
out and left us in pitch darkness. Those 
of you who have little hearing left will 
never realize just what your affliction 
means until you are placed in a situation 
like that. I have before now, been left 
alone in the darkness, but that was easy 
compared with the danger from this jam. 
I could reach out my hand in every direc¬ 
tion and touch people, but the very con¬ 
tact made the danger more apparent. _ At 
my right were three silly, giggling girls. 
Suppose they should scream ! At my left 
was a nervous man. I could feel him 
trembling with fright. Suppose he start¬ 
ed to yell “Fire!” as I have known 
frightened fools to do at such times! 
Just a* the lights snapped out I had noted 
a great, brutal-looking man at the booth 
where money was changed. He looked 
fully like a criminal. The woman making 
change was light and small. There were 
piles of money in front of her. Her throat 
was within two feet of that man’s great 
hand. A scream from that woman, a call 
of “Fire!” and that orderly crowd might 
be seized with a blind fear that would 
drive it into a mad stampede. Let that 
happen and these peaceful Jerse.vmen 
would go smashing and trampling like the 
herd of wild cattle I once saw in the 
West! A fellow’s brain works rapidly at 
such a time. You can imagine more things 
in a minute than you can perform in an 
hour'. It seemed to me that we stood 
there in that peopled darkness for fullv 
half an hour. Yet when the lights flashed 
back we found that the darkness had last¬ 
ed less than a minute. Those giggling 
girls were most interested in a group of 
young men near them. The man whom I 
thought trembling with fear was laughing, 
and the man I had nominated as a possi¬ 
ble criminal had no more thought of rob- 
bery than I had. The great crowd had 
waited patiently for light, and when it 
came thev moved on as before, smiling at 
the incident. Most of them regarded it as 
a form of comedy. Only a few who have 
seen a human stampede and knew what 
men. and women do when they go back to 
elemental fears and selfishness realized 
how close we were to a-tragedy. 
if it * if * 
Thinking about this has brought to 
mind the adventure of John Russell. John 
was a New England man who was driven 
by liing trouble to the mountains of Col¬ 
orado. He was very deaf, and his af¬ 
fliction was a great trial to him. With a 
party of friends he traveled West into the 
mountains until they came quite close to 
the Fte Indian reservation. John had the 
eastern man’s usual ignorance and fear 
of the Indian. The guide for their party 
was an old plainsman, full of Indian sto¬ 
ries which seemed to gain strength in 
arithmetical progression as they were re¬ 
told. Some of these guides find that they 
add to their own importance by frighten¬ 
ing their “tenderfoot” patrons a little. At 
anv rate. John got enough of the stories 
to give him a mental picture of the noble 
red man that was not soothing, to say the 
least. The company camped each night 
and built a great roaring fire, around 
which they sat and talked. But poor 
John c-ould not take part in the conversa¬ 
tion : he could not hear it, and he could 
not read comfortably by the firelight. The 
deaf man's life is divided into three peri¬ 
ods—working, sleeping, and reading or 
thinking. So one night John found him¬ 
self unable to sleep, and in some way he 
became possessed with a wild desire to see 
what lay in the shadows outside the 
range of firelight. It was a foolish thing 
to do. but men driven back to the society 
of their own thoughts often ito foolish 
things, which could be prevented by a few 
words of ordinary conversation. So John, 
alone and unarmed, wandered out of the 
firelight and into the shadow of the trees. 
He wandered aimlessly on and on. deep¬ 
er and deeper into the wilderness, until 
he suddenly realized that he had lost sight j 
of the camp fire. Then he tried to retrace 
his stops, but as men usually do at such 
times, he merely wandered about until he 
stopped, utterly confused. The moon was 
obscured, and under the dark shade of the 
trees he could only grope his way along, 
tearing his hands on vines and thorns, 
and striking against, hanging branches. 
At last, thoroughly frightened, he stopped 
and shouted again and again, although he 
well knew that he could not hear the 
answer. Then suddenly out of the shad¬ 
ows two human forms appeared and a j 
hand was laid on either arm. Two men j 
were evidently talking to him. but he 
could not understand their words. There 
seemed to be a brief discussion between 
them, and then each put a hand on his 
shoulder and forced him oh through the 
forest. The moon was now lighting up 
the open places, and as they passed 
through a little glade John glanced at Ids 
companions. ITis heart almost stopped 
beating when the moonlight fell upon the 
faces of two Indians ! I suppose few men 
have ever suffered as poor John Russell 
did during that dark, wild march over the 
mountain. Unable to understand what 
these Indians were trying to tell him. his 
mind filled with all the stories of craft 
and cruelty he had heard, he plunged on. 
fully expecting to find the gauntlet and 
stake awaiting him. 
***** 
After half an hour of this silent march 
they suddenly saw a light blazing up 
ahead of them. In a little opening, be¬ 
side a stream, a bright fire was. burning, 
and a dozen Indians were lounging about 
it—some wrapped in blankets, and others 
lying on robes or skins. A few ponies 
were picketed near by. As John and his 
captors came out of the shadows the en¬ 
tire group of Indians gathered about him. 
Some felt of his clothes; one took his hat 
another tried to go through his pockets; 
they were all talking some otrarge lan¬ 
guage which even a man with good ears j 
cculd hardly understand. I’o John it 
seemed only the beginning of some diabol¬ 
ical ceremony which was to end in l««h- 
ing him to a tree and building a fir-' 1 about 
him. Apparently satisfied that they could 
not make him understand, most of the In¬ 
dians went back to the fire. The two who 
had brought John in led him to a tree at 
one side and motioned to him to lie down 
on a cowskin robe. When he hesitated 
they lifted him bodily and laid him down. 
Then one of them sat on the ground 
about six feet away as guard, while the 
other went to tin fire. Here be «»<ir,cd 
to hold a lively discussion with the others, 
frequently pointing back at John. As 
they talked and argued, some of them 
evidently excited, with the firelight flash¬ 
ing oA r er their faces, John could only im¬ 
agine some group of fiends gathered to 
perform some hideous rite. At last there 
seemed to be an agreement, and one big 
Indian arose and produced a long, shining 
knife, which he proceeded to sharpen on a 
small stone. He ran a red thumb over 
the edge, and when it satisfied him stalked 
toward John with the knife in his hand, 
lie stopped at a tree at one side from 
which hung an object just dimly visible in 
the shadow. To John’s tortured brain it 
seemed like a human being tied to the 
tree. The Indian approached it and 
seemed to plunge his bright knife into the 
object again and again. There was ap- 
parently a struggle, and then the Indian 
came back to the fi-e with something in 
his hand which seemed to excite the envy 
of the rest, and poor John, lying under the 
free, remembered every detail of the scalp 
dance which the guide had told them 
Suddenly a new actor appeared upon 
the scene. A tall man came quickly out 
of the shadow and up to the fire. He 
seemed like the rest, and yet different. 
His hair had been cut and there was 
something like humor shining in his face, 
lie seemed to be a leader. The man who 
had cut the ghastly morsel stood and 
pointed at John. The newcomer listened 
to their story and then came over to the 
tree. But John, half crazed with fright. 
Could not understand, and the new man 
acted promptly. With two others to hold 
the white man, this newcomer went quick¬ 
ly through John’s coat pockets and emp¬ 
tied them, taking out letters and papers. 
Then he went back to the fire and with 
his knife whittled a small stick down to a 
fine point. Then he spoke to the man who 
sat next him, and with a grunt this man 
bared his arm and with the point of his 
knife made a small cut—enough to draw 
the blood. Dipping his stick in this blood 
the newcomer wrote on the envel mo of _a 
letter which John had received from his 
mother. They brought-a flaming brand 
from the fire and John read in blood let¬ 
ters : . 
“ I Jure no fear! We are friends. T am 
a student at Carlisle. These men only 
irant to know if you hare any tobacco!’' 
There was no tragedy about it at ali. 
These Indians were absolutely harmless: 
they were just farmers out on a hunting 
trip. All they had been trying to do was 
to show their hospitality, but the deaf 
man took it for hostility. That dreadful 
“scalp” was a piece of deer meat which 
they were to cook for him over their fire! 
The object hanging from the tree was a 
deer’s carcass. When morning came they 
quickly took the deaf man back to his 
friends. 
John Russell claimed that the terrors 
of that night caused his hair to turn 
gray. At any rate, that Summer in the 
mountains cured his lungs, and I think it 
# 
here’s a Reason \Vhy 
Grape=Nuts 
makes a help fill breakfast and a 
profitable lunch for the worker who 
must be awake and alert during the day 
Grape=Nuts is the perfected 
goodness of wheat and malted barley, 
and is exceptionally rich in nourishment. 
It feeds body and brain without 
tax upon the digestion. 
“There’s a Reason 
Potash for Swamp Land 
D OES the corn grown on your 
swamp or muck land look like 
the large ear or like the small one? The 
small one shows the kind of corn pro¬ 
duced on potash hungry muck land. 
When 100 to 200 lbs. per acre of 
Muriate of Potash, or 400 to 800 lbs. 
of Kainit, are broadcasted on potash 
hungry muck, full yields of sound corn 
are produced. 
For onions, on such lands, 100 to200 lbs. 
per acre of Sulfate of Potash is the 
right amount to produce full yields of 
sound onions that ripen normally and 
keep well. 
With potatoes and truck crops, like 
results are obtained. 
Even at war prices potash gave a good profit 
on swamp lands. Now it can be bought for 
very much lessr It will help you reduce the 
cost of production, and greatly improve the 
quantity and quality of your crops. There 
is plenty of it if you will take the trouble to 
insist on having it. 
The jollowing firms have requested 
us to state that they will sell unmixed 
Potash Salts: 
Ashcraft-Wilkinson Co., Atlanta, Ga. 
Dawhoo Fertilizer Co., Charleston, S. C. 
Harby & Co., Sumter, S. C. 
A. F. Pringle, Inc., Charleston, S. C. 
The Nitrate Agencies Co., 85Water St.,N.Y. 
Baltimore, Md. Columbus, O. 
Norfolk, Va. Savannah, Ga. 
Jacksonville, Fla. New Orleans, La. 
' SOIL & CROP SERVICE, POTASH SYNDICATE 
H. A. HUSTON, Manager 
4- Broadway New York 
POTASH PAYS 
