Vh RURAL NEW-YORKER * 
1287 
We have been on our pioneer farm for 
eight years, and each year has been 
marked by some disaster caused by 
Nature, and also some disaster caused by 
man—middleman. One can bear what 
Nature sends with good grace, but to be 
robbed after almost sweating blood over 
a crop is a cross which I shall bear only 
under protestation. My voice shall be 
heard loud and long in the land, and I 
suppose it will be about as effective as 
one lone frog croaking in a puddle the 
size of the Atlantic. 
The first year here the rabbits shaved 
our crop to the ground as though a lawn 
mower had been run over it. The next 
year we raised over a hundred bogs, mak¬ 
ing them pastures of peas, mangel wur- 
zels and Alfalfa. They took also, against 
our will, oats, wheat and potatoes. When 
we came to sell hogs were 4 cents a 
pound. Bacon at the grocery store was 
40 cents a pound at the same time. Last 
year we sold wheat and hay for less than 
it cost us to raise and harvest them. Our 
hired hand got the only money made on 
the place. 
What do we face this year? On this 
day (September 30) potatoes are 70 cents 
a hundred, and hay is $3. It is even 
selling for $2.DO a short distance from us. 
Even considering the lower cost of farm 
labor, hay cannot be raised and har¬ 
vested for .$3 a ton in our part of (he 
country. And this year Nature did her 
little turn by taking our best wheat 
with “rust.” One week we saw the wav¬ 
ing grain, so tall you could barely see 
over it, with great beautiful heads, and 
the next week we saw it mowed down by 
“rust.” 
A contemporaneous periodical says that 
the reason people are leaving the farms 
to flock to the cities is because farm 
machinerv is taking the place of hand 
labor. When I read that I could have 
laughed aloud, but I groaned instead. 
What farm machinery has been invented 
that will make possible the farmer's work 
day to begin at seven o’clock, as does the 
city man’s day, or end his work at six. 
as is the case with the average city man 
—nay, five might be a better estimate, 
and the work of the day does not begin 
until eight or nine. Doesn’t this period¬ 
ical see that if it were true that machin¬ 
ery is doing away with manual labor the 
city folks would come flocking to the 
farms instead of being crowded by the 
influx of country folks from the farms? 
In my son’s history book I read I lie 
account of the farmer 1400 B. C., and it 
is surprising to see how little change has 
been made in the condition of the farmer 
in 3.321 years. It is true that the method 
of crushing the farmer is not the same, 
but he hasn’t much better chance than 
the farmer who lived over a thousand 
years before Christ. Bead the account 
written at that time: 
“Dost thou not recall the picture of 
the farmer, when the tenth of his grain 
is levied? 
name “farmer” stand for real independ¬ 
ence instead of the illusion we nurse at 
present. 
It is undoubtedly a perverted sense of 
humor that rejoices in labeling the bread 
producers of the world as “hicks.” My 
little Joe comes to me with the request: 
“Mamma, teach me a funny song.” “All 
right, Joe; how is this? 
his wheat 
the rest, 
the fields; 
the cattle 
and if the 
Worms have destroyed half 
and the hippotami have eaten 
There are swarms of rats in 
the grasshoppers alight there ; 
devour; the little birds pilfer; 
farmer lose sight for an in- 
“ ‘My bonny leaned over a gas tank, 
The height of the contents to see; 
She lighted a match to assist her—- 
Oh, bring back my bonny to me “ 
r »* 
“Why, mamma,” says .Toe in a shocked 
voice, “that isn’t funny !” 
And when you think of it, 
lit. Of course, if it were true 
ri 
he was 
it would 
not be funny, but in pretence we call it 
so. “Hick” might be funny if we were 
called that by a good-natured friend who 
was chaffing us, but as a term of derision 
it loses its humor. 
I love the garden with its flowers and 
vegetables in a friendly congregation; I 
love the orchard with its chattering birds; 
I love the particular shade trees by my 
ated and put in working effectiveness. 
I would like to see in each county one 
commissioner of schools, elected by popu¬ 
lar vote. This would save the taxpayers 
of the State several million dollars an¬ 
nually, and the' service rendered would 
be as efficient as now, and I am of the 
opinion more so in many cases. 
The next advance step, to my mind, is 
a uniform text book law, which would 
benefit all classes immensely. The last 
census report states that tenantry is on 
the increase in all rural sections of our 
country. These people are transients in 
a large measure, as are the strictly labor 
class. They are here today and elsewhere 
tomorrow. 
The great benefit these classes con¬ 
stantly receive in Michigan and many 
other Western States from the operation 
of their uniform textbook law cannot be 
calculated. A family may move at any 
time from one county to any other, and 
the children go right on in their work 
with little or no interruption in class or 
grade. A large saving to the parents is 
made by the use of the same books every¬ 
where. It is this class of our population 
which needs help the most. The wealthy 
and independent classes will educate their 
children, anyway, but the others often are 
unable to do so. 
Another law that is working .great bene¬ 
fit to all classes in the West is the so- 
stant of what remains upon the ground 
it is carried off by robbers. . The thongs, 
moreover, which bind the iron and the 
hoe are worn out. and the team (of cows) 
has died at the plow. It is then that the 
scribe steps out of the boat at the land¬ 
ing place to levy the tythe, and there 
come the keepers of the doors of the 
granary with cudgels and the negroes 
with ribs of palm-leaves (very effective 
whips) crying. ‘.Come on, corn!’ There 
is none, and they throw the cultivator 
full length upon the ground; bound, 
dragged to the canal, they fling him in 
head first; his wife is 'bound with him; 
his children are put into chains; the 
neighbors, in the meantime, leave him 
and flv to save their grain.” 
About the only improvement that I can 
see in the condition of the farmer in over 
three thousand years is that those who 
pay him a mere pittance for his labor no 
longer find it necessary to fling him into 
a canal, and his wife and children are 
permitted to wear the chains of inter¬ 
minable labor. All the farm women I 
know say, “I would not live in the city. 
Of course not. “God made the country, ’ 
and it is there that we feel Him and see 
Him as nowhere else. But is that any 
reason why we should not receive a just 
return for our labor? Who is to blame? 
The farmer! This country is supposed 
to be governed by those who represent us 
all. IIow many of our governing class 
represent, truly, the farmer? You know, 
and I know, that if we had proper rep¬ 
resentation the unjust marketing system 
would be corrected. Farming would not 
be the lower end of the great gambling 
see-saw that hoists on high the men who 
make money out of farm produce. If 
every farmer—and his wife—voted for 
men whom they know would work for 
the interest of the farmer as well as for 
other people’s interest, farming would 
rise to the dignity it deserves. We must 
do it ourselves, and so long as we do not 
—so long as we herd like sheep in our 
political parties, following at the heels of 
any politician selected for us by men not 
interested in the farmers at all—just that 
long we shall be called “hicks,” “rubes 
and—“farmers” (name of names!) and 
we shall deserve it. We must make that 
England. His name is Victor Ilah Baksh. 
The lecture itself was of wonderful in¬ 
terest to all, it seemed to me, who knew 
anything about the science of agriculture 
in this country. After he was fully pre¬ 
pared for this work he returned to India 
to teach those people modern farming. 
After hearing his lecture I thought it 
would be the finest investment imaginable 
if some of our educational institutions 
would retain him in this country to teach 
us how to talk and read the English lan¬ 
guage. In my long lifetime I have heard 
many lectures, always in English, as I 
neither talk nor read any other language, 
but never did I know nor hear the beau¬ 
ties of the English language until I heard 
this Arab. He talked with wonderful 
rapidity, but his enunciation .was so per¬ 
fect that, deaf as I am, I heard and un¬ 
derstood every word of that lecture, which 
took him an hour and a half to deliver. 
1 had with me two instruments made 
for the purpose of aiding the partially 
deaf to hear. For half an hour I applied 
these instruments alternately and omit¬ 
ting both at equal intervals. I soon found 
that neither instrument was of any value 
to me, and that really I could get his 
words more distinctly without either of 
them. This clinched a conclusion I had 
already arrived at, viz., that every instru¬ 
ment used for the purpose I have indi¬ 
cated would augment the sound, the 
noise, but the articulation of the speaker 
was delivered to the ears of the hearer 
precisely as it left his lips. For the last 
hour of the lecture I used neither of the 
instruments with perfect satisfaction. I 
should say that this man at no time used 
any great voice power; in fact, rather 
the reverse. This confirmed me in the 
opinion I already had that my inability 
to distinguish clearly what was said to 
me was not so much my fault as of those 
who were speaking or even talking to me. 
Everyone who heard the Arab’s lecture, 
so far as I have been able to find out, 
thought just as I did about the purity 
and simplicity of the English he used. 
Illinois. A. W. FOREMAN. 
Keeping Posted on Farm News 
back porch that welcome me out-of-doors 
every day; I love the long stretch of 
wheat fields, the emerald of Alfalfa, the 
blooming clover and Alsike; I love the 
valley, the mountains and the sky ; I love 
the farm—the beautiful sweeping acres 
of free-reaching land. “Man’s inhumanity 
to man” is all that ever makes me mourn. 
Sometimes when I go to bed at night 
I am too tired to pray. Life looks like 
unending, unchanging labor, which cannot 
be relieved by prayer. But I always 
manage to bring myself up with a jerk 
when I think how ungrateful is such a 
state of mind. So instead of praying, I 
do better. I lie and count my “many 
blessings.” “Thank God for my good 
bed; for the clean sheets; for the fresh 
sweet air breathing on my face from the 
open window; for the dim stars looking 
dreamily down upon me from the high, 
deep canopy of night; thank God that 
my husband is not a profligate; and 
thank Him devoutly that death has not 
touched our little home circle. I waft 
my loving thoughts to each of my sleep¬ 
ing children, and weave a blessing around 
each unconscious head. While we are 
all here in the home such a word as ‘dis¬ 
couragement’ cannot be spoken. Blessed 
are the father and mother who realize 
the blessedness of children.” And so I 
fall asleep, rich and contented. 
Idaho. ANNIE PIKE GREENWOOD. 
called textbook law, under which all text¬ 
books in use in the State are purchased 
by the State under contract with the 
publishers and sold to the pupils at just 
cost plus handling expense, thus effecting 
a saving of as high as 150 per cent on 
some of the common grade books. 
The optional township school law is 
working very nicely in many Western 
States, and to my mind is the wisest 
measure yet pioneered through in the 
West, and has proved very popular and 
effective for better schools. This gives 
all townships so situated the privilege of 
consolidation if they choose. Others not 
so favorably located may go as far as 
their conditions will allow. It. keeps the 
control of the schools where it ought to 
be, near the patrons, a very vital element 
in popular education, john h. mowry. 
Some Ideas on Education 
I am astonished at the apparent blind¬ 
ness of our State -school authorities to the 
many good things in the other States. 
The conservatism that seems to rule their 
actions is deadening. 
I would like to see the head of our 
State school system elected by popular 
vote. This would at least give oppor¬ 
tunity for some new idea to be iucorpor- 
Teach Them to Talk 
Several weeks ago you printed some 
strictures on the methods and results of 
teaching reading in our public schools 
which attracted my attention at once, be¬ 
cause I have been agitating that question 
myself. I go further than the teaching 
of reading, and include the utter lack of 
teaching how to talk in our public schools, 
and would have regular class work every 
day in talking. This is, I think, quite as 
important as class work in reading. Of 
course this is lacking at home as well as 
in school. You aptly and properly illus¬ 
trate the subject of imperfect talking by 
a reference to the inability of one who is 
partially deaf to understand ordinary 
conversation wholly because the talker 
does not know how to talk . 
I want to illustrate this by an exper¬ 
ience I have recently had at our Chau¬ 
tauqua. The first lecture was by a full- 
blood Arab who was born in India, reared 
and educated in the United States and 
A Window Tent for Sleepers 
Will you furnish me with instructions 
for making a window box and material 
required? The kind desired is used for 
persons afflicted with tuberculosis, so that 
they may sleep indoors and still have 
fresh air outside for the head. c. G. 
Grand Haven, Mich. 
A window tent for the use of those 
who wish to get the benefit of outdoor air 
at night while sleeping in their beds 
within their rooms is simply a square 
wooden frame made to fit into the place t.f 
the lower sash of the window when that 
is raised. Attached to this frame by 
tacks, and fastened to all but the lower 
horizontal bar of the frame, is a curtain 
of muslin of sufficient length to extend 
from the window over the sleeper’s bed, 
placed with its head close to the opened 
window. This curtain may be made by 
tacking an ordinary bed sheet of suffi¬ 
cient width to the upper and two side 
bars of the wooden frame. One end of 
the sheet is tacked to the frame and, when 
the other end is drawn back into the 
room, you have a square air chute with¬ 
out bottom, extending from the window 
into the room the length of the sheet. 
The sleeper’s bed is placed with its head 
against the opened window and this bot¬ 
tomless air chute is extended over the 
sleeper’s head and shoulders, the loose end 
being then permitted to drop to the bed 
covers about the middle of the bed. If 
the head of the bedstead does not keep the 
durtain from sinking down upon the 
sleeper’s face, a half barrel hoop, or 
other contrivance, will have to be ar¬ 
ranged to hold the curtain up from the 
pillows. The effect of this is to enclose 
the sleeper’s head and shoulders by a 
muslin curtain so that the outside air 
circulates freely about his head, but does 
not escape freely into the room. In this 
way the room may be kept warmer than 
it would be with an open and unprotect¬ 
ed window. 
Instead of an inside window curtain, a 
little balcony may be built against the 
window on the outside, this balcony being 
large enough to take the head of the bed 
when that is shoved out through the 
opened window. The sleeper will then lie 
with his head out of the window and the 
greater part of his body inside. A mus¬ 
lin curtain may then be arranged to fall 
about the bed and keep the outside air 
from the room. A still simpler arrange¬ 
ment is to tack two sheets at one end of 
each to the window casing above the win¬ 
dow, these sheets being side by side. The 
head of the bed is then shoved up close 
to the opened window and the lower and 
free ends of the sheets are drawn over 
the sleeper’s head and shoulders, as in 
the first described window tent. Safety 
pins will hold the sheets together after 
the occupant of the bed is in his place. 
This is as if a curtain shade were drawn 
down full length and the lower end drawn 
back into the room to permit the head of 
a bed to be placed under it. The object 
of all these devices is simply to give a 
free circulation of outside air about Ihe 
sleeper’s head and shoulders while the 
greater part of his body remains within 
a comparatively warm room. For fur¬ 
ther information as to the care of tuber¬ 
culous patients write to the National As¬ 
sociation for the Study and Prevention of 
Tuberculosis, 105 East 22d St., New 
York. This association will gladly give 
any needed information as to care of 
those having tuberculosis or threatened 
by it. M. B. D. 
