1382 
Vht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Pastoral Parson and His Country Folks 
By Rev. George B. Gilbert 
Tub Geese.- Wo sold two goose the 
other day. One weighed 11 and the other 
some over 12 lbs. We got 30c a pound, 
but guess (he market is a little under 
that now. It ought to go up a bit for 
Thanksgiving. Ours seem to be the larg¬ 
es* kind of geese anywhere round here, 
Old Jerry, the gander, weighing some 
over 1H lbs. We shall keep most of those 
we have left for exchanging with people 
who want new or larger stock, and also 
we shall probably keep over two families 
for egg-selling in tbe Spring. There is 
always a good demand for eggs. It is a 
great delight for the children to find the 
eggs and bring them in. We notice lately 
that Old Jerry does not go off on grazing 
expeditions up in the mowing with the 
others. lie is showing his age. He must 
be going on nine, and probably is destined 
to adorn tbe Thanksgiving table. He has 
been some smart old bird, and the way 
he can reach tip and open the gate is a 
caution. The Government bulletin ad¬ 
vises not to keep a gander much over 
eight years of age. 
Get the IIens Up. —Yes. we have 
wired the henhouse for electricity. We 
ran the wires from the barn across, and 
the whole cost was about three dollars. 
The Parson gets up about four o’clock 
and turns it on. Sometimes it is later, 
to be sure. The liens get right up and 
get busy scratching and eating dry mash. 
We do not put them on at night unless it 
is cloudy and the day very short. The 
hens certainly do better; we have not got 
such a good percentage of eggs for years 
as we are getting now. The hens still 
run out. but as soon as the ground freezes 
we shall shut them in. We have never 
known the old hens to keep on laying for 
so long. They do not seem to have begun 
molting yet. well on into November. We 
boiled up some potato skins for them, but 
it will not do to feed laying hens too 
much boiled potato; they will stop laying. 
We boil up little potatoes for the geese, 
and they seem to love them. We put in 
just a little meal or wheat bran. 
The Swing. —Here it is Saturday and 
the boys are at home. Sit and Ta are 
having’ a great time rolling old bicycle 
wheels. Somebody gave one of the boys 
an old chainless, but it could not be fixed 
up, and so they are rolling the wheels. 
George and Clossie are this minute taking 
down the “swing” for the Winter. This 
swing was made out of an old auto shoe 
hung on a chain from a limb of the big 
willow out in front of the house. They 
put some old irons, curved like the shoe, 
in the top where the chain goes around. 
This keeps the shape of the auto easing. 
Then they have a post up which they 
climb, with a board for a seat on top. 
From this perch they get into the swing 
or auto casing and away they go. Such 
fun as they have had with this all the 
Fall. It makes the very best kind of 
swing. A chain is better than a rope if 
it can he had. as it would tend to un¬ 
wind a rope and spoil it. The Parson 
thinks most likely the boys will rig it. up 
on the barn floor and enjoy it there dur¬ 
ing the Winter. , , T „ 
A Big Family.—The R. N.-Y. family 
is certainly a big one, and the Parson runs 
into it wherever he goes. Day before yes¬ 
terday lie was off to speak at a village 
improvement gathering in a small New 
England village. At the last minute he 
decided to go by train instead of by auto, 
and lie landed at the proper station just 
after dark, and found he was some three 
miles from the place it elf. He wandered 
along the road looking for the first mse 
where there seemed to be a telephone 
wire. After a while ho came to one—a 
big. roomy house with children playing 
outside. So he approached the house and 
was admitted. He stated his predicament, 
and. seeing the girls and children around, 
soon found himself talking about parties 
and sociables, and about the little chapel 
he passed down the road. Pretty quick 
he saw a man had slinped in the room 
and was a very attentive listener. Sud¬ 
denly as he stood there a startling idea 
flashed into his head. “You aren’t—it 
can’t be—but your talk sounds just like 
it—you aren’t the Pastoral Parson of 
The Rural New-Yorker?” Well, the 
Parson confessed on the spot. Such a 
handshaking all around, and cordiality 
and family feeling as would melt your 
heart to see. How nice they were to the 
Parson ! A fine supper, and the man’s 
instant decision to go to the meeting him¬ 
self and carry the Parson. Two < f the 
girls also decided to sit in the hind end 
of the Concord and ride over, too. Grand¬ 
ma was called down to supper. “This is 
the Pastoral Parson,” said the man in 
introduction. “You know T was reading 
his piece to you from The R. N.-Y. night 
before last.” IIow the Parson enjoyed 
himself at the table with 12 seated all 
around. 
Constant Companions. —“T’ve taken 
The R. N.-Y for over 20 years,” said tbe 
man, “and could not get along without it.” 
“Yes,” said his wife; “he reads it and 
reads it and reads it. He used to work 
on the railroad here, and every single day 
he took it with him a_d! read it every 
spare moment.” Now here he is, a 
farmer, thought the Parson to himself, 
and he would be willing to wager a cent 
The R. N.-Y. made him one. 
A Credit Business. —Yon read a good 
deal these days about, doing a credit busi¬ 
ness, and how it would be well for the 
farmer to borrow money and do more 
business. There is a family out beyond 
here that bought their place about a vear 
and a half ago. lie was telling the Par¬ 
son how he wanted to borrow $100, and 
the Parson inquired in a kindly way how 
he was getting along. Well. it. seems that 
he owes five out of every six dollars that 
the place cost on a mortgage. He owes 
for his last year’s taxes. He bought the 
horse on credit and 1 it is already lame. 
He bought a two-seater on credit and 
both shafts are broken. He bought all 
the farm tools on credit and they were 
attached last week by the sheriff. He now 
has no hay for his horse, hut none of the 
neighbors seems anxious to sell hay. Of 
one neighbor he has tried to borrow .$100; 
of another .$300 and of another .$1,000. 
This man has several grown-up sons and 
daughters, and will have to go back to 
the city and live with them. 
Twenty Egos a Day. — “I can live on 
20 eggs a day.” said a woman to the Par¬ 
son the other day. This woman has lived 
alone on a little place for some 10 years 
now. Of course, it costs her little to 
live, she and her faithful dog. She has 
done wonderfully well to get along. She 
keeps about 75 hens. They are her pets 
and her companions and her support. If 
she could get 20 eggs a day this time of 
year, with eggs high as they are, she can 
pay for her grain and groceries and get 
alonv During the long dry spell, now 
somewhat broken around here, she had 
to hire the grocer to bring water in three- 
gallon jugs for herself and hens. This 
was certainly carrying on farm work at 
a disadvantage. 
The Widow Woman. —The Parson 
drove in for a minute at the little widow 
woman’s place, way down country. There 
she was with her three children. She has 
husked out 110 bushels of corn and has 
about 40 more to husk . She had 55 bush¬ 
els of potatoes, and her interest is all kept 
up. She and the children will have their 
Thanksgiving alone there, hut she was 
real cheerful about it. “It can’t be 
helped,” she said. We are planning a 
great Christmas dinner over to the old 
church on the Sunday after Christinas, 
when we have our Christmas tree. We 
will arrange for her to come over with the 
children. 
Money to Use.—I t is such a help in 
the Parson’s work to have some money to 
use here and there, and a sermon lie 
nreaehed the other Sunday brought results 
in some astonishing donations. He went 
over to preach about country work in a 
]ar"o_ church in the city. lie handed it 
over in a fairly lively fashion, and settled 
right down to brass tacks, giving them 
(lie names both of localities and people. 
The minister of the church went down 
among the people after the service, and a 
stranger to him shook hands and left a 
bill in his hand 1 “for some of those down- 
country people.” After running around 
with it in his hand awhile, he took a jieep 
at the corner and also let the Parson take 
a peep. It said “.$100.” The Parson 
had not had dinner and had to lean 
against a pew. A woman that was there 
went right straight home and wrote off 
a check for another hundred. “I didn't 
suppose there was such a man,” she said. 
Two others handed in checks for $50 
each. So the Parson nulled down just 
$300, or, as the minister wrote over. “You 
pulled 300 bones out of my parish, and 
never asked for a single cent.” There 
will he some great Christmas trees around 
on the lonely roads later on, and many a 
hoy will have a warm pair of mittens’ to 
snuggle his hands in as his shoes rattle 
along on the frozen ground to school. 
The Abandoned School House. —In 
these days of school consolidation in the 
country there are going to be many school 
houses left at the cross roads with no one 
knowing just, what to do with them. The 
Parson is taking hold of two such cases 
now. In one place we have formed a 
community club, with duly elected of- 
(icei-s, and have had two fine gatherings. 
The other night, in the souring rain there 
were 25 there, and the time before, in good 
weather, he had over 40. Such a nice 
time as we all had with games and old- 
fashioned dances and singing before we 
went home. The men all turned out and 
put board seats around the walls of the 
room. It makes a ••erfoct community 
house, with bell, sheds, and town wood 
thrown in. 
Still Another. —This week the Par¬ 
son gets busy with another school house 
on which there has recently been expended 
over $2,000. This is not used now, and 
(he town authorities have offered it for 
use to (he Parson of their own accord. 
The school seats are still there, but we 
can take them up and put them around 
the outside wall of the room. This place, 
too, has a bell and every convenience for 
a community house. In such work the 
neighborhood pays all the Parson's ex¬ 
penses to and fro, and gives him a place 
to stay over night. This staying round 
in the homes of the people all night and 
eating at their tables and holding their 
children is, in some ways, the most de¬ 
lightful part of all such labors. 
A Good Foundation. —Last Spring a 
large family moved into one of the Par¬ 
son’s missionary sections. It was a 
small place on the Lonely Road, but there 
was some land and a shed and a barn. 
N\ hat a help a big garden and a lot of 
potatoes would be to those people. So the 
Parson, mixed up the fertilizer and put it 
in the big wagon and put in the seed po¬ 
tatoes and a cultivator and a harrow and 
hitched in the big horse Jim and let the 
big boy of the family take them home for 
several days. “How did those potatoes 
come out?” asked the Parson as lie walked 
into the kitchen the other day. “We have 
over 50 bushels in (he cellar,” was the 
answer. These people had come and 
helped the Parson on the farm and paid 
for what he had sent down to them, but 
still the fact of the good 1 will and the po¬ 
tatoes remained. With that as a sort of 
background foundation, the Parson ap¬ 
proached the subject of baptism. Yes, 
there were eight that had not been bap¬ 
tized, and they would talk it over. 
A Fine Experience. —So the next time 
down that way. with Old Jim hitched to 
the corner of the barn, the Parson stood 
in that kitchen and we sang hymns to¬ 
gether for awhile and then we baptized 
those eight children. Then next time 
we put up the stereopticon in the same 
place and we had hymns again and the 
pictures, first some funny ones and then 
the story of the life of Jesus and of many 
riioto by Ewing Galloway, New York 
An Outdoor Bake Oven on a New Jersey Farm .Rut hy Immigrants 
November 2G, 1021 
of his parables—all brought out in pic¬ 
ture form. Such a good time as he had! 
These compressed gas tanks make a grand 
light for stereopticon work, so inexpen¬ 
sive. and can be used anywhere. 
Thanksgiving. — At the old church 
yesterday, way down country, we passed 
resolutions about disarmament to be sent 
to the President of the United States. 
Every little helps along that line. This 
cry of the people for an open conference, 
without any of the old intrigue and secret 
diplomacy that has well-nigh been the 
ruination of (lie world, is perhaps the 
groat thing that the Parson is thankful 
for. The rulers cannot make war if the 
people will have none of it. They cannot 
make war if the churches will have none 
of it. In fact, they cannot make war if 
the ministers will have none of it. The 
I arson believes it will be a long time be¬ 
fore the churches baptize another war for 
anybody. We had a great Thanksgiving 
when the war was over because it had 
boon won, and now we know that not one 
< f the things the boys fought and died for 
has been accomplished. 
By the day of this groat festival wo 
may be able to know whether any real 
relief is in sight from the intolerable bur- 
den of the preparation for wars to come. 
(Should such be the case, the world may 
well have a most wonderful Thanksgiving. 
1 tie early words of the conference, just 
come to hand, denouncing intrigue 'and 
boldly proposing definite cessation of 
building groat destroyers for 10 years 
certainly give heart to all of us and’make 
us ready for a real Thanksgiving. If 
they stop this unspeakable folly for 10 
years, will they ever start it again? 
We are living in a town where there is 
no law enforcement, and we have a lot of 
youngsters that take all the advantage of 
it by tearing down signs and clubbing 
sf i angers cars and fling vile language as 
(hoy pass. Last, week one of our taxpay¬ 
ers was away for a few days and t.hev 
wont into Ins yard, whore ho had about 
IN colonies of boos, and destroyed and 
throw them around the yard and carried 
away, not what honey they wanted to 
eat, hut threw it around and smeared some 
ot the store fronts with it. The owner 
came home and found his apiary in this 
condition. A State trooper and 
comity sheriff came and brought the 
before the village justice, and he 
what he or someone mDht do if 
would not he good, and lot. thorn go 
*L a f been Suing on here for some 
''hat is the procedure in such a 
Is a man s property protected 
oral law? If so, what can he 
proper protection ? 
New York. 
by 
do 
the 
boys 
told 
thev 
This 
time, 
case? 
a fed- 
to get 
1 .. 
5 our inquiry as to what is the proced¬ 
ure to keep boys or “youngsters,” as you 
call them, from committing petty depre¬ 
dations, is one of the hardest problems 
that we have with us today. Evidently 
those in question have been taken before 
a magistrate and placed on probation or 
given suspended sentences. The magis¬ 
trate has evidently done what he con¬ 
sidered to be for the best interest of the 
youngsters” in question. We. conclude 
that you feel that the magistrate was not 
severe enough, and that the hoys should 
have been punished. No punishment that 
could he given, however, could have com¬ 
pensated you for the damages done, and 
the only object of punishment would be 
to deter these boys or others from commit¬ 
ting similar acts of delinquency. 
There are but few cases where institu¬ 
tional treatment is necessary or proper 
for the correction of boys. Probably the 
most these boys in question need is a 
few well-balanced older people to be boys 
with them, and we would suggest the 
proper procedure in this case is to get 
busy and establish a troop of Boy Scouts 
with a competent master, or a boys’ club 
of some kind with a human supervisor to 
be head of it. n. t. 
Cats and Melons 
Cats do quite often eat cantaloupes, it 
seems. My friend, Mrs. D., had an An¬ 
gora cat, Buster, that was exceedingly 
fond of melons. She has known of sev¬ 
eral other cats that shared this liking. 
Buster would make pilgrimages several 
times a day to the melon patch when the 
cantaloupes were not ripe, but commenc¬ 
ing to be ripe. When he began to do that 
Mr. D. 'began to take notice and followed 
his lead. Buster did uot spoil many mel¬ 
ons, because the farmer watched him. 
Also, as soon as the melons were served 
on the table the cat was always given the 
rinds, and later some good melons not 
quite good enough for the family. In that 
way the cat got enough at the house and 
had no need to raid the melon patch. 
Buster seemed to tell by his nose when 
a melon was ripe enough to suit him. 
Constant vigilance seems the only way to 
protect a patch early in the season if 
your cat likes melons (or you could re¬ 
move the cat). Later you can feed the 
cat plenty at the house. There seems no 
way to separate the oat from the melons. 
In the house, when a melon was brought 
in and cut, Buster was just crazy for his 
part. EDNA S. KNAPP. 
