‘Ibt RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
1501 ► 
Notes From A Sagebrush Farmer’s Wife 
Christmas draws near, and conditions 
are such in Idaho that if there were no 
children on the farms here, there would 
he scarcely any celebration of the event. 
Banks are failing- all around us, due in 
great proportion to the fact that the 
farmers are “dead broke.” The only com¬ 
fort the farmers have is that there is not 
one among them standing prosperously 
above the others, but all are down to¬ 
gether. Two of our neighbors are in fear 
of losing their farms. One of them has 
already paid $8,000 on his, the other lias 
invested $15,000. But in the face of this 
year’s disaster, the children must be con¬ 
sidered. 
I have heard pioneers of this Western 
country tell of how they made the best 
of Christmas 75 years ago. Christmas 
morning found them delighted with an 
apple, a stick of homemade candy (molas¬ 
ses). a yarn ball made from a raveled 
stocking.' a rag doll, a popgun and a 
wagon made by father. Each child had 
not more than two gifts. But how happy 
thqy were with them ! The year ’round 
we do that on our farm—make the best 
of things. We would not think of buying 
toys. But this Christmas I am going to 
hiiy. We have, thanks be, the cream 
check. Blessings on the cow ! We drink 
milk, gallons of it, and cream, and eat 
our golden butter, and we have a surplus 
.(hat goes to town. Six weeks before 
Christmas I bought the children’s Christ¬ 
mas things. Do you like surprises ! . I 
do not, because too often I have to hide 
a disappointed heart and be grateful for 
the spirit which prompted the surprise. 
There isn’t one person in a thousand 
who has the gift of pleasing with a sur¬ 
prise. So I asked mv children what they 
would like for Christmas. (Santa Claus 
comes to the two little ones). They all 
told me. and that is what I got them. 
They know they are to have the dearest 
wishes of their hearts, and I do not be¬ 
lieve it detracts any from the pleasure of 
Christmas to know this. My father had 
the mistaken idea of making us children 
believe that we were to receive nothing, 
and then giving us a fine Christmas. Tie 
was generous, and loved us, but I always 
resented that dull, cold feeling that came 
over my childish spirit when I thought I 
was to be forgotten. 
Only one gift apiece will the children 
get. but each thing perfect of its kind. 
My older boy, aged 14, wants a Scout 
hatchet, leather case and Scout knife 
(two gifts, but much alike). He is a 
Pioneer Boy Scout. The second boy 
wants an army bugle. I suppose the 
cows will go to bed at night to the sound 
of “Taps.” The little girl wants one of 
those durable wooden dolls, jointed, and 
lifelike in appearance. We are all dis¬ 
gusted with composition dolls that wring 
the young mother’s heart by peeling off a 
feature or so every now and then. And 
little .Toe gets a train. lie wanted a toy 
dredger, but I explained to him that there 
were none made that I knew about. lie 
has watched the dredger cleaning the irri¬ 
gation canals with the greatest of in¬ 
terest. and has finally rigged himself up 
a dredger from a discarded piece of farm 
machinery, and dredges the dining-room 
linoleum every day for about an hour. 
These things for the children are not the 
most inexpensive ones that I could buy. but 
I have learned from hard experience th;P 
the economies of the poor are often their 
greatest extravagances. They buy the 
cheaper things, and are forced to replace 
them often enough to buy good things in 
the beginning. I believe the poor cannot 
afford to buy cheap things. Do without, 
but don’t buy the cheap. 
I robbed Christmas of all strain this 
year by cutting down my giving to my 
immediate family. All others I shall re¬ 
member with letters. I believe that a 
great many people ruin the Christmas 
spirit by trying to make it spread over 
too much surface financially. Even if the 
money were easy to get, it is still a 
strain, and a farce very often to those 
we remember with our gifts. Personally. 
I can say that I still have Christmas 
presents stowed away in my trunks wait¬ 
ing for a time when their usefulness may 
be apparent. They have been there for 
15 years, and I fear they face another 15 
of idle occupancy of valuable space. 
Every year our rural school draws lots 
among the children for the making of 
Christmas gifts to each other. This year 
we forbade our children to take part in 
the lot-drawing. There is always heart¬ 
ache for some child in the custom. Part 
of the children bring presents for the 
school Christmas tree, and a number do 
not. One year we had a young boy stay¬ 
ing with us while he went to school. lie 
proudly exhibited the necktie he had 
bought for the boy whose name he drew. 
Christmas night Eli received a collar but¬ 
ton. such as the laundry places in shirts. 
I think that incident hurt us as much as 
it did Eli. Children should be taught 
that Christmas is not primarily a time 
of gift-giving, but of the-spirit-of-love 
giving. No boy who had been educated 
properly on what Christmas stands for 
would have thought it a joke to give an¬ 
other lad a collar button for a Christmas 
present. 
I dread the day when Santa Claus will 
no longer come to our home. _ My two 
older children do not believe in Santa 
Claus any longer. I hope the two younger 
will not question me on that point for 
some time. Do I think it right to make 
children believe in Santa Claus? I think 
it would be wrong not to do so. My own 
mother thought because I was a big girl 
of 11 that I would be glad to have her 
speak of Santa Claus as a myth. But I 
wanted to believe. I knew he did not 
actually exist, but I loved him just the 
same. 
One of the women I know here is in¬ 
dignant that there are fairy tales in the 
school readers. She overlooks three 
things: First, that the particular fairy 
tales are the most famous in all lan¬ 
guages; second, that the children learn 
far more rapidly than they used to when 
Gyp and Dash, the dogs, were the most 
exciting things in the readers and, third, 
that there is that in the child’s nature 
which yearn for magic. Not that the 
magic of fairy tales seems so much out of 
the ordinary to a child. It does not. for 
this world is all magic to the child. 
It is this same longing which makes 
Santa Claus so dear to the child. And 
the transition from the person. Santa 
Claus, to the spirit of Christmas, if you 
relate it with the proper feeling, is not 
disappointing to the child when he reaches 
years of unbelieving. St. Nicholas was a 
real person once, dispensing his gifts to 
the poor, and his spirit has reached out 
across the years, personified in Santa 
Claus. 
But most of all. we farm folks should 
impress on the minds of our children the 
story of that humble Babe born in a 
manger. To the city child it may not be 
very clear or very close, but our little 
ones can so easily picture that Babe sur¬ 
rounded by the very cows their own 
fathers milk. God bless these little farm 
folk, and may Christmas night find every 
one at rest in happy sleep. 
ANNIE PIKE GREENWOOD. 
The “Milk Treatment” for Tuberculosis 
I was much interested in the article on 
the milk diet for run-down condition, 
published in issue of October 29, 1921. 
I am especially interested in the treat¬ 
ment of tuberculosis, and as I was not a 
reader of The R. N.-Y. when the first 
article was published. I would like further 
information on the milk diet, its use and 
results. J. D. c. 
New York. 
To answer the question of J. D. C. it 
will be necessary to repeat a portion of 
the former article on the milk diet, though 
in a serious disorder the first suggestion 
that I would make is that, if possible, a 
copy of the series of lessons on the use 
of milk for health building be procured 
from the Physical Culture Publishing 
Company, New-York. 
Tuberculosis is a wasting disease, and 
the main concern of the modern physician 
is to endeavor to increase the weight of 
the patient by a system of feeding easily 
assimilated food, and keeping the patient 
in the outdoors as much as possible. The 
suggestion that milk alone be used as a 
medium to build tissue and increase the 
weight will not meet the approval of very 
many of the practicing physicians of to¬ 
day. They will insist that eggs also are 
necessary, and possibly other food as 
well. The training of the practicing phy¬ 
sician of today does not recognize the true 
value of milk as a health builder, and the 
mere suggestion of such a simple method 
of treating a serious disease will meet 
with as much scepticism with them as 
with tin* average layman. 
I know o? one case where physicians 
could do nothing to keep a patient from 
cominuallv growing weaker that the milk 
diet restored to better health than had 
been enjoyed for some years. The essen¬ 
tial features is to use milk alone for as 
long a period as may be necessary. Half 
a pint each half hour, until six or seven 
quarts of milk are consumed daily. The 
best results are obtained if the patient 
can remain in bed the greater part of the 
first two weeks, and if possible take a 
warm bath daily, or every other day, if 
too weak at the start to stand a daily 
hath. If the patient is very weak, it may 
be necessary to start the treatment grad¬ 
ually, and if the blood pressure is high 
the care of an experienced physician will 
be necessary for the first few days. 
Dr. Porter and Mr. McFadden claim 
that a person suffering from high blood 
pressure can relieve this condition per¬ 
manently by this method, though com¬ 
plete relaxation at the start is absolutely 
necessary, in addition to the supervision 
of a physician. Mineral oil. but no cath¬ 
artics. should be used to correct constipa¬ 
tion. which is almost sure to be trouble¬ 
some the first few weeks, though this 
condition will eventually be entirely 
cured, even where it has been chronic for 
a number of years. 
It is very unfortunate that so very few 
people know of this simple regimen for 
the restoration of healtn. It is so simple, 
safe and sure in results obtained that one 
of the greatest deeds a great physician 
could do for his fellow men would be to 
try it out thoroughly, as the above men¬ 
tioned men claim they have, in thousands 
of cases, and then publish ’t universally 
for the benefit of all who would have in¬ 
telligence enough to see that with but 
little effort they could turn some of their 
troubles into smiles and good health. 
E. j. w. 
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What About Your School 
Library? 
A professor at one of our great universities 
writes this about the new book 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
“I do not believe that I have sent you a word about your ‘Hope 
Farm Notes.’ I have gone through the book the second time, and 
each time I find a new meaning. I have, this year, asked my students 
to read the book because of its influence on character and our attitude 
to the soil. This book should be in every rural school in our country, 
and, I dare say, many of our city schools would be benefited if the 
students were required to read true.stories from life, such as you have 
given us. I am truly delighted with the book, and I must tell you 
that it has helped me in more than one way.” 
The St.. Louis Globe-Democrat calls this book “a life-like record 
of a phase and period of farming now rapidly passing away.” 
We all want our children to grow up with memory aud vision 
of the best that belonged to “the good old times." This book is to 
become a classic which all who love the best in country life should read. 
Is it in your school library? 
Why not make yourself responsible for putting it there? That 
is one way in which you can help the district. 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 333 West 30th St., New York 
Gentlemen—Enclosed find remittance for $1.50, for which send 
me, postpaid, a copy of “Hope Farm Notes.” 
Name.. 
Town. 
State.It. F. I), or Street No. 
