1532 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Plumbing for the Farm 
Day after day we have letters from 
people who ask us questions about plumb¬ 
ing, and how to introduce hot water with 
all its conveniences into the farm homes. 
We have claimed many times that if we 
could have the power to introduce a cur¬ 
rent of hot water, always on tap, through 
every farmhouse in the country, we could 
readily solve the troubles of agriculture, 
for such a constant supply, running at 
will through the house, would dissolve 
and wash away much of the discontent 
now shown in country homes. Many of 
our people, unable to pay the full price 
demanded by professional plumbers, have 
been able to put in the fixtures them¬ 
selves, often with great success, and any¬ 
thing that will show them how to do this 
work will certainly prove a boon to agri¬ 
culture. The Department of Agriculture 
at Washington has now issued Farmers’ 
Bulletin No. 1426. This bulletin is en¬ 
titled “Farm Plumbing,” and is written 
by George M. Warren. It is an excellent 
little book, or pamphlet, and we are very 
glad to recommend it to our readers. It 
is well illustrated, simply written and 
practical, and we think that any farmer 
with a little skill at handling tools could 
follow the instructions given in this 
pamphlet and arrange some sort of w r a- 
ter system in his house. It is a prac¬ 
tical pamphlet, telling its story well, and 
the instruction given in it is greatly need¬ 
ed. In 1920, according to the census re¬ 
ports, there were 6,448,343 farms in the 
United States, and on this great number, 
643,899, or about 10 per cent, had water 
piped into the house. It is true that 
profits in farming these days will not 
permit the employment of an ordinary 
plumber at the usual wages. Yet, in the 
great majority of cases, it would be pos¬ 
sible to make a start by putting some 
simple water system in operation, and 
this pamphlet tells us how to do it. 
Mechanics’ Soap 
Oh page 1235 was a question by J. H. 
T. about mechanics’ soap. Here in the 
works where I am employed, we make a 
paste of ordinary yellow laundry soap, 
cut up in small pieces, put in water to 
melt the soap over fire. Add a good 
washing compound (but not necessary). 
After soap has melted, add fine sawdust 
to thicken. Put in cans or pans or other 
vessels, and the paste is ready to use 
when cold. Use a little on your hands; 
it will chase dirt and grease, and costs 
practically nothing. w. I. s. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK 
DOMESTIC. — Sentences aggregating 
177 years in Atlanta prison—the limit of 
legal punishment—were imposed by Fed¬ 
eral Judge Oliffe at Chicago Nov. 29 on 
William Fahy, former post office inspec¬ 
tor, and James Murray, Chicago poli¬ 
tician, convicted of plotting the $2,000,- 
000 mail train robbery at Rondout. The 
judge stipulated that the sentences should 
run concurrently, so that the maximum 
actual sentence to be served by each is 25 
years. 
Two robbers Nov. 29 held up the cash¬ 
ier and assistant cashier of the St. Louis 
Star in an elevator at the ninth floor of 
the Star Buildings, St. Louis, Mo., and 
escaped with a $6,000 payroll. 
Two men held up the paymaster of the 
Emmons Coal Mining Company at Green¬ 
wich, Pa., and escaped in an automobile 
with between $18,000 and $20,000 Nov. 
29. 
Customs agents discovered 50 eight- 
ounce c-ans, said to contain about $10,000 
worth of prepared opium, aboard the 
Furness Withy liner Gothic Prince, Nov. 
29, at Pier 4, Bush Dock, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Chin Woo, who said he was ship’s carpen¬ 
ter, in whose locker the opium and eight 
cases of whisky had been hidden, was ar¬ 
rested. The place was piled ceiling high 
with kegs, all of which were opened and 
found to contain nothing but uails. The 
removal of the kegs, however, revealed an 
aperture in the flooring, and in the bilge 
beneath this was found the eight-ounce 
tins and the cases of liquor. 
Robert J. Brindell, formerly head of 
the Building Trades Council of New 
York, who, in 1921, Avas sentenced to five 
to 10 years’ imprisonment for extorting 
huge sums from contractors and union 
Avorkers, has been paroled. He is to be 
released Dec. 26, after serving three 
years, eight months and 23 days of his 
sentence. Brindell’s parole caused much 
comment because of his repeated viola¬ 
tions of prison regulations, which necessi¬ 
tated his removal from one prison to an¬ 
other, and Avhieh ordinarily Avould have 
deprived him of deductions for good be- 
haA'ior. Investigators for the LockAvood 
committee reported that Brindell’s in¬ 
come Avas $482,021 a year. His salary, 
paid by the Dock Workers’ Union, was 
$35,000 a year, it was said. About $90,- 
000 more was paid to him in initiation 
fees, but the bulk of his income came 
from extortions from contractors, whom 
he threatened with strikes. 
The Radio Corporation of America suc¬ 
cessfully demonstrated Nov. 30 a new and 
practical method of transmitting photo¬ 
graphs across the Atlantic by wireless 
telegraphy. More than a dozen pictures 
Avere sent from London to the offices of 
the Radio Corporation. The transmission 
time was from 20 to 25 minutes for each 
picture, but the time can be shortened. 
The pictures generally Avere recognizable, 
. and some Avere good. 
A severe snowstorm, the first serious 
one of the Winter, swept over New Eng¬ 
land Nov. 29-30, virtually cutting off tele¬ 
phone communication Avith Maine and 
New Hampshire and causing many auto¬ 
mobile accidents, where traffic was not 
entirely suspended by deep drifts. Twelve 
inches of snow were reported from James¬ 
town, N. Y. 
Fire believed to haA r e started in the 
boiler room of the Bellevue oil Avell at 
Santa Fe Springs, south of Los Angeles, 
Cal., destroyed six oil Avell derricks Noa^. 
30, causing loss estimated at more than 
$500,000. 
Flames, fanned by a high wind, took 
seven lives in New York Dec. 1. Four 
men and three women died of burns and 
other injuries received when fire swept 
from basement to roof of a four-story 
rooming house at 113 West 63d St. Ten 
persons Avere injured in their frantic 
haste to leave the building. 
New Jersey’s first damage suit against 
a telephone company for alleged negli¬ 
gence in an emergency was filed in Com¬ 
mon Pleas Court, Newark, by two resi¬ 
dents of Orange, Dec. 1. The plaintiffs 
are Michael J. Codey, garage owner, and 
James J. McGrath, tenant, who seek to 
recover $41,000 from the New York Tele¬ 
phone Company on charges that the de¬ 
struction of their property by fire April 
6 last was due to 17 minutes’ delay in 
giving the alarm, caused by failure of an 
operator to answer. 
WASHINGTON.— With the promise 
of further reduction in taxes if the gov¬ 
ernment adheres to its program of econ¬ 
omy, President Coolidge transmitted to 
Congress Dec. 2 the budget for the fiscal 
year 1926, which estimates the probable 
surplus for that year at $373,743,714, 
and for the current fiscal year, ending 
June 30, 1925, at $67,884,489. Both pros¬ 
pective surpluses are arrived at after cal¬ 
culating the loss of revenue from reduc¬ 
tions by the revenue act of 1924 and the 
increased outlay required by the soldier 
bonus. While the tone of the President’s 
message of transmittal was one of cau¬ 
tion that the probable excess in receipts be 
not destroyed by unwise or lavish expen¬ 
diture, rather than of gratification that 
the last tax bill and the bonus had caused 
no deficit, he implied, by pointing to the 
extraordinary increase in receipts a year 
ago, that the surplus for the current year 
may exceed his, own estimate. His pur¬ 
pose, he said, is to make it larger. The 
last fiscal year closed Avith a surplus of 
$505,366,000, Avhieh, Mr. Coolidge re¬ 
called, was $175,727,000 more than he 
predicted in his budget message of De¬ 
cember, 1923. Congress passed, Dec. 2, 
the second deficiency bill, carrying $80,- 
000,000, including bonus payments. It 
also passed a resolution for memorial ex¬ 
ercises in honor of Woodrow Wilson, and 
confirmed various recess appointments, 
including Howard M. Gore, Secretary of 
Agriculture; James R. Sheffield, Ambas¬ 
sador to Mexico, and Edgar A. Bancroft, 
Ambassador to Japan. 
FARM AND GARDEN. — President 
Coolidge has named Governor-elect H. M. 
Gore of West Virginia to take office as 
Secretary of Agriculture until March 4, 
1925. 
A readjustment of rates on horses and 
mules from Fort Worth, Tex., to nearly 
all points in the southwestern quarter of 
the United States was ordered Nov. 28 
by the Interstate Commerce Commission. 
The modifications include both decreases 
and increases, and are designed to put 
Fort Worth shippers on a fair basis com¬ 
pared to live stock shippers in Wichita, 
Kansas City, St.. Louis and Oklahoma 
City. The new rates will be on the basis 
of from 24 to 27 cents for 100 miles per 
100 lbs., ranging upwward to 78 cents for 
1,000 miles. 
Western Canada’s wool clip this year 
will total 13,000,000 lbs., with a value to 
sheep men of $4,000,000, according to a 
bulletin issued by the Dominion Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture. The quality of the 
product is said to be higher than last 
year. Approximately half of the wool 
clip Avill remain in Canada for manufac¬ 
ture, the remainder being exported to the 
United States and Great Britain. 
Wolves traveling in packs are making 
Avar on the Canadian farmers in North¬ 
ern Ontario, raiding the farms in broad 
daylight for poultry, cutting down sheep 
and calves in the pasture, and it is said 
even following small children along the 
December 13, 1924 
lonely roads on their Avay to school. They 
have been multiplying rapidly since the 
war, due to the reduction of the govern¬ 
ment bounty from $40 to $15 apiece for 
killing them, until uoav the farmers find 
themselves forced to take up arms to de¬ 
fend their homes and the stock raising by 
Avhieh they live. Dec. 2 the Algoma Wolf 
Club was formed to conduct a hunt, or 
rather a military campaign against the 
Avolves, on a large scale. A pack of wolf¬ 
hounds has been ordered from Kentucky. 
At least 100 trained hunters, all dead 
shots, will go out in the manner of the 
pioneers and shoot until the wolves are 
dead or have fled back into the north 
again. 
The American Tree Association has 
answered the demand for abolition of 
Christmas trees to save the forests with 
a plea for a Christmas tree for every 
family. The association says that is the 
real problem. The ansAver, given by its 
president, Charles Lathi-op Pack, is to 
cut 5.000,000 trees and distribute them 
properly. It is also a retort to H. V. 
Berry of Fort Plain, N. Y., a delegate to 
the National Conference on Forest Util¬ 
ization, Avho urged recently a Federal law 
to prohibit sale of Christmas trees. The 
Detroit Federation of Women’s Clubs has 
backed him. Mr. Pack points out that 
the 5,000,000 trees needed would require 
a forest area of about 10,000 acres. The 
American forests are uoav being cut at the 
rate of 10,000,000 acres a year, so Christ¬ 
mas trees are about one-tenth of 1 per 
cent. Mr. Pack quotes foresters as ap¬ 
proving the Christmas tree. He adds 
that, anyway, the purpose of intelligent 
forestation is to provide trees for human 
use. and Avhat better than the Christmas 
use? To millions of children it is the 
sign of the Christmas spirit, Mr. Pack 
explains, and for their sake it must be 
kept. 
A certain canny Scotsman had carried 
on a courtship of long duration without 
definitely committing himself. The girl, 
if she worried herself at the long proba¬ 
tion, gave no sign until one morning her 
tardy lover, thumbing a small notebook, 
said: “Maggie, I hae been weighing up 
your guid points, and I hae already got 
to ten. Whfn I get a dozen I’m goin’ tae 
ask ye the fatal question.” “Weel, I 
wish ye luck, Jock,” ansAvered the maiden. 
“I hae also gotten a wee book, and I’ve 
been puttin’ doon your bad points. There 
are nineteen in it already, and when it 
reaches the score I’m goin’ tae accept the 
blacksmith !’”—Western Christian Advo¬ 
cate. 
RUBBER 
LINE 
FOOTWEAR 
■Ill 
‘Nebraska’ 
All Rubber Overshoe 
Long wear and real comfort 
built right into every pair. Wool 
lined and warm. Easy and light 
on the feet. Gusset reinforced 
against chafing of buckles. No 
scuffed or snagged uppers because 
of heavy extension sole and ‘Stub- 
gard’ toe. Don’t be talked into a 
substitute. "Nebraska’ sells for the 
lowest price possible considering 
the quality maintained. Remember 
“something just as good,” if it is just 
as good, can’t be sold for any less! 
Insist on "Nebraska.* 
For Economy 
—Buy WEAR! 
Big “C” Footwear 
wears LONGER! 
„C3RVtRSf WAftMfW 
L- ' 
^ I 
j 
-‘T " j 
/V 
' : 'I 
Look for the 
White Fop Band and the 
Big“C” on theWhiteFire Sole 
Ask Your Dealer 
Find out, also, about the other Big ‘C’ Line lead¬ 
ers, the ‘Watershed’ cloth top rubber overshoe, 
and the ‘Ruff Shod’ boot. Rubber footwear for 
the women folks and the youngsters, too. If 
your dealer is out of just what you want, he will 
quickly get it from our nearest office. 
Write for circular and give your dealer’a name 
Converse Rubber Shoe Co. 
Boston Chicago New York 
‘Warm£ut’ 
‘Caboose* Work Rubber 
A perfect combination for protection, com¬ 
fort and service. Try wearing this famous 
work rubber over this cold-proof gaiter and 
see how warm and dry they keep your feet. 
When the snow is deep wear ‘Warmfut* 
under ‘Nebraska’ described above. 
‘Warmfut’ is made from wool yam knitted and 
shrunk into a solid fabric. Tough felt sole. 
‘Caboose,’ the world’s best work rubber, can’t be 
equaled for wear. Slips on easily, fits perfectly. 
Factory— MALDEN, MASS. 
Philadelphia Syracuse 
