1098 
The  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
August  25,  1923 
Pastoral  Parson  and  His  Country  Folks 
By  Rev.  George  B.  Gilbert 
Ford  Cars. — We  are  never  too  old  to 
learn — especially  to  learn  about  Ford 
cars  and  other  cars  too.  For  some  years 
we  seemed  to  have  some  trouble  with  the 
differential  or  “rear  end”  of  Fords  “go¬ 
ing  down,”  but  now  we  never  seem  to  be 
troubled.  Some  one  told  us  that  if  the 
rear  tires  were  not  exactly  the  same  size, 
then  the  small  gears,  meant  for  use  only 
in  turning  a  corner,  get  a  great  deal  of 
use  for  which  they  were  never  intended, 
and  the  whole  thing  goes  down.  If  one 
tire  is  a  non-skid  and  the  other  smooth 
tread,  then  the  differential  will  go  down 
on  you.  Especially  is  this  the  case  if 
one  is  a  cord  and  the  other  fabric.  I  be¬ 
lieve  a  new  tire  put  on  with  an  old  oue 
will  do  the  same  thing.  We  plan  to  buy 
two  tires  at  a  time  and  always  put  them 
on  the  rear  wheels,  finishing  them  up 
when  they  get  somewhat  worn  on  the 
front  wheels.  We  got  two  new  cord  tires 
for  the  rear  just  lately  and  immediately 
had  trouble  with  the  inner  tubes — one  of 
them  most  new.  They  would  split  right 
open  ;  a  hole  as  though  cut  with  a  knife. 
We  found  we  needed  bigger  tubes,  31x34, 
and  after  putting  in  these  there  was  no 
more  trouble.  Have  you  put  up  a  swing 
yet.  made  of  the  old  auto  shoe?  Put  an 
old  curved  iron  through  the  top  and  hang 
it  up  with  an  old  log  chain.  You  will 
not  be  using  the  chain  this  Summer,  and 
it  will  not  hurt  it  any.  The  Parson 
bought  a  lot  of  old  chains  the  other  day, 
and  is  having  them  fixed  up,  chiefly  to 
make  swings.  He  will  take  a  swing  down 
to  a  family  writh  11  children — won’t  they 
have  a  great  time  with  it.  Have  you 
taken  an  old  auto  shoe  and  covered  up 
the  circular  saw  on  the  wood  saw  rig? 
It  is  just  the  thing  for  that.  It  used  to 
be  all  the  Parson  could  do  to  pour  oil  into 
a  Ford  car  without  drawing  any  out — 
but  he  concluded  it  pays  to  take  out  the 
old  oil  about  every  500  or  600  miles  and 
use  it  about  the  farm  for  the  mowing 
machine  and  such  like. 
The  Drought. — It  has  really  got  to 
be  a  serious  matter  here — the  lack  of 
rain.  Potatoes  stand  it  better  than  one 
would  suppose  they  could,  but  the  corn 
shows  it  very  badly.  There  are  plenty 
of  signs  of  rain,  but  “all  signs  fail  in  a 
dry  time.”  The  new  seeding  of  oats  was 
all  dead  when  we  cut  them  and  Ave  har¬ 
rowed  the  land  over  ready  to  seed  down 
again  when  it  should  rain.  Luckily  we 
did  not  hill  the  potatoes  up  at  all,  hardly. 
We  never  do  on  our  rather  dry  land. 
They  seem  to  stand  drought  a  great  deal 
better  when  left  flat  and  according  to 
such  reports  as  the  Parson  has  read,  they 
yield  practically  just  as  well.  Once  or 
twice  the  electric  pump  in  the  well  has 
begun  to  pump  air  instead  of  water,  then 
we  pull  out  the  switch  in  the  cellar.  By 
morning  each  day  the  well  has  filled  up 
enough  for  the  pump  to  work.  The  boys 
bring  over  some  water  from  the  brook 
for  general  use.  Fortunately  the  brook 
always  runs  just  the  same,  as  there  is 
a  big  factory  reservoir  just  above  us.  The 
boys  of  the  household  and  of  the  neigh¬ 
borhood  certainly  do  enjoy  the  pond.  You 
don’t  have  to  urge  them  to  wash. 
Another  Bishop  Story. — Which  re¬ 
minds  the  Parson  of  the  time  old  Bishop 
Tuttle  was  riding  in  a  train  out  West. 
He  was  the  only  one  in  the  car  except  one 
other  man  who  sat  opposite.  This  man 
kept  looking  and  looking  at  the  bishop, 
and  at  last  came  over  and  sat  beside  him. 
“I  take  it  that  you  are  a  minister,”  said 
the  man.  “Something  about  your  looks 
make  me  think  so.”  “Yes,  I  am,”  said  the 
bishop,  “and  by  the  way,  something  in 
your  appearance  makes  me  think  you 
may  be  of  the  cloth  too.”  The  man  said 
that  he  too  was  a  parson.  “And  may 
I  ask  to  what  denomination  you  belong?” 
said  the  bishop.  ‘Well,”  said  the  man, 
“in  my  church  we  believe  in  foot-wash¬ 
ing.”  ‘'Is  that  so?”  said  the  bishop. 
“Well,  in  my  church,  we  insist  on  it.” 
The  Dairy  Question. — As  the  Parson 
writes  here  comes  a  card  from  George 
over  in  Storrs  College  at  the  junior  short 
course.  He  writes  chiefly  of  the  swim¬ 
ming  in  the  big  concrete  pool  and  the 
ball  game  each  day,  but  no  doubt  he  is 
learning  a  good  deal  too.  It  is  a  great 
way  for  young  people  to  spend  their  va¬ 
cation.  More  than  300  have  gone  over 
there  for  the  eight-day  course.  The 
charge  is  just  $10  for  the  course  and  the 
going  and  coming,  and  a  little  spending 
money  brings  it  up  to  about  $15.  George 
seems  to  take  to  the  dairy  business  more 
than  poultry.  We  would  rather  have 
had  it  the  other  way  as  our  place  here  is 
wonderfully  adapted  to  the  latter.  A 
very  poor  small  pasture  is  a  handicap  in 
the  dairy  business.  The  Parson  was  talk¬ 
ing  with  a  dairyman  over  in  the  Eastern 
part  of  the  State  the  other  day.  How 
can  a  man  way  up  in  Vermont  send  milk 
more  than  200  miles  to  Boston  and 
compete  with  these  farmers  really  near¬ 
by?  He  said  it  was  those  Vermont  pas¬ 
tures.  Southern  New  England  has  noth¬ 
ing  that  can  equal  them.  The  dairyman 
who  peddles  his  own  milk  in  a  nearby 
city  in  Connecticut  seems  to  be  doing 
well  but  the  one  that  ships  in  bulk  is  in 
a  bad  way.  “They  bring  their  milk  checks 
in  here,”  said  a  grain  dealer  to  the  Par¬ 
son.  “and  when  they  straighten  up  the 
grain  bill  there  is  around  two  or  three 
dollars  left."  Now,  any  business  cannot 
prosper  that  way. 
Wheat  Instead  of  Corn. — That  is  a 
good  idea ;  to  feed  the  hens  wheat  in¬ 
stead  of  corn.  It  is  only  10  cents  more 
a  hundred  than  scratch  feed  here.  The 
Parson  feeds  whole  wheat  and  no  corn 
at  all.  The  hens  have  a  deep  oat  straw 
litter  and  how  they  do  scratch  for  that 
wheat.  They  have  some  skim-milk  and 
ordinary  horse  provender  with  some  meat 
scraps  mixed  in  and  put  in  the  dry  mash 
hopper.  They  have  big  grass  range  and 
the  brook,  and  they  certainlv  lay  won¬ 
derfully.  The  Reds  seem  to  have  taken 
to  sitting  lately — the  middle  of  August — 
while  in  the  Spring  when  they  were 
needed  for  goose  eggs  they  refused  to  do 
so.  The  Parson  recently  stayed  over 
night  at  a  place  where  they  bought  500 
White  Leghorn  pullets — eight  weeks  old 
— from  a  place  in  New  Jersey.  These 
people  always  buy  such  pullets  rather 
than  day-old  chicks.  The  mortality  in 
the  day-old-cliick  business  round  here  has 
been  something  frightful.  The  last  man 
the  Parson  heard  about  bought  S00  and 
now  has  a  few  over  a  hundred  left.  While 
on  the  other  hand  the  loss  among  eight 
or  10-week-old  pullets  seems  to  be  almost 
nothing;  in  this  case  of  500,  only  two  are 
now  missing  and  one  of  those  was 
drowned.  They  paid  just  a  dollar  a 
piece  for  them  and  consider  this  way 
much  better  than  buying  day-old  chicks. 
From  New  York. — A  few  Sundays 
ago.  we  had  a  most  delightful  visit  from 
a  man  and  his  wife  who  came  up  from 
New  York  to  look  over  our  work  and  go 
to  church  with  us.  He  is  Brigadier  Gen¬ 
eral  of  the  Salvation  Army  down  there. 
They  were  perfectly  lovely  people  and 
we  did  enjoy  them  so  much.  Such  a 
wealth  of  experience  he  has  had  both  in 
this  country  and  in  Europe  during  the 
Avar.  And  what  a  big  business  the  Sal¬ 
vation  Army  does  down  in  New  York. 
The  Parson  thought  he  had  a  few  pairs 
of  shoes  in  the  vestry  room  to  give  away 
in  case  of  need,  but  this  man  at  one  time 
had  175.000  pairs.  It  is  nothing  to  have 
10.000  letters  come  in  at  Christmas  time 
asking  for  aid  :  and  every  single  case  has 
to  be  looked  up.  investigated  and  reported 
on.  This  mail  spoke  at  all  three  places 
we  visited.  He  told  such  a  good  illustra¬ 
tion  of  co-operation.  One  little  boy  had 
some  shoes,  but  had  no  coat,  and  his  back 
was  cold.  The  other  little  boy  had  a 
coat,  but  he  had  no  shoes  and  his  feet 
were  wet.  So  the  boy  that  had  shoes 
took  the  boy  with  the  coat  upon  his  back 
and  carried  him,  thus  keeping  his  back 
warm  and  the  other  boy’s  feet  dry. 
“What  is  brotherly  love?”  A  little  girl 
was  tugging  along  a  big  fat  baby  which 
seemed  altogether  to  heavy  for  her.  “That 
baby  is  too  heavy  for  you  to  carry,”  said 
a  man  who  was  walking  by.  “Oh.  no  he 
isn’t,”  was  the  quick  response.  “He's 
my  brother.”  That  made  all  the  differ¬ 
ence. 
IWhat  For.- — The  Parson  has  just  been 
off  to  speak  at  an  Old  Home  Night  at 
Grange.  There  was  a  fine  crowd  there, 
and  they  had  a  fine  supper,  and  every¬ 
body  had  a  fine  time.  In  this  place  they 
have  recently  built  a  fine  Grange  hall 
and  are  still  paying  for  it.  “This 
Grange  will  all  run  down  just  as  soon  as 
this  building  is  paid  for.”  said  one  of 
the  prominent  men,  “as  then  there  will 
be  nothing  special  to  work  for.”  And 
the  Parson  thought  of  how  many 
churches  he  has  known  where  they 
worked  to  build  a  church  or  a  parish 
house  and  when  the  task  was  all  done 
there  was  a  regular  slump  in  interest,  in 
attendance  and  membership.  What  is 
the  trouble?  There  is  a  man  who  goes 
around  among  some  of  the  churches  in 
this  State  and  he  is  great  on  planning 
additions  and  parish  houses  and  rectories. 
“It  gives  them  something  to  work  for,” 
he  says.  Great  heavens,  is  that  all  the 
churches  are  for?  Have  they  not  got 
beyond  shingles  and  clapboards?  Why 
can  we  not  get  as  far  as  humanity?  Any 
society  today  that  devotes  itself  to  bring¬ 
ing  up  those  who  from  one  cause  or  an¬ 
other  are  unable  to  keep  up  with  the  so¬ 
cial  standard  of  the  majority,  will  be 
supported  by  the  means  and  money  of  the 
community — there  is  no  doubt  of  that. 
And  any  society,  even  if  it  be  the  church, 
that  does  not  use  its  property  for  the 
benefit  of  God's  children  and  those  chil¬ 
dren  that  need  it  the  most,  is  doomed  to 
desertion — the  fate  that  has  already  over¬ 
taken  an  enormous  number  of  them. 
While  any  such  building  is  being  built,  it 
should  be  continually  and  persistently 
emphasized  what  the  building  is  being 
built  for,  and  that  when  it  is  done  then, 
with  better  tools  to  do  with,  the  work  has 
just  begun.  The  Parson  doesn’t  take  to 
“closed”  meetings  —  whether  they  are 
closed  by  money  changers  or  in  any*  other 
way.  He  wants  the  doors  wide  open — - 
open  to  all  the  poor  children  who  live 
anywhere  about,  and  everybody  else. 
Voluntary  Basis.— We  still  do  all 
our  church  work  on  the  wide-open  door, 
free-for-all,  pay-as-you-are-able  basis. 
And  the  Parson  believes  in  it  more  than 
ever.  Of  course  sometimes,  the  boys 
need  jogging  a  little.  Down  at  one  of 
our  parties,  the  collection  seemed  to  be 
getting  rather  small.  The  treasurer  re¬ 
minded  the  Parson  of  the  amount  in  the 
hat.  So  the  next  time  the  Parson  gave 
them  a  little  talk  telling  how  much  was 
taken  in  last  time  and  putting  the  mat¬ 
ter  right  up  to  them.  Well,  we  got  twice 
as  much  that  night  and  night  before  last 
in  the  same  place,  we  got  even  more.  We 
had  a  large  number  present,  some  autos 
coming  for  12  miles.  At  our  Old  Home 
Day  the  other  Sunday,  you  see  a  picture 
of  one,  the  thing  most  noticed  by  all 
visitors  was  the  behavior  of  the  large 
number  of  children  present.  All  chil¬ 
dren  have  to  learn  the  differencce  between 
behavior  in  public  places  and  at  home,  and 
had  learned,  like  a  great  many  other  chil¬ 
dren.  at  the  Parson’s  country  socials.  In 
fact,  does  a  child  or  can  a  child,  learn 
social  Christianity  by  just  attending  a 
Sunday  school  class  or  a  church  service? 
In  Court. — The  Parson  and  his  wife 
have  just  been  down  in  court  in  another 
town  where  we  hold  community  socials. 
The  Parson  never  enters  legal  complaints 
except  as  a  very  last  resort.  But  the 
better  sense  of  the  community  at  times 
has  to  express  itself — and  in  a  way  that 
it  will  be  understood.  It  is  too  bad  that 
some  boys  never  learn  that  they  cannot 
always  do  just  as  they  please  until  they 
are  really  grown  up — but  better  late  than 
never.  This  fellow  came  Avith  the  smell 
of  liquor  upon  him,  and  the  Parson  asked 
him  to  leave,  but  he  would  not  go,  and 
Avith  another  fellow  flourished  a  bottle  to 
the  edification  of  those  present.  We 
’phoned  the  State  police,  but  the  fellow 
decided  to  beat  it  before  the  police  ar¬ 
rived.  'When  the  police  came  they  got 
their  names  and  Ave  booked  up  witnesses. 
I  he  fines  came  to  $48.  We  go  there  again 
tomorroAv  night,  and  it  remains  to  be 
seen  Avhether  there  will  be  further  trou¬ 
ble. 
The  Ciiuroh  Building.— One  of  the 
greatest  indictments  against  many  so¬ 
cieties.  in  New  England,  at  least,  is  the 
absolutely  hoggish  attitude  they  have  in 
regard  to  their  buildings.  The  Parson 
knew  of  one  place  some  years  ago  Avhere 
as  soon  as  they  had  finished  their  parish 
house,  the  cost  of  which  Avas  almost 
wholly  giA’en  to  them,  the  vestry  voted 
that  it  should  not  be  used  for  any  pur¬ 
pose  AA^hatever  except  for  their  society. 
Then,  in  most  cases,  Avhere  such  use  is 
allowed,  the  price  set  is  far  too  high  and 
too  fixed.  The  price  of  such  a  place 
should  be  from  nothing  up,  according  to 
the  needs  and  means  of  those  that  use 
it.  For  instance  in  one  place  we  furn¬ 
ished  a  place,  light  and  heat  for  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  boys  all  Winter  absolutely 
free,  but  Avhen  a  dancing  master  from  a 
nearby  city  wanted  it  as  a  place  to  give 
lessons  in,  he  found  the  price  quite  dif¬ 
ferent.  A  short  time  ago,  since  the  Par¬ 
son  s  last  letter,  he  went  to  speak  at  a 
community  gathering.  The  very  greatest 
credit  is  due  the  people  of  this  place  who 
keep  up  these  community  gatherings.  But 
Ave  met  in  a  toAvn  hall,  and  this  hall  is 
small  and  poorly  supplied  with  seats. 
W  ell.  it  was  a  terribly  hot  night,  and  the 
people  filled  all  the  seats,  and  they 
brought  over  all  the  seats  from  the  church 
basement,  and  they  filled  all  those.  Then 
all  Avho  could  sat  round  on  the  stage 
floor,  and  still  a  large  number  had  to 
stand  in  the  rear  of  tire  hall,  to  say 
nothing  of  those  outside  looking  in  at  the 
AA’indow.  Another  speaker  came  before 
the  Parson  and  took  just  about  an  hour. 
It  was  certainly  hard  for  those  people, 
especially  those  Avho  were  standing.  They 
could  not  keep  quiet.  They  had  Avorked 
all  day  in  the  hayfield  and  then  to  stand 
there  all  that  time.  And  right  across 
the  street  was  a  great  big  church  with 
plenty  of  room  and  a  big  gallery,  and 
those  big  windows  could  have  been 
quickly  raised  and  the  big  doors  thrown 
open  and  that  crowd  of  God’s  children 
for  whom  Christ  died  could  have  surged 
inside.  Hoav  nice  that  would  have  been. 
They  counted  231  there  besides  those  that 
never  did  get  in.  How  the  church  Avould 
have  commended  itself  to  the  community. 
Hoav  in  the  spirit  of  its  Founder  such  an 
act  would  have  been.  But  then,  it  would 
have  dirtied  the  church  carpet.  Good, 
and  the  Parson  hopes  it  Avould  have  Avorn 
a  hole  in  the  carpet  too.  He  likes  to  see 
Avorn -out  church  carpets ;  it  shoAvs  that 
the  weary  feet  of  those  Avho  Avere  made 
in  the  image  of  the  Almighty  Himself 
have  trodden  there.  If  in  such  places,  the 
people  have  to  go  and  build  a  new  build¬ 
ing  in  which  to  gather,  Avhat  can  the 
church  say  for  herself  in  after  years 
when  she  stands  cold  and  empty?  There 
AA-ere  about  10  times  as  many  people  in 
that  little  old  town  hall  that  night  as 
ordinarily  gather  of  a  Sundav  morning 
in  the  big  Avhite  church  across  the  AA'ay. 
Better  Days.— But  let  us  not  be  blue 
over  the  prospect.  Here  is  a  letter  from 
a  man  up  in  Northern  Connecticut.  He 
took  a  church  “with  about  a  dozen  wo¬ 
men  and  a  few  small  children.”  Now 
his  congregations  runs,  by  actual  count 
around  150  a  Sunday  and  his  budget  for 
next  year,  fully  covered  by  pledges 
amounts  to  over  $4,000.  And  it  is  all 
so  simple.  The  needy  side  of  humanity 
first,  and  buildings  and  bank  accounts 
and  creeds  and  carpets  secondary.  And 
here  is  another  letter  from  someone  out 
in  Pennsylvania  AA'hom  the  Parson  ne\rer 
saAAr.  “’Wonder  Avho  this  is  from,”  he 
says  to  himself  as  he  cuts  it  open  ’  Out 
falls  a  check  for  $25.  “For  use  in  your 
work,”  is  all  it  says.  And  for  a  Avork 
the  person  has  never  seen,  and  for  a  peo¬ 
ple  the  giver  has  never  known.  It  cer¬ 
tainly  was  good  of  that  woman  to  send 
that  money.  It  is  such  a  help  for  the 
Parson  to  have  a  little  on  hand  to  use 
here  and  there — practically  always  in 
connection  with  children. 
But  here  they  come  Avith  some  of  those 
big  beautiful  poppies  from  the  garden. 
Just  put  the  stems  in  boiling  Avater  for 
a  minute  and  then  put  them  in  water  in 
a  vase,  and  see  Iioav  long  they  will  keep 
looking  fresh  without  the  petals  falling 
off.  The  boys  are  over  painting  the  red 
Avheels  of  the  Ford  yellow,  to  match  the 
color  of  the  body.  Ta  is  swinging  in  the 
hammock,  Sit  and  the  company  cousin 
are  playing  on  the  new  tennis  court  and 
Mrs.  Parson  announces  that  the  Golden 
Bantam  sweet  corn  is  ready  to  be  eaten. 
Where  the  Parson  Teaches  the  Divinity  Students 
“ Old  Home  Day ”  at  the  Long  Abandoned  Church 
