1368 
Tie  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
November  3,  1923 
Things  To  Think  About 
Give  the  Boy  a  Chance 
On  page  1257  I  read  a  letter  inquiring 
if  taxpayers  must  pay  tuition.  As  the 
circumstances  revealed  in  that  letter  are 
identical  with  those  in  my  own  district, 
I  assume  that  the  letter  came  from  one 
of  my  fellow  taxpayers. 
There  is  a  boy  in  my  district  who  is 
now  16  years  old,  and  who  did,  three  years 
ago,  attempt  to  set  fire  to  the  high  school 
building  in  which  he  was  then  a  student. 
The  boy  was  taking  his  junior  high  school 
course,  and,  under  the  constant  annoy¬ 
ance  and  abuse  from  his  fellow  students, 
set  fire  to  the  building  while  suffering 
under  these  injustices  thereby  hoping  that 
he  might  be  allowed  to  return  to  his 
district  school,  where  he  had  always  been 
orderly,  studious  and  above  reproach  in 
his  actions.  Things  which  are  too  inde¬ 
cent  to  be  printed  were  done  to  this  boy, 
and  while  no  one,  least  of  all  his  par¬ 
ents,  condones  him  for  his  fault,  every 
right-thinking  person  possessed  of  the 
facts  concerning  the  case,  must  see  the 
reason  for  his  madness. 
Naturally  the  affair  created  a  great 
furore  among  the  people  for  miles  around. 
The  boy  was  immediately  taken  to  the 
State  hospital  at  Utica  for  observation. 
Dr.  Melmer,  who  had  the  case  in  charge, 
discharged  the  boy  after  four  months,  de¬ 
claring  him  to  be  of  sound  mind,  and 
that  at  the  time  when  he  attempted  to 
fire  the  school  he  was  suffering  under 
temporary  insanity  caused  by  unhappy 
surroundings. 
The  boy  is  of  exemplary  character  ;  at¬ 
tends  church  regularly ;  is  obedient  and 
ambitious;  a  great  reader  of  history, 
science  and  religion ;  has  never  been 
known  to  use  vile  language  nor  oaths  of 
any  kind  and  is  refined  in  his  pleasures. 
At  the  commencement  of  1022  school 
vear,  he  was  sent  to  another  high  school 
to  take  up  his  first  year  academic  course. 
In  a  few  days,  he  was  sent  home  and  re¬ 
fused  further  admittance  to  the  school, 
owing  to  the  fact  that  the  principal  of 
his  former  school  had  communicated  with 
the  other  principal,  presumably  advising 
him  against  keeping  the  lad.  Still  an¬ 
other  high  school,  which  is  about  five 
miles  distant  from  our  own  district,  has 
refused  to  accept  any  academic  pupils 
from  other  than  consolidated  schools,  and 
as  we  are  not  consolidated,  none  of  our 
students  can  enter  that  school. 
With  a  view  to  placing  this  lad  in  a 
school  where  he  will  not  be  reminded  of 
1  is  unfortunate  error,  and  where  the 
faculty  will  not  be  constantly  suspecting 
him,  his  parents  have  sent  him  to  a  sec- 
‘  irian  school  about  25  miles  distant. 
r_1hese  parents  have  not  expected  nor  asked 
that  their  rural  district  pay  one  cent. to¬ 
ward  their  son’s  board  or  transportation, 
but  they  do  expect,  and  I  have  every  rea¬ 
son  for  believing  that  they  should  have 
paid  to  them  the  amount  of  tuition  paid 
by  their  district  to  each  of  the  other 
three  academic  students  for  their  tui¬ 
tion.  If  this  district,  of  which  I  am 
trustee,  refuses  to  pay  the  small  sum  of 
$25  toward  the  tuition  of  this  boy  who 
has  fallen  and  is  now  struggling  to  atone 
for  the  past,  then,  I  say,  it  is  ignoble, 
selfish  and  mean,  and  these  same  tax¬ 
payers  are  not  doing  their  part  in  the 
carrying  out  and  upholding  of  the  ser¬ 
vice  of  the  world  to  mankind. 
ellae.  thurston,  Trustee. 
A  Native  of  Latvia 
In  your  issue  of  October  13,  in  ‘‘Brev¬ 
ities,”  there  is  a  question  asking  if  any¬ 
one  knows  where  on  the  world’s  map 
Latvia  is.  I  am  a  “Latvian,”  but  I  was 
only  a  small  girl  when  my  people  left 
Latvia  to  come  to  America.  I  remember 
very  little  of  it,  but  I  will  try  to  give 
you  some  idea. 
Latvia  was  a  province  of  Russia  under 
the  tsar  but  since  the  revolution  it  has 
become  a  republic.  It  is  situated  on  the 
Baltic  coast,  bordering  on  Esthonia  and 
Lithuania.  As  much  as  1  can  remember, 
it  is  a  very  fertile  agricultural  country, 
and  I  am  not  surprised  that  it  is  com¬ 
peting  in  the  world's  butter  market.  I 
can  remember  well  its  green  meadows 
and  clear  streams  bordered  with  currant 
bushes  full  of  delicious  berries,  and  such 
wild  flowers  I  have  never  seen  since  I 
left  that  country.  I  hope  this  will  at 
least  give  you  an  idea  of  its  locality. 
New  Jersey.  Caroline  kidol. 
Eating  in  Denmark 
The  News  Letter  published  by  the 
University  of  North  Carolina  prints  some 
very  interesting  notes  on  Denmark  and 
its  people.  That  little  kingdom  is  a  land 
of  plenty  with  an  abundance  of  food.  The 
following  tells  the  story  ; 
Rut  while  you  pay  high  prices  for  food 
stuffs  in  Denmark,  you  are  appalled  by 
the  enormous  quantities  they  set  before 
you  at  mealtime.  The  butter  for  one  is 
enough  for  a  whole  family  in  America, 
and  it  is  butter  that  a  fastidious  cow  had 
something  to  do  with,  for  the  cow  is  the 
one  aristocrat  left  in  the  farm  regions  of 
this  democratic  kingdom.  The  morning 
teapot  holds  three  large  cups,  and  the 
various  breakfast  breads  of  freshly  ground 
wheat  fill  vou  up  to  the  throatlatches. 
that  is  to  say,  if  you  eat  them  all.  You 
are  tempted  to  do  it.  but  you  won’t  if 
you  think  of  the  five  other  meals  that  are 
to  follow  in  the  long  Summer  day  of  this 
high  latitude.  For  at  10  o’clock  you 
have  coffee  and  crackers;  at  noon  you 
have  a  luncheon  of  smorrebrod  and  cof¬ 
fee,  smorrebrod  or  smearbread  being 
slices  of  wheat  or  rye  loaf  spread  thick 
with  butter  to  hold  the  smoked  fish, 
shrimp  or  sardines,  the  thin  cuts  of  beef, 
ham,  sausage,  or  cheese,  the  slice  of  to¬ 
mato  and  other  delicacies  too  numerous 
to  mention ;  at  four  you  have  tea  and 
cakes ;  at  six  you  have  a  full  dinner,  with 
big  soup  bowls  of  strawberries,  big 
pitchers  of  cream,  and  all  the  sugar^ou 
want— these  or  a  pastry  or  some  other 
fruit  in  the  same  generous  px-oportions ; 
at  10  o’clock  it  is  still  light  enough  to 
read  a  newspaper  out  under  the  open 
sky  and  the  day  must  end  with  an  ice 
and  a  pasti’y  confection  of  some  sort. 
It  keeps  me  feeling  like  Uncle  Remus 
when  the  little  boy  brought  him  an  extra 
dinner  from  the  big  house:  “I  clar  ter 
goodness,  mon,  I  dunno  whar  I  gwine  ter 
put  it,”  said  he,  “cep’n  I  takes  my  hat.” 
And  I  am  guessing  that  Gai-gantua  was 
an  errant  Dane  whom  Rabelais  captui'ed 
in  France  ,and  set  to  star  in  his  famous 
burlesque,  for  the  Danes  are  valiant 
trenchermen,  and  they  have  more  to  eat 
than  I  ever  saw  before  in  any  other  land 
or  country. 
Memories  of  Farm  Food 
Sixty  years  ago.  in  a  little  town  up  in 
Termont,  my  brother  raised  the  first  bed 
of  asparagus  I  ever  saw,  and  I  can  well 
remember  the  pains  he  took  in  making  it. 
It  was  but  a  small  bed  about  20  ft. 
square,  and  he  dug  off  the  surface  soil 
6  in.,  then  filled  it  up  with  good  stable 
manure,  spading  it  into  the  soil,  then 
putting  back  the  top  soil  and  setting  the 
plants.  It  was  a  great  curiosity  to  our 
neighbors  at  that  time,  and  later  on  some 
of  them  began  to  plant  it.  That  bed 
furnished  our  family  with  many  delicious 
meals  for  20  years  and  more. 
Forty-six  years  ago  I  came  to  this 
town,  working  at  the  machinist’s  trade, 
but  with  always  an  ui'ge  to  be  out  in  the 
garden  whenever  I  had  a  spare  30  min¬ 
utes,  so  three  years  later  I  bought  a  lit¬ 
tle  place  of  14  acres  three  miles  out  and 
have  been  a  baek-to-the  lander  ever  since, 
until  about  two  years  ago  when  I  sold 
out,  as  my  family  was  broken  up.  I  have 
worked  at  my  trade  all  these  years,  do¬ 
ing  my  farm  work  mornings,  nights  and 
Saturdays.  Now  at  81  years  I  am  room¬ 
ing  in  the  city,  still  working  in  the  shop, 
eating  at  restaurants  when  I  have  the 
price,  and  whenever  hunger  overtakes  me. 
But  we  don’t  get  any  such  feed  in  the 
restaurants  as  we  had  out  on  the  farm, 
something  like  you  have  at  Hope  Farm, 
only  I  can’t  describe  them  to  make  the 
mouth  water  as  you  have  mine  so  many 
times  in  your  descriptions — asparagus 
on  toast  at  restaurants,  25  cents,  about 
three  stalks  of  the  plant  boiled  in  clear 
water,  the  tips  tender  but  most  of  the 
stalk  as  tough  as  an  oilcloth  table  cover ; 
about  two  mouthfuls  swallowable  enough 
but  not  edible.  On  the  farm  several  quarts 
not  cut  up  but  snapped  in  pieces  like 
string  beans,  and  any  piece  that  will  not 
snap  off  crisply  goes  to  the  waste  pile; 
cooked  thoroughly  with  a  little  milk,  good 
lot  of  butter,  and  salted  to  taste.  Yes.  if 
you  please,  you  may  give  me  a  good  level 
saucer  full  of  that  with  almost  anything 
to  go  with  it.  Pieplant  or  rhubarb  I 
have  been  unable  to  find  at  any  restaui-- 
ant  I  have  tried  this  yeai*,  but  always 
we  can  find  prunes,  stewed,  at  seven 
prunes  for  10  cents,  about  49  in  a  pound  ; 
cost  seven  cents,  sell  for  70;  pi’etty  nar¬ 
row  margin. 
Strawberry  shortcake — at  the  old  farm 
a  couple  of  baskets  nicely  sweetened  and 
poured  on  two  plain  shortened  crusts 
with  real  cream,  or  without,  as  you  like, 
the  whole  a  couple  of  inches  thick  or 
more.  That’s  a  shortcake.  At  the  res¬ 
taurants  some  insipid  kind  of  sweet  cake 
plastered  one-fourth  of  an  inch  thick  with 
so-called  whipped  cream,  and  four  or  five 
strawberries  carefully  planted  in  it  so 
that  in  cutting  no  customer  should  get 
one  berry  more  than  another.  z.  c.  B. 
Doped  Hamburg  Steak 
The  Pennsylvania  Agricultural  Depart¬ 
ment  warns  against  buying  “hamburger 
steak”  or  chopped  raw  meat  unless  you 
see  the  meat  ground  in  your  presence. 
“In  a  quarter  of  a  century  of  activity 
in  food  control  work  in  this  State  Direc¬ 
tor  Foust  says  that  he  has  never  run 
across  a  more  iniquitous  pivactice  than 
that  of  some  butchers  who  dope  waste 
meat  matexuals  and  scraps  with  sulphites 
to  make  them  appear  as  fresh  meat.  The 
scraps,  some  of  them  tainted  and  black, 
are  chopped  up,  dusted  with  the  sulphites 
and  run  through  a  grindei*.  The  sulphites 
cause  the  ground  meat  to  take  on  a 
bright  fresh  color  and  make  it  appear  as 
if  of  recent  butchering. 
“Last  year  and  so  far  this  year  the 
number  of  instances  in  which  the  Food 
Bureau  and  its  agents  have  caught  meat 
dealers  perpetrating  this  fraud  upon  the 
Pennsylvania  public  has  been  gi’eater 
than  in  any  other  year  since  1905  when 
the  law  regulating  the  sale  of  meats  went 
into  effect. 
“A  jail  sentence  faces  every  meat  re¬ 
tailer  who  is  found  to  be  doctoring  odds- 
and-ends  of  unsalable  meat  in  this  man¬ 
ner.  The  courts  have  upheld  the  Food  Bu¬ 
reau  in  every  px-osecution  of  this  nefar¬ 
ious  practice  in  the  past  and  there  will 
be  no  let-up  in  the  food  officials’  activity 
until  the  practice  is  discontinued.” 
A  Family  Trip  to  California 
My  father  and  mother  aged  50  years, 
and  my  two  children  of  10  and  11,  want 
to  go  to  California  in  a  speed  wagon.  1 
have  it  all  rigged  up,  but  now  folks  say 
they  are  foolish  ;  the  roads  are  bad.  not 
safe  for  a  truck,  detours  are  bad,  ferry 
crossing  is  dangerous,  etc.  They  say 
storms  are  terrible  out  that  way,  and 
they  have  frightened  by  wife  so  she  does 
not  want  them  to  start.  So  I  am  de¬ 
pending  on  your  answer.  Will  the  chil¬ 
dren  get  sick  from  any  climatic  changes, 
and  is  my  father  too  old  to  drive  the 
trip,  50,  perfectly  healthy?  Have  you 
any  idea  of  the  number  of  gallons  of  gas 
it  will  take  to  make  the  trip?  e.  h. 
Of  course  this  is  largely  a  pei-sonal 
matter,  depending  on  the  character  and 
judgment  of  the  driver.  Plenty  of  people 
over  50  have  made  the  trip  successfully. 
If  your  parents  are  healthy  and,  as  we 
presume,  of  i-easonabIe  judgment,  we 
should,  by  all  means,  advise  them  to 
start.  It  is  no  easy  trip,  but  thousands 
have  gone  over  the  route  without  great 
trouble  and  with  much  satisfaction.  Se¬ 
lect  the  route  carefully  beforehand,  go 
well  supplied,  and  have  no  fear  of  the 
outcome. 
Increasing  Taxes 
We  have  a  new  brick  school  in  this 
district,  and  it  cost  nearly  $150,000.  We 
are  paying  our  school  teachers  over  $23,- 
000  per  year.  We  have  14.4  acres  of 
land  and  are  assessed  for  $14.000 ;  taxes 
this  year,  $209.01.  Can  you  find  any¬ 
thing  to  beat  this  in  New  York  State? 
What  are  the  poor  farmers  coming  to, 
anyway?  h.  f.  b. 
R.  N.-Y. — We  think  there  are  plenty 
of  readers  who  can  beat  such  taxes.  On 
our  own  farm  in  New  Jei'sey  the  taxes 
this  year  are  $586.  This  is  mostly  for 
road  making.  Twenty  years  ago  our 
taxes  were  $7S.  The  truth  is  that  coun¬ 
ty,  State  and  Federal  governments  are 
spending  too  much  money  for  public 
works.  This  not  only  means  taxes  which 
will  sui-ely  break  our  backs  if  they  are 
kept  up,  but  it  means  labor  competition 
which  makes  it  impossible  to  obtain  farm 
help. 
Legal  Questions 
Leaving  Money  to  Husband 
Befoi’e  I  married  I  saved  some  money, 
and  now  my  husband  has  bought  a  lot  to 
build  on,  paying  part  down,  balance 
monthly.  He  has  it  in  his  own  name. 
He  wants  money  to  build,  and  as  I  am 
anxious  for  a  home  for  our  children,  I 
want  to  help  him  all  I  can,  but  feel  that 
I  need  to  protect  my  own  cash.  Can  I, 
his  wife,  hold  a  mortgage  against  my  hus¬ 
band,  and  hold  it  in  my  maiden  name? 
How  can  I  give  him  my  money  and  pro¬ 
tect  myself  when  he  wants  to  hold  it  all 
in  his  name  alone?  m.  r. 
Ohio. 
You  could  hold  a  mortgage  against  your 
husband  in  your  present  name  if  he  de¬ 
sires  to  give  it  to  you.  The  best  thing 
for  your  husband  to  do,  however,  is  to 
have  the  deed  to  the  property  in  both  of 
you  names,  so  that  the  survivor  would 
take  all.  n.  t. 
Question  of  School  Law;  Renter’s  Right 
to  Vote 
I  hold  a  five-year  lease  on  one  of  the 
largest  farms  in  this  district  and  a  year’s 
rent  on  another  as  large.  I  have  three 
children  going  to  school.  They  are  build¬ 
ing  a  new  school,  and  there  are  a  good 
many  questions  to  be  voted  on  that  are 
important  both  to  the  children  and  to  the 
district.  Several  have  questioned  my 
right  to  vote  because  I  am  not  a  pimperty 
owner.  A  number  of  people  rent  bunga¬ 
low  sites  by  the  year  and  put  up  their 
own  buildings.  They  rent  the  pi-operty 
at  a  set  sum  plus  school  tax.  What 
would  be  their  rights  in  school  matters? 
New  York.  w.  n.  ii. 
You  have  two  qualifications  which  en¬ 
title  you  to  vote  at  school  meetings.  We 
would  say  that  the  persons  who  rent  sites 
and  build  their  buildings  are  entitled  to 
vote  provided  they  are  citizens,  more  than 
21  years  of  age  and  i-esided  in  the  district 
at  least  30  days  next  preceding  the  meet¬ 
ing  at  which  they  offer  to  vote.  N.  T. 
Who  Gets  the  Insurance? 
If  buildings  are  insui’ed  in  both  father’s 
and  son’s  name,  done  by  the  son  and  un¬ 
known  to  the  fathei*,  if  the  father  dies 
would  the  mother  get  insurance,  or  would 
the  grandchildren  or  the  son,  or  who 
would  get  it?  l.  A. 
New  York. 
The  first  necessity  in  order  to  get  in¬ 
surance  is  a  fire,  aixd  until  you  have  a  fire 
no  one  will  get  it.  You  do  not  state  who 
owns  the  property,  nor  whether  the  father 
has  a  will.  The  insui-ance  company  is  go¬ 
ing  to  know  that  they  pay  the  money  to 
the  real  owner,  and  in  case  of  the  death 
of  the  real  owner  the  insurance  will  be 
payable  to  his  estate,  in  case  of  the 
death  of  the  owner  without  a  will  the 
property  will  descend  to  the  children,  sub¬ 
ject  to  the  dower  of  the  widow.  n.  t. 
Inheritance  in  Partnership  Deed 
My  husband  and  his  brother  bought 
two  farms  in  partnership  about  12  years 
ago.  They  did  business  together  until  six 
years  ago  when  they  separated.  The 
brother  moved  to  the  other  farm,  (they 
had  been  living  together  in  the  same 
house  on  the  oiie  farm).  They  have  done 
business  in  their  own  names ;  each  trans- 
acts  his  own  business.  The  deed  is  still 
a  partnership  deed.  They  want  a  deed, 
each  to  his  own  farm.  Each  brother  has 
a  wife  and  child,  though  my  husband  and 
I  were  not  married  until  after  they 
divided  up.  If  my  husband  died  first 
(before  the  other  brother),  what  claim 
would  our  little  boy  and  I  have  on  the 
property  (farm)  that  we  consider  as  our 
farm?  I  mean  if  he  should  die  and  the 
deed  still  be  a  partnership  one. 
New  York.  mbs.  a.  b. 
Your  husband  is  now  the  owner  of 
an  undivided  one-half  interest  in  all  the 
pxjoperty.  In  case  your  husband  dies 
without  leaving  a  will  you  would  take  a 
dower  interest  in  that  undivided  one-half 
and  your  child  would  take  the  remainder. 
You  would  better  have  your  husband 
draw  a  will,  and  it  would  also  be  a  good 
idea  to  have  the  deeds  straightened  out. 
N.  T. 
Improvements  on  Joint  Property 
My  father  died  four  years  ago  without 
making  a  will.  He  left  a  farm  which  my 
brother  and  I  are  working  in  partnership. 
I  also  own  a  small  farm  with  house  and 
buildings,  so  let  my  brother  live  in  the 
old  homestead.  He  has  taken  out  some 
partitions  and  changed  it  about  some,  and 
perhaps  laid  out  $200.  Does  his  paying 
out  money  on  the  house  give  him  any  ad¬ 
vantage  of  me  if  the  farm  was  to  be  sold 
or  divided?  I  have  paid  half  of  all  in¬ 
surance  and  taxes.  R.  w. 
New  York. 
Your  position  will  probably  not  be 
changed  by  the  fact  that  your  brother  has 
made  some  improvements.  He  does  so 
with  the  full  knowledge  that  you  are  a 
joint  owner.  Improvements  made  with¬ 
out  your  consent  which  could  easily  be 
removed  without  damaging  the  freehold 
probably  could  be  removed  by  your 
brother.  n.  t. 
A  few  weeks  ago  we  had  a  picture  showing  how  direct  sales  of  the  “makings”  of  a 
dinner  were  made.  Here  is  another  smaller  one  showing  a  chicken  and  the  various 
“fixings”  and  the  package  iix  which  they  can  be  sent.  There  ought  to  be  a  good 
chance  for  someone  to  work  this  plan  to  advantage. 
