1 
American Agriculturist, August 2, 1924 
69 
Most Neighborly Act I K 
A Few of the Many, Many Good Letters Sent In 
TN 
First Prize 
OT many miles from here a couple bought 
a farm shortly after their marriage, and 
began a life struggle in what was to be 
either failure or success. For several 
years they toiled; children came and with them 
came sickness. The crops proved a failure, money 
was very scarce, their buildings going to jwreck, 
and bankruptcy staring them in the face. Finally 
death visited the family and took one of their 
little ones. 
“Discouraged, broken-hearted, the winter fac¬ 
ing them, hardly enough food to pull through, the 
wife needing clothes, the babies without shoes, the 
man considered himself down and out. One bleak 
November morning a neighbor looking out of his 
window saw the man loading his house¬ 
hold goods on his wagon. He immediately 
went over to see him, and in a pleasant 
way he remarked, ‘Moving, John?’ 
“Right there John sat down and opened 
his heart to the old farmer. He told him, 
‘It is either move or the poorhouse for 
me and mine.’ ‘Who told you to move? ’ 
the old man asked. The reply was, ‘ I’m 
done, what else can I do?’ ‘Put your 
things back in the house, then go over to 
my barn and get grain for your horses. 
I'll see you later.’ 
“About 4 P.M. the same day the slick 
team of the neighbor stopped at John’s 
farm with a wagon loaded down with 
flour, shoes, boots, clothes—a supply that 
easily lasted half the winter. 
“‘Take these things into your house,’ 
was the order, ‘ and if you need more go 
to the store and get it. Your credit is 
good. Don’t worry about your bills, they 
have been taken care of. There are some 
pigs at the farm; call and get them. And 
now, John, go to work.’ 
“That neighborly act put life into him 
and from that moment John became a 
different man. When I last heard of him 
he was supervisor of the town that he 
was running away from only a few short 
years before, a discouraged, broken¬ 
hearted young man. He offered to pay 
his benefactor back, but the old man 
shook his head and remarked, ‘If you ever 
have the chance to do for another as I did for you, 
I will be more than paid.’”—W. P. H., Delaware 
County, N. Y. 
* * 
This Neighborly Act Lasted Two Years 
Second Prize 
“OURELY the farmer who believed that folks 
O nowadays were not so neighborly as they 
used to be, does not live in our neighborhood. 
“One winter, a few years ago, a man that lives 
near us was taken ill with pneumonia. He did 
not respond readily to medical help and it was 
two years before he was again able to 'work. He 
was living on a large farm and had a twenty-five- 
cow dairy. 
“Fortunately his wife and fifteen-year-old 
daughter could milk, for obtaining farm help at 
that time was almost impossible. During the 
farmer’s two years of illness twenty neighbors 
coming from a radius of four miles held a ‘bee’ 
at frequent intervals. They cut and buzzed his 
wood, planted and harvested his crops and also did 
his haying for him. One near neighbor entertained 
the younger children at her home for a number of 
weeks. Another did the washings for a long time 
while others helped out with the milkings. All 
this was cheerfully done. Everyone seemed glad 
to have been able to help in their neighbor’s time 
of trouble.”—C. M., Cortland County, N. Y. 
* * * 
Where Neighborliness Flourishes 
Third Prize 
“AMONG these hills where neighbors are from 
a mile to three miles apart, mostly with 
strips of woods around, so we can’t see distance 
By A. A. READERS 
lights, we value a helpful friend who isn’t afraid 
of germs or the loss of a night’s sleep. 
“A woman, mother of six little ones, had her 
twelve-year-old tend the brood by a warm fire, 
while for ten days she made a morning trip through 
drifts with three feet of snow on the level to care for 
an old woman ninety years old whom no doctor 
could reach and who had only a sixty-year-old son 
(not too wise)tocaref or her, and brought her through 
pneumonia. Not owning skis, it was just a case 
of-wade and walk stone walls two miles and back. 
“May I tell of this same woman who made a 
neat little coffin, laid a two-year-old baby in it and 
carried it on her lap to its last rest for a Hun- 
■ * • ' 
:V. ..>•■■ 
< . . v 
What Was Left After the Storm 
unbelievably on the counter of a Christian mer¬ 
chant, when changed into warm clothing and 
stout shoes. Many kindly deeds have been done 
in our community, but because of the youth of the 
participants and their tact and compassion this 
act is written large in our memories.”— Mrs. 
M. C. S., Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. 
* * * 
A Tragedy Brings Prompt Help 
“TYLACIv night, rain in torrents, a deafening 
If crash from the barn, a burst of flame. 
Jimmie, student farm-hand, getting out the 
horses; then—running, gasping men. The neigh¬ 
bors were coming! 
“Morning. The machinery and tools gathered 
in over fifty years of farming all gone. 
Three dead animals, smoking ruins. 
“Then the neighbors built us a big 
shed. Everyone scarce of help, time to 
begin haying, they shouldered our burden 
as well as their own. They helped cut 
. and stack hay, drew lumber and cement, 
helped concrete, and for many days 
they worked side by side with the 
carpenters. They came two days with 
teams and drew the stacked hay to the 
new barn. I cannot begin to tell all the 
help they gave and we can never repay 
them. Is neighborliness dying out? I 
answer most emphatically no! ‘A neigh¬ 
bor near by is better than a brother afar 
off.’ ”—J. Y., Delaware County, N. Y. 
What Was Left After the Neighbors Got Through Helping 
—See letter by J. Y. 
garian family who spoke little English. That same 
season she helped care for the dying father and 
a few days after she saw him laid by his baby. 
She stood two nights and a day over the mother 
o welcome and save a new and fatherless baby 
boy. When you ask this neighbor if she is afraid 
she will catch disease or expects pay, her answer 
always is, ‘What you do in Christ’s name calls 
for no pay and knows no fear.’”—W. W. S., 
Chenango County, N. Y. 
* * *■ 
Even Children Are Neighborly 
A LITTLE country schoolhouse in our neigh¬ 
borhood furnished the setting for a very 
neighborly act. v 
“In a near-by home illness and inefficiency had 
brought suffering and want. The children came 
to school undernourished and thinly clad. The 
other pupils in the school sought a remedy. 
Children from twelve to fourteen years of age 
organized a secret society with mysterious pass¬ 
word, grip, etc. Then the ‘ society ’ gave an enter¬ 
tainment. Hand bills announcing it were scattered 
over the township. A varied program was an¬ 
nounced—solos and duets, clog dancing, negro 
minstrels, a funny little play—quite an imposing 
amount of entertainment for only a few cents. 
“How the people responded! The wee school- 
house overflowed. Several years later the actors 
would smile at the crudity of the performance 
but that night young hearts beat high with 
happiness as the shekels poured in. A committee 
waited on the parents in the unhappy home and 
were assured that their offer of help would not 
be offensive. 
“The next day the ‘gate receipts’ stretched 
An Operation Under Difficulties 
I WAS called to my next door neigh¬ 
bor’s one cold, wintry day, found the 
doctor there and his patient—-a young 
married woman—at death’s door with an 
internal hemorrhage. 
“ A surgeon and a nurse had been called 
from the nearest city at once. A neighbor 
started to meet them, another went for 
the priest and still another for a doctor to 
administer the anesthetic. By 6:30 all 
were in the house. 
“Hurriedly the dining-room table was 
prepared for the patient. It was found 
to be unsteady and one neighbor, on his 
hands and knees, held it steady through the 
operation, while another held the lamp for the 
doctor to see better. The operation successfully 
over, the surgeon said the patient had lost so 
much blood that only a saline solution in her 
veins could save her. At the last moment he 
broke the glass end to his syringe. I was sent 
in haste to find a medicine dropper; this was 
sterilized and used, a vein in her arm was 
opened and the prepared solution injected. The 
woman told me afterward that she was cold 
to her waist but that went through her veins like 
fire. As the surgeon took his leave he said 
‘without the neighbors’ help this woman would 
surely have died.’ ”—S.H.R., Oneida County, N.Y. 
* * * 
Jitney Service for the Doctor 
“A YEAR ago last February I was ill with 
_/\ pneumonia and my husband was also con¬ 
fined to his bed with the flu. Having five little 
children with scarcely any money to buy food 
for them, the oldest child being only eight years of 
age, what were we to do? The neighbors solved 
our problems for us. They brought food for 
ourselves and children. They took turns in 
bringing the doctor to and from our home. This 
was done through the doctor’s and neighbors 
kindness as the doctor’s charges to us would have 
been much higher if he had had to hire a livery 
to make his calls. 
“This all happened when the thermometer 
registered zero, but with so many warm hearts 
around us it sure took the chill off the weather 
and our appreciation is so great we are watching 
for a chance to help those that have been so 
kind to us.”—D. L. S., Onondaga County, N. Y. 
