Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1896 — A Usesful Barn. [ARTICLE]

A Usesful Barn.

A bicyclist recently made a little journey Into the country. As lie wheeled along the road he came to a farm house, the owner of which he knew slightly. As he drank a gourdful of water at the pump he noticed that the farmer's barn had an unusual look. The last time ho had seen It it had the usual coating of silvery gray painted by time and weather. "Been fixing up the barn, haven’t you?’’ he asked the farmer. "Yes. It’s all new painted.’’ answered the farmer, proudly. “An’ I reckon It's mighty pretty lookin’, too. Ye see, a feller came along one day an’ says he belongs to a paintin’ syndicate in Chicago as was out to paint all the barns in the country free, an’ he said he would paint mine if I wanted him to. So I says: ‘Go ahead if it don't cost nothin’.’ 1 went to town with a load of hay, an’ when I got back the barn was painted, shore enough.” The barn had been painted a bright yellow, as a good background for varicolored advertisements with letters a foot or two long. The advertisement of a patent medicine covered both sides of the roof In letters of red, blue and green against the yellow. Chewing tobacco, shoes, soap, hams ami other commodities were pictured aud told about on evory available space. “When I got back,” continued the farmer, “the feller that was paintin’ says to me: ‘I put a few signs on the barn,’ says Jie, ‘but you won’t mind that none, an’ the re good readin’ matter when the paper don’t come.' “Anyhow, it didn’t cost nothin’ to paint the barn, an’ I’ll be darned if the boys ain’t a-larnin’ to read from it, which 1 consider pretty cheap education these hard times.”—Kansas City Star.