Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 305, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1914 — Page 2

HOW THE POPCORN MAN WAS “STUNG”

Story of Humphrey and the Amusement Resort Which He Purchased. STRUGGLE FOR DECENCY How He Drove Away the Saloons, Gave Everyone Value for Hie Money, Kept the Place Decent and Finally Won.

By RICHARD SPILLANE.

Humphrey’s father left the farm to him. Some persons may find pleasure and profit in tilling the soil, but, hard as he worked, Humphrey made little headway. He longed for the comforts and opportunities of 'City life and the more he dwelt on what the city held In promise the more dissatisfied he became with his lot Finally he got so tired of “cropping it,” as the agriculturists call farming, that he determined to sell out He put the farm on the market and got a purchaser. Then he moved to town. One thing Humphrey liked was popcorn. He doted on it as a boy and his appetite for it did not diminish as he grew older. When he got to town and looked around for some work with which to employ his energies, he did pot find so many openings as he had expected. Idleness was abhorrent to him, so, more to keep himself engaged than with any thought of going into the business permanently, he made popcorn on his kitchen stove and sold it to men who had stands about town. No one knows more about the art of popcorn making than Humphrey. The corn should be of a special growth and It should be kept three years to season and it should be cooked just so, or it will not have the flavor and delicacy that real popcorn should have. The people who bought Humphrey’s popcorn relished it, and the sidewalk venders developed a trade in popcorn thejr never had known before. Humphrey made a little money—not much, but enough to make him ambitious to broaden his field. Out at the lakeside was a big pleasure park. It had cost many thousands of dollars to build. The men who started it expected to make, a fortune, but had been disappointed. At first it did fairly well, but gradually its attractions paled. Then the owners let it become a fly paper proposition. Every visitor got stuck. Made Money and Saved It. Humphrey sold popcorn to the Beach Park people. That was one of the few things sold at the park for which the people got the worth of their money. His popcorn sold so well there and at the stands in town that Humphrey took up other lines. He made old-fashioned candy and sugared peanuts and gradually built up a trade in those articles that permitted him to add a little to Jhe money he had put in a bank as a result of the sale of a farm. Although Humphrey prospered, the owners of the Beach Park did not. The reputation of the big amusement place did not improve. Roysterers got to going there at night and occasionally there were disgraceful brawls. The bar did the blggesfbuslness in the establishment Every sideshow had a ballyhoo man and most of the freaks were fakes of the worst order. As the years went on, respectable people began to avoid .. the park. There always is an element that delights in riot and roar, but it is not altogether profitable. The owners of the park, facing a larger and larger deficit each year, became more and more disgusted. They s&w how wrong they had been in their estimates. The city was not big enough to support so large an enterprise as the park. The best thing they could do, they decided, was to sel> the property. It is one..thing to want to sell and another to find a purchaser. Men wiljiiig to buy lakeside parks and taring money to pay the price are scarce. To announce the amount of the yearly deficit would not enhance the value. The owners looked around carefully and cautiously for a person upon whom they could unload. Somehow, the popcorn man came into calculation. Bought Beach Park. It seemed ridiculous when his name was suggested, but Investigation showed he had considerable money, and when the proposition was put up to him he gave it consideration. He looked the property over carefully. He inspected the bar and frowned. He looked at the fakes and scowled. Everything that seemed profitable to the owners met with his disapproval. About the only thing that pleased him was the location. He looked out over the lake and his face cleared. He gazed along the beach and IffSfifed pleased. He watched some children at play, and nodded his head approvingly. A few days later he closed a deal for the purchase of the park, and the men who bad been holding the bag for years breathed easier. Humphrey was the purchaser. Tha popcorn man not being partial to strong waters, closed the bar the first day he was in charge. In doing this he basely deceived a large num-1

ber of thirsty gentlemen who journeyed out to the park the following Sunday. It was hot —frightfully hot — and their thirst had not been cooled by the five-mile ride from the center of the city in the crowded trolley cars. They let out a roar that was unpleasant to hear. They scoffed at the attendants who mildly suggested that there were plenty of soft drinks to be had. The closing of the bar was bad enough, but worse followed. Gentlemen who sought the pleasures of the dancing pavilion and cast aside their coats and vests as they had been accustomed to do in order to be cooler and more comfortable while they danced, were fighting angry when informed that no one would be permitted on the floor unless properly clad. Long and Trying Struggle. Beach Park was a sad affair for the rest of the season. The respectable element would not go there because of its general reputation, and the rough element would not torture itself In such a deadly dull place. Women and children went there on summer days and found relief from the heat of the city and persons who loved boating and fishing continued to give their patronage to it, but the receipts were decidedly less than under the old regime. Next year Humphrey had a desperate time. Every day meant a loss, and his capital dribbled away steadily.' He had to make a lot of popcorn, old-fashioned candy and sugared peanuts to meet one week’s deficit, but he went about his business as usual and kept his own counsel. The third year Humphrey was in possession tested his courage to the limit. The days when the receipts equaled the expenses were rare. The days when the losses were big were many. The popcorn man had to rake and scrape and make sacrifices to

He Made Popcorn on His Kitchen Stove.

keep up appearances, His brother, who had joined forces with him, helped him out with money and services, but even with his aid it was the tightest kind of a squeeze to get without a visit from the sheriff. It had been proved so conclusively that the public would have nothing to do with • Breach Park that no one supposed Humphrey would be so foolish, after that experience of the third season, as to waste more of his time and hard-earned money on it. But the popcorn man was obstinate and he opened) up the fourth year as blithely as \ever. It was the old story until about the middle of the season. jThen there was a slight improve'ment. Somebody of consequence and influence TdlcTsomebody else that the place was changed so much he hardly could recognize .it He was so glowing in his picturing of the charm of the park that the other man was tempted to go there. He was surprised and delighted, and felt it was his duty to tell everybody about it Both Decent and Paying. Before that fourth season closed Beach Park was paying expenses. It opened next year with an excellent business, and in a month or two it was having a patronage such as it never had kno,wn before. It . was exactly the place for a respectable man and his family. There were no toughs. There were no bars. Everythtng was moderate in price, yet good. There were no shooting galleries, no fortune tellers, no freaks or fakes or loop the loop or thrillers in the way of roller coasters with sensational dips that occasionally brought But thpre was everything that was legitimate and safe and decent. The dancing pavilion was a delight There was a dancing master there to instruct the awkward or the young or to check any tendency to Impropriety. The music was of the best for dancing purposes. Comparatively few persons realize what a big difference the music makes in the enjoyment of dancing. Instead of the sideshows and flakes, Humphrey had charming pavilions, shady nooks,, rustic paths, grassy lawns and grottos. There were roller coasters and miniature railroads and

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

some really entertaining but by no means noisy, shows. And the restaurants! The town never had had better. Everything was at moderate price. You could get a sandwich foi five cents, and everything else in proportion. Men found they could take the whole family there to dinner and not be bankrupted. Some declared It was cheaper to go to the park and dine than to remain at home. i In addition to thq joys of good eating, good surroundings, cleanliness and decency, there were the delights of boating and bathing and fishing. Humphrey had changed everything at the lakeside. All the boats were new. All the bathhouses were neat and well kept. Even the beach was gone over several times a day to remove anything or everything dropped by careless persons. Drove Away the Saloons. From being neglected, Beach Park suddenly sprang into favor. Its former evil reputation was forgotten and was used as a basis for expressing its new worth. The money came pouring in on Humphrey in a way to cheer him for all the patience he had displayed, and people began telling him how they always knew he would make a big success of the enterprise. All the persons who went to the park were not drinkers of soft stuff. Various gentlemen, seeing what crowds were being attracted to the park, wished they could Induce Humphrey to let them have the bar privilege at his newly-made gold mine. Some approached him on the proposition, but never again. Then they did what they considered to be the next best thing. They opened saloons across the broad highway from the main entrance to the park. Some of those saloons were pretty tough. Humphrey did not like his saloon neighbors. He determined to get rid of them. Rigging up powerful search-

lights in his grounds, he directed the rays of the searchlights upon the saloons. Nobody coiild enter without being truly in the spot light. Decent men didii’t like to make exhibitions of themselves, so they dodged those saloons. The liquor men threatened lots of things to Humphrey, but went no further than to sue out an injunction restraining him from using his battleship searchlights. That was pie for the popcorn man. The papers £nade big stories out of the fight. Tiumphrey got more advertising than he could have bought for thousands of dollars. And the injunction was set aside. Thereupon the searchlights came into play again. The crowd at Beach Park thought It highly enjoyable to see an occasional person try to get into a saloon without being spotted. People went out just to see this show. Every Visitor Gets Value. The searchlights drove the saloons out of business* and Beach Park never has seen one since. It has increased in popularity year by year, and today is a remarkable monument to the worth of nonesty and decency in an amusement park. Every palatable "soft” drink is sold there, but nothing with a suspicion of dope. There is no ballyhooing, no deceit, no loudness. Every visitor gets value. The whole establishment —and it covers many acres—is conducted rationally, efficiently and yet most profitably. There has been so much profit in Beach Park as he conducts it that the popcorn man has had to look about to employ his money. Liking the amusement field and believing he was doing a good service tn providing for those who want to take their please ures in a decent, respectable way, he built a great winter carnival right In the heart of a city. There he has hockey tournaments, ice skating and other sports. The ice-making plant is so tremendous that this rink Is said to be the biggest in the world. It is a pronounced success. The games and tournaments nave come to be features of the winter life of the city, and the popcorn man is now declared to be the most prosperous amusement purveyor in America. (Copyright by the McClure rtrwspap-M Syndicated

Back to the Bible

Application of the Scriptures to the World Today aa Seen by Eminent Men in Various Walks of Life

(Copyright, 1914, by Joseph B. Bowies)

THE BASIS OF THE BIBLE. (By WILLIAM FRASER McDOWELL, Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church.) “This collection of books has taken such a hold on the world as no other. Men rest on this their dearest hopes; it tells them of Gold and of his blessed Son, of earthly duties and of heavenly rest.’’—Theodore Parker. Thoughtful students of any outstanding literature Inevitably ask these questions:

behind all the books that live and affect men. A national life, longer or shorter, precedes a national literature, a religious life, more or less perfect, precedes a religious literature. Of course such literatures in their turn create national and religious life, but always the life comes first. " . Here, then, is this notable book, this wonderful body of literature, the Bible. It is vastly rich in the range of its contents and variety of its style. The literature of England from Bede to Browning is not more rich or varied. And yet its unity is more striking than its variety. What lies behind it all? What is the basis of it? There is .only one answer necessary though many others have been given. The fact, the experience, the life lying behind this vast and eternally potent book, giving it unity, is the long divine movement, of God in human life and upon human life for the redemption of man’s life from destruction. This is the key to it. This supreme literature of the world is based upon the redemptive purpose, desire and movement of God upon and within the human race. The Bible’s chief figure is the redeeming God, revealed perfectly for man’s redemption in Jesus Christ. The basis of the Bible seems to me to be this. And a noble basis it is. The Bible will always be supremely valuable to man with such a basis as this.

SECULAR AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.

(By Hlb Eminence JAMES, CARDINAL GIBBONS.) *’Tn t Africa I was shut up with my Bible, the Book with a million eyes."— Dan Crawford, F. R. G. S., missionary 23 years in Central Africa.

God has given us a heart to be formed to virtue, as well as a head

feet system. According to Webster’s definition, to educate is “to instill into the mind principles of art, scienbe_ morals, religion and behavior.” ”To educate in the arts,” he says, “is Important; in religion, indispensable.” k • It is not sufficient to know how to read and write, to understand the rudiments of grammar and arithmetic. It does not suffice to know that two and two make four, we must practically learn also the great distance between time and eternity. Tpe knowledge of bookkeeping m not sufficient unless we are taught also how to balance our accounts daily between our conscience and our God. It will profit us little to understand all about the daily and yearly motions of the earth unless we add 'to this science some heavenly astronomy. The Intellectual and moral growth of our children should go hand jn handi otherwise their education is shallow and fragmentary and often proves a curse Instead of a blessing. Piety is not to be put on like a holiday dress, to be worn on state occasions, but it is to be exhibited in our conduct at all times. Our youth must put in practice every day the commandments of God, as, well a* the

What was its basis, what was its purposfe and what is its outcome? these questions are even more vital sot the average man than for the student. For the average man takas his literature it comes along. Now the first thing to remember is that there is always some basis of life or experience behind any real writing,

to be enlightened. By secular education we improve the mind, by religious training we direct the heart To educate means to bring out, to develop the intellectual, moral and religious faculties of the soul. An education, therefore, that improves the mind and the memory to the neglect of moral and religious training is at best an imper-

rules of grammar and arithmetic. How can they familiarize themselves with these sacred duties if they are not daily inculcated? THE INSPIRATION OF ENGLISH % LITERATURE. (By HENRY AUGUSTUS BUCHTEL, Chancellor University of Denver, Former Governor of Colorado.) The Bible was the inspiring force which created the beginnings of our

effort to sing the substance of the inspired story in the language of the conSmon people. Immediately follow'ing we have the oldest prose, that of the venerable Bede, the father of English history, who wrote forty treatises which constitute a sort of cyclopedia of his times. Twenty-five of these treatises were on Biblical subjects. The 7 most pretentious of these writings is called “The Ecclesiastical History of Our Nation and Island.” The Tyndale New Testament, the first printed English New Testament, Arrived in England in 1525. For thir-ty-five years, excepting only about four years, the book was proscribed. It might not bq read on pain qf a variety of punishments, Including being burned alive. During these thirtyfive years practically all the people In England were listening to the reading qf the Bible surreptitiously. They devoured the book. They were starving 1 for its gldrious revelations of spiritual truth. When the young Queen Elizabeth came to the throne, there was only one question in England. The people met the young queen at the gate of London with Tyndale’s Bible, and, holdifig It aloft, asked, “What are you going to do with that?” Instantly she stooped down and kissed it. And that made the Elizabethan age. All who are refreshed by the vast literature in our English language must rejoice that the Bible has always had this power of inspiring men with an unquenchable desire to make record of their thoughts and feelings in spoken and written language.

MOSES, LEADER AND LAWGIVER.

(By HERBERT L. WILLETT, Ph. D„ Dean Disciples’ Divinity House, University of Chicago.) The spiritual history of the world has been largely molded by the lives of a few important moral leaders. 'Of these Moses was one of the greatest In the twelfth century B. C., during the reign of Ramases the Great, a group of Semitic herdsmen, the result of an earlier/migration from the northeast were living in the Delta of Egypt. They were the possessors of traditions that linked them with Abraham and, Jacob, Hebrew patriarchs who had lived in Canaan. These Hebrew clans in Egypt had fallen upon unhappy days. The government was no longer friendly to them. They were set at task work, building the king's treasure cities and granaries. “When the tale of bricks is doubled, then comes Moses.” A young Hebrew, surviving the dangers to which his people were subjected, grew up in the favor of the court He was educated in the university, and was “learned in the wisdom of the Egyptians.” But a premature effort th behalf of his people compelled him to escape for his life beyond the frontiers of Egypt. He found refuge among the Mldianlte clans south and eatt of Canaan, somewhere In the region of a sacred mountain, Horeb or Sinai. There he spent many years, seemingly lost to his peo l pie. But at length, meditation upon their fortunes and an experience at the sacred mountain which he deemed the call of God to his uncompleted task, brought him back to Egypt. There he inspired his people with the hope of deliverance, and seizing a favorable opportunity when Egypt under Merenptah was suffering a series of mysterious visitations, he led forth to the number of some thousands. Their escape was made under circumstances so manifestly shaped by the divine favor that the events of the exodus were ever after Regarded among the Hebrew tribe? as the proof that Jehovah had providentially led them forth from the land of Egypt. , ' Ont into the desert Moses led them, to that same holy mountain where he had been inspired for his great task. There for many months they remained and there Moses gave to them the beginnings of their national consciousness. The lengthened shadow of Moses, the man of God, fell far down the history of Israel.

Getting By.

“The Declaration of Independence is a noble and Inspiring work of literature!" exclaimed the enthusiastic patriot. . “Yes," commedted the discontented author. “It is a very creditable piece of writing. But you must admit that Jefferson was at an advantage in submitting it to a Continental congress Instead Of a magazine editor."*

English literature. English ceases to be a wandering voice and begins to take definite shape in Wycliffe’s Bible and in, Chaucer’s Canterbury • Tales in the fourteenth century. But seven centuries before that, back in the Anglo-Saxon period, we have our first poem in Caedmon’s paraphrase of the Bible. This is not a translation of the Bible, but an

A Thanksgiving Sermon

By REV. JAMES M. CRAY, D. D.

Dean of Moody Bibb ludtate Chicago

TEXT—We know that all things work together-for good to them that love God. —Romans 8:28.

happy moment their chief joy. (1) There is a kind of certainty about this text that gives it a peculiar value. “We know that all things work together for good.” It is not a surmise but a conviction; not a conclusion based merely upon the testimony of others, but a possession of our own experience. We know it from the word of God, apd we would rather trust that than our own understanding. We know it indeed from the very nature of the case, for given the existence of a God, holy, just, all-powerful and good, it must be as the text says.' To deny it is to deny God. We know it from the history of the world and of mankind whose pages are illuminated with its truth, but especially do we know It from the record of our own lives. , If we are true Christian men and women, we can look back over the past year in all its vicissitudes and set our seal to it as fact (2) There is a universality in the range of the text which gives it a peculiar value. “We know all things woiss together for good.” What a measureless compass there is in that declaration! In the mind of the inspired writer, the “all things” as indicated by the context, are very especially “the sufferings of this present time;” but there is no reason why we may not employ the language in the broadest and most comprehensive sense. Things Jinown and things unknown, defeats and victories, losses fend gains, the small and the large, all are working together for good to them that love God. It Is easy to believe this when all is prosperous and happy, but faith clings to it when the clouds lower and the storms rage. It is that which distinguishes th© Christian from the man of the worlq. (3) There is a sense of divine activity in the text. “All things work together for good.” God does not allow things to come to pass by chance, but has an arrangment in everything, a plan, a purpose bringing forth effects. He is continually subverting and conserving, scattering and bringing together, in order that he may find stones to polish for a temple into which he may enter and permanently abide. (4) Then think of the harmony expressed—“all things work together for good.” There is no discord or opposition in the heavenly epunseis, though we may not always perceive this with our eyes of flesh. Like Hannah More’s dialogue of the two weavers, we may sometimes think that— The good are troubled, and oppressed, And all the wicked are the blessed. But when we reach that world of light. And view these works of God aright. Then shall we see the whole design, And own the work is all divine. But finally, it is the particularity of this text that we need most to dwell upon. It is to “Them That Love God,” and to them only, that all things work together for good. But men in their natural state do not love God, nor can they love him. There must-be 7 created - within' them thp. clean heart and. renewed within tfiem the right spirit before they can love God. And this is God’s own work in them, which he does when they believe his testimony concerning hip son, Jesus dhrist. Have you done this? Have you yet by faith received Christ as your Savior and confessed him as your Lord? There was a time when Paul wh6 wrote these words, did not himself love God, though he was very religious and very active his religion. But one day he saw Christ in the glory and submitted himself to him, and all this was changed. He then loved God because he had come to know that God loved him and sent his son to be the propitiation for his sins. And so thia text gives us Paul’s own testimony. He had had a wonderful life especially after his remarkable conversion. Read his own description of It in Second Corinthians from Chapter 11, Verse 21 to Chapter 12, Verse 12, and see what it must have ifleant to him to utter such words as these. In everything had he seen the hand of God so yividly and the most unpromising circumstances redound to his own good, that no mathematical proposition r could have been mote clearly demonstrated to him than this. ‘ /

This is one of the texts of Scripture that always comes into themind, around Thanks giving time. It han preached many a soul-inspiring sermon to the Lord’s meek and poor afflicted ones during these long nineteen hundred years. In many an hour of trouble it has been their t consolation, and in many a