Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 August 1916 — Short Furrows [ARTICLE]

Short Furrows

‘‘Abe Martin” in Indianapolis News.

It’s amazin’ how easily an' fro quently folks are bein' taken in these days on ever' imaginable fake i. scheme. If people would read th newspapers or consult their friena.-, or even th’ family grocer, they wouldn’t jump blindly at ever' opportunity t’ double ther money an’ repent at leisure. Ther’s plenty o good safe investments that pay fair returns, but it seems like some folks prefer t’ repose their confidence an' money with total strangers. People who read th’ newspapers Gem day t’ day should be alert' t’ ever'thing from turnip quotations t’ great world questions, an’ ther is no excuse fer them t’ invest even so little as a dime without knowin’ jest exact!.' what ther up -agin. Men who wouldn’ think o’ buyin’ a nickel cigar without doin’ ever’thing Wit bite th' end off will invest large sums in mines an’ other things without hardly lookin’ up t’ see who’s talkin’ t’ ’em. No bank robbery is too distant, no divorce proceedin' too tame, no blue sky schemes too commonplace, no epidemic too remote, no political dope too speculative, no weddin’ too plain, an’ n o’ any sort too ordinary but what a first class paper ’ll have some mention of it. If some people don’t care fer politics an’ weddin’s they should at least read a newspaper fer ther own protection agin frauds an' germs. Ther’s no reason t’day fer bein’ in th’ dark about anything, noi even a cantaloupe. If we will take th’ trouble t’ read a newspaper each day we will know what a cucumber is retailin’ fer before we call the grocer. We kin keep .thoroughly conversant on all three fronts o' th’ European war, th’ council proceed-

jin's, baseball, society an’ th’ late-* fakes an’ swindles which are oper atin’ under our Aery noses. Folks are ferever givin’ away the fact that they don't read. They dress nattil”, j are well mannered, pleasant an' ?o----j liable, but they don't seem t’ be i*»j formed. Ther ideas o' national sf- ! fairs are erroneous, ther knowledge | o’ local affairs are nil. while ther obsefvatlons on momentous questions j rqreal a condition .o’ intellectual j denseness that is as unbelievable as it is lamentable. Some folks stall along thro’ life scarcely knowin’ who Tony Pastor wuz, much less who Louis D. Brandies is. They have a little spurt o’ superficial knowledge along general lines—jest enough t get ’em in an’ out of a barber shop ir tide ’em over as a social favorite. So many folks say, “Why, I’m sur prised!’’ when you tell ’em somethin’ that’s been in all th* papers, so o’ course ther surprised when ther fleeced or bunkoed. We often" read, “Prominent an’ Well-t’-do Farmer Swindler,” or “Well-known Business Man Trimmed by Dashin' Promoter,’-’ so it seems that it is possible t’ be well-t’-do, prominent an’ high up in th’ business world without ever readin’ th’ newspapers. However, no matter how prominent or well-t'-dv. or how obscure or influential, or how wonderful a feller is in any respect, he can’t afford t’ miss a single issue of a good newspaper, fer he does not know when an opportunity t’ double his money ’ll come along.