Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1907 — Page 7

IA little lame boy used to live in a house That Santa Claus passed by NThen he hurried through here on his journey last year, And I have often wondered why : Bor the little lame boy had no father, you know, And his face was so thin and so white That the saint, I should think, would have wanted to go To pay him a visit that night. When I looked at the gifts that old Santa had brought I was never so proud or so glad; But whenever I thought of the boy he

1 ORD In this New nP\i EBSfl ar g iv « u» Faith: j® IgSSSfll Faith to believe in Erst the Divine Dictum ftSjiP feVjfl that as the Sowing is, so $9 -4 ffra shall the Reaping be; faith wj] i*W to know this not as the ftsflj stjTi threat of a vengeful God j.l y/W but an affirmation radiant Wv| I'jS with promise ~ inspired 6&W lM presentment of the Divine laj i _kTJJ Possibilities of Every Dayl RJkJ ; S&CSC Help us O Lord, to reali-je 'xgjgx' them in the highest! ' VsSSty Give us Wisdom: Wls - dom ter know values> to \>L|| separate great interests [TJaLt rail from little, the true from ilw the false, the petty from tyil UM the essential. WA Give us Strength:Strength ftVW RyPl of will to do - Strength of rVfl wj/l heart to bear. f|T» J«[/ And In all things Lord, yffiL fflo lend us of thy Grace, teach ui out of thy abundant

Farmer Pettigrew’s Gifts

■Old farmer Pettigrew was driving along the pike toward town, his grays going at a brisk rate. "There’s that young Evans walking," fe* said to himself; "he’s dressed up like he was goln’ to catch the train.** “Goin* up the road, Bob?” he said, as he passed the younger man; "I’m feound for the burg.” "I was going down by train, but don’t mind riding behind your grays,” laughed the other, climbing In; "that is, if you’ll agree to bring my stuff pack.” "SO *t ain’t two wagon loads,'” was the retort He liked Bob Evans because he joked and laughed and was good company. College boy, too. Education had never liurt him. Fine farmer, steady and smart “What’ll your load be?” he asked Bob, as the hard mud flew under the horses’ feet “Not much weight,” laughed his companion. "Christmas gifts. This is the time when a little money buys a lot •f things to warm the heart” “Bho,” said Fanner Pettigrew, “whs* you’re as old as I am you won’t bo spending money for Christmas. Thar’s do one but me and mother now. We’d look fine making Christmas presents?* "That you would,” said Evans, heartily, "and it would make good old Aunt Pettigrew feel ten years younger.” "Now, Bob,” exclaimed the old man, "air you in earnest?” “Never was more so. She is often lonely since your daughter moved West She would not only be surprised, but happy. Try It once,” he added. "What are you going to get Addle?" ."Me? Oh, I’ve been planning for months. A new dress, for one. Books Che wanted. Some little knick-knack*. Nothing is too good for my wife. She deserves more than I can give her. But lam getting things for mother. I wouldn’t forget her. We’ll go over tomarrow afternoon, and see how happy Whs’ll be over our presents.” "1 never did give anything *cspt a

WHEN SANTA CLAUS FORGETS.

« forgot It somehow kept making me sad; For the little lame boy was a good little boy, And I couldn’t help wondering why,. If the ones that are best deserve more than the rest, Good Santa Claus passed him by. I took him some turkey, and cookies, and toys, And it made him so glad that he cried, And all, day I kept thinking of lame little ' boys, And felt kind of choky inside; But t dreamed the most beautiful dream little candy to the children on Christmas,” said the old man, but he didn’t discuss crops clear to town. About the middle of the afternoon Bob Evans hurried into the big dry goods store after numerous bundles. He was surprised to see old Farmer Pettigrew sitting at a counter near the front, while an obsequious clerk was holding up folds of gray silk. Bob was so pleased he stopped to in the selection, and then went on his way. was nearly dark when the two men met at the livery stable. Old Farmer Pettigrew was as excited as a boy. “Say, Bob, I bought ’er a cheer, too, and a gold comb, and candy, and I’m kind of ’shamed to give them to her. And I sent Minnie $lO, registered letter, you know.” Bob shook the old man’s hand. “I’m glad I came with you. I just wish I could see auntie when you give those things to her.” “I’ll tell you about it, Bob.” But he did not introduce the subject when Bob went over next week. The young man followed him out to the barn lot and asked him about the gifts. Old Farmer Pettighew looked at him long and solemnly, a sort of quiver about his mouth. “Well, when I laid ’em out Christmas mornin’ by her bed, I jest stepped out She didn’t come out, an’ I got skeered. I peeped ’in through the crack—an’— an’— she was on ’er knees by ’em, sobbin’. I didn’t calkllate it was goln’ to have no sech effect, Bob.” Bob’s eyes grew misty. “Well?” he said. “I went in then, an’ she riz up an’ klm to me’ an’ she said, ‘Pa,’ an* kissed me, for the furst time in ten years, Bob."

Small Gift Best.

Better a small gift where love Is than a costly present for the sake of being In the swim.

WHY NOT?

! Bapewdre, es Course, but Desirable.

that night About a bright angel that came And sat on my bed, and was dressed all in white, And sang of a boy who was lame. The little lame boy .isn’t here any more, And I-think that up in the sky The Santa Claus there will always take care To not go passing him by; And all of the toys that a boy’s ever had Wouldn’t make me so glad as the thought That I made the poor little lame boy glad When Santa, somehow, forgot.

YULETIDE CYNICISMS.

Remember the poor. The rich we have with us always. The merry Yuletide prompts us to hope that you’ll tide it over. With the indiscriminate giving of Christmas presents, it Is hard to believe that a fair exchange Is no robbery. Perhaps the reason the holly Is red Is because it blushes for the sins of the mistletoe. Thank heaven, it isn’t only the aristocrat who can have a family tree at Christmas. Be Christmas white or Christmas green, it’s all the same to you, if Christmas finds you all serene and doesn’t make you blue. Lots of us hang up our stockings only to discover the next morning that we have put our foot In it. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but at Christmas it’s presents. It doesn’t take a magician to transform a small boy into a turkey gobbler. When Santa Claus comes down the chimney he chases many a man up the spout. It’s the vanity of the sex that prompts the female turkey to wonder how she is going to b'd dressed for the Christmas dinner. A girl asked me what I thought would be the nicest thing to put in her stocking. I told her I couldn’t think of anything nicer than what she already bad in it, and then she got mad. Some girls are never satisfied.—New York Times.

A Friendship Christmas.

Eustacia —What shall we do this Christmas? Edmonla—You give me back all the things I’vfe given you that you didn’t like/'and I’ll give you all the things you gave me that I didn’t like.—Detroit Free Press.

WANT HALF PAY.

Volunteer Army and Navy Officers to Urge Their Claims in Congress. Backed by precedents established after the Revolutionary War, surviving volunteer officers of the army and navy of the Civil War are to demand of Congress the enactment of a law providing for their benefit a volunteer retired list with half pay for life. In the last Congress a bill was introduced providing for such a list, but restricting it to volunteer army oKicers. It did not pass, largely because of the cry of discrimination that was raised by naval volunteers and their friends. It is now proposed by a committee of volunteer naval officers to have prepared a measure that shall be satisfactory to the navy and marine corps.Circulars have been sent out to all surviving volunteer naval officers in the United States calling upon them to take an active part in the interest of the measure. These circulars review the history o' legislation for the benefit of volunteer veteran officers from the close of the Revolutionary War to the adjournment of the Fiftyninth Congress, and it is. charged that there has always been a systematic attempt to eliminate the naval volunteers from the benefits of such laws.

SKYSCRAPER MENACE.

What a Conflagration Among These Cliff Dwellers Would Mean. A catastrophe that will eclipse the destruction of San Francisco is the cheering prospect offered for the contemplation as New York by the president of the board of fire underwriters, says Collier’s Weekly. And it is not New York alone that is threatened, but evdry great city, that permits the construction of skyscrapers. The underwriters think that there is not only a possibility but a very strong probability of a blaze starting in the top stories of a nest of these aerial hives and leaping across the canyons that separate them, raging aloft like a fire in the upper branches of a forest, and sweeping unchecked out of reach of the helpless firemen in the street. When office buildings go higher than the Washington monument all the ordinary methods of protection become obsolete. No hose can carry a stream half way to their roofs. No street mains can furnish pressure enough to send water up in standpipes. Of course there are satisfactory methods of supplying the upper floors in ordinary times, but they would count for nothing in a conflagration. The experience of San Francisco has shown, in the opinion of President Babb, that “so-called ‘fireproof buildings cannot withstand the attack of a wave of flame.” If a fire should sweep the financial district of New York it would 'cause a loss of from one to two billion dollars; the insurance companies would be hard pressed to pay 20 to 25 cents on the dollar, title guaranty companies, mortgage concerns, savings banks, and all other financial institutions would suffer, and the City would feel at once the loss of revenue from the destruction of taxable values. Another menace that bangs oyer the skyscraper districts of great cities' is the danger of panic. It is said that if a sudden shock should send the swarming cliff dwellers all surging to the streets at once the highways would not hold the human flood. The streets of our cities were designed to match buildings three or four stories high. When ten such buildings are piled one on top of another, and the same thoroughfares are expected to accommodate the people from all of them, the results are likely to be startling.

LABOR NOTES

The London (Canada) Labor party has pronounced in favor of old-age pensions. * X • A majority of the musicians of Santa Cruz, Cal., met recently and organized a union. Organized labor in Seattle, Wash., has carried out its proposed plan of obtaining coal mine. Springfield (Canada) miners ask for another board of conciliation to investigate the system of weighing boxes. The building trades of San Francisco are discussing a proposition to settle on a scale 1 wages for three years.' Central Labor Union of Scranton, Pa., has decided to build a $50,000 temple for the use of the trades unions of the city. . . At a meeting of Engineers’ local No. 1 of Denver, Colo, Hie finance committee reported that increased wages to the members of the union during the last year amounted in the aggregate to $6,500. It was reported that conditions in this trade are very prosperous.

The total number of men killed while mining coal in the United States during 1906, according to statistics gathered by the geological survey, was 2,061. The number of workmen receiving injuries in this industry more or less serious, bwt not fatal, was 4,798 during the same period. Miss Marot, secretary of the Woman’s Trade Union League of New York, a short time since delivered an address in which she urged wotaen to organize in every branch of industry and co-operate in union agitation, holding that in that way only can women compete on, equal terms with men in the trades. The union men of Wilkes-Barre, Pa, have started a movement to boycott the beef packers as long as prices remain at the present high rate. The Federation of Labor at Springfield, Mo., has decided to enter politics next year, and will put forward its president as a candidate for the General Assembly. The Carpenters’ Union of Winnipeg, Manitoba, has three members who hays been continuous members of the organization for more than thirty-six years. Their years of membership total about 110 years The union believes thio sets a record. « • ** .* A

FARM GARDEN

in selecting apple trees choose young vigorous trees, not over two years old from the graft. As long as the brood sow is prolific, a suckler and a careful mother, she is too young to be sacrificed for an uncertainty. i Exposed manure, according to the Canadian experimental farm test, loses about one-sixth of its phosphoric acid and more than one-third of its phosphate. Sklmmllk Is more valuable as a hog food when mixed with ground grain, shorts or something of the kind. The grain also does the hog more good than If fed without the milk. About the most profitable animal on the farm now Is the sheep. At present prices, and even a little lower, they are the easiest and best money, yet do not put all the eggs In the one basket. The cow’s stomach Is not a complete strainer that separates all good from all bad; and all kinds of food cannot be given to a cow with full expectancy that she can from It give an absolutely pure milk.

The soil is the stomach of plants. In the soil the food Is received and digested. On the quantity and quality of food put In the plant’s stomach depends Its welfare, just as much as you depend upon the food in your stomach. I* - •» The advantage of using the separator over the old plan of settling the milk consists in the uniformity and certainty of the results, the saviqj of labor, time and storage room, ease of management and as a result of these economy. Men who handle pure-bred stock and who itse printed stationery ought to have printed directions, telling where the farm Is located and its direction fgpm the nearest railroad station. This might bring many a buyer who would not otherwise visit the farm. On the tract of 360 acres purchased by the State, near Madison, Ind., for the Southern Hospital for insane peopple, Is a fine fifty-acre orchard of Winesap, Grimes, Transparent and other good apples, and the crop was bought by a Lafayette dealer for $2,600. Ordinarily there is no advantage In high roosts and the fowls will do better and keep healthier If the perches are not more than three feet above the floor. Of course all the slats should be on a level, as this avoids crowding and fighting for the highest positions. If you are not using a low-down wagon you "are doing, a whole lot of unnecessary lifting. For hauling fodder or corn for the silo, the low-down wagon fits exactly. It Is good, too, for hauling out manure, 1f you do not have a spreader.

According to an exchange, a townswoman Who recently visited In the country fainted dead away twice In her hostess’ kitchen. Grice when she saw her put at least a pound of butter on mashed potatoes and once when she saw her using real cream In making a chicken gravy. A fanners’ club in northern Illinois has been formed for the sole purpose of looking after the roadways in the district K, has been proposed that clover or alfalfa be sown, each fanner seeding the strip adjacent to his own land, and then each one Is bound to keep his strip clear of weeds. When oats and other grain having a liberal percentage of protein are scarce and high, horses doing hard work will do well on corn if fed In connection with a liberal proportion of clover or alfalfa hay. In fact, some horses doing regular work have been and are fed on clover or alfalfa hay with no gralfa and do well. If one wants to have green corn on the table long after frost, let him plant some su£ar corn very late In the season so It will be In the milk just about frost Before frost falls pull up the stalks by the roots, with dirt on them and store them In a cellar, where it is pretty damp. It will keep this way for weeks. As far sbuth.as BL-Louis it Is possible to have green corn In this way well Into November.

Milk of Swiss Goat. The Swiss goats* milk la considered very fine in flavor and nutrition, contapping about twice as much butter fat as that of the best cow’s milk. Goats are practically immune from all diseases, which makes the milk a valuable factor when used by Infants and invalids. One man near Loomis Sanitarium at Liberty, N. Y., quotes that he is milking forty Swiss Toggenburg does and that he eannot supply the demand for goats’ milk at 25 cents a quart The average Swiss Toggenburg goat will give two to four quarts day; some instances are recorded where

extra good milkers hate given as hlgs as seven quarts a day of milk equal ip richness to twice the amount ol cow’s milk.£ Immature Corn for Cows. Trials ht the Vermont station show that there Is no material difference in milk-producing, value between immature and mature corn fodder when compared on the. off dry inailiT The same results 'were secured with silage made from' mature and immature corn. A pound of dry matter of the Immature com produced the same results as a pound of dry matter of the mature corn. This suggests that if corn is cut too early the farmer loses too many pounds, and on the other band if cut too late too much, In the way of coarse butts Is wasted. Angora Goats. All goats are fairly.-good at cleaning fields of brash,, but the Angora is especially adopted to this work. They seem to prefer the leaves and small twigs of bushes to grass, and strip them clean so that they die. A writer In a farm paper tells about the clearing of a field that had become overrun with hazel and other brash and which was entirely cleared of the brpsh in one season. This was last year and this year not a single living bush .can be seen, but the dead ones are In evidence all over the field. Now, naturally, the grass has a chance and can make a reasonable growth. No doubt, ft would pay on the average farm of several hundred acres to keep a. herd of goats to keep the fields clean. On many old farms the fields so soon become foul that it becomes a laborious as well as expensive undertaking to clear them. Whereas the goats can do it and make money for the owner at the same time. ■*-

K(nu Cora. In commenting on the National Corn Exposition recently held at Chicago, Orange Judd Farmer says: There' 7 were about 8,000 exhibits of com on display. Taking the entire exhibit into consideration, the corn on the tables was probably the best ewer shown at any exhibition. This is most remarkable, considering the unfavorable conditions which prevailed through the growing season. It would not be possible to have anything like com of the high quality shown were It not for the great advancement in breeding and cultivation of late. Pure bred varieties mature earlier and resist unfavorable weather conditions to a greater extent than the inferior com grown a few years ago. In the class open to the world the showing was wonderful. Probably a third of the entire exhibit was In this lot. The Illinois exhibit, as would naturally be expected, was very complete in white and yellow classes. Undoubtedly, however, the yellow varieties predominated, the majority of them being of the Reid type, This Is a remarkable uniform variety and of high scoring quality. The white samples were just about as numerous, and many of them were of very excellent character, but as show com they did not compare quite as well as yellow corn. Outside of the white and yellow varieties shown by lowa exhibitors there was an exceedingly fine showing of calico and red com. In the cattle feeding States these varieties seem to be exceedingly popular.

Dairy Management. The Vermont Dairymen’s Association has promulgated the following rules for the management of dairies: The stable should be well ventilated, lighted and drained; should have tight floors and walks and should be plainly constructed. No musty or dirty litter, no strongsmelling material and no manure should remain In the stable longer than is absolutely necessary. .. . - v Whitewash the stable once or twice a year. Would recommend the use of land plaster in manure gutter dally. Feed no dry, dusty fodder previous to milking. If dusty, sprinkle before it is fed. Brush the udder Just before milking and wipe with a clean doth or sponge. Keep healthy cows. Promptly remove suspected animals. In particular, add no cows to the herd unless It is certain that they are free from tuberculosis. Do not excite cows or expose them to stress of weather. Feed a good cow liberally with fresh, palatable feeding stuffs. Do not change these suddenly. Provide water, pure, but not too cold, In abundance. The milker should be clean and his clothes likewise. Milk quietly, quickly and thoroughly. Throw away Into the gutter the first few streams from each teat. This milk Is very watery, of very little value and Is quite apt to Injure the remainder Of the milk. Remove the milk promptly from the stable to a dry room where the air Is pure and sweet. _ Drain the milk through a clean flannel cloth, or through two or three thicknesses of cheesecloth. Aerate and cool the milk as soon as It Is strained. The cooler it is the more souring Is retarded. If ('overt are left off the cans, cover with dotfe or mosquito netting. Never mix fresh milk with that which has been cooled, nor does a can containing warm milk, nor allow ft ta frees*.