The citizen., May 07, 1915, Image 4

About The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923

Image provided by: University of Maryland, College Park, MD

                
< till ALIEN CHILD
■ p a and Ma Failed to Understand
Where Ruth’s Real Strength
Lay.
By DONALD ALLEN.
■ ifoDyright, 1915, by the McClure Newspa
per Syndicate.)
1 Josiah Streeter was unusually sturdy
■ and strong, and he was very proud of
I the fact.
I His wife was unusually sturdy and
strong, and she was proud of the fact.
Farmer Streeter could twist a bar-
I re) of cider around as easily as a city
tailor could his goose. He could
I shoulder a bag of flour at the gate
I and carry it into the house without
breathing faster. He could lift a
I yearling calf over a rail fence, or hang
V up a dressed hog to cool no matter
what the weight.
The wife had never been heard to
R say that she was tired, and had she
asked the husband to move a bureau
1 or lift the soap kettle off the fire it
would have been a matter of great
V surprise.
When a man hired out to Farmer
Streeter he must be a strong man. If
F he couldn’t work sixteen hours a day
and not get tired he was put down as
a weakling and advised to look for a
job in a clothespin factory.
It was into such an atmosphere that
Ruth Streeter was born, and her com
ing was a disappointment to her par
ents and a wonder to others.
“Why, she’s a dwarf!” exclaimed
the father.
‘‘Oh, she’ll grow, but she’ll never be
strong,” replied the mother.
“You can’t hear her squall more’n
a rod away.”
"I know it.”
"If she has the measles or the
whooping cough, she’ll be a goner,
sure.”
“Yes; she won’t last three days.”
"And what are we going to do about
it?”
“Why, Josiah, we can’t kill her!”
"Noap, of course not, but why
couldn’t she have been a bouncer in
stead of a little runt?”
Very early in her young life Ruth
betrayed the fact that she was going
to be a Streeter only in name. The
father and mother had loud voices;
the child spoke softly. Most children
of her age would have been roaming
the fields or climbing trees, but this
one had more interest in pictures
found in the few books in the house.
The hired man would have made a pet
of her, but her look of dignity kept
them at a distance.
When old enough to be sent to the
district school, and after she had been
a pupil for a couple of weeks, the
teacher called at the farmhouse.
“You must not let Ruth study her
lessons at night. She is so anxious
to learn that she will overtax her
-—train," he said.
"Don’t she look frail to you?” was
as' ed.
“She seems to be perfectly well,
but she’s never going to make a strong
woman.”
"That’s what her father and me are
afraid of.”
"Afraid?"
“Yes —that she’ll grow up to be a
lady instead of knowing about house
work! How much education should
she have?”
“Just as much as she can get.”
“But we can’t have a lady in the
house!”
“But Ruth is going to grow up and
get married and leave you. Don’t
you think it will help her to get a
better husband if she’s a lady and
well educated?”
That evening the matter was talked
over between the parents, and the
father said: “I can see a heap of
trouble ahead for us, but it can’t be
handled just now. Does Ruth know
that you can handle a forty-pound
feather bed with one hand?”
“She has seen me do it, and didn't
seem to care.”
“Does she know that you can bring
two big hams from the smokehouse
at once?”
“Yes, but she don’t praise me.”
“Has she been told that I can hoe
more corn in a day than any man in
the county?”
“Yes, I told her.”
“And that I can lift a barrel of
cider?”
“Yes.”
“And that I won a prize pitching
hay?”
“I have told her all this,” sighed
the wife.
“And she —she —”
“She asked why we didn’t have more
books in the house!”
It was queer enough that Ruth
should be one of the family and not
of the family. There was disappoint
ment on the side of the parents —
there was a strangeness on her side.
“Ma, the Lord sent that girl to the
wrong house!” said the father at last.
'Tve sometimes thought so,” was
the reply.
“And so has she, but nobody’s to
blame as I can see. She’s here, and
she’s sorter useless, but we’ve got to
bear the burdens the Lord puts upon
us.”
At fourteen Ruth was sent to the
village school. After two years she
was sent away to a boarding school.
Not because her parents had changed
their minds about her being “sorter
Useless,” but as Farmer Streeter had
observed as he sat before the fire one
evening: “Ma, I’m not complainin’
about Ruth any more.”
“No, you ain’t, pa.”
“I said once that the Lord brought
her here.”
-Yes.”
“Well, I’m leavin’ it to him to bring
it around as he thinks best. I wish
she had taken to sewin’, patchin’,
makin’ bread and cuttin’ carpet rags,
but as she didn’t, mebbe she was
sorter told to go the other way. How’s
her eddecation cornin’ on?”
I ain t asked her many questions
and she ain’t told me much, but Par
son Davis told me the other day that
he heard she was one of the smartest
girls in school. She’ll be finished up
this fall, you know.”
“And then come back to us?”
“Yes.”
“And then —then—” he queried after
a time.
“I dunno, Josiah—l dunno!”
They had a world circumscribed by
the farm limits. They knew what
went on in their world, but not in the
other. It was work, work in their
world. There were four seasons in a
year, and particular work for each
season. They awoke at just such an
hour; they went to bed at just such
an hour. Their meals seldom varied.
They plowed and dragged and sowed
and planted. They gathered the cropc.
The farmer gave exhibitions of his
strength and boasted of his health,
and the wife boasted of the soft soap
she had made, and her jars of pickled
peaches she had put by.
Work, work, work, and never rec
reation! They judged no one by'their
talk or intelligence, but it was always:
“Why, that fellow wouldn't be worth
his salt in a harvest field!”
One day the farmer came home
from town with a stranger in the
wagon with him.
“His name is Durand,” he explained
to his w r ife, “and he says he paints
pictures. He wants board and lodg
ings for the winter, that he may paint
some winter scenes. He says he will
pay our price and give little trouble.
"He’ll turn up his nose at corned
beef and salt pork, won’t he?”
“If he does he’ll have to go. He
looks kinder pale and sickly, and I
don’t believe he can throw a cat over
the fence, but we’ll let him come if
you say so.”
And thus it happened that when
Miss Ruth returned home she found
Mr. Charles Durand, artist, from the
city, duly installed and at work on a
sketch of late autumn.
“I wouldn’t give him his board for
what corn he could husk,” whispered
the father that evening.
“Why, he don’t know enough to put
a collar on a horse,” added the mother.
It was a week or more after her
return home that Miss Ruth told her
parents that she had heard of Mr.
Durand, and that some of his paint
ings had sold for twice the value of
their farm, and that she had made fair
headway as an amateur artist and
wished to take lessons of him.
The father groaned and the mother
sighed.
“Father,” said the girl, "you have
owned this farm for twenty years.
You have worked like two oxen—you
and mother. How much better off are
you than when when you began?”
“Two thousand dollars,” he proudly
replied.
"You have worked with your muscle,
father, and you have made a hundred
dollars a year. A young man will go
through college in three years, and
then by use of his brains make from
three to five thousand a year. You
have a contempt for the man who
can’t life a barrel of cider, and yet he
may make more money in a week than
you have in a year. Doctor Grey can
not lift a hundred pounds, but when
your hired man broke his leg the doc
tor’s hill was $40."
Neither father nor mother had a
word to say and the girl continued:
“You have been disappointed in me
because I am not a big, strong, husky
girl and don’t take to housework. It
took me less than a fortnight to make
some sketches over at Brownsville
that I sold for one hundred dollars.”
"Gosh!” exclaimed the father.
"There Isn’t a lawyer in the state
that can hold a plow for a hundred
feet, and yet the poorest one of them
makes ten times the money you do.
You have thought me helpless and
useless. You have thought all people
so not made of iron.”
“Yes,” admitted the father, “sorter
useless, and now I can realize that
me and your ma have been sorter
fools all the time.”
When a fine landscape is signed
“Durand” it isn’t always the work of
Mr. Charles Durand. It may be the
creation of his wife, Mrs. Durand, for
merly Ruth Streeter.
And father and mother don’t have to
work any more.
Treatment for Deaf and Dumb.
Deaf babies sent to the Utah school
for the deaf, dumb and blind at Ogden,
will, after this year, be segregated
from the older children and kept in
a new dormitory and kindergarten.
Superintendent Driggs and the state
board of trustees decided to use this
effort to prevent the babies from
learning the manual or sign language
used by the older children. The
school authorities believe that in this
way they will be better able to teach
the children to understand conversa
tion by the lip method, and that they
can be taught how to Bpeak in the
same manner by which Helen Holler
was taught.
Casualties.
Probably nobody yet grasps the sig
nificance of casualties running into
the millions. If they are published
in Hades —which is the most suitable
place for them—Tamerlane must be
quite crestfallen as he contrasts them
with his own amateurish exploits
If this war is civilized we prefer
the savage sort, as being, on tb.e
whole, a lesser affliction.— Saturday
Evening Post
THE CITIZEN, FREDERICK, MD
flflPE PATCH GOOD FOR SUMMER PIG FEED
u ' V : ' ''• '
s -•>-- - , v:-.- • ,•■ ■•'.%.! ••- • :
><•- ; -Vx • > \ '■■■.. ■ •
A Profitable Bunch of Hogs.
<By JAMES G. FULLER, Wisconsin Ex
periment Station.)
Sow a patch of rape. It will furnish
the growing pigs with a wealth of pal
atable green feed, and if given a
chance to "come back,” will produce
crop after crop of excellent succu
lence.
The most satisfactory method of
growing this crop for swine is to pro
vide three yards of about equal size
and seed them three weeks apart with
one and one-fourth bushels of oats and
five pounds of rape to the acre. The
first lot, of course, is generally sown
MAKING MONEY IN
PORK PRODUCTION
Quality Is More Important Than
Size in Breeders—Avoid
Elephantine Animal.
It is mighty hard work to correct
your lack of ability as a feeder by
buying a coarse-boned breeding boar.
The best type of swine have been
evolved from the experience of breed
ers and packers.
Quality is more important than size
in selecting the breeding stock.
We are at the beginning of a pe
riod* of enlightenment concerning the
possibilities of hog farming.
Heavy feeding does not always pro
duce proportionate gains.
At five months of age, the pig’s most
valuable asset is about one hundred
and twenty pounds of bone and muscu
lar development, aided and supported
by a keen and natural appetite.
Avoid the elephantine hog or steer
—they are freaks that cannot be re
lied upon to give a carcass of great
value or weight.
The liberty of pasture affords the
growing pigs the exercise necessary
to produce perfect health and body
development.
Get a farm, young man, and raise
good hogs
It is a mistake to think we can
find profit in buying milk feeds to
supplement our corn crop, and neg
lect to provide pasture and forage
crops.
Coarseness indicates low vitality,
sluggishness slow-feeding quali
ties.
The ideals of the breeder and pack
er are coming more and more toward
one common standard. The demands
of the packers are the reason for
show-yard excellence.
When farmers recognize the possi
bility of exclusive pork production as
a specialized branch of animal indus
try, and evolve systems of farm man
agement adapted to the business, it
will become attractive as a business
proposition, and herds of well-bred
hogs will become common in many lo
calities where few good hogs are now
seen.
RIGHT TREATMENT
FOR FENCE POSTS
Pile Neatly and Allow Them to
Thoroughly Season—Plan
for Charring.
When most farmers prepare to build
fences they set green posts and then
when they begin to rot off at the top
of the ground after four or five years
they grumble and fret a great deal
about the trials and tribulations of
fencing. As a matter of fact, if the
posts are neatly piled in the dry and
allowed to thoroughly season, and then
are treated by charring the end which
is to be placed in the ground, and the
top, which should be slanting, is
painted with red lead and linseed oil,
they will last 50 or 60 years.
Here is the method for charring.
Build a heap of logs 10 or 12 feet long,
set it on fire, and when burning brisk
ly, lay upon the fire the ends of as
many poßts as it will accommodate
crosswise. Turn them over a time or
two, and when slight coal has formed
upon the surface, throw them into a
pile and put on others. You can treat
four or five hundred a day and if
practiced by every farmer when build
ing fence it would save enough in a
few years to build good roads in every
community.
as soon in the spring as the ground is
dry enough to work.
The pigs can be turned on to the
first lot as soon as the rape is from
14 to 18 inches in height, and as soon
as they have eaten it down to four or
five leaves to the stock, the -pigs are
transferred to the next patch and so
rotated from one lot to the other
throughout the summer..
. If well supplied with satisfactory
forage during the summer months,
pigs can be finished for market and
fattened off quickly -as soon as the
crop matures.
MANY LITTLE JOBS
FOR BUSY FARMERS
Lambing Ewes Should Have
Proper Shelter—Clean Up
the Henhouse.
Sorry you did not fix up a house for
the lambing ewes? May lose enough
lambs to pay for a new one.
The spring pigs are coming along
now. Thousands die every year from
too much cold wind.
Get into the grape vines with a knife
and pruning shears, if you know how
to prune. Otherwise keep out.
Now is the time when the lice get
busy in the chicken house. At ’em
with the kerosene can and the white
wash brush.
What a pity to let the baby chicks
perish in the cold wind for lack of
shelter.
The spring crop of calves is coming
now. Dehorn them by using a bit of
caustic instead of sawing them off a
year later.
Do not give the sow’s nest too much
litter at farrowing time. Many pigs
are destroyed by a too full nest.
No nest ever made for a hen beats n
half barrel laid on its side, particularly
for March weather.
The bees will be taking a spring
flight. Examine them after they conic
back to ascertain if they have enough
food to last till the blossoms come.
A strong spring wind will dry all the
moisture out of the tree roots if left
exposed long while planting.
The climbing cutworm is working
away on the newly set trees and vines
these nights. Keeps out of sight in
daytime. Keep him away by a strip
of stiff paper put around the plant and
pushed an inch into the soil.
Make a fair written contract with
the hired man. Saves misunderstand
ings.
An hour in the workshop repairing
now will save time later when It is
more valuable.
The heavy rains and strong winds
will push over the fence posts.
Straighten them up.
Potatoes will sprout now if given
light and air.
BUCKWHEAT IS BEST
GRAIN FOR POULTRY
Chickens and Turkeys Allowed to
Harvest Crop Trampling
Down Does No Damage.
(By A. J. LEGG.)
Buckwheat is the best grain crop
that we have ever tried to furnish a
foraging ground for poultry.
I sow late in July and allow the
chickens and turkeys to harvest it
They are all the better for the exer
cise and the only cost Is for the seed
and work of preparing the soil and
sowing It.
Late in last July I sowed about one
acre where the chickens and turkeys
could have free access. They began
to work on it as soon as the grains
were filled and were at work on It foi
nearly two months.
If it is trampled down on the ground
the grains will not damage unless It is
warm enough to sprout them. Buck
wheat will lie on the ground all win
ter and grow In the spring.
A buckwheat Btubble makes an ex
cellent feeding ground for poultry dur
ing pleasant days throughout the fall
and winter season and the poultry en
joy the exercise.
Our hens, pullets and September
hatched chicks are all In fine condi
tion, largely due to the buckwheat
to which they have free access.
rti
HE WAS SWEET-LOOKING COP
Humble Maid Servant Expresses Ad
miration for General Wood, Chief
of Staff of the Army.
Gen. Leonard Wood, chief of staff
of the United States army, has had
many expressions of admiration voiced
as to his personal appearance. It re
mained, however, for a humble maid
servant to apotheosize bis looks.
A young girl—who, knowing the
general, worships him as her hero—
always keeps a photograph of him in
uniform on her dressing table. One
day, entering her bedroom suddenly,
she chanced upon her newly acquired
maid, who stood agape, with gleaming
eyes, holding the photograph in her
hand.
Startled into speech, the servant
asked:
"What’s he, miss?”
"He's an officer, Norah.” The young
mistress deemed that answer suffi
cient.
“Gee, miss," was the breathless com
ment as the maid put down the pic
ture lingeringly; "but ain’t he the
sweet-lookin’ cop!”—Neale's Monthly.
SHE ATTRACTED THE COPPERS.
Mrs. Oldwed—Why did you pick out
such a pretty cook?
Mrs. Newwed —My husband is away
a great deal, and I wanted to have
police protection.
Convincing Proof.
“How can you tell whether a man
has been married only a short while,
or long enough to get used to it?”
“You can tell that very easily by ob
serving how he says, 'I have a wife
to provide for.’ ”
"Yes?”
“If he says it proudly, he hasn’t
been married long, but if he says it
with an air of deep dejection you may
be sure that the iron has entered bis
soul.”
Doubtful.
“How would you like to be a wound
ed French soldier from the trenches,
convalescing in a luxurious Paris ho
tel, which had been converted into a
military hospital, and with a beautiful
nurse to wait on you who was prob
ably a nobleman’s daughter?”
“No doubt that would be fine, but I
don’t believe I would enjoy heaven
much if I had to go through hell to
get there.”
Getting Serious.
Mr. Newpop (2 a. m. at the phone)
—Hello, doctor! Can you come down
and see the baby right away?
Doctor —What seems to be the trou
ble?
Mr. Newpop—l—l’m not quite sure,
but I think he has insomnia.
Deserved Punishment.
“Did you ever have a desire to go
on the stage?" asked the man who
had a minor part in the show.
"Oh, yes,” replied his neighbor.
"The first time I ever saw you try to
act 1 did.”
Used to Growling.
Mrs. Myles—What has become of
that nurse you used to have for your
pet dog?
Mrs. Styles—Oh, she’s married.
"She ought to get along all right.
She’s used to growling.”
Beemed So.
Bacon —I see the human family Is
subject to about twelve hundred dif
ferent kinds of disease and ailments.
Egbert—Well that can’t be right, for
my wife has over twelve hundred
ailments alone.
A Bcarecrow.
Bill —I see a woman who conducts
i farm near Lob Angeles wearß male
Slothing when at work.
Jill—That possibly saves the trouble
it putting up a scarecrow.
LITTLE SADIE’S BRIGHT IDEk,
Anecdote of Luxurious Living Re
lated by Will Parry—When Cat /
Licks Cream Off the Milk.
They were speaking; of luxurious
living, and this anecdote was recalled
by Will Parry, who was recently ap
pointed a member of the federal
trade commission by President Wilt
son;
One afternoon the teacher of A
public school In the country spoke tG
the young children relative to com-;
rnon phrases and questioned them as
to the meaning of certain terms.
"For instance.” remarked the teachs
er, addressing the whole class, “what
is meant by the lap of luxury7*'
“Please. Miss Mary," exclaimed a
little girl, with brightening counte
nance “I can tell you.”
“Very well. Radio,” encouragingly
responded the teacher. "What is it?”
“It means,” was the triumphant re
joinder of the small pupil, “when the
cat sneaks Into the pantry and ticks
the cream off the milk.”—Philadel
phia Telegraph.
Both Gifted.
"Mrs. Olobson seems to have fine
taste in potteries."
"Oh, yes. Bhe’s a real connoisseur.
Mr. Olobson's talents lie in another
direction."
“Yes?"
“He has fine taste in the contents
of bottles.”
Altruistic.
"I'm troubled about roy landlady.'
“Why so?”
“She has such a long-suffering air."
"What do you propose to do?"
"I thought of trying to interest her
In votes for women, so she would get
her mind off the fact that she has to
take in lodgers for a living."
Materialized.
Medium—l have called the spirit of
your wife from the vast beyond. Do
you wish to ask her any question
through me?
The Widower—Yes; ask her where
she put my pearl shirt studs.
A Redeeming Feature.
Famous Actor —Oh, yes. I’m mar
ried, but I always think it’s kind o’
tough on a girl that marrieß one of
us traveiin’ men.
"Still it might bo worse. 1 suppose
you’re away from home most of the
time.”—Life.
Looks Likely.
Church—l see Professor Soddy of
England says it will soon be possible
to turn lead into gold.
Gotham—ln that case little Belgium
ought somo day to be a gold mine.
Catching.
"Aren’t you afraid to sit down ao
close to me, grandpa?”
“Afraid, my dear. Why?”
'"Cos all my dolls have got the
measles."—Boston Evening Transcript.
Costly Bluff.
Crawford—ls he sorry he boasted
so much to his wife about his Income?
Crabßhaw —I should say he waa!
She Is using It as evidence against
him In her suit for alimony.—Judge.
His Idea of Home.
"I don’t see why he maintains a
home. He’s never there.” .
“That’s true, but he says a fellow
has to have some place to go after the
cafes close.”—Detroit Free Press.
Reward of Virtue.
Hokus—W’iat’B the matter with
Flubdub? He looks as though he
didn't have a friend in the world.
Pokus—Oh, he’B still keeping hia
New Year resolutions.—Judge.
Making Btrldea.
“There was a time when it was con
sidered improper for women to study
botany.”
“Fancy that! And now they are
dabbling in politics.”
FINE.
“Haw, haw, old man! I thought you
said that fine fish abounded in this
stream."
"Yes, and there'B a shining exam
ple. A fish so fine as to be hardly
visible to the naked eye."
Suitable Matrimony. y
“So the dressmaker married the
tailor?”
"Yes. 1 don’t know of a marriage
where there could be two more fit
ting mates."
Doubling Misfortune.
"Trouble never comes single, does
It?"
“No; I know a family who last year
had double pneumonia and the "it
year had twlna"