Thursday, August 11, 1921
Johnson and Bessling have commenced work on the contract to lay the pipeline to drain the area in the regions of the ice plant and bottling works, extending to the light plant. A quick sand was encountered to a depth of about nine feet near the river, which is adding considerably to the difficulty by causing cave-ins, and also making the tile hard to place.
– – –
In the language of a great statesman: “O my fellow countrymen, do not go and do as them Romans done!”
Cheer up. If you get to thinking of wrongs, you will have no peace. This is a mighty comfortable generation. Society used to give the workman ten dollars a day and the workman gave it back to society. He passed it across the counter without any unnecessary delay.
Three square meals, education for your children, decent clothes, churches convenient, and stores not too convenient, and all is well.
The only absolute helpless man is the miser who cannot take his stuff with him when he dies. The rest are doing very well. And times are getting better. Anyway, there is no use to be worried about the morrow. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
– – –
The farmer produces the wealth, and the rest of the world quarrels for it. The farmer and his steer spend three or four happy years together and the time comes when the bullock is to be sacrificed on the altar of trade, and then the non-producers get busy to take their profits out of that steer. The farmer parts with the beast for a consideration, which is a very small part of what the ultimate consumer pays. The cattle buyer takes his part for loading the steer on the cars and taking the risk. The railroads take their part. The commission man has his. The stockyards take a part. The packer or butcher charges for his services. The railroads then get another whack at the beef and sometimes haul it back to the neighborhood from where the steer came. The wholesaler gets his percent. And the retailer gets something. Then comes the crowning infamy of the complicated system of distribution, which works so well and costs so much. The lady steps into the store to buy a pound of beef, and not caring to carry it home in her hands, agrees to the rule that ten cents shall be added to a purchase when delivered by the retailer anywhere in the city. And for this slight service more is paid for the pound of flesh than the farmer got for it for the four years care, attention and risk.
So it is well that the farmer has peace that passeth all understanding and is not easily moved to wrath, for he might be made frantic by the thought of how the city people play with the work of his hands.
In Russia, they tried to improve on the system and as a result know what hell is on earth.
The farmer should take no thought for the morrow. Not unless he wants to go crazy…
THE FAIR
Whether the Pocahontas County Fair at Marlinton next week will be a complete success now depends upon the weather.
There is the promise of a big lot of horses, cattle, sheep, hogs and chickens. There will be a bigger and better display of farm products than was thought possible for so early a date. In this connection, Manager Smith wishes to state that any one who has flowers to cut, will they please bring exhibits to the Fair. Through an oversight this was overlooked in the preparation of the premium list. Last year, there was a remarkable display of cut flowers and it added greatly to the attractiveness of the Fair and to the pleasure of the spectators.
There will be a flying machine, merry-go-round and Ferris wheel.
One day of the Fair, the boys and girls of the Agricultural Clubs will give a pageant, illustrating the “4-H” program of the clubs. The “4-H” – Heart, Head, Health and Hands – has for its text, “And Jesus increased in wisdom, and statue and in favor with God and man.” The exhibits of the work done by these clubs will be large and very interesting.
Come to the Fair. Bring something and somebody…
ONOTO
We are having very cool nights, and prospects are better for fair weather. Some of the farmers in this section are not done haymaking yet.
Threshing is in order now. Mr. Higgins began at A. C. Barlow’s this morning. The community threshing is a great feast for those who participate in it. Usually the best lamb is slaughtered and the rarest of the fowl taken into consideration.