The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, May 13, 1918, Page 16

o N\ i~ S NN N % / %7% % Z 7 AR B R '//////// % ///// L ”//4" % P /4/, v////t; ';m //J ,/////,,/ '/ 4 P v%fi ////// 7 /////// Almira Brown Asks Many Questions How Illinois Bankers, Business Men and Storekeepers Once Worked to Save a Big Crop to Save Themselves—Why Don’t They Now? . > |DITOR Nonpartisan Leader: As I wuz finishin’ off the toe of the sock I wuz knittin’ on last evenin’, an’ Hiram was a readin’ out of the Leader, I got to askin’ ques- tions ’bout what he’d been readin’ an’ Hiram sez, sez he: “Almiry, why in tarnation don’t you write an’ ask the editor them questions? I can’t take the time to tell you, an’ the editor of that woman’s page, he knows all ’bout everything, even cookin’ an’ raisin’ babies.” An’ I sez, sez I, “I will, if you are so took up fer time you can’t talk to your own wife.” I'd been askin’ Hiram if he remem- bered when we first went out to Illi- nois from ’way down east, an’ the second year we had sich a big crop of grain, an’ we couldn’t get help as all + the neighbors were just as busy as we, an’ couldn’t exchange work with each other as we’d been doin’, an’ we were ¢ all fearin’ we’d lose our crops—so we called a meetin’ at our house an’ de- cided to send a committee in to town an’ talk it over with the town folks an’ the town people saw in a jiffy that if we’d lose our crops they couldn’t sell us any calico an’ coffee, sugar an’ tobacco, an’ they riz to the occasion, as the sayin’ is, an’ they said they’d shut up shop an’ all come out an’ help —an’ they did. They opened up the stores on Saturday only, an’ we all strained a point with our work an’ . went to town that day an’ done all our buying for the next week an’ the - merchants, bankers, clerks an’ even the preachers, came out an’ pitched into the harvestin’ of them crops. " BLISTERED THEIR HANDS * BUT SURE DID EAT They blistered their hands and sun- |7 burned their faces an’ tanned, an’ eat i —my, my, you never see how they . did eat—we wimmin just flew around | ¥ % Y st Pasw! aN § THOUGHT FARMIN' WAS " The bankers and business men and i storekeepers back in Illinois knew i ¢ they wouldn’t do much business if the’ % . farmers couldn’t harvest their crops ¢ so_they closed up shop and helped harvest. All of them who didn’t know beforehand got a good taste of how hard farming was. Not such a snap S ’ g after all. 5 in our little kitchins an’ baked beans an’ Injun puddin’s an’ riz biscuits, an’ say, johnny-cake—out of real home- made cornmeal—not this stuff we have now, with the syrup an’ the farina an’ the oil taken out of it, an’ the land Prayer Before Going Into Battle ALMIGHTY God who art a present help in time of trouble; vaiedmmsai| hear us in this hour of need. We ask for the grace of a holy courage, that we may be faithful in a righteous cause, and true to our country and to thee. Grant us grace to endure hardness, to suffer priva- tions, and to fulfill, even to the death, the commands of those who lead us to the battle. And now, O Lord, we commend all that we have to thee, our bodies to shield, our minds to direct, our souls to preserve in thy -holy keeping. The Lord stand by to help us. Amen. knows what, left in, but the husk (I don’t dare feed it to my hens for fear they’l; hatch out wooden-legged chick- ens— Well, Mr. Editor, why couldn’t we do that way now? With a shortage of help an’ the call to every one to get busy? Or would our real estate men die of the shock of doing some useful labor—an’ our commercial club men -~—how could they put in 12 or 16 hours ridin’ a binder instead of makin’ these drives in their autos, gettin’ the farmers to put in something for the benefit of some food trust, an’ if the farmer thinks he knows his own busi- ness an’ don’t do as they tell him, they call him unpatriotic, or even a PRO-GERMAN—My, my! SAVE AND CONSERVE BUT NOT TOO MUCH An’, Mr. Editor, do you know my _Hiram sez that the farmer gives all thatis given to the Red Cross an’ all those funds? Yes, sir, he sez that every time a business man do- nates to the Red Cross or buys a Lib- erty bond, why, they put up the price on their goods an’ the farmer pays. We read how splendid our big elevator man give an’ when we went in to get feed for the stock the price had gone up. We got fence-posts from our lum- ber man, who had donated generously, an’ the price of those old posts that had laid there in that yard for years, had jumped sky-high. An’ right there I told Hiram, “No more of that kind of talk, the business man has to live”; an’ Hiram sez, sez he, “Yes, that’s right, an’ he lives off us farm- ers.” An’ another thing, Mr. Editor, we are told in all the papers to save an’ N PAGE SIXTEEN conserve, and right over on the next page they say, don’t save too much or it will hurt business+—an’ I notice that wimmin goin’ ’round tellin’ us farm wimmin to save are better dressed an’ have whiter hands an’ fewer wrinkles an’ gray hairs than we farm wimmin. I heard a woman at a country club meetin’ say how “perfectly splendid” she had thought it when she saw her hired man’s wife make a baby chair out of an apple-box.—An’ I happened to know that when she wanted a piece of furniture of any kind, she wrote a check for a “perfectly new” one. Mr. Editor, these things are puzzling me. I know there are millions of such things as baby chairs lying unused on the shelves of thousands of stores; workin’ folks are going without things they need. Workin’ folks made them an’ still they must go without the necessities an’ mustn’t expect to have the luxuries. If the Nonpartisan league is going to straighten these questions out, I will be one of many thankful workin’ wimmin, LET'S HAVE A LITTLE CHARITY AT HOME One more question, Mr. Editor, an’ I am done. We are asked an’ do, to help and sympathize with the Belgian orphans an’ those of other warring countries, an’ we hear little about the sufferin’s of poor children of our own country. Some woman at the head of a government commission reported that 300,000 children, an’ I don’t know how many thousand wimmin, died of neglect and “malnutrition” here in this country last year. Hiram says that malnutrition is the high-toned name for starvation. There’s a good old sayin’ that “Charity begins to hum.” ~Now, Mr. Editor, as your time is probably took up with weightier ques- tions than mine, I will ask no more this time but warn you that I may have more another time. Thanking you for your time, I am yours for de- mocracy “to hum” as well as abroad. ALMIRA BROWN, Twin Falls, Idaho. A WOMAN’S SPIRIT Smolan, Kan. Editor Nonpartisan Leader: I am not a member of the League, as I happen not to be a farmer’s wife. But I certainly hope to see the day when the farmers and the wage earn- ers of the cities will wake up and not let themselves be driven around like dumb beasts. I am very much inter- ested in reading your magazine. Those French Kids “Never mind, even if we don’t see Santa Claus, perhaps we'll see a Zep- pelin!” = An Original Potato Recipe North Dakota Woman Sends Sisters in Many States a Helpful Kitchen Hint That Will Save Flour RS. William S. Walter of 4| Blackwater, N. D., has sent the Nonpartisan Leader an original recipe for the making of potato pancakes that fits in well with the efforts mow being made to. dispose of the surplus potato crop by converting it into food and letting the producers realize something on it. Unlike some recipes that propose the use of “substitutes;,” Mrs. Wal- ter’s recipe calls for more of the “sub- stitutes” than of white flour, twice as much potato as flour in fact. To peeple on farms this recipe should prove helpful, although to people in the cities who are forced to pay a high cash price to distributors for their milk and a high cagh price to the egg trust for eggs, it might not look so good. But on most farms the matter of a few cups of milk or a few eggs is not the big problem it is for the workingman’s. family ‘in town. and this ought to prove useful. . - For potato. pancakes for a family of five, take 6 cups of ground or grat- ed raw potato; 2 cups of sour milk; 1 teaspoon of soda; 1 tablespoon of salt; 2 tdblespoons of melted shortening of some kind; 3 cups of flour, 2 well beaten eggs. Mix thoroughly and when worked to a smooth, thick batter, bake in a well greased griddle. In sending this to the Leader, Mrs. Walter said that her family had found it very palatable, and she offered it as a suggestion to help farmers’ wives who read the/Leader in 15 or 16 states, in the strenuous food utilizing cam- paign they are now carrying forward. - The Leader is glad to hear from any of its readers who have worked out successful recipes of their own that they think would be helpful to others. A number of such have been used and inquiries at the Leader office for copies of these, when the paper has subse- quently been lost, show that' they are appreciated. 7 Bl & .'. ‘,L A