Norwich Bulletin Newspaper, March 29, 1918, Page 12

(Written Specially for The Bulletin.) “That is the five hundredth time you have bumped off your seat driving lickety-split over that same stone! The next time you go that way take a pick along, dig out that stone, and put it where it never will bother any- body again.” | read the above, recently, in that re- doubtable little Farm Journal of Phil- adelphia. It seems to me worth pass- ing along. “Some folks™ added the , “do too much calamity howl; ing and not enough calamity fighting. .does that idea suggest anything to anybody? This stone-in-the-highway business, though, is one that must make some sort of appeal to about every man who ever travels a country road. I've as- sociated with several such, and can’t seem to remember a single dirt road in all Eastern Connecticut which isn’t mote or less infested with them. One, in particular, | recall with special interest because of the ineight it gave me into several phases of what is called “human nature.” This stone stuck its knobby head out of the driveway, just in the wheel-track, too, about half-way between my lane and the village. Every winter the frost would heave it up a little. BEvery spring the road-menders would throw two or three shovels of dirt over it. A fortnight later this dirt would be ground or blown away and for the rest of the season we all bump-bumped over it—or drove around it, if we happened to think of it in time. One day, when Old Sorrel was in an unusual hurry to get home to his oats, 1 got an especially bad bounce and broke a buggy spring. So, next trip, I decided to abate the nuisance, myself. I put a pick and a hoe and a small bar into the wagon, drove to the place, hitched the horse to a road- side tree and set to work. A few min- utes with the pick and the hoe Adis- closed the fact that what I had vap- posed to be only a smallish boulder | was really a rock of some size. Only jits nose had shown, but the rest of {the head and body was there, ex- | tending out and reaching deep into !the hard-packed surrounding road- | way dirt. My pick and hoe served ! to disclose some of its real propor- tions, but my small bar made no im- . pression, so far as stirring it from its bed was concerned. Mot more thar - stone’s throw from a neighbor’'s | He saw me puff- ,ing away and :.olled down to see what was up. Together we investi- ;gated the prospect. He admitted that ‘he’d seen “more’'n a thousands folks” bump over that stone. But, some- how he'd “kinder s’posed ’twas the road commissioner’s business to see to it, and he'd also “kinder” got used to it and “kinder” forgot about it most of the time. But, if I was really goin’ to get it out, why, he'd got a shovel and a bigger bar, ‘nd p'raph, between us, we might do su'thin’. So he strolled back and eventually returned with the additional tools. Meanwhile I enlarged the excavation with my pick. After half an hour’s digging, when we'd got a hole at least three feet deep all around the pesky. thing, without any sign of its loosen- ing, we were compelled to admit that it wasn't a boulder at, but a pro- jecting spur of the meighboring mountain and removable with nothing less forcible than dynamite. Cer- tainly we could nothing with crow- bars, nor even with a twelve-foot rail which we commandeerer from the fence to serve as a lever. It looked as if we were beaten.| But I've always had a sort of interest in rocks and have come to know something about their structure. In the absence of anything better to do| for a moment, I had brushed off the! incrusting dirt ofi one corner. Closer examination now showed that the rock was rather soft, as rocks go, and indicated traces of fissility. . My neighbor had a sledge and some steel wedges. He brought them and, giving up any attempt to get.” the thing out bodily, we set to work to crush and split off its upward pro- jecting nozzle. This proved a smaller job than we had feared. In less than an hour from the time I hitched Old Sorrel and took out my pick, we had broker off all of the offending rock | which reached to within a foot of thei road surface, had filled the cavity up with first the broken sione fragments and then the excavated dirt, and were gathering our tools up to go home. From that day to this,—and our ad- venture occurred nearly twenty years ago—the ro2i there has been O. K. The only indigation.of the concealed rock’s presence is that given in the spring, when the area over it dries out a little quicker than surrounding portions. At no other time could IT'S YOUR STEP THAT ATTRACTS! 8AYS WOMEN PAY TOO MUCH HEED TO THEIR FACE IN- 't It Better to Fight Calamity Than to Howl Calamity {does olr mere election of them divorce |their employers,and masters? |we spend all our time, thereafter, in mt,ufl within a dozen feet where 1 learned several useful things from my experience’ with ‘this old rock. “For one thing, I learned that it was cheaper to spend an hour removing the obstruction than to pay $2.50 for repairing a broken buggy spring, To be sure, I learned it too late to save that, particular spring and that par- ticular $2:50, But I was at that time using ‘the road dangering other springs and inviting other blacksmith’s bills. s . For another thing | learned that one can’t always tell by mere surface in- dfications what: tnder them. That ‘which looks just a pebble or a bhoulder may turn out to be the peak of a subterranean mountain. ) For another thing | learned ‘that even a couple of simple, slow-witted old farmers can, if they go at it, do a very creditable job of road clearing and repairing. For another thing | learned that at least some of our troubles and mis- chances are due to our own stolidity, not to say stupidity, in tolerating them for so long when a little direct work would abolish them for good and all. Another thing | re-learned was that re,are a whele lot of very different people in this world. Probably a dozen teams passed while my neighbor} and 1 were working. Some of them were strangers who doubtless assumed that we were town workmen engaged in earning our daily wages. Naturally, they made no comment,‘ Others were fellow townsmen who us. They invariably stopped for a little. Their comments were various. One seemed to find the affair wholly amusing and made it a subject of considerable chaffing. One said feel- ingly that he was mighty glad some- body was goin’ to get that dum rock out of the road: he'd mighty near gone out of the wagon, one night, when his wheel struck it unexpectedly. One allowed that he didn’t believe we had ‘no legal right” to touch 'the public highway hout permission and authorization from the selectmen. One said we were sapheads, thus to work for the town for nothing. “Won't nobody ever thank ye,” he said. Referring to this last remark, the neighbor who has helped me said, after th~ hole had been filled up and the st {ice restored; ‘“Praps there won't nu-ody thank us for this*but I| shan’t be woke up any more nights hearin’ wheels crack and - drivers swear when strangers slam up against Ithe stone in the dark.” Yet reither that neighbor mnor 1, though®we had both known the stone s tigre for years and had both been othered by it for years, had had pub- lic spirkt, the simple foresight, the good citizenship to abolish it.—till I broke a buggy spring! Then, I was willing to do something. When the neighbor saw another man going at it, he, also, was willing to do something. _Now, you'll ask why we two private citizens did this? ‘Why did we have to do it? Why didn't the town au- thorities attend to it? ‘Well, for the same reason, I suppose, that the town authorities never do everything that everybody in town thinks they ought to. What their rea- son ‘is you're as.able to surmise as anybody. Perhaps; if. they were not infinitely limited in their powers and could do two diametrically opposite things and be in two widely separated places at one and the same time, per- : haps that would help. some. If they! weren't skimped in the annual appro- priation and didn’'t feel themselves under compulsion o make—cecords, for economy, perhaps that would malke | a change. Perhaps if Jones of * the| Poverty Hollow road didn’t snarl and yap ai them for working the West Meadows road mor'n his; while Smith of West Meadows was just as grumpy because they put two teams on the Crosstown pike and only one on at West Meadows, perhaps that, also, might have some effect. Taking things as they are, however, and the town officers as we elect them, | us from any and all duty as, ourselves, | Shall criticieing and abusing them, and no part at all jn abating evident nui- sances under our own noses? In other words is it wisest to howl about evils we. see,—and let them alone—or to stop howling and buck right at them, shovel and tongs? Using our own shovel and our own tongs and a little of our own time and sweat, too? This isn't intended as a suggestion that anyone may prance over to his neighbor’s manor and abate what he thinks is a nuisance there but his neighbor does not. We're not thinking of private differences and grievances but of public rights and duties. If a few minutes’ work at just the; psychological moment will open a clogged chanmel in a flooding brok, say, and stop a threatening road wash- out, why jump in and do it, without walting to notify seme distant - and probably busy road commissioner? Legally, we may not be bound to pro- tect or the highways after we've | elected epecial men to do that very! thing. But he is a mighty poor citi- cen who considers it honest to do STEAD OF THEIR CORNS Watch your step! A brisk, lively step is what charms more than a lovely skin, but your high heeis have caused corns and you limp a little. That's bad, girls, and you know it Corns destroy beauty and grace, be- sides corns are very easy to remove. everything which the law doesn’t ex- plicitly forbid, ‘¥t who thinks that he is absolved from all compulsion to look out for the public welfare be- cause he has a town board to look after such things. That compulsion m?: not be legal but it exists in mo- rals. ‘Who is it that dares assert we need not do right unless the law compels us to? The law is meant to deter or punish crimes, not to teach personal morals nor even the alphabet of good citizen- ship. 4 1 don’t know whether it was a saint or a sinner or a socialist who promul- gated the truth that the welfare of all should be the interest of each. He was pretty near right, whoever | were: Misses Mildred Hilliar, he was. THE FARMER. ‘The king and queen of the Belgians | Kingshury, Morton Swinney, gt ONTHE SOLE MAN_'Y pleasing variations of this type sre offered in the Queen Quality Spring styles. £ PBrown calf, white fabrics, canvas or pro-buck, &s wellas the blacks, Money’s 5 the bast fashions. Buy standard merchandise that is REG. U.S. PAT. OFF. Worth. The **Queen Quality’’ Trade-Mark is stamped on shoes as a Guarantee of Faith. . The dealer who sells the shoes stands behind them with his good name. Thus, you have a DOUBLE GUARANTEE . Manufacturer and Merchant pledge themselves to give you that ' to which you are entitled—Your LOOK FOR THE TRADE MARK 3 ROWN calf, bleck leathers, white fabrics, or white pro-buck sre the prevailing materials used R in this type. One of the distin- ! guished boot models thet will find mary wearers for early Spring. i vouched for by a Reliable Concern. economy - A LWAYS popular, this type of pump will continue to please the countless wearers of Qucen Quelity. Made of patent, Blach kid, or white fabfics. L deinty—dressy and desirable. Light end is in buying This is a time when you need every safeguard in your purchases. War conditions make a necessity for economy in everything, but the best good shoes. Buy Wisely of the Bgst Goods. BUY “QUEEN QUALITY” SHOES The Geo. W. Kies Co., 80 Main St., Norwich, Ct.- 18 pump may be had in black Shoe-Soep Kid, Queen Quality . selection‘or patent colt, or whitg cloth. One of the very newest and most pleasing designs of all the season’s offerings. BOLTON War Rally at the Hall—Death of Ar- lene Wiley—Bricf Notes. A stereopticon lecture on the Rocky Mountains was given under the aus- pices of the Congregational church at the Boitos hall last Wednesday ev- ening. War Rally. A war rally was held in Bolton hall Saturday evening, the speakers being Miss Caroline Robbins of Wethers- field, Rev. Mr. Lindh and BE. L. G. Hohenthal of South Manchester. Mrs. Frank K. Abbott hds returned to her home at the Congregational parsonage after five weeks spent at St. Frapcis' hospital, - Hartford. Harry M. Hurn left last week for Florida to visit his sister, Mrs. Ray- mond S. Yeomans Death of Arlene Wiley. Bolton people weer grieved to learn of the death of Mr. and Mrs. Howard Wiley's five year old daughter, Arlene, at their home in Hartford last week. Mr. and Mrs. Wiley lost ' a young shild two vears ago, they have one living. Mrs. Wiley was before mar- riage Miss Myrtle Beebe and resided mn town for some time. Easter Rece: Bolton schools are closed this week for the spring vacation. Miss Grace McLane is at her home in Worces- ter for the gyeek. Mrs. William B. Willlams of South Manchester was a Bolton visitor the middle of the week. Miss Mary Mathein returned Satur- day from a week’s stay in Westfield. Miss Annie M. Alvord is in town for the week. Mrs. John Ward of Hartford has been visiting her sister, Mrs. John Massey. Miss Emily Mack of South Bolton who has been ill with pleuro-pneu- monia is slowly gaining. Thomas Ross and Mrs. Louise Is- ola of Brooklyn, were recent guests of their sister, Mrs. Louis Cavanaro, . NIANTIC Surprise' Party For Miss Hazel Hil- liar—Flatfish Beginning to Run in the River. : Miss Hazel Hilliar of Main street was tendered a party at her home on Saturday evening. Those who attended Sylvia Stewart, Alice Fallows, Lila Hoffman, Doris Williams, Selena Beckwith; . al- so Monroe Blake; George Taylor, si;‘md las . have left the war zone after spending|Brailey, Le Grand Hall, . Batholomew four days on the Italian front, visit- | Malone. ing the King and queen of Ital Music and games and a dain- ty collation made the evening a pleas- ant one. . W. H. Belknap of -Bridgeport passed the week end with Mrs. Belknap at their cottage on Broadway. Mrs. Ella V. Weir has gone to Mer- iden und Porilard for three weeks visit. ‘Wilfred Holt of Boston, a student at Harvard spent Sunday with Mr. and Mrs. Fred Taylor. 5 Ruth Taylor of New London passed the week end with her par- ents, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Taylor. Robert Latham Manwaring has gone to Meriden to visit relatives. Mrs. Charles Leonard has return- ed from a visit to her son, Dr. Will- fam W. Leonard in Norwich. Henry E. Smith of East Haven was at South Willington recently to see his sister, who is i}l. James Medcalf of East Haven was at South Willington recently to see his sister who is ill James Medcalf is raking and cutting brush on the banks around the Grove. Mr. Medcalf has been engaged an- other year at the Grove. Flatfish Running. Captain Norman W. Rogers and daughter, Mrs. ILester, caught seven flatfish Sunday. The flatfish are ar- Viving in the Niantio river. Mrs. Olivia M. Case has returned to her cottage after several weeks’ vis- it to relatives. y \ Out of town people were in the Grove last week looking for cottages. Al- ready a number of places have been taken. Clark S. Bishop of the Golden Spur district is confined to his home by ill- ness. Mrs. Ashley C. Hefflon s in Meri- den visiting relatives. Mrs. Harriet A. Tyler of Hartford and Crescent Beach, was a recent guest of her brothers and sisters at the Smith homestead, on the banks of the Niantic river. Charles Dunn of Springfield, Mass. motored here Saturday for a week end visit to his parents. Mr. and Mrs. John Dunn, on the Flanders road. Mr. Dunn called on James Metcalf Sun- day. DAYVILLE Sergeant Wayland W. Bennett Safe Overseas—Illustrated Lecture—State Papers Quote Rev. Father Kost in Regard to Nation's Splendid South- ern Camps. e s e e e Mrs. ' W. C. Darrow, spent last Wed- nesday in Norwich and New London. Miss Ruth Bennett entertained.the Philatea class Tuesday evening. . Misses Cora and Bernice Cogswell who have been in Worcester the past geven weeks returned-home Thursday. Mrs. George Barnes. visited Provi- dence, Wednesday. North Mrs. Josephine Law PR of Grosvenordale is the guest Misses Law. Mrs. Carrie Bailey returned from St. Vincent’s hospital last week. Mrs. Marshall Bennett recently spent a few days in Providence. of the Meetings Deferred. The Ladies’ Aid society will not hold any meetings until April 16th. Otto Lehrer of the Naval Reserve was at home for the week end. Mrs. W. E. La Belle and Mrs. George Barnes spent Thursday in Norwich. Mr. ;and Mrs. Harold Field relatives in Foster, R. 1, Sunday. Safely Across. Mr. and Mrs. Frank W. Bennrett re- ceived word last week frem their son, Sergeant Wayland W. Bennett, of his safe arrival overseas. Merrill and Miss Milfred Beniett spent Sunday with. relatives in Fos- ter, R. L Edwin S. Budlong of Cransten, R. L. was the guest of James E. Blanchard and family Sunday. Farewell Visit. Mr. and Mrs. Fred L. Miller and Mrs. Fred E. Miller went to New York Sunday night to visit Sergeant Fred E. Miller of the Quartermaster department at Camp Merritt, N. J., who is to go overseas. Hlustrated Lecture. Rev. Frank D. Sargent of Putnam gave an illustrated lecture in the Congregational church Thursday ev- ening on The Life of Christ. Miss Estelle Tripp of Brimfield, and Miss Lera P. Tripp of Bridgewater, RHEUMATISM Physician Believes a Genuine Remedy for the Disease Has . Been Found. Rheuma, the wonderful rheumatism remedy sold by Lee & Osgood Co. and all good druggists, gives’ quicker and more lasting relief than other rmedies costing many times as much. Rheuma passes the deadly poisonous secretions into the bowels and kidneys, from which they are quickly thrown off in a natural. healthy way. Read what a reputable physician says about Rheuma: “I have made a most careful investigation of the for- mula employed in the manufacture of Rheuma, and I heartily recommend it as ‘a remedy for all forms of rheuma- tism. I find Rheuma far in®advance of the methods generally employed ‘in the treatment of rheumafism: and al- together ‘different in composition from the remedies usually prescribed.”—Dr. M. C. Lyons. . This should give any sufferer from rheumatism eonndel\:ce to try Rheuma. Mass., are spending the Easter vaca- tion at their home, Spruce Lodge. Church to Receive New Members. At the Congregational church Sun- day Rev. U. S. camps and cantonments., Father Kost's narration of his observations during his travels has been copied by a number of the leading state pApers. William Swainson gave an which have quoted at length from the scholarly and patriotic priests re- impressive sermcn with reference to|goris Passion Week. Ea\er Sunday is look- i - ed forward to with interest as a good IRt K annas. number will unite with' the churc! p F: A and several babies are to be christen- | The Kansas automotblle lxcg}sgl; ed and spevial music will be rendered. |had Detter lay in an extra eupply, 0/ 4_?clockA An Easter concert will be of wheat this year—indianapolis ENen News. Next ‘week the Ladies’ Aid society is to present a farce ip Columbia hall. Attracts State-Wide Attention. Dayville has been put very much on the map, ] cector of St. Joseph’s Catholic churcik returned from a visit to a number of By referendum the Ameriean Nat- ional Association of Manufacturers has rejected: the proposal of . the Chamber of Commerée of the United States suggesting a trade boycott of : Germany after the war. ~3 since Rev. Ignatius .Kost, A v Pure Chewin Gum @ | ] a Stick a da Insomnia