Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-07-31

personal, so toe speak, and perhaps it
will be this time. Squire Boomer SAYS
it costs a great deal of money to run .
church. and he's right And it costs a
great deal to run a farm of much size,
and grist mill and high school and
steam thrasher and a good many things
that we've got to have. Why, it was only
last summer I was ridin' long with
Squire Boomer past his farm, and he
stopped his horse to show ne the crop
on that twenty-acre lot near the road.
He said he had laid out more than Ave
dollars an acre in ditchin' that lot and
buyin' fertilizers and seed; said he
shouldn't get his money lack in one
year or two, but there was good deal
of satisfaction in seem how that land
had come up under good ti1lage. He
said he didn't believe in any penny
wise system of farmin. Fact is says
he If you starve your farm, it will
starve you He says to-day we should
manage our church affairs just as we do
our own; that is, on business principles,
and I agree with him. If we starve the
church and the minister, they'll certain
ly starve US. It's the liberal soul that'll
be made fat-not the stingy one.
ssMr. Mullins, he deals in general
merchandise, and runs a pretty large
establishment He says trade has been
uncommon dull for year or more; but
all the same he is going to raise the sal
ary of his head clerk and book-keeper
| fifty dollars this year. just because he
| was such a faithful fellow and looked
after his employers interests SO well.
4 tell you, Ball. says he, "a man must
show his hands that he appreciates
their work if he wants 'em to take an
| interest and make things buzz But
| when it comes to the minister, he pro-
poses to work this plan by the rule OF
| contrary. All that's necessary to make
| the finances of this church prosper,
seemingly, is to let the minister know
| that hiso 1abors are worth less by two
| hundred dollars a year than when he
| came here.
''Neighbor Snodgrass is fond of sayin'
we must cut our garment accordin' to
our cloth, but he don't always practice
| his own preachin'. I went into his
house last evenin' to set awhile, as I
| often do, and Mis- Snodgrass was cut
| tim out checkered shirt for her has
band. She bad the cloth spread out on
the floor, and laid the pattern on this
way and that way. but finally she said:
It's no use; there isn't cloth enough,
John; you'll have to get three-quarters
| of a yard more to make the sleeves
| Now, by his own rule, he should have
said: You must cut that garment ac-
cordin' to the cloth, sleeves or no
sleeves But he didn't say any such
| thing. He just said: All right, Luz
cinda; I'll get the cloth tomorrow when
l go to the village and there's the
bundle stickin' out of his coat pocket
this minute.
''He and are in the habit of helpin'
each other with big job now and then,
in a neighborly way. Last spring
helped him build picket fence the
whole length of his farm on the high
way. He laid out to have lumber
enough on hand before We begun, but
he fell short considerable; said he didn't
make allowance enough for shaky pick
cts, just as we don't for shaky slip
rents. Now, you'd think, to be consis-
tent, he ought to have spread them
pickets trifle more, or else finished up
the two or three rods lacking with some
of them old fence rails. But he didn't
do any such thing. He sent his team off
to the mill and had another load Of
pickets on hand before we needed 'em;
and he had hundred or two left over
for repairs, surplus in the treasury,
so to speak.
''We hear good deal about cuttin'
down our expenses, but not word
about increasin' our income. Gentlemen
talk as if, in church matters, we better
wear a shirt without sleeves, as it were,
than to buy little more cloth; we bet
ter piece out new fence with old rails,
rather than to get few more pickets.
The Bible tells about time when the
bed is shorter than man can stretch
himself on it, and the cOverin' narrower
than that he can wrap himself in it!
Seems to me some of US have about got
there.
sit has been more than limited here
to-day that the minister has more
money to spend than we do, and may be
he does. But that is none of our bust
ness. We called him here and fixed the
amount of his salary ourselves; and
think it would be mighty mean pro-
ceedin' to ask him to throw off $500, just
because we've failed to do business on
business principles-to lay this load all
on his shoulders, when not a man of us
had tried to lift it with one of our little
fingers, so to speak.
NOW Sd tudG tuIS palCrY QeDC Oh a
few hundred dollars, that is such bug
bear.to many, has come, not because
our expenses are so large, but because
our income is so small; not because We
pay out too much money, but because
we pay in too little; and If every moth
er's son of US will increase our slip rent
twenty per cent, we shan't be likely to
hear any more such whinin' as we've
heard to-day"
"Do you offer that as an amendment
to the motion to appoint a committee?"
asked the chairman briskly.
ssNo," Numbered Mr.. Ball from his
seat in the corner. ''Do you think I'd
hitch an amendment on to such mo-
ton as that? Not while 1 have my
senses"
After some confusion. the motion was
laid upon the table, and the subject,
from Mr.. Balls point of siew, was un-
der discussion, with fair prospect of q
successful issue, when this writer left.
Interior.
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