The Press., 1894-05-31
(From "Our Grange Homes.'D A GRANGE EXPERIENCE.


 From "Our Grange Homes.D
 A GRANGE EXPERIENCE.
 It was the day after Thanksgiving that Adjutant Never d-his-name came into the kitchen where his wife was getting dinner and said:
 "There is a stranger out at the new C.. A. R. hall; he is in town on business, and should like to invite him to dinner" 7" "Very well," was the reply. "There is dinner enough, such as it is, and good enough, what there is of it. I will put on an extra plate."
 So, presently the visitor came in, a pleasant, sociable man, who said:
 "I told my wife when started away from home this morning that I ate so much yesterday was going to fast alto gether to-day, but as I was coming up your hills from the station I began to think that bad promise was better broken than kept, and I am glad of a chance to break over as fellow remark
  But, as Rudyard Kipling says, that is an- other story, and it is not the one set out to tell, but the visitor told it, and the ad- jutant told the one of which it reminded him, and by that time the housewife be- gan to think that the man who was eating her dinner as if he liked it, and not "picking around" was very agreeable to entertain.
 And, as likely as not, she thought, he is better than appears on the surface, so she went through with such pantomime as she could remember, and said something to lead the visitor to say, with a laugh: ''So you are in it? When, at the break fast table this morning, told where I was coming, my daughter said: Is that SOP I saw by some paper that grange was organized there last Tuesday eve- ning.'"
 And you are grangerY "Oh, yes, an eight years old granger. There were only three or four granges in the state when ours was organized. had just sold out my business in the city and bought my farm, and I felt as if ] should like to learn all there was to be learned about farming. So | talked il over with some of my intimate neighbors and we had several meetings at my house to consider whether we had better do any thing about it or not.
 My nearest peighbor, MT. Weather vane, and his wife and daughter, were very anxious to join, and so were their most intimate friends, the Scare-easys. Having got enough signers to the applica- tion to get a charter, we sent for MT. Hale, whom every body in Connecticut knows, to come and organize us.
 ''I received reply at once, saying we might expect him the next day, and drove around to notify those who were to join. I had hardly got home before the Weathervanes and the Scare-easys came in, saying they had changed their minds and were not going to join. | Nothing that we could say made the least impression upon them. Some of the outsiders, who had been in a rut so long that it was impossible for them to climt out, had got hold of them and scared them almost to death. They said the grange was very expensive organization that it demanded costly suppers, that the members all danced, that it would break up the churches and pack the town meet tugs and have bad influence and de moralize society generally.
 "They were scared almost to death, but I reasoned: Society in the town is in 6 queer state, any way. There are foul churches all by the ears. People are scurrying around in little cliques, and the non on-church-going part of the community is very large
 "Well, they went home-all good na tured-but they left us in dilemma, - Mr. Hale coming next day, and not enough members into four to organize.
 "Just across my orchard on another road lives a man by the name of Handle me-careful. A good fellow-one of tht best hearted fellows you ever came across but if he got down on anything or any body-Lord! he was down on them, anC there was nothing he wouldn't say. Com ical chap, too. You couldn't get reall, mad at him, no matter how badly yol might want to, and if he liked anything he was equal to whole brass band tt blow for it, so you see hadn't dared tt say grange to Handle, for fear shouldn' hit him just right. So, that morning, saw him out pushing his peas, and l wen over and I said, kind of down-in-the mouth-like, as if I needed sympathy:
 "sI don't know what we are going to dc about that grange. MT. Hale is coming to-day to organize it, and the Weather vanes and the Scare-easys have backed out and are not going to join.'
 "Handle strengthened up and took of his hat and wiped his forehead with his white shirt sleeve as he said, with em phasis:
 "sWell! let them back out! I guess anything in this town that is worth going will go without them. How many more do you need?'
 "tFour.'
 "'Oh, we'll, that's all right. You gt on and make your arrangements. l vii go in, and my wife, and my son Tom, ant his wife; don't you worry
 ssSo Handle went in for all he wal worth, and he has been in ever since. Tn very nextmeeting we had a large class tC initiate, and they have kept coming ant kept coming. It has been perfectly won derful how the grange walked our folks up
 "Some who hardly ever came to tow