Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-02-13
ARE DISEASED
Moscrip Finds Much Smallpox
and Criminal Carelessness
in Rural Districts.
Few Cattle on Feed-No Money
in the Business With 60
Cent Corn.
Picture Frame Dealers Don't
Like the "Booze" Towns.
Rural Route Gossip.
Special to Times Republican.

uatlOn IN Iowa Is lNe tateieSSiicsS
garding the disease which long faniili-
arity and its mild type have created
among all classes. The travelling man
who four years ago would have lodged
q smallpox town by a side step of twen-
ty miles, now drops off the train into
an infected village with no thought of
contagion or dread of possible conse-
uences. If he smells carbolic acid or
the lingering effluvium of formalde-
hyde at the hotel he doesn't grab his
grips and rush frantically out. He SIM
ply registers and goes in to dinner
with the stoicism of an oriental. If he
were to pass up every community in
Iowa where smallpox exists. his house
would soon be searching for Il repre-
sentative immune to the disease.
Smallpox is not confined to the cities
and villages by any means. 1t would
be vastly easier of control If it were.
On half the rural routes the writer has
driven of late he has found a case of
the disease or traces of it's recent WISH
tation. Country people are more in
clined to be lenient in the matter of
quarantine han cities or villages and
in many instances the leniency develops
into the grossest carelessness. Some
weeks since 1 called at a farm residence
in Sac county and was invited in. After
Il business conversation that extended
over perhaps ten minutes the fact that
their nearest %neighbor was down with
smallpox was mentioned. YES" the
head of the family responded. pointing
to n ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS lad located
within fou feet of me. this is his day
to come down. He thinks he isn't GO
ing to have it." The boy was as
speckled as a guinea hen when / looked
owe at him. Whether with the pimples
that affect half-grown youth or with
the pustules of smallpox / have never
known, not feeling at the time a spirit
of investigation sufficiently strong to
keep me there making inquiries. But
for the next three weeks n touch OF
headache brought visions of forty days
of quarantine. In this neighborhood
there had been wholesale exposures at
and in homes. but the only
quarantine was at the home where a
case beyond question had developed.
The children We're still attending school.
In Crawford county recently the door
was opened by a young lady whose face
bore evidences of the disease. Asking
st a neighbours if smallpox We're preya
LEM in the community the farmer adj
dressed responded in the negative. "The
n - 49, ,.z.,t5 ,~,,, .,,A =, 1N.a11.t,c.I
out" he said with a grin, but they
haven't had a DOCTOR" Now this case
might have been chickenpox or Cuban
itch or any other pustular disease, but
there are hundreds of smallpox cases
hid away in the country today from
which the disease is radiating. Outside
of Des Moines, which has been a cess
pool of smallpox and a center for its
propagation over the state, there is
quite as much danger of contagion in
the country as in the Iowa towns.
80
It takes Is cents at present prices of
grain to make a pound of beef. AT any
rate tina was the claim made by James
Maynard, a prominent farmer and
stockman of Crawford county, in con
versation with the writer recently. "A
bushel of corn" said Mr.. Maynard,
three and a half pounds of fat on q
With corn at 60 cents and hay
at 81 there is nothing in feeding cattle
this winter. OF course, a certain num-
Der of hogs can live by following the
cattle and picking up corn that other
wise would be wasted, u when you
want the hogs to gain and put on fat
you must feed them. The nor in
cattle feeding lies in the fact that you
the price of every original pound
of flesh your feeding cattle carried
you began to fatten them. Thus,
If a feeder weighing 1000 pounds costs
$40 and you put 200 pounds on him at a
cost of $50 for grain and hay you have
an investment of $40. Your steer
brings you $72 at 6 cents per pound and
leaves a net gain of 80 for labor, risk
and interest on the investment"
Corn is scarce in this section. Drouth
cut the crop in two. A bill hanging on
the wall in the hotel at West Side an
nouncing an administrators sale illus
trated fairly we'll the disproportion be-
tWee1l LII SloSh. Wv VI
the estate. a bachelor. had been killed
and all the personal property was listed
for disposal. N~inety-two head of cat
tie. thirty head of hogs and ten horses
made up a total of 1872 head of stock.
The grain offered consisted of $50 BUSH
els of corn and 200 bushels of oats.
Twenty-seven tons of hay included ali
the rough feed. A prominent feeder
told me that very few cattle We're on
feed In this county (Crawford).
Why" said he. IF | put a thousand
head of cattle on feed today corn would
be worth 20 cents a bushel in this town
ship inside of a week
The travelling man who sells pictures,
picture frames and holdings broke off
q piece of experience n philosophy
the other day tina will meet the APP
prevail of prohibitionists. Booze towns
are no place for my business" he went
on to say. THE little town where sa-
looms are In operation are hardly worth
to me the cash / pay the expressman
for bringing my trunks up town.
sell good bills in them. The la
boring men and farmers buy most of
my truck of the retailer, and the work
man who buys booze doesn't buy pic
lures, picture frames or other articles
Of adornment for his home. In -
and i --- I sell from $125 to SITE
worth of my goods on my regular trips.
n,bara 20 No ao1opna a., thaca r1ncac