Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1910-04-08

trees meant little II gathered, barrel
ed and sold in the usual way.
cit seems a shame" one neighbor
said to her, "but it will be about as
well for you to let those apples har-
vest themselves"
Against such waste of natures
bounty, however, GATHERINGS New
England thrift revolted She began
to look into the apple problem; ana
the result of her study of it is worth
recording.
She purchased no barrels, and the
only help she hired was boy to push
wheelbarrow. She herself, with
Uncle Horace and Eunice, went out to
the trees to gather up the fruit. The
boy wheeled the apples in, two bushels
at load, and slowed them in bins.
built up in two rooms in the house,
where, later, they could be kept from
freezing by means of a stove in the
cellar beneath.
Catherine had thought this all out
in advance, and she had sent off for
four 'evaporators," payment for which
used nearly all her remaining money.
Carelessly dried apples, on strings,
brings no more than six or eight cents
a pound, but nicely sliced, "evaporat-
ed apple always commands a much
better price. She had resolved to
put the whole crop of Baldwins into
evaporated apple.
In almost every rural neighborhood,
village or small town there is sure
TO hn al a - ~
or widow in INDECENT circumstances,
who has outlived the most of her
earthly ties, and must go to the
"town farm" or subsist on sufferance
with some grudging relative. Life
grows very dreary to these old per-
sons. There seems to be no place for
them. In cases where a few hundred
dollars can be raised for them, they
sometimes go to an "old ladies'
home"
Within three miles of the Edwards
homestead there We're two of these
old souls, "Aunt Netty" Stiles and
"Grlndma" Frost, who We're by no
means helpless or feeble, but had
merely outlived their welcome on the
earth.
Catherine first made the old farm
house dining room cozy and warm,
and then invited Aunt Netty and
Grandma Frost to come and sit with
her mother and Eunice and slice ap-
pies. She offered them seventy-fve
cents a week and board. Moreover.
she took them all into her confidence,
and told them her plans for saving
the old homestead.
Uncle Horace peeled the apples on
pairing machine, and the old women
sliced them. Their tongues ran; they
were as clipper as crickets. They
had not had so good time for years.
Catherine had to look to it that they
did not overwork They produced
more sliced apple than the four evap-
orators would dry. Uncle Horace had
to contrive a fifth drier over a large
stove out in the woodhouse. Two
more forlorn old women from the
town farm came on foot, begging for
work They We're taken in.
Apple drying went on from the first
of October till the middle of January
and the whole crop was dried. Before
the first of March Catherine had sold
the entire output at eleven cents a
pound. The result was an object les
son to every apple farmer in that To-
cality. She received fifteen hundred
and sixty dollars; and owing to the
skill with which she had managed the
entire expenses of drying the apples
were less than hundred and seventy
dollars.
There was also this other curious
result: The old women did not want
to go home! In fact, the two from
the town farm cried when the last of
the apples were cut.
Then Catherine determined to keep
them all over for the next season. She
bought a lot of yarn and set them to
knitting socks and WOODEN gloves. In
fact she had started happy old WON
ems home before she knew it. And
the number of applications which
came to her from homeless old wom-
en- and from those who had aged rela-
tives on their hands whom they wish
ed to be rid of would have been laugh
able, II 1t had not been pathetlc. But
for the time being Catherine could
do no more than keep those whom she
had.
The year 1904 also proved to be
an apple year; and again the whole
crop was put into evaporated apple,
two other old women having been ad-
mitted to the "circle of slicers."
BY this time, too, Catherine had
come to realize the possibilities of
her new business. All the apple trees
were carefully looked after, and two
hundred young trees set out. She
planted, too, hundred and fifty plum
and pear trees, and an acre of black
berry shrubs; for now her design
was to make new venture, canning
pears, plums and berries in glass jars.
In fact, it would not surprise me If a
few years hence this neglected old