davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-09

 Properly cared for, the danger of loss would be minimized. What was import ant and added zest to the undertaking was the fact that the reward was big because so many growers who trusted to luck failed with their crops Junior had a predilection toward peaches and from the reports of the analysis he de- termined that he would rise or fall on that fruit
 With no one to check him, except to be looked at reproachfully occasionally by his father, Junior Franklin started in to change that farm.
 It had been his fathers rule to let the grasses grow in the orchard. Junior cleared that orchard as clean of grass as the potato field had been. He pruned vigorously and left no false branches. Every tree was gone over with the ut most care. There hardly was one in the lot but was affected. San Jose scale was on most of those Those that had not been attacked by that parasite had bor- CTS worming their way under the bark. It had been the old method to wash the tree and dig out the worms and scatter lime about the trunk. All this was ridic- ulous to Junior. Sulphur was the thing with which he attacked the parasites. He had his own mixing apparatus and he im- ported from Pittsburg or Philadelphia spraging device that was rigged upon a high platform and which could be moved about without much trouble. He be- lieved fully in the efficacy of spraying, but to be effcacous the spraying had to be thorough.
 Most of the work that first year was in checking the inroads of the parasites and in giving a chance to the trees to re- cover a little of their health and strength. He set out a large number of trees, planting them as carefully and exactly as if as much depended on it as it really does.
 Trees were 16 feet apart That made about 16O to the acre. They were Elbertas, Early Crawfords, Hale's Early, Early River, Mountain Rose, the Stump of the world, the Crawford and Old Nixon. Most of these in the old orchard were Early Crawford and Mountain Rose.
 It was spring when he took hold of the farm. Regularly every year many blos- sons were nipped by the frost. Some were nipped that year. but Junior deter mined they never should be again if he could help 1t. While the trees were in bloom he was a busy man. Every blas- som had to be sprayed The mouths which are the great enemies of peaches attack the blossom and then go to :he root and develop the borers that cut into the tree and drain it of sap The moths got a dose that spring such as they never got before in the Franklin orchard. Three times that season every tree was sprayed so thoroughly that there was not a six teenth of an inch of limb, or trunk, of lear or blossom that escaped thorough disin- lection.
 That fall the crop of peaches was fair. It was a little larger than usual for he orchard, but not much considering lne amount of attention Junior had given 10 the trees. The father watched the work of his son with interest Several times he said he was afraid Junior was wasting lot of good time and energy put he did not complain, for Junior seemed so happy in his work that the old man was de- lighted.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-09

their past work has shown they would do the most good"
 One-Cent Letter Postage at a 1-cent letter rate, MT. Postmaster General?' I asked.
 "Yes. We could do that now if the ad- vertising parts of the magazines paid their share toward carrying the mails We do not want to increase the rate on the literary features of the magazine, but we do feel that the advertisements should pay as much as other matter of the same commercial character. As 1t is now, we are carrying these magazines at cost of more than cents pound, and we receive from them only l-cent a pound. We lost over $64,0o0,O0o on our magazine transportations last year. This is all wrong. It was never intended by those who made the law that advertis- ments should be carried at such rates and at such cost Indeed, 1t was spe- officially prohibited, but. the abuse has gradually crept in and we are now an nually handling 350,000 tons of such mat ter at this great loss. It constitutes 63 per cent of our home mail, and yet 1t brings in only per cent of the revenue. The loss exceeds the profit on all other classes of mail It is more than the amount we pay the railroads for mall transportation
 "Now that you are running the depart- ment at a profit, the magazines will claim thai you can afford to carry them at the old rates, will they not?'
 "They may claim so' said the Post master General, but that is no reason why uncle Sam should do large losing
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-09

 tors had for so many years. So he did not say anything then.
 It was long after the days work was done that the old man brought the sub ject up again.
 T don't know, Junior" he said in a sad sort of voice, that I could change my ways even if l wanted to-"
 "of course not, and l wouldn't want you," said the son. but I'll prove to you I'm right or I'll pay well for it."
 What do you mean?"
 q mean" said Junior, that I'll rent the farm from you if you're willing You know how much you've cleared in the last two years. Average the amounts and I'll agree to rent the farm for two years. I've got enough left of mothers money to carry through every thing I'll like to introduce that you call nonsense. You may loaf or work, or do as you please, but I'll be boss for two years. What do you say?"
 The father thought few moments and then said, All right son."
 Junior Franklin never had much of a belief in potatoes, oats or corn as general crops on a Pennsylvania farm. His pota- to field was reduced to a patch only big enough to supply the household. Of corn and oats he sowed only enough for the live stock. He had made an analysis of the soil and had forwarded samples of earth from a dozen places on the farm to the agricultural department and had the reports. On those reports he proceeded to develop the property according to his OWE ideas. The soil had all the ingred- tents necessary to peach culture. In ad- dition the mountain to the back of the farm acted as a glorious wind shield. Pennsylvania had no reputation as a peach state, but he was not so foolish as to think Pennsylvania could not raise just as good peaches as Georgia, Con- necteut or Delaware. Peaches were sup posed to be delicate, precarious crop.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-09

business to fill the pockets of the pub fishers. l think that they realize the un- fairness of their position and that we shall have an amicable arrangement, which will result in the advertising sec tions paying their share of the freight"
 The Railway and the Mails
 How about the railways, are they not greatly overpaid for mail transporta- tiCn?'
 T would not say that replied the Postmaster General "The department demands a great deal of the railroads. It must have special facilities, and the government ought to pay for them. We are now spending over $50, 100000 a year for that sort of transportation, and I do not know that it is too much. I be- lieve, however, that we can cut down some of our requirements and that by coming together with the railroads we can make such new arrangements as will greatly reduce the cost of carrying the mails both to the railroads and the de- partment In this way the saving will be divided between the two and the railways need not lose on what they are now making for mail transportation. In order to know just what the rate should bo I have called upon the various rail- way companies to report fully as to the rates they receive for the transportation of other classes of goods and also data aa to their operation and expenditures find an old law which provides that the Postmaster General has the right to do this and a number of the leading rail road managers have already come to see me concerning it. There is no doubt in my mind but that we shall come to an amicable settlement
 Parcels Post
 l here asked as to the parcels post which in Europe has almost displaced the express companies. The Postmaster General replied:
 ''The conditions In Europe are different from those of the United States. There you have a vast population crowded in- side narrow boundaries. Here we have widely separated cities, and many regions where there are almost no people what ever. The only way we could have a parcel post would be by dividing the country up into zones, and increasing the postage rate according to the dis tance tie article is to be carried. It Is a matter of study and experiment. We are going to try the parcel post with certain rural delivery routes, and you will be able to send packages weighing up to Il pounds to and from the various post offices to which these routes be- long. This is an experiment, and if successful it may lead to general use of the parcel-post system. You see we can test this without adding anything 10 the expense of the carriage as each rural delivery man has his own vehicle and there will be but little aoui.ioiai cost in handling the parcels
 Twill you introduce automopiies LOT the rural delivery?"
 "Yes: we are already doing so. and we exrect to increase that feature or the service There are many states sucn as New Jersey, Delaware and parts ol New Lrny,and where the roads are excellent. There are in other places where the country is flat automobiles can be used to great advantage. With them we can consolidate the routes. and one man can
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-09

their past work has shown they would
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-09

Father" said the young man calmly,
 T did not waste the four years at col lege I learned lot of things. Among them was how to farm. I know more about farming than you do. I've tried hundred times to show you things, but you're too tubborn to learn. No one can teach you anything because you're unwilling to learn. You're about 20 years behind the times. So are most of the Rubes in this part of Pennsyl- vania. Why, you are just scratching out a living on this farm, and you should be making handsome income out of 1t. I could take it and make d fortune out of 1t.
 T would have turned In and helped you last year or the year before, but every time I made a suggestion you choked me off You're not going to do 1t any more. If I'm going to farm I'm going to farm right. I'm not going to follow antediluvian methods. Farm ing is slavery when it is in that form. It is business if practiced properly and
 brings as big if not bigger returns than
 the professions"
 Robert the second was so surprised he hardly could find words to express himself. To have his son talk to him in that style was little short of trea- son, but mingled with his anger there
 was a thrill of delight, for it appeared the young man might stay on the old place after all. II was so astonishing to find it was not hatred of farm life so much as some of the conditions that actpated Junior in his opposition that he wondered how he had not discovered 1t long before. And now it depended upon the father whether the young
 man should remain or depart. It was hard for a man steeped in rigid ideas regarding his own affairs to give way to another. but as against that there was the great ambition he held for his son to keep the old farm as his ances-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-09

"RoM point on the mountain side
 back of the Franklin farm you | can see three states. Pennsyl- vania is at your feet. To the south Is Maryland and beyond the narrow strip of Maryland rise the blue hills of West NirSinia For three generations the farm has been in the possession of the Frank lin family Robert the elder first titled the virgin soil. Robert the second was born and raised there. Robert the third, known throughout the county as Junior, has re- mained there because fate has so willed.
 Junior always gave his father cause for worriment. The drudgery of farm work was repellent to the lad, who was gay and frolicsome and schemed for hours to escape tasks he easily could have &C., complished in comparatively short time. Whippings did no good They tended rather 10 embitter the boy against his father than to force him to obedience. Occasionally the lad would labor earnest ly. but it only was when he saw some reward in sight. Neighbors could get him to do far more than could his father. Occasionally, when much needed at home, he would slip away from his fathers place and take dilght in helping neighbor with his crops. Robert the second would be furious. He considered his son rebelious and unfaithful. He never could under
 
 young people on the neighbours farm that attracted Junior, and that made work there a pleasure, while work at home. under the harsh scrutiny of his father, was a task.
 Between father and son there was little sympathy. The father did not mean to be unfair. but he did not understand the boy. A drudge himself, he could not see why his son should not follow in his foot steps. He blamed his wife for the youth capriciousness and when she died and left the little money that was her own to the hoy and stipulated that he should go to college so as to fit himself for whatever branch of endeavor he was ambitious to enter the husband felt it more than any person knew. For the money he cared nothing, but junior was the only child and the Franklin farm would go to strangers. The one strong sentiment in Rober, the seconds life was love of this farm. He would not have sold an acre of it at any = f<lce, Reg ularlY each year he went through the same routine. He planted the same quantity of oats, corn and potatoes, raised about the same amount of fruit and killed the same number of hogs No man In his employ worked so hard as he did, and he prided himself on this fact and also on the fact that no one could teach him anything about farming He did things in his own way and never spared himself i1 the doing. Once or twice he had been weak enough to be misled by well-meaning neighbors. Once in using a new-fangled scheme for checking the po- tato blight he had ruined his crop An other time he had tried mixture highly recommended as a certain cure for dis ease that threatened his fruit trees, and the mixture left his orchard almost a ruin. After that he was content to follow the plain, simple methods of his father
 They were tried and true and he was content. No one, he was sure, ever had
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-09

That winter Junior had a good many spring he seemed to want to really help his father. Dozens of times he made suggestions to the old man that were coldly received. One, that samples of soil from various parts of the farm be sent to the agricultural department for analysis to determine If the soil was suited for the crops intended or if it needed nourishment, and If so what kind, was scoffed at.
 i've known this farm all my life, and I know what it is suited for better than any man in Washington or any other place can tell me-" declared the father. 'If you would pay more attention to the farm and less to foollshness you would krow it, too.'
 A little later the young man offended by pruning some fruit trees in manner that made the older man take alarm.
 What are you doing?' he cried; you'll ruin those trees"
 No" replied the son, I'm doing it properly"
 The father took the shears from him and asked sarcastically if he had learned tree pruning at college.
 Yes" was the answer. Well" was the fathers rejoinder, If the other things you learned were as crazy as that you've got your head full of nonsense. I don't wonder you are no account. You've ruined that tree. I'm surprised at you, born on farm, doing thing like that, you'd do as your old father wanted you to do you'd become one of the finest farmers in the country. Instead of that you've wasted four years in that fool college, and now you're no good except to run around the country and spend money and mix with bad characters. I don't know how long the money your mother left is going to last you, but unless you mend your ways it won't last long"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-09
UNCLE SAM LETTER CARRIER-By Frank G.. Carpenter

Copyright 1911 by Frank c. Carpenter.
 Washington D. C., July B. LIE manages a business which
 costs more than $20O,OO0,000 a year. His corps of employees is three times as many as the United States army. His annual transactions include the handling of fourteen thou sand million articles, and his men go back and forth over routes, which if placed end to end would reach almost twice as far as from here to the moon. Their travels in the space of one year in the United States alone are five times as great as the distance between the earth and the sun, their commun- cations reach to every spot on the face of the globe.
 This man. is unknown to many of you, but by proxy he calls at your front door every morning, and for from 1 to cents he will carry your words to any place on this great round world. His name is Frank Hitchcock; his title is Postmaster General; and his business is the mana cement of Uncle Sam's mails.
 Suppose we become better acquainted. We shall call at the ate-colored Pos { office Department which stands oa Pennsylvania avenue between the White House and the Capitol, for il is there he has his headquarters. It is , o'clock in the evening and the rank and file of the clerks have all left. The big building is quiet. except in the rooms of the chief, where the work may go on far into the night. The Postmaster General is one of the men who do things. He is wrapped up in his great undertaking, and the hours pass un- needed when he strives for results. Just now he has big matters on hand and midnight will come before his light will go out. He Is a dynamo in brooches and he works like dynamo When the current is on the sparks fly and when off the machinery stops, and the living dynamo goes to bed and sleeps like a baby. During my talk with the Postmaster General today 1 asked him if he could leave his work in the office. He replied that he never carried his troubles outside. Said he:
 That is my only salvation. l do tho thing that is nearest me and l always do the best that l can I try to be hon. est, and I think l may say that l am not Afraid to do what 10 me seems to be right"
 The above l believe to be the key note to the life of Frank Hitchcock, and backed by his business ability it is the secret of his success as Postmaster General. He is spolle of a shrewd politician, but lie objects to this repu tation, saying that he entered politics only at the solicitation of his friends to accomplish an end. and when thai end~ was attained he left it for good His actions in the Postofiice depart ment are a proof Of this statement lIe has fought the magazines and the railways, and has even waved the red flag of defiance at the mad bull oi Congress. and that solely for the good of the mails and the people.
 Running Uncle Sam's Mails at
 Profit
 During my. talk with the Postmaster General | referred to these fights and his efforts to cut down the deficit
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-09


 benefited by deviating from the experi-
 ence of ages Every form of agricultural growth had its enemies, and these enc
 mics had to be eontended against, but he
 had his own methods and wanted no
 others. Some years he made moneN and some years he did not. When he failed
 to have a profit it was owing to the bad
 season. He fared better on an average than most of the farmers in the county,
 and if his son had come up to his hopes
 he would haSe been as happy as 1t was within his compass to be.
 Junior went to college joyously. Within few months he was threatened with ex- pulsion for some outlandish prank in which he and a dozen others were en- gagged. The father, while he threatened Junior with all sorts of punishments if he again disgraced him, was severely pleased, as he believed discharge from the seat of learning would mean that he young man would return 10 his home somewhat chastened and more likely to look upon farming as his lifes work. But Junior was not expelled, although he did get into more serapes. He did not shine as a scholar, was a bit backward in most of his studies and showed more interest in athletics than in anything else Cornell had to offer. For football he had decided fondness, and for oaseban a passion
 When he visited his home al vacation time he assisted his father occasionally, but dances and ball games claimed most of his time. One or twice his father talked earnestly with him, but the young man was too busy enjoying life to be af- fected by any plea the father made. Then the father gave him up as hopeless,
 Soharad hit when ba out of college. He had done well, all things considered, and, without his fathers knowledge, had taken the course In agriculture.
 well, my son." said the father, the evening of Juniors homecoming, what have you decided to do?"
 T haven't decided,' said the young man. '1f you do not object I'll take little more time in thinking it over. If am to go into one of the professions it means a long grind I haven't much taste for the law, but I suppose I could make living at it. Most of those in it seem to succeed some way or another. I doubt
 whether I'd make a good doctor. It's hardly in my line. And I wouldn't be a
 preacher. Electricity offers about the best chance l got enough of a start In 1 that branch to carry me along and I can
 get a job in the Westinghouse works in l Pittsburg if I want il, but I am not sure.
 Let us wait until fall and then I'll make
 up my mind"
 Making up his mind" seemed to neces- sitate Junior attending most of the ball
 games he could get to that summer. As if the Pennsylvania State league teams did not furnish enough excitement for him he jouneyed several times to Phila- delrhia and New York to see the big
 league clubs perform In the early fall
 the football fever was in his blood and
 he had to attend the big games in which l Cornell was engaged
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-09

cover twice as much ground as ne does now He can deliver the mail more ex- peditonsly, and in the end more econom- ically
 Running Down the Rascals
 "Tel me something of your crusade against the fraudulent use of the mails?''
 "That is a big story in itself,' replied the Postmaster General. Tn brief, we believe that we have saved the people many millions of dollars by exposing the frauds which have been carried on , through the mails and by detecting and punishing the swindlers. We have al- ready sent many of these rascals to the penitentiary, and among them are some milionaires. We had a millionaire pass ing through Washington few days ago on his way to the state prison or Geor- ga, where he is to serve for a term or three years. We have an excellent man at the head of this business, and have already exposed more than 400 cases, representing swindling operations that have fiched from the pockets of unsus- pecting people more than Sl00,O00,000 We intend to go on with this, and we shall make 1t as dangerous as counter feiting. We are also punishing the men who have been transferring stamps from one post office to another to pad tho receipts and thereby raise the rank and pay of the office.'
 MT. Hitchcock's Work as Postmaster
 General
 Tn closing my interview congratulated the Postmaser General on the wonder- fu success he had in this great ofnce' where so many business men have faiied. In connection with this he said
 q am proud of what has been done since I became Postmaster General; but I can see that have had exceptional ad- vantages over most of the men who held this place in the past You see' came up, as 1t were, from the ranks. l had been connected with the machinery or the office when was first assistant post ma ster general and had frequently taken charge of the whole business as acting Postmaster General. During that time had more leisure than now, and l came to know the leaks and disadvantages of tho system and had the opportunity to make plans for its improvement. After my appointment these plans came into action I did not try to change the sys- tenn. but only to cut out the red tape and to remedy such parts of it as were DOS sble, at the same time introducing such business methods as would better it. I feel that we have done something in that we have wiped out the deficit, and in that we have improved the ser vice in many ways. But this Is only the beginning. There are many other things we might do, and you may look forward to better and better mails for tho future"