Norwich bulletin., 1919-12-12

2 , s-4 s \ Written Specially for Tie Bulletin. l According to the Kansas City Star, which is one Of the levei-headedest newspapers published either west or east of the Mississippi. the present in- duStrial situation "callS ' for hard, straight thinking" If we think hard and straight the Star opines that we shall come through the strike epidemic ] all right. But, If we fail to think. we shall get bumped.' The Star goes on to remark that Nature everywhere off, fers us these alternatives. She says to us all:
 You have got brains. Use them They will guide you to sensible con clusions. If you won't use them, it will have to beat some sense into you with a club You won't like that You will be all bruised and sore. But it's the only way to deal with people who re- fuse to use their heads"
 The Kansas paper is talking about strikes and I Won't Works and so- cialists and alien propagandists Of se- dition Undoubtedly 1t is right in what it says. about the country's need to use it's common sense vigorously in regard to them. But that Is topic which must leave to the political and eco homie editors. You and I and this ,, column are more interested@in success ful farming. just now. than in even a coal strike. se
 By the way, wonder how $ many New England farmers have. put them selves into subjection to coal? Years | ago. when my old father got too,feeble to cut his own firewood from his. own mountain woodlot. he bought a coal 1 stove and had his winters fuel brought Ito the cellar by the coal man. When came back to the farm. without giving | the matter any real thought, kept on with his method. did so until the big Pennsylvania anthracite strike sudden lv shut off our supply. We puttered getting wheelbarrow load here and a. barrel full there and piecirg out
 with hardwood. chunks. But 1t was worrisone and unsatisfactory When
 after some month or six weeks of it the
 fact. became clear to me that neither
 the coal mine owners nor the coa
 miners cared hoot whether the res
 If the country. froze or not, so long as
 they had their wav-wh:-. then. de.
 ciared my indenendence of 'enl both
 | bought q, couple Of cheap "airtight'
 wood burning stoves which would talk in chunks as big as one wanted tt
 handle and. when tbrs fefl. would keer q steady fire for twelve hours. boueh 1 ! thirty acre woodlot adjoining m! l 17vn and, from that day to this. havt
 burned wood only.
 It's some work to cut and draw dewr
 from the mountain fifteen or tUenty
 cords of wood. It's some work to saV
 it and split it and pile it and seasol
 it. and dry it and get it ready for tn,
 stove. But. as rule among the farm
 CTS with whom I am best acquainted we have to work for about everything
 else. we get. We certainly have t
 work for the money to pay the coa
 man, if we use that fuel. Work quit as long and as hard, I fancy, as if ",
 got our own fuel from our own for l ests.
 And thea conforta ole assurance whicl
 substantial woodpile by the bacl door gives any farmer that he will b. able to keep warm. all winter an, have three regular meals cooked is no to be ignored. It's one of the bless
 ings Of a farmers life that he can hee1 the wolf from his door and Jack Eros outside his home. without dependtn upon the greed of coal owners or tn
 ignorance of coal miners for his yer. existence.
 We'll admit that shut-;n winter i : Q lonely farmhouse on q back roa : among the hills offers a somewha dismal prospect in several ways. But lands salles, with cellar full Of eat ables and q woodhouse full of fuel, tn . outlook, even on windy Hardscrabblc : isn't IS dismal as that Of the cit tenant, dependent upon the corne , grocer for his next meal and the coa /. man for something to cook it with .. and never sure from one hour to an other but some strike will shut off bot sources of supply.
 But to come back to the westerl
 1apeT's text. However true may b
 it's avernent that the country. as
 whole has the alternative of using it
 brains in the present crisis or gettin,
 a whale of a thrashing. the cognat
 ossertion is even more certain that tn
 farmer who won't use his brains in hi
 daily business is cock-sure to get
 taste of Natures club
 For that dreadful old lady is an ever
 present illustration of Col. Roosevelt.
 admonition to walk softly and carry
 big stick" She swings across tn,
 parallels and through the seasons witt
 the most nonchalant air in the world
 She seems as demure as kitten lick
 ing it's paws-tin you get in her way
 Then she cheWs you up and distribute
 your relics along her path with an -ab solutely impersonal disregard for you wishes. .,s
 r Talk about the folly of rnonkeyin, with buzz -sawi That's wisdom in
 carnate compared with. the folly 0