4 Lancaster Farming, Friday, December 23, 1955
Lancaster County’s Own Farm Weekly Newspaper
Established November 4, 1955
Published every Friday by
OCTORARO NEWSPAPERS
Quarryville, Pa. Phone 378 -
Alfred C. Alspach
Ernest J. Neill
C. Wallace Abel
Robert G. Campbell
Robert J, Wiggins
Subscription Rates: $2.00 Per Year
Three Years $5.00; 5c Per Copy
Application for Second Class Mailing Privileges Pending
Merry Christmas.
Lancaster Farming joins in wishing you the most
merry, the most happy Yuletide.
Christmas has gone commercial to a great extent,
but there is always the dominance of the birth of the Christ
Child with those who carry the true Christmas spirit.
Christmas is a time of good fellowship, good food,
but a time to recall most of all what His birth nieans to
you. It’s a time of merriment, often unjustly so, and sacri
lege falls on the true spirit. It’s a time of memory, when
you recall hanging your sock by the fireplace (or the cook
stove) and awakening the next morning to find it crammed
from top to toe. And you laughed and laughed at th(T stick
of wood Santa Claus snitched from the wood box nearby
and stuck in pop’s sock. .
There were popcorn strings on the Christmas tree
bright balls and colorful candles, tinsel and toys, gifts
stacked beneath the tree or hung from the branches, and
snow on the spruce in the yard.
No one thought during the bountiful meal, with Old
Tom the turkey (the only one saved from a brood that lived
a self-demanded wild existence) in the center of the table,
about the stacks of food that suddenly became stacks of
dirty dishes. *
But it’s Christmas again and we’re wishing you
the most Merry one of all.
That word strikes deep fear whenever it is heard.
When it becomes a personal experience, reasons for this
fear are more pronounced, Such was the editor’s experience
last week. First consideration was to the safety of the ten
ants personally, next their household belongings. Personal
items lost can be of no consideration.
A lot of memories went up with the old place, good
times, times of tragedy, hard times, good times. Tables
were never bare, even in the midst of the depression; fam
ily life was strict but correct. Some of the family were born
there, some died there.
But after the death of both parents, the farm and
hcime were rented to a couple known for years who made
it as much of a home as if it were their own. Their care
and consideration for the home were equal to that of the
owner.
Next consideration must be to housing these ten
ants, for replacing the residence as quickly as possible. So
many things go through your mind when tragedy as this
strikes.
' ' At the same time, disregarding the sentimental
■ratae of the rooms, halls and the attic where you romped
4Sf a youngster, or the cool, cool basement with its rows
and rows of home canned goods, fried meats packed in lard,
consideration was given insurance coverage.
i You wonder if that insurance revision you made a
few years ago, when you tried to adjust values more nearly
to’/present day conditions, was sufficient. You wonder if
yojur other building coverage should not be reviewed more
closely now.
* Fir 6 can be fearful, tragic. At the same time, you
fiijd the real humanity in friends who offer consolation
you need it most. You realize the worth of fire com
panies that serve the farm districts.
But moi of all, you think of the thinking that per
haps should hav e been done before the event that couldn’t
possibly happen did happen.
One of the best philosophies we’ve encountered in
m£ny » year, one that can be applied so well, is this:
■ <. “I cried because I had no shoes, until I met a man
who fc*d no feet.”
Lancaster Phone 4-3047)
STAFF
MERRY CHRISTMAS
FIRE
PHILOSOPHY
Publisher
Editor
Business Manager
Advertising Director
Circulation Director
Voice Of
Lancaster Farms
AND FARM FRIENDS
(Readers are invited to write
comments on Lancaster Farm
ing; about current events, or
other topics. Letters should be
brief, and roust be signed.
Names will be withheld if re
quested. Editor;.
83 YEARS YOUNG
Pequea 83 years young I
enjoy reading your paper Jo
seph Cramer.
INTERESTING
Manfceim I like Lancaster
Farming very much Lots of inter
esting newis * and good recipes
Mrs. Nelson K Cooper.
WONDERFUL
Honey Brook (Chester County)
Your paper is wonderful.
Charles I Wilson.
FOR PEN PAL
Elizabethtown We have sub
scribed to Lancaster Farming and
now I am sending it a pen pal
of mine. Hoping she will receive
her first copy soon „ Mrs. J- A
Stum'pf- *
Editor’s Note: Mighty thought
ful idea some others might try.
If I’m correct, the pen pal in this
case is in Minnesota. For an un
usual Christmas present, why not
send a year’s subscription to
Lancaster Farming? EJN)
CONGRATULATIONS
Elizabethtown Want to con-i
gratulate you on your clean farm
paper, with the farm news and
also enjoy the women’s page so
much. May you have many suc
cessful years ahead- Enclosed find
my charter subscription check.
Mrs Irvin K- Snyder.
WE LIKE
Manheim Please-find $l-00
enclosed for charter subscription
to Lancaster Farming. We like
the paper very much. Mr. and
Mrs. Emmert 18. Will.
Governor and
Family Write
Holiday Plans
HARRISBURG —Plans for ob
servance of Christmas in (the
Executive Mansion by Governor
George M. Leader and the Leader
family were revealed today in a
(letter from Mrs- Leader, pub
lished in the December issue of
a news bulletin issued from the
Harrisburg office of the Pen
nsylvania State Poultry Federa
tion of which the Governor is an
honorary director- The letter
foIIows
“CHRISTMAS AT THE GOVERN
OR’S mansion
“This will be our first Christ
mas in the Governor’s Man- '
sion. It will be different. I am
sure the boys will miss going
out on the farm with their
father, choosing a tree, cut-
ting it, bringing it in, setting
it up and decorating it
“ For our family, probably
the highlight of the Christ
mas Season is the Leader
Family traditional party
when Great Grandma Leader,
and Grandpa Leader, their
seve'n children, wives and
husbands, and eighteen
grandchildren ‘"all get to
gether—have a supper
and exchange Christmas pres
ents-
“ The group has grown so
large in recent years that
few of us have a house big
enough to accommodate all
the relatives- But here in the
Executive Mansion, with its
twenty-four rooms and eight
baths, there will be no ques
tion about space and we are
looking forward to making
full use of it
“We hope that you will have
the same joyous Holiday
Season with your families.”
/s/-Mary Jane Leader
(Mrs. George M- Leader)
50 Years Ago
This Week on Lancaster Farms
(This Week In 1905)
By JACK REICHARD
Fifty years ago this"week mem
bers of the Octoraro Farmers’
Club met at the residence of Ben
jamin H Pownall, near Smyrna,
in Sadsbury Township.
Subjfcts up for discussion at
that meeting included: “Will
Better Agriculture Education
(Courses lead the boy back to -the
Farm? Will the establishment of
Parcel Post be an advantage to
farmers? Is care enough exer
cised in the selection of pictures
for our homes’ Will a cow give
more milk in pasture than If the
grass was cut and fed to her in
the stable?”
During this-same week in 1905
the livery stable at the West End
Hotel and an adjoining'bne owned
by Dr. J. E. Aungstadt, Elizabeth
town, were destroyed by fire re
ported of incendiary origin All
contents including vehicles, har
ness, farm implements, some hay,
straw and grain were consumed
in the blaze. All horses kept at
the stables were saved.
John C. -Hoyt and Robert H
Anderson, of the Hydrographic
Branch of the U. S Geological
Survey, reported that the Sus
quehanna Raven: was most impor
tant drainage basin in the North
Atlantic States. The report-show
ed that 47 per cent of the drain
age area of Pennsylvania lay in
the watershed along Dhe Susque
hanna River.
Baekerovnd Sprlpt«r#» Luke 11J14-
>12:3. 64-59.
D«T«tioo*l Rudlsi: Psalm 24:1-6.
Being a Hypocrite
Lesion for J»nu»ry 1, 1958
NOBODY ever began his list ol
New Year’s Resolutions with
this: “I resolve this year to be a
hypocrite.” Nobody wants to bs
a hypocrite, no one loves such a
person. As if they were not al
ready detested
Jesus shot
at them his most
piercing sar
casms. The pa-
thetic thing is that
even the best peo-
ple can slip into
hypocrisy withoilt
knowing it. Since
Jesus "told oft”
the hypocrites of Dr * Foreman
Galilee very plainly, we can see
just what it is that makes hypo
crites what they are, and be
warned.
Showy Stuff
Jesus condemned the Pharisees
for being concerned with the looks
of things most of all. As he put It,
they cleaned up the outside of the
cup and the platter but the inside
was left dirty. They themselves,
he said, were like graves over
which men walked without know
ing they were there. Outside, they
were a grassy park. Down under,
inside, they were nothing but de
cay. The other day a bulldozer
turned up four little coffins under
what is now an airport. Nobody
had guessed those bodies were
under the grass The first thing
any one asked, after,, “Who were
these’” was “Where shall we
put them now?” It turned out that
the four little bodies, buried a
century ago, belonged to one
family; and ode living relative
could be found—but she did not
even want to look Let them be
put under grass somewhere else,
hide them as soon as possible.
Well, there are characters like
that. Cover all the dead stuff
with something pretty,—whatever
looks right is right . . . Keep
thinking that that way,
and you will be a hypocrite too.
Trifling Stuff
Another count against the Phar-
•ppyrw »
-try-s' 4 fit
Wilson. Pugh & Wilson, carri
age builders, offered 56 used
sleighs for sale at public auction
at their factory at Oxford, Pa The
sleighs, consisted of Partlands,
Speeders and Half-speeders of
their own design, “all selected
stock without a blemish”.
Bernard Shaw remarked in one
of his plays that “The man with
a toothache thinks everyone
whose teeth are sound, and the
poverty-stricken man makes the
same mistake about the rich man”.
In Berks County the scarcity
of game was attributed to foxes-
Members of organized liiffifmg
clubs pledged not to shoot the
animals Farmers organized to
destroy them-
Down in Delaware a number of
persons were arrested
the holly law passed, by the 1905
legislature in that 'state. The
new law imposed a penalty of $5O
fine for every twig or branch cut
on any farm or woods without the
owner’s consent.
Not Too Much
An old" lady was celebrating
her 100 th birthday and as she
sat cocking in her dhair on the
front -porch, her glasses perched
on her. nose, a newspaper re
porter said to her:
- “Grandma, you miuiSt have seen
a lot in the past 100 years.”
“Not much.” was the sad reply.
“Everything was always over by
the time I’d find my glasses.”
isees was that they spent »o much
time and energy on little thing!
that they missed the greater
thing* that a truly good life win
have. You could see Pharisees
out in their back yards counting
their mint-leaves. Every tenth
leaf belonged to the Lord, - they
said; every tenth bean, every
tenth lettuce-leaf, and so on. Bui
leaf-counting- took up too much
of their time. Justice? The love
of God? They had no time for
it. They were too busy with mint*
leaves. Now it is good to be con.
scientious about tithes; Jesus had
nothing to say against that in it.
self. But it is rather interesting
that the only times when Jesus
mentioned tithing, he condemned
the people who did it.—Not for
doing it, but for supposing that
that was the main thing m re
ligion. When Jesus ( picked out
something on which all the “law
and the prophets” hang, a kind
of nail holding up the rest of the
Bible, he picked something big:
Love to God and love to one’s
neighbor.
Old Stuff
Another way to be a hypocrite
is to be so much interested in the
past that you do not apply Re
ligion to the present. In Jesus’
vivid language, the hypocrite*
built the prophets’ tombs, but
they were children of those who
had muidered the prophets, and
they were the people who would
murder Jesus himself. They hon
ored the prophets of the past; but
prophets of the living present they
could not see and did not honor.
It is an ancient and still strong
temptation. There are persona
in America who are very proud
of ancestors who crossed the
ocean to worship God freely; but
who themselves will not cross a
wet street to go to church. There
are persons proud of their revo
lutionary ancestors, who attach
with every weapon of slander any
one who has any proposals for
change today. Revolution in the
18th century—fine!
Revolution in the twentieth cen
tury-horrible! There are people
who wish to preserve every line
■of some historic creed and shout
down every one who has the least
suggestion of change; they for*
get that- the creed-makers they
honor were themselves radical*,
innovator*, dangerous men in the
eyes of their time. A church that
becomes a preserver of antiqui
ties, a historical society, and
nothing more, with- nothing to »ay
to now, is a church the Pharisee*
would have loved . but not
Jesus
(Bated tn ettllnce oopyrlthled b j tk»
Civilian ef ChrltUtn Education, Na
tional Council of iht Chnrehet of Ckrlt*
In tho O, S. A Keleated br Comm tally
Brett Servlet.l aMMH
’~W