,^armirig;‘^^fur|k^y^lu, ai ! y B^S ) f 1964, n
. From Where We Stand..
The Fragile Wall
Reprint by special request
He thought about it afterwards
How had he been reduced, from
respected citizen to common beggar, m
just a few hours? How had it all start
ed?
It was only a tiny spot of printer’s
ink on the cuff of his trousers, but the
chain of events which followed produc
ed a comedy of errors without much
humor. Being reduced to begging is
seldom, if ever, funny
He had worked late that day on a
report promised before midnight. As
was his habit when quitting time found
him still in the office, he phoned his wife
to tell her he would be late.
“Why don’t you bring the report
with ydu and finish it at home 7 ” she
asked She said dinner was almost ready
- would be by the time he could drive
home and the children liked to eat
at least one meal per day with their
father. He could take the report to his
man after dinner.
He knew he was nearly out of
gasoline and had planned to stop on the
way home to fill up, but dinner was
waiting and he hurried on thinking he
would stop at the service station when
he went out later in the evening
With dinner over and the report
finished, he sat down for a few minutes
before delivering the material.
Then he thought about it that
spot of ink on his cuff would dry and
be hard to remove. It was a good thing
he wore “wash and year” pants, he
thought.
Into the laundry with his old paint
ing dungarees he went Onto the conven
ient shelf went keys, wallet, jack knife,
change and other assorted pocket para
phanaha Into the washer went the soil
ed trousers, and into the disreputable
old painting clothes went he.
He really needed a shave It had
been a long day, But he would just drop
the report into the letter slot and no one
would see him The hint of snow in the
air' made him think of his warmest
clothes so he reached for his old sheep
skin coat with the fur collar, and his old
stocking cap They didn’t look so good,
but he wasn’t planning to be out in so
ciety. He pulled on his boots against the
cold around his ankles, and he was on
his way.
Pocket the report, he thought, and
then stop and get gasoline at Paul’s
where he had a charge account. But the
hour was later than he realized and the
station was closed.
“Oh well”, he said, “There are other
stations open along the road.”
When he had gone quite a distance
from home he pulled in alongside the
pumps of a strange gasoline station and
reached for his wallet.
Truth came to him like a pricked
balloon in the pit of his stomach. He
saw in his mind’s eye the convenient
shelf in the laundry with the wallet on
it.
Well, only one thing to do Deliver
the report and hope there was enough
juice in the tank to let him reach home.
With the report delivered and the
nose of his car pointed toward home he
had begun to hope for the best when the
engine sputtered and died
Maintain Health
A<3 \ou grow older, jou need ■
just as muth protem and as Loncaster Farming
many \ Hamms and mmeials to Lancaster CountVs Own Farm Robert G Campbell,
maintain health, reminds Lou- Meekly
Home-owners might find the
next seieiail months a ven
Dining the next two months good time to get the lawn-onfow
a numbei oC educational meet- er sharpened and •serviced
mgs and sessions will be held Many seivice men will appre-
Established November 4. bv our Extension Service, these ciate the jvvoik at this slooi
But, iou need fewei calories 1055 Published e\ery Satur- will be conducted in order to time of the >ear and the ownei
~ . ... . „ . ~ , daj bj Lancaster-Farmmg, Lit- bring the latest information to will not be delayed by the
0 3 Upp y P ° en ' f>l,i ccs- , tz p a _ our county ifarmers. Our Penn spring rush Most mowers need
mineral-,, and vitamins, but L Mam St, State Extension Specialists will blades or kuues sharpened an
fewer .aloi.es, include sk.m tz J [ a £ Entered,** 2nd class matter f PP f r °" ' pr °“ ramS 3n d 111 to do a veil
poulm, • er ' -** nt T F„ nA ", *, . be here to jour ques- good job Many Rotary mowei -
ws >e TOUW ,s, ~ S£zu* m rAc of t r* M , ——•* be “'-««•
,™, t i .ro£Uflnb&Oß
ise Hamilton, Penn State ex-
tension nutrition specialist
Of Respectability
The lights of an all-night service
station winked “GAS” invitingly in the
distance. He turned up the collar of his
old sheepskin coat against the snow and
headed toward the lights.
He didn’t wonder at the startled
look on the face of the attendant as he
walked up to the pumps and tried to
explain his situation.
It wasn’t lack of money that bother
ed him. Many times before he had been
away from home with no money in his
pockets, but now he had been robbed of
his identity. He couldn’t even prove the
car he told the atendant about was his,
and he certainly didn’t look like he
could afford a car of any kind.
His pleas, his improbable story, and
the offer to leave his old sheepskin coat
and his boots as security finally moved
the heart of the attendant, and enough
gasoline for the trip home was handed
over.
He was thankful the attendant had
not demanded the coat and boots as col
lateral, and as he trudged back toward
the helpless car, he mused on the fates
which had changed him from respected
newspaper editor to common beggar in
just a few hours.
“The wall that separates beggars
from the likes of us is as fragile as a
film of mist,” he thought.
At least that’s how it looks from
where we stand.
Last year we Americans established
another record in beef production and
consumption. It worked out to some 95
pounds per person. And all the signs
point to another increase to 97
pounds per person in 1964.
That’s the prediction of the chair
man of the board of the American Meat
Institute. It means that total beef pro
duction will reach the astonishing figure
of almost 17 billion pounds this year.
And total red meat production is esti
mated at 30 6 billion pounds a figure
that only an accomplished higher mathe
matician can adequately visualize.
In this spokesman’s words, “The na
tion is fortunate in having a vigorous
livestock and meat industry that is able
to keep pace with this contmally ex
panding demand for total meat. Satisfy
ing this demand is a testimonial to the
effectiveness of the free enterprise sys
tem and its ability to meet the competi
tive challenge.”
That isn’t all The same spokesman
foresees no general increase in retail
meat prices in 1964. At the same time,
while prices hold steady, disposable in
come the actual amount of money we
have in our pockets to buy the multitude
of goods and services we need and want
is expected to rise So: “This means
that the American housewife will again
be spending a smaller portion of her
budget for meat, even though her family
will be eating more.”
Here is a happy prospect indeed
for just about everyone likes meat, eats
it once or more every day in the year
and, beyond that, modern dietetics tell
us that meat is a prime source of mental
and physical health and energy.
**********
P O Box 1124
Lancaster, Penna
P O Box 26G - Lititz, Pa.
• >•
★ ★ ★ ★
RECORD AFTER RECORD
Jack Owen, Editor
Adxertismg Director
! »I 1 /
r ■ to
THE ■aw .1 ,/
Aiasas'/*-
- SPEAKS
I'\ 'V I n laf«tn«U*n*l Uiiforn |
[ ] SuadAy Sch**l L*it»na | L __
I.
Two Rich Men
Lesson for January 26,1964
background Scripture
Luke 19 1-10.
Petotional Reading: Luke 12 22-31,
RICH MEN are not all alike,
any more than poor men are
a ike. Jesus knew both rich peo
ple and poor, though he himself
was very poor. Unlike some poor
men, Jesus did not hate a man for
being rich; he did not love a
for that ru
either. Luke tens
stories about two
rich men who en
countered Jesus,
and though he
does not follow
up his stories
about them (for
he was interested
chiefly in Jesus,
Dr. Foreman not in the people
Jesus knew) he does give us hints
as to what became of them.
A study in contrasts
Aside fiom being rich, these
two men, Zacchaeus and a young
man without a name, were dif
ferent in many ways. One was
young, the other probably older,
for the publicans’ game would
hardly make man rich over
night. One ot these men was
respected and honored in his
community; one writer calls him
a “ruler,” an office holder of some
kind He was no doubt popular
too; but the older man Zacchaeus
was beyond a doubt the most
hated man, or at any rate he be
longed to the most hated class
of people among the Jews. A pub
lican was a tax collector, and in
those days there was no fixed
rate. It was the publican’s busi
ness to squeeze the public for all
they would stand, and instead of
a salary, the publican, who had
bid for his appointment, was al
lowed by the Roman government
to keep whatever he could colled
above the amount of his bid.
Drawn by the same magnet
Did these two men, so different
m most ways, men who probably
never had met each other—did
they have anything in common
but their wealth? Even their
Now Is The Time . . .
To Cet Most From Your Machinery Dollar
Many dollars are invested in farm mach
mery, edonomists claim that tar too many
farmers are over-iinvested in machinery. In
larger operations it may he 'best to own the
various .pieces oif big machinery, however, in
many instances it might be more efficient'to
hire the 'work done. When expensive machin
ery is owned, then it is strongly advised to
follow the recommendations ot the manufac
turer in relation to care, operation, and
maintenance Stretch and protect these high
investments m farm machinery
To Kxpand Cautiously
Many farmers have .been forced into lar
ger production units in order to spread the
overhead and to attempt to meet expenses
MAX SMITH
Greater volume does not always result in greater net /profit
Efficient production is still the goal to successful farming; it’s
not the amount of money handled duimg the year but the
amount of profit left after all expeases have been paid When
we 'produce more than the market wlill 'consume, then we’re in
trouble Better management in ordei to get gieater yield ,pei
unit seems more fitting than larger entenpnses that bring on
gieatei surplusses
To Attend County Event#)
<t ' ? I *<l s ‘ Ij.
money was for the
younger man'Dad Scorn e by his
honestly, while the older man
had not. But there was one thing
that is true of both: they vveie
attracted to Jesus. The young
man expected that Jesus would
speak to him; Zacchaeus had no
such expectation. All he wanted
was to see the teacher from
Galilee. You may argue that this
wasn’t a very lofty desire —no
better than mere curiosity. But
it was something; and when Jesus
gave Zacchaeus (and all his
listeners too!) the shock of his
life by inviting himself to dinner
at the publican’s house, Zacchaeus
did not back away and make
excuses.
ra
M
Mark 10-17-31:
But now comes another dif
ference between these two men.
The nameless young man had a
definite question, about as impor
tant a question as could occur to
any one; he wanted to know how
to get hold of eternal life. He
must have thought Jesus knew—
and Jesus did. But the young man
would not take what Jesus said.
Anything but that l So the story
ends with the greedy publican giv
ing away half of what he owned,
and offering to make good 400%
any overcharges he had made to
his Jericho fellow-citizens; while
the young man went away sor
rowful. He wanted eternal life,
yes; but he wanted money even
more.
Two questions
Two questions come to mind,
on reading these stories. Is money
a bad thing in itself, so bad that
if you have it you must lose no
time in getting rid of it? The
answer is no. The young man was
challenged to give up all his pos
sessions; but Jesus did not low
rate the publican for giving away
only half. And some other com
paratively rich people whom Jesus
knew, he never encouraged to be
rid of their wealth at all. Money
is a dangerous thing, and for some
persons is spiritually fatal. But
Jesus did not prescribe this dras
tic operation for every one, any
more than a good doctor advises
all his patients to have their gall
bladders removed.
This brings up the other ques
tion: Did-Jesus mean to say that
we can buy our way into the
Kingdom of heaven? By no means.
A man’s money is not the meas
ure of his true self. God does not
reward us for being rich, nor for
being poor. What he looks at is
how we use what we have.
(Based on outlines copyrighted by the
Duismn of Christian Education, National
Council of the Chinches of Christ in the
U. S. A Released by Community Press
Service.)
BY MAX SMITH
N
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