Gas from The Tramp Preacher’s Tank Jesus said, ‘Blessed
are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall
be filled’. Matt. 5:6.
Everybody knows that a good appetite is a bit of a treasure.
That is all who have never lost it. There are several good reasons
why a good appetite is a blessing.
First it is a mark of life. Only living things hunger and
thirst. You know living trees pull from the Earth gallons of water
every day. When a tree ceases to hunger and thrist it is DEAD.
Then it is a mark of normal and healthy life. The Physician
asks, ‘How is your appetite’. It is needful to keep the
body in repair. It is also a roadway to growth.
Again it is a source of genuine enjoyment. Not much surpasses
the enjoyment of a big meal with a big appetite. Mother’s bread
was so good largely because we had not developed dyspepsia.
There are other hungers than the hunger for bread. Jesus said,
‘Man shall not live by bread alone’. Man shares hunger with
all the lower animals. The dog eats and drinks but wonders not what
is on the other side of the mountain. We are not even satisfied
with the knowledge of what is on the other side of the mountain we
want to know the Creator of it all. Phillip said, ‘Show us the
Father and we will be satisfied’. In this he voiced a hunger
that is as old as man.
Here is a picture of an Avery Tractor sold new in 1920 at
Bedford, Iowa to J. E. Shogran, now owned by Francis Koehler,
Winterset, Iowa.
My 1927 Model F Fordson in nice running order.
Here is a picture of a gas shovel taken at a chat pile by our
place.
So often we misunderstand our longings. We seek satisfaction in
so many things and they all disappoint. We are often satisfied with
the second best and allow our higher hunger to become dormant.
There is a vast number of people who have no taste for the
spiritual. You may have heard of the man getting on the wrong
street car. He was going to a Sunday Baseball game and got on a car
going to an evangelistic service. He said, ‘I was certainly in
one hell of a fix’. What was heaven to the saint was hell to
the sinner.
This BLESSES is for those who hunger and thrist after
righteousness. Then we ask ‘what is this righteousness?’
The answer is GOOD. However, that is not very thrilling in this
day. It is a compliment when people say, ‘He is a good
man’. Don’t get the idea that this is a luke warm
something. A soldier, lay for long hours in a trench said he he
would give his arm for a drink of water. Jacob was thirsty when he
said to the Angel, ‘I will not let thee go except thou bless
me’.
This does not mean that we shall ever have this appetite and
thirst satisfied. Like normal hunger it returns for more shortly.
We are growing children and need to come to the Lord’s table
often.
This is a picture of some of my gas engine collection. The two
on the right are Fairbanks. The one on the left is, I think, a
Hercules.
First let me call your attention to the picture of the Case
40-72 with my wife standing by the side of it. You can get some
idea of the. size of this hugh old tractor when I tell you that my
wife is 5′ 8′ tall. We found this Case July, 1959 on our
vacation drive through Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. It is located
several miles south of Austin, Minnesota at Maurice Boot’s
place. I must say I never saw an old tractor so throughly cleaned,
painted and restored as this 40-72 Case is. The engine number is
44378 and it was built about 1924.
This Hart Parr gas model was built by myself in two years’
spare time from the original 1903 model. It has the features of the
Hart Parr both in operation and looks.
This model is a one-quarter scale of the original Hart Parr
tractor and is all handmade. It’s built from sheet metal and
strap iron. All castings are hand cut and welded together as are
all the gears. Every thing on the tractor is handmade, no parts
were purchased and put on. It weighs approximately 580 pounds,
approximately three horse power, runs on straight gasoline and is a
hit and miss like the original. It has a three inch bore and four
inch stroke. It is oil cooled through the radiator, has oil drip
cups which were used on the first Hart Parrs and were later changed
to pump.
I’m employed as an operator at the City Power Plant and take
much interest in machinery. I grew up with these old time tractors
and threshers. My father owned a 1903 Hart Parr and thresher. We
lived on a large farm and did a lot of threshing, breaking and
plowing with a 30-60 Hart Parr tractor. My father used this tractor
for about twenty-eight years with very little repair.
It holds many memories for me and I enjoyed building the model.
This model has been displayed at the reunions and will be on
display again this year.
