362 



GLEANINGS IN BKK CI LTIMK 



.llNE 1 



churches, and every thing else that is good 

 and pure and holy in (Jod's sight. 



You remember our talk about corn, and 

 how it has been demonstrated again and 

 again that a little scientific work in select- 

 our seed corn will add bushels and dollars to 

 the corn croj). Last fall we went over our 

 field corn just before cutting, and selected 

 four bushels of nice ears, taking each ear 

 from a hill of four good stalks. A few days 

 ago I picked out five kernels from each ear 

 of corn, and planted them all in the green- 

 house, tiumbering the ears from one up to 

 about a hundred. As the corn was kept 

 carefully all winter near a steam-])ipe, al- 

 most every one of the 500 kernels sent up a 

 good strong shoot. At first I began to think 

 my test was useless, for en ry kernel was 

 going to grow. At the final examination, 

 however, I found a little more than 12 ears 

 where only four kernels grew instead of five. 

 The fifth one had rotted, or was very slow in 

 starting. By discarding these ears our seed 

 corn planted had an excellent chance of hav- 

 ing every kernel that we plant have good 

 strong vitality. It is not only the farmers 

 here up north, but the gardeners down 

 around Bradentown, Fla., who have just 

 discovered that it pays, and pays tremen- 

 dously, to have the very best strain of seed 

 that can be produced. We used to have 

 our crop injured sometimes in the fall just 

 because of a lack of good seed. Our leading 

 seedsmen have of late caught on to the im- 

 l)ortance of furnishing particular customers 

 nothing but the very best. In market-gar- 

 dening, raising chickens, horses, cattle, or 

 pigs, we are making great progress. The 

 government is issuing bulletins, and the 

 sejiarate States have other bulletins, giving 

 the farmers the benefit of the very latest 

 scientific investigation; and our experiment 

 stations and agricultural colleges and uni- 

 versities have done likewise'. Now just wait 

 a minute. On page 613, Oct. 1, last year, 

 you will find in fine print the following: 



There are two widely prevalent di.sease.s, both 

 contagious and infections, that are causlns untold 

 human misery and loss of life, and nofhing is being 

 done to ijrevent them. 



After that was printed I suggested it must 

 be a mistake. It seemed to me incredible 

 that nothing (it edl had been done in the 

 way of ])revention. The above statement 

 came from tlie Ohio Board of Health, and 

 so far I have not been able to find there was 

 any mistake about it. Our nation and our 

 separate States, as I have said, are doing 

 wonderful things to improve the health of 

 pur horses, cattle, and pigs, but nothing as 

 yet to protect our children along the same 

 line. Of course, we are giving children bet- 

 ter health, and we have stojjjjcd to a great 

 extent giving the baby "s()Othing-syru])s " 

 containing morjjhine and other baleful 

 drugs. And this paves the way for me to 

 tell you something that perhaps not all of 

 you know already. Cigarettes especially, 

 when given to children, not only make them 

 imbecile, but it is a powerful i)romoter of a 

 precocious develoi)ment of the sexual in- 



stinct. Prof. Winfield S. Hall, of the Chi- 

 cago I'niversity, has just been called by our 

 Medina Y. M. C. A. to come here and give 

 his celebratetl lecture to boys and young 

 men. Knowing that I was interested in 

 this matter I had a special invitation to go 

 and sit with over two hundred boys and listen 

 to Prof. Hall. His lecture was directed 

 l)rincipally to this matter of exi)iaining to 

 the boys sexual matters and warning them 

 of the fearful results that follow from care- 

 less trilling with these wonderful functions 

 (Jod has imi)lanted within us to jjcrpetuate 

 the liuman race. Prof. Hall has himself 

 made some startling discoveries along this 

 line. The boy who makes no })rogress in 

 his studies — the one who is weak and puny 

 in both mind and body, is. nine times out 

 of ten, the boy who has fallen into the ci- 

 garette habit, and through that into some- 

 thing even worse. After I listened to Prof. 

 Hall a kind friend sent meabook called'Ter- 

 fect Manhood," by Prof. T. W. Shannon, 

 Fredericktown, Mo. Prof. Shannons book 

 is so much in line with I>r. Hall's lecture 

 that it is a matter of suri)rise: but as nearly 

 as I can determine, neither one knows any 

 thing about what the other is doing. " Per- 

 fect ^Nlanhood " is a good-sized Viook of l"i8 

 l)ages, and yet the price is only 25 cents, in 

 paper, or 50 cents in cloth. If this book 

 were put in the hands of every boy in his 

 teens in the United States, my ()i)inion is 

 that no one living can estimate the amount 

 of good it would do.* The writer, it seems, 

 is emi)loyed in going about giving lectures 

 to men and boys, and this book is a histo- 

 ry, largely, of what he has met in his trav- 

 els. After his talk, many sufferers have 

 come to him for advice and counsel. He is 

 a minister of the gospel, and a veritable John 

 the Baptist, delivering his message to a sin- 

 ful and suffering i)eoi)le. 



Some way or other it seems as if tlje great 

 Father above were sending a lot of messages 

 along this line all at once. Here in our own 

 town of Medina, in order to encourage a 

 spirit of unity among the denominations we 

 have a union meeting e\ ery Sunday eve- 

 ning, instead of fouror five meetings in that 

 many different churches. A minister of 

 one denomination preaches one night, and 

 another the next, and so on. But just re- 

 cently the ministers all stei)ped aside and 

 invited Prof. Carlton, sui)erintendenl of our 

 Medina schools, to occupy the pulpit. One 

 of our good-sized churches was crowded with 

 people. In his talk Prof. Carlton jnit strong 



* Below is Judge Lindsley's opinion of another 

 book by the same author after having read it: 



lOvery boy should read or hear siu'h leet ures as the 

 four you have published in "The'lVentieth Centm-y 

 Hoy." It seems to me that you have taken the mat- 

 ter up along proper lines. 'I"he lessons shown from 

 the flowers and animals in your first lecture is a 

 very helpful and inspiring method of iinitarting 

 such a delicate but very necessary knowledL-e. 

 Y<jur second and third lectui-es. showins the rela- 

 tion of the vital force to ideal mauhooii. and how 

 the dissipation of this energy produces stunted boys 

 and defective men are masleipieces of vital truths 

 presented in simjile language. \\\\h kindest re- 

 gards I am sincerely yours. — Mkn fi. Lindsi.ey, 

 .ludge of the Juvenile conrt. Denver. Col. 



