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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



June 15 



that we can not only get good health, but 

 very much better he .1th, by eating only a 

 little of some plain anil simple article of 

 food, and only one or at most two kinds of 

 food at the same meal. Not only this, but 

 I had in some way caught on to the imjjor- 

 tance of eating slowly and chewing thor- 

 oughly. See italics in the third i)aragraph 

 in the above. Again, I decided ;>5 years 

 ago that the most ddicions food I could 

 get hold of was boiled wheat, with butter 

 and clover honey, liut the ehrapesf meal, 

 and perhai)S almost as delicious as the 

 wheat, was hulled corn. .Tust think of it — 

 X cent's worth of corn satisfied the appe- 

 tite and gave abundant strength to do good 

 hard work in the open air ! A meal entire- 

 ly of beans cost a little more. Of course 

 many articles of food cost more than they 

 did :55 years ago; but it still remains true 

 that anybofly who cares to cut down living 

 exjienses can easily do it and have better 

 health — yes, far better — than where we pay 

 anywhere from 15 to 50 cents for a good 

 square meal t/iree times a day, week in and 

 week out. 



Much is said at the present time about 

 the exorbitant prices of all sorts of food, etc. 

 In order to show you that things are not in 

 such a terribly bad condition now, let me 

 make another quotation from that journal 

 printed o5 years ago: 



From quotations from W. P. Southworth A- Co., 116 

 Ontario St., Cleveland. O., I glean the following: 



Standard A coffee sugar by the barrel, 1054 cents: 

 retails for 12/4. (lolden syrup in 5-lb. kegs, 66 cents: 

 retails at 81.00. Cod-fish, 25 lbs.. 5K cents: retails at 

 8 cents, (ierman erasive soap, by the box. 4^ cents: 

 retails at 8 cents. Soda and saleratus. 10-lb. lot.s. 7 

 cents: retails at 10 cents. Oatmeal and barley in 

 2n-lb. lots, 5 and 7 cents: retails for 8 and 10. Corn 

 ■starch in 40-lb. boxes, 10 cents; retails at 15. Rice, 

 10-lb. lots. 8^: retails for 12. 



Four hours ago I stepped into a neighbor's gro- 

 cery and selected canned goods for my dinner. I 

 ate a full forty cents' worth, and yet was no better 

 satisfied than with my three cents' worth of wheat, 

 butter, and honey. 



I have selected only a few of the necessaries as 

 samples: tea, coffee, and tobacco would certainl.y 

 be out of place in a home where economy is to be 

 made one of the fine arts, it seems to me. to say 

 nothing of other objections. 



Dear friends, if you get right down to it, 

 there are many things that are very much 

 cheaper than they were 35 years ago. 



"DIGGING OI'R GRAVES WITH OI'R TKETH." 



My clear ifrot/ie/- .—Glkanings comes to our table 

 regularly, and your kindly brotherly suggestions 

 show th.at you find something in life of far more 

 value than mere paltry dollars. 1 note with spe- 

 cial interest what you say in your issue of May 1 

 relative to the omission of supper. I am sure .vour 

 j)!an is. an excellent one. As a rule our people are 

 "digging their graves with their teeth." We have 

 all been eating too much, ev-en of " health foods." 



Many years ago I practiced what you preach now, 

 and found it very helpful. Then I came in touch 

 with Dr. Dewey's and Haskell's "no breakfast " 

 l)lan. and al.so omitted breakfast. While I have 

 not strictly adhered to the jilan. my exjierience has 

 been that one poail meal a daij. about 11 o'clock a.m.. 

 and then a few wholewheat crackers and good ripe 

 fruit, as you suggest, about 6 o'clock p.m.. are all 

 that <Mir bodies retiulre to remain in good health. 



I have i)leasure in mailing you one of Mr. Has- 

 kell's books under .separate cover. I'lease receive 

 It with my compliments, and read as much or as 

 little as you like. There is good in all these cults: 

 and when combined with Fletcher's method of 



"chewing the stufl^ng out " of every mouthful of 

 food, we rise to higher levels of living. 

 Boonville. Mo. K. W. Pfaffenbekger. 



Accompanying the above kind letter was 

 a beautiful book of over "200 pages by ('has. 

 T. Haskell, of Norwich, Ct. Price $1.00. 

 The title of the book is, "Perfect Health: 

 How to (iet it and How to Keep it. Hy 

 One who Has it." The book is, from be- 

 ginning to end, a story of how hundreds of 

 ailing people cured themselves of various 

 disea.ses without a particle of medicine. 

 The book goes a little further than I have 

 gone as yet, inasmuch as it includes going 

 without breakfast as well as sujjper^one 

 good wholesome meal a day. There are let- 

 ters from more than a hundred i)eople who 

 were literally "digging their graves with 

 their teeth," and did not know it till Dr. 

 l^ewey and Mr. Haskell opened their eyes. 

 Home of our readers may remember that I 

 gave a review of Dewey's book in Glean- 

 ings for March 1, 1896. Dr. Dewey at that 

 time was having great success in curing peo- 

 ple, even though they were down to the 

 brink of the grave, by "going without their 

 breakfast;" fasting, etc., and they are still 

 alive, and he is still healing humanity in 

 that way. Of course, going without your 

 breakfast simply does not cure all diseases; 

 but going without food till Nature has had 

 a chance to catch uj) is certainly curing a 

 lot of ])eople. I was particularly interested 

 in one chapter in the book where a lot of 

 prominent people who had become strong 

 and well by fasting met together in what 

 they called" a "fasters' feast." Both men 

 and women, now strong and well, testified 

 to having fasted all the way from three days 

 to thirty or forty, and e\en fifty-five days 

 in one case. Some of you "may say you 

 would rather die than go "without" eating for 

 so long a time as the above. Very well; it 

 is your privilege; but I for one am going to 

 live to a good old age if so simi)le a thing as 

 going without food will enable Nature to 

 correct and remedy all ills. The author of 

 the book tells us that going without break- 

 fast jw.s< twice cured him of a headache that 

 doctors had worked on before for (k/ht 

 }/(ars without effecting a cure. I do not 

 suppose it makes very much difference 

 whether you go without breakfast or sup- 

 per; but in my case sujjper seems to be the 

 better one to omit, because I have a good 

 complete rest (and sl<(p) just before sitting 

 down to the two other meals. 



THE STARVATION C TnE: WII.I, IT WORK WITH ALL 

 PEOPLE ALIKE? 



Mr. Root. — I trust I sliall not be considered pre- 

 sumptuous for writing to you to warn you against 

 attempting a prolonged fast as you proposed on p. 

 231. 



Vour attenuated body has not enough reserved 

 material laid up in it. Your highly nervous tem- 

 perament keeps the sui)ply used up about as fast as 

 It is digested. You have no surplus flesh. Some 

 people store a great deal t)f surplus llesh until over- 

 loaded, .and still continue storing. 



.Some store a great deal, but use it in case of need, 

 and can perform great feats of prolonged exertion, 

 and could fa.st a long while. I believe some could 

 fast twice forty days. The system can be trained tf) 

 control the storing and al.so the using, in certain 



