1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



SGI 



Our Homes 



By A. I. Root 



I am come that they might have life, and that 

 they might have It more abundantly. — John 10 : 10. 



Take no thousrht for your life, what ye shall eat, 

 or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what 

 ye shall put on. — Matt. 6 : 25. 



I shall have to confess that the second 

 one of our texts was for many years per- 

 plexing to me. Even when a child it was 

 hard for me to understand why Jesus should 

 tell us to take no thought in regard to what 

 we should eat or drink or what we should 

 put on ; but of late I have been coming to 

 understand that he meant we should take 

 no anxious thought about our food or ap- 

 parel. In view of what has been said lately 

 in regard to overeating, we can readily 

 understand how his pure heart was pained 

 to see so many people devoting their lives 

 to the matter of preparing elaborate dishes 

 and great varieties of food ; and the same 

 way in regard to raiment. We notice in the 

 daily papers almost constantly accounts of 

 women who have not only hundreds but 

 thousands of dollars invested in fashionable 

 clothing; but when it comes to jewelry and 

 diamonds, if we designate these as articles 

 of apparel, the amount of money carried 

 about by 07ie woman on her person would 

 feed the starving people in China and other 

 foreign lands for a long time at least.* 



Just now much is being said in regard to 

 high prices of the necessaries of life ; but, 

 oh dear me ! peojole who are earning only 

 moderate wa:ges might live and lay up 

 something for a rainy day if they did not 

 think it incumbent on them to keep up 

 with style and modern customs. Just now I 

 am rejoicing and happy with a very little 

 rolled oats and milk, as I have told you sev- 

 eral times on these pages, and plenty of 

 fruit. Apples are so cheap now that every- 

 body can have them in plenty. Less than 

 a week ago I could not get good apples 

 cheaper than three for a dime ; but now we 

 have plenty in our orchard, and I suppose 

 most people can get a ivhole peck of good 

 wholesome apples for a dime instead of 

 only three. And now in regard to raiment 

 or clothing. How much is really needed to 

 preserve health, especially during the sum- 

 mer time? or if you go down to Florida 

 with Mrs. Root and me, how much is really 

 needed the whole year round ? I propose to 



* Here i": what Everybody' s has to say in regard to 

 "raiment" for women: 



In no other country do women spend so much money on 

 th'-ir personal adornment as in America. The American 

 woman is clothes-mad; not only does she wear more expen- 

 sive clothes and jewels than women of other countries, but 

 she wears a far great>r variety, and her taste for elaborate- 

 ness amounts to a craze. Nowhere in the world doep one 

 see this same ovenlressing save among the rfcc/o.svep women 

 abroad — at Trouville. ( istend. or some such continental water- 

 ing place. Throughout Europe the women of high nobility 

 and social position are like wrens compared with these cock- 

 atoos of the half-world. It is an unpleasant thought that it is 

 the latter who set the standard which our fashionable women 

 follow with naive avidity. 



discuss the matter directly in this Home 

 paper. Let me digress a little. 



Almost forty years ago, shortly after 

 Gleanings was started, in some way or 

 other I became acquainted with Professor 

 Cook, then of the Michigan Agricultural 

 College ; and after we had corresponded 

 quite a little, and he had sent us some help- 

 ful notes for Gleanings, as you will dis- 

 cover by looking over our early volumes, I 

 made a trip to Michigan and looked through 

 that, not only one of the first, but one of 

 the very best, of our agricultural colleges 

 and experiment stations. Long will I re- 

 member when Professor Cook invited me to 

 his own house, and permitted me to have a 

 glimpse of that model home. There were 

 two children in that home at that time — a 

 bright boy and a girl; and, besides these, 

 the mother, Professor Cook's good wife. If 

 Bert Cook is not at present a great and good 

 man he certainly ought to be, with such a 

 mother as he had. It has been my privi- 

 lege during this life God has permitted me 

 to live, to meet with many great and good 

 men and women; and may he be praised 

 for it. Mrs. Cook was a model mother. She 

 was educated, bright, and intelligent, well 

 posted, and up to the times, and it was 

 really a beautiful sight to see and hear her 

 talk to those lovely children. They were a 

 busy family all around. In order to teach 

 the children language as well as Bible, if I 

 remember right, the morning Bible read- 

 ings were partly in a different language 

 from theirs; and it was wonderful how those 

 two children took hold, and how the whole 

 household seemed to have caught the spirit 

 of teaching and learning from my good 

 friend Professor Cook. He was then in his 

 youth, and full of a sort of boyish enthusi- 

 asm for his work.* I have before remarked 

 that his peculiar method of teaching has 

 so impressed itself on his many pupils that 

 whenever I have met one of them anywhere 

 I have almost invariably recognized that 

 they were at some time in their lives stu- 

 dents under Professor Cook. 



After breakfast my good friend took me 

 the rounds among his different classes; and 

 I was not only rejoiced but greatly profited. 

 ^Yhen we came around at dinner time Mrs. 

 Cook inquired about the different recita- 

 tions. I was especially interested in a class 

 in physiology; and when she asked her good 

 husband what line of talk he gave the 

 pupils in that morning's physiology class, 

 he replied, with a comical look, "Why, my 

 dear wife, I talked to them this morning 

 about nightgoivns.'' And, dear friends, that 

 morning talk about nightgowns has fol- 

 lowed rne (and troubled me) more or less 

 for about forty years; and therefore I wish 



* Professor Cook, at the time I mentioned, not 

 only loved his work— that of teaching students, 

 but he loved the students themselves, each and 

 every one of them, in fact. I am sure his old pupils 

 will endorse this statement. In his home in Cali- 

 fornia he raa.v be doing noir the same kind of work: 

 but he is so far away that somehow we here in the 

 East do not feel his touch and enthusiasm as we 

 used to do in olden times. 



