1910 



GLKANINd.S IN BEE CULTURE 



m 



Our Homes 



By A. I. Root 



And the Lord (iod fonued man of the dust of the 

 ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath 

 of life: and man became a living soul. — Genesis 2 :7. 



Dear friends, this is going to be a home 

 paper. After you get through with it, see 

 if you do not agree with me. A few issues 

 ago I gave you a talk about nightgowns and 

 keeping our bodies clean; and, by the way, 

 I do not know but I have risen earlier since 

 I wrote that article, because as soon as I 

 wake up I look forward with enthusiasm to 

 my open-air exercise without a rag of cloth- 

 ing to encumber me. Our sleeping-rooms 

 are cold; and when I first get out of bed it is 

 cold work. But just as quick as that night- 

 gown drops from my limbs I commence a 

 vigorous rubbing just as fast as I can make 

 my hands go. Every portion of my body 

 is rubbed with the naked hand until the 

 friction warms me up all over. Then I put 

 on my clothing for the day, and feel full of 

 enthusiasm for whatever needs to be done, 

 the minute I get out into the open air; and 

 pure cold air is to be my topic just now. 



Mrs. Root and I have not yet arranged for 

 an outdoor bedroom; but my two boys and 

 their families all sleep outdoors, even down 

 to the youngest, and all enjoy it. Now, I 

 suppose every one of you can get hold of 

 JkcClure's Magazine for August, without 

 very much trouble. You had better do it, 

 even if it does cost some trouble and ex- 

 pense; and when you get it, turn to the ar- 

 ticle entitled "Oxygenizing a City; an At- 

 tempt to make Two and a Quarter Million 

 People Work and Play under Sanitary Con- 

 ditions. By Burton .J. Hendrick." 



This exceedingly interesting article tells 

 first about the trouble they had in keeping 

 their monkeys from getting sick in the Chi- 

 cago Zoological Garden. They finally call- 

 ed in a pathologist. Dr. W. A. Evans, and 

 he went to studying monkeys in order to 

 see what made them so subject to tubercu- 

 losis. In talking with the manager of the 

 Zoo, whom we will call "Cy " for short, al- 

 though his name is De ^'ry, Mr. E. gave 

 his idea of the matter as follows: 



"Just take my monkeys, for example," said Mr. 

 De Vry. " I find that the average temperature of 

 the places from which they come is eighty-five de- 

 grees Fahrenheit. Now, the thing to do, of course, 

 is to keep them always in eighty-five-degree air. In 

 the summer-time the.v get this easily In the open. 

 When winter comes, I take them all inside, turn on 

 the steam, and keep their quarters at about eightN - 

 five degrees. They like it too. ]>ook here," and he 

 led the way into one of the modern steam-heated 

 monkey-apartments. Here tv.enty or thirty shiver- 

 ing creatures were making heroic efforts to keep 

 warm. In one corner, a large radiator was sending 

 forth enormous gusts of hot air, and a wooden shelf 

 on top of this radiator was the most popular quarter 

 of the cage. Every inch was filled with huddling 

 monkeys rapturously basking in the heat, which 

 was not far from one hundred and twenty-five de- 

 grees. 



" Your .scheme seems logical enough, Cy,'' said 

 Dr. Evans. "You are simply trying t;o do for your 



monkeys here what nature does for them in their 

 own homes. But it doesn't seem to work very well. 

 I think we had better try something else." 



SICK MONKEYS GET WELL OUT OF DOORS. 



The next fall the Chicago Zoo purchased its usual 

 winter consignment of monkeys. Nearly all of 

 them were fresh from the tropics, and conseqviently 

 were in fine physical condition. As usual, however, 

 there were a few animals that had lived in this 

 country long enough to have become physically de- 

 generate. They were .sad and mangy specimens, 

 having practicall.v no hair, and with the skin drawn 

 tightly around their bones — feeble, timid, and fever- 

 ous. At Dr. Evans' suggestion the.se were placed 

 aside as safe subjects for experiments, 



"Take your twenty healthy monkeys inside, as 

 visual, this winter," he told Cy De Vry, "but keep 

 the five sick ones outside. It will be Interesting to 

 see what will happen." 



"But they can't stand it: the cold air will kill 

 them," protested the keeper. 



" If it does you won't lose much — or the monkeys 

 either, for, at best, they can live only a few weeks." 



As the winter came on, these five sick tropical 

 animals were kept in a place where they were con- 

 stantly exposed to its chilling drafts. They became 

 perforce fresh-air cranks. A thatched shelter was 

 provided, into which they could retreat when the 

 weather was too icy, but no artificial heat was sup- 

 plied. Strangely enough, evcept at night, when 

 they slept under it, the invalids seemed to care lit- 

 tle for this shelter. 



With the gradual approach of winter the monkeys 

 showed as natural an inclination for the cold open 

 air as their healthy brothers did for the hot drafts 

 inside the monkey-house. Presently there appear- 

 ed upon their emaciated bodies a faint sprouting of 

 hair, which grew thicker as the weather became 

 more severe. Gradually the sluggish creatures 

 started into life: instead of huddling in corners, 

 they began to climb and jump about their cages. 

 Before the winter was over, all of them had thick 

 brown furry coats; their muscles had grown large 

 and strong; they ate eagerly, and manifested an in- 

 creased desire for the f.avorite simian pastime — 

 fighting. The.v became the most popular curiosities 

 of the Zoo. Nothing in years had delighted visitors 

 so much as what had now become an every-day 

 sight — one of these tropical animals, in zero weath- 

 er, seated upon a snow-bank, contentedly eating a 

 banana. 



ALL THE INSIDE MONKfcYS DIE. 



But the twenty monkeys that, early in the winter, 

 had entered the steam-heated monkey-house in 

 splendid physical condition had not fared so well. 

 By sirring not a single one was alive— all had died 

 of tuberculosis. The artificial reproduction of 

 "tropical conditions" had killed them, as it had 

 killed hundreds of their predecessors. The five out- 

 door animals, however, never showed the slightest 

 trace of the disease. 



Now, friends, you can afford to read the 

 extract I have given above, several times. 

 Just think of it. Monkeys are tropical ani- 

 mals. One who did not know would say 

 they would die in a few minutes if placed 

 outdoors on a snowbank*; but they did not 

 die when put to the test, and, more wonder- 

 ful still, the sick ones put out in the open 

 air all recovered, while those that w^ere kept 

 in apartments warmed by means of radia- 

 tors {artificial heat, mind you) all died. 

 Let me give you one more extract: 



As a result of this reform there s no more tuber- 

 culosis in the park. In five years there has not 

 been a single death from this disease. In every 

 way the animals show an increased vitality. Or- 



* No wonder the spectacle of the monkeys on top 

 of the snowbank, eating bananas, with the temper- 

 ature down toward zero, attracted so much atten- 

 tion at the Zoo. Well, chickens and children also 

 can be happy outdoors while at play under similar 

 conditions if they are started right and cared for in 

 a sensible way. Of cour.se the chickens and chil- 

 dren should have a good warm place to get into 

 whenever they feel the necessity of getting vrarmtd 

 up, 



