148 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CUL rQRE. 



Feb. 15. 



Our Homes. 



SICKNESS IN THE HOME— '"ONCLUDED. 



Of course, Dr. Lewis, of Cleveland, was con- 

 sulted in regard lo the patient. I hud tallied 

 with him in detail in regard to malarial fever. 

 He said I was right in my conjecture that a 

 person could not take malarial fever, oi" hardly 

 any other fever, while the system is kept in 

 healthy working order on a diet of lean meat. 

 Mrs. Root had scarcely tasted of the meat she 

 was cooking daily for the rest of us for many 

 weeks. She said her appetite craved something 

 else. You will remember that, while I was in 

 Portland. Ore.. I had my second attack of ma- 

 larial fever, and I told the doctor I could not 

 bear meat. I constantly ciaved fruits and 

 something sour. He said it was a morbid ap- 

 petite for the very things that were hurting 

 me. When we asked Dr. Lewis in regard to 

 the choice of a physician, he said the allopath- 

 ists and the homeopathists— at least the pro- 

 gressive ones — were falling now into nearly the 

 same line of treatment, especially for fevers. 

 Let me give you a little illustration: 



Forty years ago I was taken sick while in the 

 store. I went home, and sent for the doctor 

 He was an old gray-headed veteran. He said I 

 was just coming down with typhoid fever. I 

 have always been on pretty good terms with 

 doctors. He and I had often talked the matter 

 over before, and he said he could break my 

 attack promptly if I was willing totake calomel. 

 He frankly acknowledged he did not like to 

 prescribe it; but he added something like this: 



" Mr. Root, we doctors have counseled togeth- 

 er, and talked this matter over: and the gen- 

 eral verdict has been that, where we try to 

 doctor without calomel because the patient or 

 the friends object to it, the patient dies; but 

 where we administer a proper di-'' <>f calomi-l 

 when the disease has just set in, as it has in 

 your case, they get well." 



The doctor in Portland, Ore., tried to get me 

 up on mv feet with milder remedies; but he, 

 too, finally gavf me some preparation of mer- 

 cury. When Mrs. Root had svmptoms that in 

 dicated typhoid fever, I talked the matter over 

 with my homeopathic doctor, and he surprised 

 me by saying. " Why. bless your heart, Mr. 

 Root, homeopathic doctors— at least the sensi- 

 ble ones— do use mercury. If not in the form 

 of calomel and blu^ pills, we have the same 

 agent in a better and safer form. Mrs. Root is 

 taking mercurial medicine now." 



Of course. 1 felt satisfied; and, more than 

 that. I felt thankful to know that our skillful 

 physicians are getting into a beaten track; and 

 may God grant they will get to a point where 

 one school will have enough of the grace of God 

 in their hearts not to call everybody of the 

 other school a quack, and pitch his nu dicines 

 out of thp window whenever they have a 

 chance. Yes, and I may thank God that min- 

 isters of the gospel are getting -jo they too can 

 shake hands, and not only call each other 

 brother, but exchange a brotherly i:roeting 

 that comes from the bottom of the heart. 



You may ask what all thi-J talk has to do 

 with the homes where Gi-EANINGS goes. Has 

 it not occurred to yon. dear brother, that there 

 is a message in it for you f You may have 

 been called upon to bear with sickness, afflic- 

 tion, and possibly even death, and you may not. 

 In either case I bid you to remember the words 

 of our text, "I will make him a helpmeet for 

 him." I have told Mrs. Root many times dur- 

 ing our married life. that, amonff all the good 

 and precious and gracious gifts God has seen tit 

 to give poor unworthy me, there is none that I 



prize as I do lier precious self. Dear brother, 

 have y< u not said a> much to your good wife, 

 your Jaiihful helpmeet, your untiring, dear, 

 and lci\ al partner? Why, the word "loyal" 

 has ahrays been a pleasant one tome. I like 

 to see Americans loyal to the stars and stripes; 

 1 like to see them loyal to the laws of the land; 

 I like to see the Canadians loyal to their queen; 

 I like to see workm' n loyal to their employer: 

 yes, and I want to see the employer loyal to his 

 helpers — loyal in the best sense of the word. 

 But, oh! above all 1 do love to see husbaiids 

 and wives loyal to eacli other. Most men are 

 loyal, I believe— that is, they are loyal after a 

 fashion. *'May God help them!" This last 

 little prayer came of itself, as it were; but the 

 women— oh may God be praised for the wives 

 and mothers! It seems to me a woman must 

 be a mother, or at least have a motherly feeling 

 in her heart before she can truly comprehend 

 the great need— the tremendous need— that sJie 

 should be loyal— loyal to the home, loyal to the 

 children, loyal to the husband. And while I 

 think of it 1 do believe the wives and mothers 

 are the best illustration of the word "loyal " 

 that the world has ever seen. What patient, 

 untiring, unremitting loyalty is theirs! Wheth- 

 er the husband be loyal or not; whether they 

 ever get a kind word or any token of apprecia- 

 tion or not. still they are loyal and true and un- 

 wearied. I wonder if we ever think of that old 

 familiar text, "Be not weary in well doing;" 

 and I wonder if the husband ever thinks of the 

 latter part of it— "In due time we shall reap if 

 we faint not." Dear husband and brother, let 

 me urge upon you the importance of seeing that 

 this latter part be fulfilled. Let the dear wives 

 see the crops they are reaping — the grown-up 

 boys and girls that are beginning to be loyal in 

 a boyish and girlish fashion to their mothers. 

 It did me good to see the children of our house- 

 hold, old and young, married and single, son- 

 in law and daughier-in-law, each one beg- 

 ging for something to do or for some burden to 

 bear— something for the suffering mother of 

 the household, and almost mother of the neigh- 

 borhood. 



Well, what has been the effect on myself? 

 Am I a good deal better man— at least in the 

 home — than I was a month ago? I hope so; 

 but almost every hour reminds me of the first 

 line of a little hymn my father used to sing: 

 Prone to wander— Lord, I feel it. 



Some of my friends scold, however, when I 

 confess my shortcomings before the world, as 

 they put it. Well, they need not scold just 

 now. for my sins of the present are mostly con- 

 fined to those of omission, or forgetting myself. 

 I believe that, since mother is able to be around 

 the house, and to sit with us again at the table, 

 I have been more gentle, more kind, more care- 

 ful about rushing into the house without wait- 

 ing lo clean my feet or put on my rubbers when 

 T go out. I am sorry to say I do sometimes get 

 "stirred up." and speak hastily, even yet; then 

 comes the thought of those days and nights of 

 watching and stispense; and the brief prayer 

 wells up. '* Lord, help'" 



I must tell von of one little circumstance that 

 I forgot. I think the crisis in her sickness was 

 during our coldest night, just after New Year's, 

 when the thermometer was down to 5 below 

 zero. The doctor directed that the tempera- 

 ture of the room be kept as near 6.5 as possible, 

 and at the same time she must have air from 

 outdoors. Rather late we succeeded in getting 

 her to slef'p. and I went upstairs to bed. As 

 soon as I was fairly sleeping soundly, however, 

 the nurse called me for something needing me 

 personally. I went back to bed, and was almost 

 (or quite) in the land of dreams again when I 



