1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



689 



go all over my body. I thought I was origi- 

 nal in this idea ; but somebody at the dinner- 

 table spoke of doing the very same thing ; 

 and in the last number of the Philadelphia 

 Farm Jour^ial I saw that Judge Biggie also 

 recommended pouring cold spring or well wa- 

 ter on the wrists to get cool, without drinking 

 too much cold water. Well, after I received 

 so much help and refreshment in this way I 

 began to pour the cold spring water over my 

 head, keeping my head low over the grass 

 that needed irrigation. Finally one evening, 

 after a very warm day, I wanted to ride over 

 to Mr. Hilbert's, across the hills ; but I had 

 worked so hard I felt too tired to even ride 

 my wheel. But there was a particular reason 

 why I wanted to go just that night. As I 

 passed by the spring I picked up my wash- 

 basin and bar of Ivory soap, thinking I would 

 try the big spring on the other side of the 

 ranch, and see how its waters compared with 

 those of the new one. Of course, I had to 

 wash my hands and face. Well, this spring 

 is over in the dense woods. In fact, it is quite 

 dark in that close thicket, even at noontime. 

 I bathed my arms and head and neck as be- 

 fore ; and this sort of shower bath did me so 

 much good I was struck with the idea of a 

 similar shower bath of cold spring water over 

 my entire body. I remembered what Father 

 Kneippe, of Germany, had said about it in 

 his book, and others in other parts of the 

 world since then. In a twinkling I was strip- 

 ped of my light summer clothing. The spot 

 is so retired that there was no need of a bath- 

 ing-suit or bathing-house. After taking a 

 good wash with the soap I began to practice 

 on the cold shower bath by pouring water 

 from my basin on my head. At first it made 

 me gasp for breath, the water was so cold ; 

 but every succeeding basinful gave me less 

 and less unpleasantness on account of the cold 

 water, and in a little time I was delighted to 

 find that mv system had become so inured by 

 the repeated dashes of cold water that all un- 

 pleasant feeling was gone. I drenched my- 

 self again and again with basinful after basin- 

 ful, and I thanked God meanwhile that, as 

 there was 300 barrels a day going to waste, I 

 need not worry about extravagance in the 

 way of using water. Finally, after I had ful- 

 ly satisfied myself that it is not only a safe 

 thing to bathe in cold water — yes, even take a 

 shower bath — I decided it was one of the most 

 enjoyable things I had ever discovered. I put 

 on my light clothing, and started off on my 

 wheel. Then came one of my happy sur- 

 prises. All the tired feeling was entirely 

 gone. I felt like a boy in his teens when 

 school is out. I went over to Bro. Hilbert's, 

 exulting in my new-found strength, slept 

 soundly, and did not feel a particle of reac- 

 tion. I tried the same thing several times aft- 

 erward ; but to get this exhilaration I have 

 been speaking of, the bath should be taken 

 when you are warm and sweaty — say after a 

 hard day's work. I first washed myself 

 thoroughly by taking water from the wash- 

 basin with my hand and applying it to every 

 part of the body. Of course, this left me 

 more or less soapy. Now, I feel sure from 



many years' experience that soap should never 

 be left to dry on the body. Soap should all 

 be rinsed off with plenty of pure soft water, 

 either hot or cold. Now, my discovery is not, 

 of course, any thing particularly new. A 

 cold-water shower bath was quite a craze fifty 

 years ago, as I can well remember. Notwith- 

 standing, I never before realized what a won- 

 derful change it makes one feel in exceeding- 

 ly warm and dusty weather.* 



Pure soft-water springs are appreciated to a 

 great extent ; in fact, many homes have their 

 especial locations just because of such springs; 

 but I do not believe we have realized the com- 

 fort and the bearing on the health of the in- 

 mates of the family that these springs, espe- 

 cially when brought right into the home, may 

 be. Many of the springs are high enough 

 above the homes so the only expense is suita- 

 ble pipes to carry the water where wanted. 

 Where they are not high enough in location a 

 hydraulic ram will lift the water sufiiciently 

 to bring plenty of it right up beside the cook- 

 ing-stove if you choose to have it so near ; but 

 if your well is like the new one I have de- 

 scribed, and there is not really enough water 

 to run up over and overflow, then the wind- 

 mills that are offered at from $15.00 to $20.00 

 will do the work very well indeed. The only 

 trouble is, the wind does not always blow ; 

 but by having a pretty good-sized reservoir 

 you may always have water to use and waste 

 or give away. 



At Petoskey I visited a bee-keeper's home 

 where a large family of children have been 

 brought up. A spring of beautiful water, of 

 a considerable volume, is only a few hundred 

 feet from the house, and perhaps 20 feet be- 

 low it. But their water, during all these years, 

 has either been brought by hand or drawn up 

 by the barrelful by horses. Why, I fairly 

 ached to go to work myself and put a hydrau- 

 lic ram in that spring, just to show those peo- 

 ple what it would do. 



One very warm July evening I went over to 

 a schoolhouse a few miles southeast of Trav- 

 erse City, where they have comparatively lev- 

 el land ; but a supply of nice drinking-water 

 is all around just the same. Within a mile of 

 the schoolhouse there is a watering-trough 

 beside the road, where pure soft water pours 



*Dr. J. H. Kellogg, of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, 

 is just now engaged in writing a new book on medi- 

 cine. His brother. Will Kellogg, has been kind 

 enough to send me some of the advance sheets, and 

 from these I make the following extract : 



" A person who has never experienced the glow of 

 exhilaration, the invigoration and buoyancy of body 

 and mind, which accompany the state of reaction 

 from a short, general cold application, can not well 

 appreciate the value or significance of the cold bath 

 as a physiological stimulant. It is not too much to 

 say that it is, of all measures known to man, the most 

 valuable as a means of arousing to activity the flag- 

 ging energies of the body, and lifting the enervated 

 invalid out of the morasses and quagmires of chronic 

 disease. 



" The reaction produced by tonic applications fills the 

 skin with bloody and it it is daily repeated, the blood 

 is finally fixed in the skin, thus permanently increas- 

 ing its vascular activity, and relieving internal con- 

 gestion. 



"Of the several forms of douche, the rain douche, 

 or shower bath, is the most strongly refrigerant, since 

 it impresses at each instant the largest portion of 

 the surface." 



