246 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



some day make Texas a more extended vis- 

 it, so you can satisfy yourself as to these 

 statements above. Wm. Cravens. 



Floresville, Texas, Jan. 28. 



[Do not misunderstand me as believing 

 that there is no colony of bees all with five 

 bands. As I said before, I say now, I 

 never saw all the bees of any one queen 

 that showed the five yellow bauds. I have 

 seen the progenj- of some queens that show- 

 ed four bands and five bands. — Ed.] 



OUR 



HOMES, 



BY A. I. ROOT. 



Prove all things ; hold fast that which is good. — I. 

 Thess. 5:21. 



I have been greatly troubled of late years 

 — in fact, dear friends, I have been troubled 

 more or less during all this short life of 

 mine — not onlj' because truth and error lie 

 scattered before us everywhere, but because 

 of the difficulty of separating truth from 

 falsehood. Even when I was a child I was 

 in the habit of asking questions innumer- 

 able about these strange and wonderful 

 things that are being constantly unfolded 

 before every one who loves to study nature 

 and humanity. I am told that, after my 

 father and mother said things were thus 

 and so, I would follow my question right up 

 by saying, " How does anybody know this? 

 How can they be sure they have not made a 

 mistake? " 



Now, do not imagine I have all my life 

 been doubting every thing. When reason- 

 able proof has been furnished, I believe I 

 have been willing to accept facts. At the 

 same time, I always had a fondness for 

 testing and proving the thing myself. I 

 once heard of a boy who, when he was told 

 a pound of lead and a pound of feathers 

 weigh exactly the same, could not be satis- 

 fied until he got his mother's steelyards 

 and proved the thing to his own satisfac- 

 tion. When I was old enough to get ac- 

 quainted with the doctors (and, by the way, 

 that happened at a very early age in my 

 case) I was very curious to know how Ihey 

 found out that certain medicines would cure 

 certain diseases. After I had admitted 

 that this might be true, I was still more 

 perplexed when told that certain things 

 could not be cured unless one took a certain 

 combination of things — a little of this or of 

 that; a pinch of something else, and so on 

 until you had a bottleful of a great many 

 things. Somebody would tell me thej^ had 

 discovered by careful experiment that all 

 these things were good, and that by com- 

 bining them they got a " powerful " pana- 

 cea for certain troubles. Well, after I had 

 reluctantly admitted this might be true, the 

 question then arose, "How is it possible 

 for anybody during his lifetime to find out 

 that a little pinch of this, a tablespoonful of 



that, a teacupful of the other, and so on 

 through (just so much of each, and no 

 ■more), is exactly the thing to cure so and 

 so? " 



Our humble home furnished on its shelf 

 several books, one of which was called a 

 "doctor book." I read that book through 

 and through, and proved a good many of 

 its statements, and also proved the absurd 

 folly — at least I thought I did — of some 

 statements. Now, do not think I am going 

 to make a tirade against doctors. Our fam- 

 ily physicians are to-day benefactors to 

 humanity ; and even in olden time they 

 meant to be benefactors. I say this, even 

 if it is true, as has been stated, that, 

 through mistaken kindness, they took the 

 life of the father of our country by drawing 

 his blood away from him just at a time 

 when he not only needed every drop he had 

 but a good deal more if it could have been 

 furnished. 



As I became older, when multitudes of 

 people assured me a thing was true because 

 they had each and all been benefited, I de- 

 cided that " many witnesses " ought to set- 

 tle the matter. One day at school, how- 

 ever, when the whooping-cough was rag- 

 ing I was told that a certain woman in the 

 neighborhood could cure it, and the chil- 

 dren all flocked to her door, when school 

 was out, to get cured. When I inquired 

 into it, I found she gave some of them a 

 raisin, others a piece of dried apple, still 

 others a bit of bread. In fact, the medicine 

 was different every time. This was a real 

 stunner. Then I was gravely informed 

 that whatever she, this particular woman, 

 gave a child, it cured him of the whooping- 

 cough, because this woman, when she got 

 married, did not change her name! Her 

 husband's name was exactly the same as 

 her own; " and," my informant said, ''''ev- 

 erybody knows that a woman like that, 

 when one can be found, can always cure the 

 whooping-cough. Just you eat what she 

 gives you, and you will not cough any 

 more. Try it and see." 



Well, I "bolted" at this sort of .yrzV«r(?(?) 

 for I remember I decided, like Galileo, 

 that, even if the whole world declares to 

 the contrary, and gives any amount of tes- 

 timony, I would never consent to swallow 

 such philosophy ( ! ). 



Now, dear friends, the thing that trou- 

 bles me, as God lets me look forth into this 

 world of ours, is that there are multitudes 

 of cures that have no more sense or science 

 about them than this cure for whooping- 

 cough. And yet people insist that they 

 have tried it, and it is true, and they keep 

 on spending their hard earnings. I have 

 said so much about Electropoise and Oxy- 

 donor I hardly need bring it in right here; 

 but after a prolonged "fight," extending 

 through several years, the world has mostly 

 admitted I was right about these senseless 

 toys. I am not sure, however, that some 

 one will not write to me now in all serious- 

 ness, and tell what wonderful cures Oxy- 

 donor has performed in their own family. 



