1514 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15 



Our Homes 



By a. I. Root 



And God said. Let us make man in our own image, after our 

 likeness.— Gen. 1:26. 



How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that 

 bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good 

 tidings of good, that publisheth solvation; that saith unto Zion, 

 Thy God reigneth!— ISA. 52:7. 



I want to talk to you this morning about feet 



yes, beautiful feet; and I hope and pray that 



my talk, may be helpful. One Sunday morning 

 at that Bingham Sunday-school I told you about, 

 in the bills of Northern Michigan, I asked the 

 children, " How many of you would like to have 

 beautilul hands.? Please raise your hands, every 

 one of you who would like to know how to make 

 your hands beautiful." 



There was quite a little smiling, especially 

 among the girls, but I think most of the hands 

 went up, and then I added, " The recipe for mak- 

 ing your hands beautiful I have just read in the 

 Sunday School Times Now listen while I repeat 

 it, for I want you to say it after me: 



"Beautiful hands are those that do 

 Things that are useful, good, and true." 



And then I had them repeat it after me again 

 and again; and I have often thought of it since 

 that time. Just this morning it occurred to me 

 that if I could talk with that Sunday-school up 

 there once more I would vary the couplet and put 

 it this way: 



Beautiful feet are those that do 

 Errands that are useful, good, and true. 



Yesterday Dr. Creghan, a great missionary who 

 has been around the world one or moe times vis- 

 iting different missionary stations all over the face 

 of the earth, told us in his address that the whole 

 * wide world might rejoice at the emancipation of 

 China. There are in China, as you may know, 

 something like 400,000,000 people, while the 

 whole United States can scarcely scrape up 

 80,000,000 all together. Well, China has been 

 nnted for her exclusiveness and superstition. A 

 pait of her foolish, silly, and horrible superstition 

 has been, for tnore than a thousund years past, that 

 women's feet should be small. You have all 

 heard about it. The women of caste and fash- 

 ion, at least, have their feet cramped fiom child- 

 hood, so that they are literally crippled — horribly 

 crippled — so that some of them, at least, can not 

 walk at all, and millions of them have been thus 

 crippled during the last thousand years. We can 

 scarcely contemplate or believe that it is possible, 

 just because of the silly fashion, that the greater 

 part of the world ha\e been more or less helpless 

 cripples; and it is the poor weak helpless ivomen 

 who have been, and are even now, crippled in that 

 way. The boys and men can run and jump, and 

 enjoy the use of their limbs; but the girls, at 

 least after a certain age, are "crippled for life." 

 There is no help for the older ones. All the doc- 

 tors and all the treatment and all the asylums can 

 never make their feet outgrow the consequences 

 of this hideous mutilation. But the coming gen- 

 eration, thank God, are going to be delivered 

 from this thralldom and cruelty. An edict has 

 just been issued, if I am not mistaken, about it, 

 not only permitting the girls and women of China 



to let their feet grow naturally, but forbidding 

 them any longer from warping and imprisoning 

 the toes that God made to be of service. 



There is another emancipation for which we 

 can thank God, and that is, that opium is also to 

 be forbidden and debarred; and it is not "poor 

 heathen China" that is so much to blame for the 

 opium habit. The great British nation, first in 

 civilization, or claims to be, has been forcing 

 China to take up and keep up this horrid traffic. 

 How is it possible that the world has lived so long 

 and these things I have just mentioned have been 

 permitted to go on un rebuked.'' 



Well, the people of the United States need not 

 congratulate themselves on being so much ahead 

 of the rest of the world when they are obliged to 

 confess that, until the present time, the awful 

 liquor-traffic has been permitted to go on almost 

 unmolested; yes, and even now there are people 

 right around among us who claim we "can not 

 pay our taxes" unless the saloon-keepers be per- 

 mitted to make cripples and idiots of our inno- 

 cent children almost brfore they are born. 



Let us go back to the feet, the beautiful feet — 

 the kind that " bring good tidings, that publish 

 salvation, that say unto Zion, Thy God reign- 

 eth." While that great missionary was telling 

 us about the crippled feet of the poor Chinese 

 women, my mind instantly reverted to a fact that 

 I have long been considering a protest against — 

 the continuous crippling to a greater or less ex- 

 tent of the feet of the good people here in our 

 own land, and especially the feet of the women 

 folks. The toothpick-pointed shoe has largely 

 gone out of fashion, yet I see some of them even 

 yet; and I see that the tyrant Fashion inflicts up- 

 on us, and demands that we shall wear some that 

 are not very much better. What brought this to 

 my mind a few days ago was getting my eye on 

 an advertisement in the Ladies' Home Journal. I 

 like to look over the advertisements in any peri- 

 odical. In fact, I often judge of the character 

 and literary standing of a periodical more by the 

 advertising than by any thing else. Well, I saw a 

 picture that almost made me shout, "May the 

 Lord be praised! " Here is the picture. 



THE COWAitD SHOE. 

 The Coward " Good-sense shoe " 

 provides room for five active toes. 

 Its pliant sole furnishes a natural 

 foot-tread — a perfect-fitting shoe that 

 supports ankle and arch, and pre- 

 vents flat-foot. Economical in price 

 and wear. For children, women, 

 and men. Send for catalog. Mail 

 orders tilled. Sold nowhere else. 

 Address 



James S. Coward, 

 268—274 Greenwich Street. 



New York. 



Well, what do you think of it.? The man who 

 has had the hardihood and courage to come out 

 thus in a great journal and recommend a shoe 

 that will let the feet grow and live (as God meant 

 they should grow and live) this man is named 

 Coward. Well, it is queer how our names some- 

 times fit us. Instead of being a coward he is a 

 great warrior, and I should like to see him have 

 a following— well, I would not stop at trifles, but 

 I should like to se? him have a following of 

 400,000,000 or more. Of course, I can not see 



