1516 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15 



me to the shoestore and picked out a pair of low 

 shoes that laced almost down to my toes. He said 

 my feet demanded ventilation, and would have to 

 have it He said that many people are absolute- 

 ly obliged to let their feet have air to breathe, as 

 well as to let the mouth and lungs have pure air. 

 I think I have mentioned before that Abraham 

 Lincoln used to do his writing mostly in his 

 stocking feet so as to give his feet a chance to 

 " breathe. " May God bless the memory of the 

 great and good man who taught us so many use- 

 ful lessons! Well, I even went to church with a 

 hole in my shoe. I think I put some ink on my 

 stocking so as to make it as near the color of the 

 shoe as possible, and in a short time that foot got 

 well; but I have worn loose shoes ever since. 

 While building up that little Sunday-school ear- 

 ly in the spring in Northern Michigan I did a 

 great deal of traveling one Sunday morning. I 

 canvassed the whole neighborhood, and secured 

 a big Sunday-school that very first morning; but 

 in so doing, with my Sunday shoes on, that par- 

 ticular corner of my left foot got to be so bad 

 that, after the Sunday-school was over, I pulled 

 off my new fashionable shoe and walked home 

 with that foot bare. It still burned and pained 

 me so that I purposely walked in a snowdrift be- 

 side the road; and I finally put that feverish, 

 painful foot into snow and water and kept it 

 there. The fever in that foot was so great that I 

 kept it in cold water a great part of the afternoon; 

 but after putting on my loose open shoes I had 

 no more trouble during the week. That was 

 Nature's protest against a horrible, unreasonable, 

 fashionable shoe. I suspect there are more than 

 one of you who have gone through a similar ex- 

 perience. 



Just now I have in my possession a very nice- 

 looking pair of patent-leather shoes. I got patent 

 leather because one of my boys suggested that it 

 would save me the fuss and bother of shining my 

 shoes up every little while. Well, I have had 

 them four or five years. I can wear them to 

 church, and look like other folks; but I am al- 

 ways happy when I get home and can put on my 

 old shoes that are out of fashion 



Now, to illustrate, suppose I am called on to 

 address a Sunday-school, which is generally the 

 time I take for my afternoon nap, just a little aft- 

 er dinner time also; then to add to the rest of it, 

 those pinching shoes make me feel cross when I 

 need the greatest spirituality.* Of course, I can 

 shine up my old ungainly shoes, something like 

 that in the picture, and stand up on the platform 

 before the audience. Now, here is the problem: 

 When we are called on to speak in public, we 

 older ones, of course, do not need to be clear up 

 in fashion in our attire; but we should look de- 

 cent and reasonably respectable, especially if 

 we wish to have our words have weight, and 

 count; so I do not know but it is a Christian 

 duty to conform, at least to a certain extent, to 

 fashion; but the time has come, dear friends, 

 when a great lot of us should band together and 

 declare that we will no longer submit to the ty- 

 rant Fashion, especially when this tyrant violates 



"^ Suppose, for instance, that we wish to impress on the school 

 the beauty of the great promise of the little text as follows: 

 " Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on 

 thf e;" and suppose, too, while you are striving to add emphasis 

 to the text, those shoes are pinching your corns until you are in 

 any thing but a Christianlike frame of mind ! 



all rules of good sense and reason. Has the time 

 not come when we should not only cheer and en- 

 courage the poor heathen Chinee, but go a little 

 further and take the lesson home.' Who is there 

 among us who can not give three cheers for the 

 man who has brought this new shoe, and even 

 dares to advertise it in the Ladies' Home Journal 

 — the man who is not a coward in any sense of 

 the word, but who is a brave general to come out 

 thus boldly and defy the demands of fashion.? I 

 do not remember now any thing about the price 

 of his shoes; but I presume it is no more than is 

 usually charged for other good shoes. It may 

 cost a little to get them by express But how 

 much is it worth to you to have good healthy 

 feet — feet that will enable you to enjoy life and 

 to thank God, and, may be, walk a mile further* 

 each day than you would with the old-fashioned 

 ridiculous kind.? May God be praised that I still 

 have the full use of my eyesight; that I have also 

 the full use of both hands; and last, but not least, 

 that I can run and jump, and go a mile almost as 

 quickly and easily as any of my children or 

 grandchildren; and may God speed the day when 

 our greatest care, while we are permitted to be 

 here on earth, will be to look after, study into, 

 and take care of these bodies of ours that our 

 opening text says were created in God's own im- 

 age; and then may the great Father above help 

 us to take care of the feet \vq has given us, includ- 

 ing the toes, that we may preserve them, not only 

 in the way of keeping them beautiful but useful, 

 that we may, with their help, spread the " glad tid- 

 ings " and " publish salvation," not only through- 

 out China and Japan, but over this whole wide 

 world, including the United States of America. 



Poultry 

 Department 



THE POULTRY-HOUSE TENT AT STORRS, CT. ; 

 MuRE ABOUT IT. 



After my article on page 1273, Oct. 15, was 

 printed, the editor of that beautiful and useful 

 publication, Suburban Life, called my attention 

 to the fact that in their issue for last May they 

 gave a picture of the very tent that I was so much 

 taken up with; and they have also kindly loaned 

 me the cut so I can present it to our readers. 

 See page 1508. Here is what they have to say 

 about it: 



There is much discussion nowadays among poultry-men in re- 

 gard to poultry-houses which are open at one side, or which have 

 windows without glass, even during the coldest weather; and a 

 number of poultry-raisers are using this plan with success. For 

 testing the practicability of the cold-air method. Professor Gra- 

 ham erected a tent made of ordinary duck, costing about six dol- 

 lars. He placed a roost and nests in this tent, and made it the 

 home of a small flock of White Leghorns — a variety of birds, as 

 is well known, having unusuallyjarge combs. These birds have 

 lived in this tent all through the past winter, and not one of them 

 has had its comb even touched by frost, while the Sock have laid 

 fairly well. It is a fact, strange as it may seem, that the ther- 

 mometer has shown the tent to be warmer than some of the reg 

 ular boarded houses. 



My impression is that, during zero weather, 

 they were in the habit of banking up snow around 



* "And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him 



