1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



287 



Our Homes 



• By a. I. Root 



My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me.' — Mark 15:34. 

 Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right; — Gbn. 18:35. 

 Be still, and know that I am God. — Psalm 46:10. 



Dear friends, since I last talked to you I have 

 been down in "the valley of the shadow of death. " 



Excuse, please, a little preliminary introduction. 



There had been a little discussion as to whether 

 we had better undertake to get away from Florida 

 and go back to our home in Ohio as early as the 

 first of April; but there were so many things I 

 was anxious to get hold of in my old home that 

 we finally decided it would be safe, especially as 

 we did the same thing a year ago. We had a 

 very pleasant trip until within a short distance of 

 our home. Down near the middle of this State 

 a couple of cars got oflf the track, and that neces- 

 sitated a delay of several hours in a little manu- 

 facturing town. Of course, I was disappointed 

 to be so near home, and yet compelled to wait 

 there with nothing to do; but I remembered what 

 I have often said to you about inquiring what 

 new lesson the Lord has to teach us whenever our 

 plans are interrupted. So I decided to run 

 around the town a little and look it over. It is 

 hardly more than a railroad crossing, and the 

 beer-saloons in almost every direction indicated 

 that it was, at least so far, a wet town. As there 

 was a cold March wind that day, we went to a 

 hotel, got a comfortable room with a fire in it, 

 and ordered dinner. I soon found there were 

 murmurs of dissatisfaction all over the town be- 

 cause the glass-factory that gave employment to 

 the principal part of the inhabitants had shut 

 down. I wandered over to that factory, a great 

 big structure, to see what I could learn. It was 

 a bott/e-fzctory. The fierce temperance wave in 

 Ohio had indeed broken up an industry that em- 

 ployed great numbers of men, and perhaps some 

 women and children. Our State of Ohio, es- 

 pecially the central part of it, is great on glass- 

 factories, and I should not wonder if our State 

 makes more ivhisky-bottles than any other State 

 in the Union. In fact, I do not know but Ohio 

 originated the little flattened pocket-flask. We 

 used to call it the hip-pocket whisky-flask; and I 

 do not know but these very hip-pocktts were in- 

 vented to carry the bottle of whisky. These 

 whisky-flasks are scattered all around over Ohio; 

 and not only that, but possibly over all the earth, 

 or pretty nearly so. We see them where they 

 have been thrown out of car-windows, and we 

 see them scattered around pleasure-resorts from 

 Florida to California, and everywhere else. 

 ^^'^here nature has something wonderful to offer 

 that ought to raise better thoughts to God we 

 find ivhisky-bottles thrown around. Sometimes 

 they are thrown against the rocks, where there is 

 beautiful natural scenery, and God"s domain is 

 disfigured by broken glass and the smell of whis- 

 ky. Thank God, this is not as bad of late years 

 as it used to be; but the time was when one 

 could not go near a fairground without seeing 

 whisky-bottles lying in the road. During our 

 county fairs people used to crosi our garden in 

 going over to the fairground; and after every fair 

 a great lot of whisky-bottles were found scatter- 



ed around. ' During our Ohio State Fair several 

 years ago I saw almost a earful of boys in their 

 teens, each one supplied with a bottle of whisky. 

 Thank God, such scenes are nearly past and 

 gone. Adjoining the big glass-factory there 

 was a great heap of damaged and broken bottles 

 — scrap to be worked over whenever the factory 

 should start up again if it ever does. Well, there 

 was much complaint over all that little town 

 about the cessation of their business. I learned 

 that some of the expert glass-blowers made from 

 six to seven dollars a day when the factory was 

 running The population was mostly foreign, 

 and they could not quite understand why their 

 particular industry was not as praiseworthy as 

 any other, nor why the Anti-saloon League had 

 not done them a terrible ivrong in killing out the 

 very life of their little town. 



I arrived home feeling pretty well, and rather 

 enjoyed picking up the odds and ends of things 

 I had dropped the fall before. Among other 

 things I soon got down into the apple-cellar to 

 see what shape the apples were in. For several 

 weeks before, we had had no apples, and I was 

 hungry for some. I ate only a few the first 

 evening after getting home You remember 

 what I have said about apples being the "best 

 medicine in the world." Two or three days 

 later I made a pretty good meal of apples, eating 

 about all I wanted, shortly before going to bed, 

 as I have done for years past. They were not of 

 a very good quality, however, for they were most- 

 ly Ben Davis and Rail's Janet. They were rath- 

 er wilted besides, and not as digestible as apples 

 would be in better condition. I had caught a 

 little cold before I ate the apples. In fact, I was 

 thinking about calling our family physician to 

 ask him if he could do any thing to ward oflt my 

 getting the grip by coming home so early. At 

 the time of his call I was sopping my nose with 

 my handkerchief. In fact, my handkerchief 

 soon became so unpleasant to handle that I want- 

 ed a clean one every two or three hours. I said, 

 " Doctor, are you of the medical profession able 

 to do any thing to ward off a cold like this, say 

 in a short time.^" 



Perhaps I should remark that, while I wiped 

 my nose, there were various aches and pains in 

 different parts of my body. He replied: 



" Yes, I can stop that dripping from your nose, 

 and these pains, in just a few minutes " 



By the way, during all my life I have never 

 had much faith in any remedy for a cold. The 

 doctor smilingly gave me some tablets, saying, 

 " Here, take one of them, and in just a few min- 

 utes you can put away your handkerchief." 



Sure enough, in fifteen or twenty minutes the 

 pain had abated and I could put my handker- 

 chief in my pocket. I said then and say now, 

 " May God be praised for the advance that medi- 

 cine has made, since I can remember, in reliev- 

 ing human suffering!" Just think of a little tab- 

 let producing such effects! Before he went away 

 he said something like this: 



"You have the grip. It is not >'f/ grip fever, 

 and we hope we can get along without the fever." 



Perhaps I may remark here that I did not ex- 



* Yellowstone Park is almost the only place where I have 

 found no whisky-bottles. Severe police regulations forbid drop- 

 ping any bottle or tin can anywhere; but for all that, I saw, God 

 knows, enough whisky drank cut af bottles. 



