476 



plump Colorado wheat — about fifty bushels. 

 As soon as we Florida folks found it was 

 for sale, and also that it was so much nicer 

 than any we get in our market here for the 

 chickens, we very soon relieved him of all 

 he had to sell. Well, now we have taken 

 some of tliis wheat and ground it in that 

 little hand mill that I described so many 

 times, and we have the most luscious gra- 

 ham bread that I ever ate in my life. And 

 after the flour is sifted out for the graham, 

 Mrs. Root boils the coarser wheat three or 

 four hours, or all the forenoon. Now, this 

 ipheat mush, when it becomes cold, is sliced 

 up and put into the oven just before break- 

 fast or dinner until it is nicely warmed up 

 and a sort of jelly formed over the outside. 

 A slice of this nice wheat mush, nicely but- 

 tered over, is the finest cereal of any tiling I 

 have ever tasted in my life. If you want to 

 get a dish that is fit for a king, as Ernest 

 expresses it, add a little honey after it is 

 well buttered. I do not very often use the 

 honey, because I have to be a little careful 

 about too much sweet of any kind. Right 

 beside your plate you want a glass of rich 

 milk. Take a sip of the milk as you chew 

 the wheat thoroughly — mush and milk lit- 

 erally. I want to add that we have the finest 

 milk down here in Florida that we ever had 

 in our lives, from neighbor Rood's Jersey 

 cows, and he does not have to hmj hay 

 either. He grows every bit of the hay he 

 uses for his horses and cattle on his own 

 place. We have just one pint of this Jersey 

 milk a day (and it is a good generous pint ) , 

 but this milk not only furnishes all the milk 

 we use, but Mrs. Root skims off the cream 

 and often makes quite a little butter, and 

 this cream she gets into butter in less than 

 five minutes. 



THE PATENT-MEDICINE BUSINESS; THE KTAXB 

 SEARS, ROEBUCK & CO. HAVE TAKEN. 



We clip the following from a leaflet just 

 sent us: 



WHY WE HAVE DISCONTINUED PATENT MEDICINES. 



Many of our customers will be surprised and pos- 

 sibly some of them disappointed, to find that this 

 catalog no longer lists the various patent medicines 

 we have carried in the past. Our decision to discon- 

 tinue the sale of patent medicines was made after 

 careful study of the question from all sides, and is 

 based on our policy of handling only dependable 

 merchandise — merchandise that we believe will give 

 the service our customers have a right to expect. 

 We have come to believe that patent medicines do 

 not conform to this standard; in fact, we are confi- 

 dent that those of our customers who have investi- 

 gated the matter thoroughly will agree with us that, 

 considered in all its phases, the patent-medicine 

 business is a public evil. 



We are not prepared to take the extreme position 

 that no medicines of any kind, regardless of how 

 simple or in what manner advertised, should be of- 

 fered direct to the public. However, even such a 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



state of things might easily be better than the pres- 

 ent situation, in which we find valueless and even 

 dangerous medicines offered to the public through 

 the medium of advertising that is extravagant, mis- 

 leading, and deceptive — advertising calculated to de- 

 ceive the well into the belief that they are sick, and 

 to induce the sick to pin their faith to ineffectual 

 means for recovery. 



Practically every patent medicine is put out under 

 a trade-mark name and secret formula. The fact 

 that the name is private property makes advertising 

 profitable where otherwise it would not be. Secrecy 

 permits advertisement of the most extravagant sort 

 to go more or less unchallenged. It is not unusual 

 to find a patent-medicine advertisement that tends 

 to leave the impression tliat there is a " mysterious 

 something " about tlie medicine that is sufficient to 

 account for the otherwise unbelievable virtues at- 

 tributed to it. In selling patent medicines the tend- 

 ency is to tell as little about their composition and 

 to claim as much for them as the law will allow. 



That patent medicines are more than likely to be 

 disappointing as well as dangerous is apparent when 

 we consider the fact that the all-important as well 

 as the most difficult thing in the treatment of disease 

 is that of finding the real underlying cause of the 

 trouble, and the further fact that the person least 

 able to form a safe judgment in this matter is the 

 patient himself. 



The person who falls a victim to the advertise- 

 ment that attaches a grave meaning to every little 

 ache or pain, when in reality nothing ails him that 

 forgetting would not cure, is at least defrauded. 



The person who depends on an advertised nos- 

 trum to cure a serious ailment which, to be success- 

 fully treated, must have only the most prompt and 

 skillful attention, is throwing away valuable time. 

 The most dangerous medicine, especially in the case 

 of the lingering disease that drugs alone can not 

 cure, is that which, by containing a stimulant or an 

 opiate, causes its victim to feel better for a while. 

 Being thus encouraged in a vain hope, though all 

 this time the lurking disease is steadily progressing, 

 he often turns too late, if he turns at all, to rational 

 means for recovery. 



INSANITY AND ITS RELATION TO INTEMPER- 

 ANCE. 



We clip the following from the Sunday 

 ScIiogI Times for June 7: 



WHY INSANITY DI.SAPPEARED. 



In ninety-seven of the counties of Kansas there are 

 no insane, in eight-five counties no feeble-minded, 

 in fifty-seven no paupers. It can not be accident 

 that has sent the germ plasm of insanity skipping 

 out of Kansas. It is obviously and unmistakably 

 due to the enforcement of prohibition and the con- 

 sequent decrease of the neuropathic taint. — Dr. 

 Mary Wolfe, University of Michigan, in Philadel- 

 phia North American. 



My friends, how are insanity, feeble- 

 mindedness, and pauperism in your county? 

 1 am ashamed to say that our own county 

 of Medina, here in Ohio, is nowhere near 

 what is reported above in " prohibition 

 Kansas." How is it possible for any sane 

 man or woman to vote wet when wet votes 

 mean, without question, insanity, feeble- 

 mindedness, and pauperism? 



The A. I. Root Co.: — Please discontinue my ad. 

 as I no longer can care for orders. 



Rob't Bird, Pinckneyville, 111. 



