JULY 15, 1913 



509 



we should simply agree to call Monday the 

 first day of the week; and it is in reality 

 the first working day. Then every thing 

 would be lovely. But the friend to whom 

 I proposed this solution of the difficulty 

 simply replied, " Because the Seventh-day 

 people will not have it so." We are having 

 a hard time, God knows, to preserve the 

 sanctity of the generally accepted Christian 

 sabbath. In view of this, is it not a little 

 sad, to i3ut it mildly, to think so many good 

 people should try to weaken our forces for 

 righteousness by something so comparative- 

 ly unimportant f Just now, in this day and 

 age of the world, good people are dropping 

 minor differences in order that we may 

 work together to bring about the glad time 

 when God's kingdom shall come and his 

 will be done on earth as it is done in heav- 

 en. United, we stand; divided, we fall. 



So far as I can see, and I have examined 

 the passages from the Bible carefully that 

 have been pointed out to me, the Bible no- 

 where attempts to fix the day of the week. 

 In fact, it could not do so. It does plainlj' 

 command, however, that one day in seven 

 shall be remembered and kept holy, leaving 

 the people to decide for themselves what 

 daj^ shall be called the first day, and what 

 day shall be generally recognized as the 

 seventh. 



REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY, ETC. 



Mr. Root • — For more than thirty years I have 

 been interested in your writings on home topics and 

 the moral questions of the day, and was well pleased 

 with what you say about the sabbath in Glean 

 INGS for Jan. 15. I think we need to emphasize 

 the duty of Christians to prepare for the sabbath 

 by doing on Saturday what can reasonably be done 

 of the work, such as chopping wood, etc., which, if 

 left, would be necessary labor on Sunday. 



THE GERMAZOXE SWINDLE. 



I am glad you have told us what a simple and 

 cheap remedy germazone is (p. 785, Dec. 1). I 

 have used it for nearly ten years, and find it a 

 splendid remedy for roup and bowel trouble ; and, 

 when used with chloride of lime, it is good for the 

 treatment of canker, which resembles diphtheria, 

 and is even worse to combat than roup. The price 

 I paid was exorbitant, yet I suppose I should have 

 failed to get the benefit of it if my attention had 

 not been called to it by an advertisement. 



temperature; variations in the same locality. 



ETC. 



I have been reading your remarks on tempera- 

 ture, page 70, Jan. 15. On the coldest night of the 

 present winter, our thermometer, a minimum-regis- 

 tering instrument which has proved quite reliable 

 during nearly twenty years, was at the north side 

 of the house, but in a somewhat sheltered location, 

 and registered 3 above zero. In and around the 

 town of Alamagordo, about seven miles away, tem- 

 peratures reported varied from 8 below to 21 below 

 zero. The government thermometer, near town, re- 

 corded 14 below. I can readily believe all of these 

 temperatures to be approximately correct, and I base 

 the opinion on the following incident: Something 

 like forty years ago, in Iowa, I looked at the ther- 

 mometer before sunrise, and it stood at 40. On go- 



ing a little beyond the stables, on a side-hill facing 

 the west, and only about thirty rods from the house, 

 I saw frost on the grass. I returned to the house 

 and laid the thermometer in the grass near by, but 

 it still remained at 40. I then took it to the side- 

 hill and laid it down in the frosty grass, when it 

 quickly dropped to 30. In the case of the varying 

 temperatures at Alamagordo, the currents of air 

 from the canyons in the mountains near by might 

 have caused the difference. 



A FEW WORDS ABOUT H.iWKS, ETC. 



It is pretty expensive waiting for each individual 

 hawk to "acquire the habit" of catching chickens 

 when one has chickens worth from one to five dol- 

 lars each; and nearly all kinds will catch chickens 

 sometimes, and song birds often. I seldom disturb 

 harriers, though even they sometimes get a chicken. 

 I have seen a pigeon hawk (or, rather, a sharp- 

 shinned hawk, which is practically the same) pick 

 a robin, larger than himself, from the top of a post, 

 and easily fly with it 25 or 30 rods to a sheltered 

 place in a grove where I soon dispatched him; but 

 he had killed the bird. In Iowa, Harlan's hawk, a 

 very large species, seldom troubles chickens ; but in 

 Virginia they are very destructive. 



BURDETT HASSETT. 



Alamagordo, N. Mex., Feb. 4. 



Let me add one thing more about tem- 

 perature. There may be cpite a variation 

 in a very short space of time. Years ago 

 I was one night undecided about whether 

 to call up the help and put the sashes on 

 the cold-frames, etc. I was on the watch 

 long before daylight ; but when the sun was 

 up, and no damage, I breathed easier and 

 went to breakfast ; but frost came so as to 

 do quite a little harm in spots after the sun 

 had been up a full half-hour. I hope all 

 will "take notice" again that the germazone 

 sold at 50 cts. a bottle is less than one cent's 

 worth of permanganate of potash, with a 

 little alum added. What do you think of the 

 man (or poultry editor) who would consent 

 to be a party to such a transaction? 



A PLAINTIVE LETTER FROH A BpOTHER BEE- 

 KEEPER WHO IS " BEHIND THE IRON 

 BARS.-" 



The letter below came during my absence 

 in Florida. Along with it was quite an in- 

 teresting protest against our goveniment 

 for being a party in the liquor business. 

 The letter was rather long, and several 

 things our friend urged at the time have 

 since come to pass, so we give only the 

 closing paragraph as follows : 



Mr. Root : — I beg your pardon for writing to you 

 without an introduction ; but knowing as well as I 

 do the curse of whiskj' I have taken this liberty. I 

 am, perhaps, only a convict; but if a word of mine 

 will help to prevent any young man or girl from 

 traveling the same road whisky has taken me, gladly 

 will I speak that word. I had a Christian father 

 and mother. Whisky separated me from them ; a 

 good Christian sister — whisky parted me irom her. 

 I was respected by many friends, but whisky took 

 the respect from me, and left me — what? Why. 

 nothing but a prison; and yet after all it may be all 



