JULY 15, 1912 



457 



®W\P GilCDDOO 



A. I. iiOOT 



I am come that they might have life, and that 

 they might have it more abundantly. — John 10:10. 



They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their 

 strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; 

 they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall 

 walk, and not faint. — ISA. 40:31. 



Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsaice 

 me not when my strength faileth. — Psalm 71:9. 



I am starting out, as I have told you sev- 

 eral tiraes, to try to live to be a hundred 

 years old. How can I manage it ? What shall 

 I do, and what shall I cease doing? Mrs. 

 Root said she had very little desire to be 

 a hundred years old; but when some of the 

 children reminded her that she could prob- 

 ably aid in prolonging my life better than 

 any one else in the world, she added, "With 

 that view of the case I would try hard to 

 live to a good old age."* You see she takes 

 an unselfish view of the matter. Well, 

 friends, I too am trying to take an unselfish 

 view of the matter. I not only want to live 

 to see what is going on in the years to come, 

 but I want others to live to a good old age. 

 Mrs. Root has often reminded me that peo- 

 ple who live to be up to ninety years or 

 more are usually not only a burden to them- 

 selves but oftentimes they seem to be, at 

 least in some respects, a burden on the rest 

 of the world. Now, I think this need not 

 be so. Our good friend Terry insists quite 

 vehemently that it need not be. He too is try- 

 ing to come up to the hundred mark; and 

 he and I both have been for years trying 

 to teach humanity how to "keep well and 

 live long." One reason why I want to live 

 as long as God's will is that I should live, 

 is that I may see what is being accomplish- 

 ed in this line by our good men and women 

 of this twentieth century, f 



May God be praised for the assistance 

 our Department of Agriculture is giving. 

 In my hands are some recent bulletins sent 



* Mrs. Root not only knows better than anybody 

 else in the world what sort of food agrees with me 

 best, but she knows better how to prepare it. She 

 is also prompting me more or less every day of my 

 life in regard to health measures. Wherever we are 

 she makes provision for my naps before dinner, and 

 exhorts me every little while to straighten up, throw 

 back my shoulders, and expand my lungs. I hardly 

 ^ need remind you that she is almost fierce in this 

 matter of pure air and abundant ventilation. Very 

 likely I should not be alive and dictating these Home 

 papers at this moment were it not for my untiring 

 and indefatigable helpmate. 



t I not only want to see what is going to be done 

 in regard to sanitation, pure food, fresh air, etc., but 

 I want to see the outcome of wireless telegraphy, 

 tiying-machines, electricity, and radium. By the 

 way, my radium "still radiates." The little specimen 

 I have, although it has for years been pouring forth 

 a literal "bombardment of shooting stars," is at it 

 still, winter and summer, week days and Sunday. I 

 also want to see those "that wait upon the Lord" 

 "inherit the earth." 



out by the Department. The titles are as 

 follows: "How to Prevent Typhoid Fever;" 

 "Tuberculosis;" "Facts about Malaria;" 

 "Remedies against Mosquitoes;" "House- 

 flies;" "Harmfulness of Headache Mix- 

 tures;" "Poisonous Mushrooms," etc. These 

 bulletins have all been sent out witliin the 

 past year or two. There is just one more 

 - — "Habit-forming Agents — Their Sale and 

 Use a Menace to the Public Welfare." A 

 lady who gave an open-air address on our 

 public square spoke about the recent legis- 

 lation or ordinances against impure or del- 

 eterious milk. She said the number of ba- 

 bies that lost their lives in Cleveland, 

 every summer, through the use of milk not 

 fit for use was greater than the number of 

 people lost on the Titanic. May God be 

 praised for what has been done to save the 

 babies; and I hardly need tell you that the 

 mothers of these same babies have had much 

 to do in securing this very just and wise 

 legislation. This pamphlet about habit- 

 forming agents informs us that the babies, 

 through the agency of ignorant mothers, 

 get an appetite for stimulants in soothing 

 syrups, for instance, and things along that 

 line. Later on, different things are put on 

 the market, just to get the pennies from 

 children so young that we might almost call 

 them babies. The climax of this terrible 

 work (just for the sake of the nickels and 

 pennies) is the cigarette business. In the 

 last number of that periodical called Good 

 Health we find the following: 



Not fewer than 10,000 persons die annually of 

 chronic poisoning with alcohol and tobacco — six 

 times as many as went down with the Titanic. 



Well, this government bulletin on habit- 

 forming agents does not ynention cigarettes, 

 scarcely mentions tobacco, and has not a 

 word to say about beer and other intoxicat- 

 ing drinks, although it does have consider- 

 able to say in regard to opium, morphine, 

 etc. As a rule it rejoices my heart when 

 I get hold of these government bulletins, 

 especially the reports from our experiment 

 stations. By the way, our Ohio Experi- 

 ment Station at Wooster is said to be doing 

 a gTeater Avork, or at least a better work, 

 than perhajDS any other similar institution 

 in any of the States. May God be praised 

 for this. I have, however, a report in my 

 hand just now from our Wooster station 

 that did not "rejoice my heart" when I saw 

 it. It is entitled "Tobacco Culture in 

 Ohio." I asked the question recently through 

 our journal if the people of Ohio generally 



