18<.i4 



GLEANINGS IN HKE CULTURK. 



:il 



luestions the faitni'ss or th(> prood jiidsriKMit 

 isrd III Hxing it thus. But yet the <,nvuter part 

 )i the world seems to be determiue.l to go back 



old methods, resulting in loss, disippoint- 

 nent. destruction of iJi'opcrty, waste of money 

 tc. If we had the luoncy that might be saved 

 ly adopting standai'd time all over the United 

 Itates. there would be ample means to chjthe 

 nd feed all who are just now sulfering in this 

 Duntry. There is not a question about it. 



In tiie town of Intei'loclien. Grand Traverse 

 o.. Mich., they keep four kinds of time— at 

 ■ast they did two years ago this fall when I 

 topped there. I had to wait about two hours 

 )r a tram, and told them I should like dinner 

 bout noon. The landlady at the hotel asked 

 'hat kind of time. I then asked what time 

 ley usually had their dinner. She replied that 

 ie_y had to get one dinner for the railroad men 

 nd another for the townspeople, and the two 

 ■lids of time were just one hour apart. She 

 jd they had quarreled over it. but neither 

 de would give up; and then some other people 

 ho moved into their new settlement from' 

 imewhere else, insisted on having iheir time 

 ichas they had where they used to live; there- 

 re there were four kinds of time in that town 



I were in a new town where no better har- 

 ony could be brought about than the above 

 think I would move away and let them suffer 

 ec9nsequences of their folly until they learn- 



wisdom. 

 Our schools and churches here in Medina are 

 i run by standard time. In fact, as yet thev 

 .ve not dared to do otherwise. Now just im- 

 ine having a different kind of time in your 

 ■mes, and teaching the children, as they ^^row 

 1, to hgure and calculate, and blunder^and 

 imble continually by having school lime and 

 me tune half an hour apart. Why the Hu- 

 Jjie Society ought to take the matter in hand 

 der the plea that it is cruelty to animals 

 ies, there rrre some arguments on the other 

 le. Perhaps you would be ashamed to men- 

 iti them after what I have said, and therefore 

 vUl mention them for you. It is a bother to 

 ve dinnertime before noon. Well here at 

 r place we have dinner at 11:30, soour dinner- 

 ur IS just what it always was. But the wo- 

 m-tolks complain that it is no end of trouble 

 ■teaHf jS*"*^^™*^*^ ^° having dinner at 11:30 



i^es, it is some trouble to have a new set of 

 ■th until one becomes accustomed to them- 

 t tor that reason shall I have mine pulled off 

 a throvyn away after they cost a big lot of 

 ■ney. simply because I can not be patient 



1 wait a week or a month until I get used 

 the^m ? (I wish to say, however, that, even 

 )ugh 1 have not had mine two weeks, I would 

 .take ever so much more than they cost to 

 back to my old ones.) Then there is another 

 ection-one still more serious in its conse- 

 nces 1 he mothers declare that the chil- 

 n will insist on having the extra half-hour 

 e t.r'"^ i° ^^^- ^^'*h the old-fashioned 

 le they usexl to go to bed at half- past S or U 

 th standard time they keep insisting that it 



\?h\l ?.'' """^ y'^^- ^:*''-= ^"'^ 't 's a good deal of 

 iible to keep quoting all the while the old or- 



MVP «l"^f • ^''^' }^ '"''^'^'•^^ m*' ^''ome trouble. 

 Ifirpn H -^v,^lT *^ ^''"y ^*™<'^''' " Look here, 

 '^n^^V.W^ ha -past 9, and you know that 

 IDS, b> the old-fashioned time, 10, o'clock, 

 e you are all of you, still up. Now lust 

 Ik what a time we shall have in the morn- 



■h^?ffi .^.H ^"l'''' *''?"*^'' *''«'"^' s'lould not be very 

 mr \^,e^,^;'^"'"* '-•''=^'"^ "*f the hour a little for 

 nAt il ' '^'"""^ ii certain class, the dinner-hour 

 J 1 oM -qn ^"^ ^'''"' "^ I"ir"cuiar. It may be 12 

 », i, Oi 1:30, and so on until after dark. 



ing in getting you up so as to be ready at Bil)le- 

 readiuff and prayers '' The latter always come.s 

 aiier bn.aklast. When the childr.m are late 

 they are obliged to get their breakfast after- 

 ward; and It mollierdoes not carry it back and 

 put It m the oven, it is likely to be cold 



But. dear me! what are su,h trifling thin'-s 

 //"L , '^ compared with h ,ving one kind 7,r 

 time, and o'ic only the wr,, ,d over? Sonuibody 

 maysay, -VVhy. if you think a little you can 

 figure out the difference." Well, I have h'ui 

 my ti^amster stand still with his team while he 

 and I lioth figured out when he must boon hand 

 tomeetan appointment, with his clock set on 

 the old-tashioned plan. It puzzles me, and u^es 

 up my brain force, and even then I cet it 

 wrong The dentist and I both tried to figure 

 when I should beat his office according to/((,s- 

 clock. I did not mak(! it out. even then but 

 perhaps he did. When I remonstrated With 

 him he said the great city of Cleveland, after 

 tryiiig standard time, had voted to go back to 

 sun time What shall I do with such an ar-i 

 ment right before me? Why. I would say to the 

 gjeat city of Cleveland, "For shame!" I do 

 think xhQYOViiht to be ashamed of themselves 

 — Pvery man, woman, and child. r^z:;' 



This sort of spirit, or this stubbornness 

 against taking up with new and improved 

 methods, meets us in otherthings as well as in 

 having accurate time. Every little while I come 

 across people out in the country who are burn- 

 ing to JJou; candles. May be I put it too strong- 

 ly, biit^ there are at least a few such right het-e 

 in Medina Co They prefer the old-fashioned 

 methods. In farming, there is such a thing I 

 suppose, as going too heavily into new-fangled 

 methods; but, oh dear me! to think of the other 

 extreme that becomes apparent when we see 

 irom statistics what the average farm croo is' 

 You may say, "Why, Mr. Root, why not let 

 everybody do as he pleases in a matter of this 

 kind .' In regard to farm crops, folks can do 

 as they please, and I suppose they will do as 

 they please; but in this matter you are wrong- 

 ing your neighbors-wronging people at large, 

 ihe poor family that was put to the expense of 

 staying at the hotel over Sunday is an illustra- 

 tion: and no one can have a timepiece— it mat- 

 ters not who he is— without setting more or less 

 people wrong who happen to glance at his clock 

 and that, perhaps, without saying a word I 

 have been vexed almost beyond endurance by 

 just this very thing. Being in a hurry I have 

 glanced at a clock, not thinking there \vere two 

 kinds of time. Then I missed the train 6v 

 some other important appointment, because of 

 the half-hour s difference. 



Now, then, if I have not been fair in this— if 

 1 have held up one side and kept out the other 

 please tell me so. and set me right. If, on the 

 other hand, all I say is true, and yet you stub- 

 bornly refuse to go to your cloct^ this minute 

 and set it where it ought to be. as soon as you 

 can, then I shall have to think of you as I do of 

 some other people who know perfectly well 

 what IS right and fair, and yet who stubbornly 

 and deliberately persist in doing ihat which is 

 wicked and wrong. Even if yo i have a sun- 

 dial and an almanac, it iv u rather difTicnlt mat- 

 ter to keep your timepieces coireci. 1 do not 

 know how you can keep sun time with any de- 

 gree of accuracy, even if you set out to do Jt I 

 do not know how it is in other places, but in 

 our town the jewelers all keep standard time 



n ? *"*^™ ^*^'^ "^^ ^ ^^^ <^ays ago he had 

 pulled off the extra hand he used to have on 

 his regulator, and that in the future he would 

 absolutely refuse to give anybody "sun time " 

 or aid him in any way in his stubbornness. 

 Good for the jeweler ! 

 Even if you decide on sun time, it will trou- 



