1886 



GLEA:Nl^'GtS IN iU-lE C'LLTl Ki:. 



Ul\> 



" I have a patient in there, an idolized wife, who is 

 dying-, and lieyond all help, and none of them 

 know what is the matter with her, and still her 

 husband has killed her." 



" Why, doctor," says I, " what do you uieanr" 



"I mean just this," he sa3s: "her husband is 

 just literally steeped in tobacco, until the insensi- 

 ble perspiration from his body has become a deadly 

 poison, and his wife has absorbed enough of this, 

 and had, before I was called in, so that she will 

 die." 



"Have you told them'.' " 



"No; what good? It would onl.> add to their 

 misery now." 



" Uiit, doctor, arc you sure 't " 



'■ Ves; 1 have seen such things before. Some con- 

 stitutions eaii bear the poison, and some can not. 

 Why, just to give you an idea, I saw this e.\peri- 

 inent tried, among others, at an establishment 

 where they treat patients for the cure of the tobac- 

 co habit. A man just brought in was wiished as 

 clean as soap and water could make him, and then 

 some flies were allowed to alight on him. In t1\e 

 minutes, by the watch, they were dead. There was 

 poison enough in the perspiration that came out 

 of a man washed as clean as possible, to kill them. 

 You can imagine what it would be, when he wasn't 

 washed, perhaps, to spend hours each day in a 

 warm bed with him." 



This was all new to me, an<l I was completely 

 dumbfounded. 



I don't use tobacco, thank God, and never did; 

 but if I had, that physician's statement would have 

 stopped me as surely and quickly as a bullet would. 

 Run any risk of killing my dear wife by my filthy 

 habit? Not much! I would have slept in the 

 stable; no, in the pig-pen; no, outdoors under a 

 tree, far from every live animal, until the poison 

 was all out of my system. T. B. Tekry. 



Hudson, O. 



Why, old friend, you have got away ahead 

 of the whole of us in regard to the tobacco 

 reform. I was prepared to believe that peo- 

 ple sometimes kill themselves by its use,l)ut 

 I did not dream of such a thing as their kill- 

 ing others who are obliged to be near them. 

 Your remarks explain sometliing, however, 

 that I did not understand ))efore. When- 

 ever I am obliged, even for only alittle time, 

 to remain in a room or car filled with tobac- 

 co smoke, it sickens and crazes me, and 

 sometimes I have noticed that it takes two 

 or three days to recover entirely from the 

 effects of the poison. May be I could get ac- 

 customed to it in time, as I have become 

 accustomed to the poison of the bee-sting; 

 but I believe I would rather remain as I am 

 in this respect. 



A few days since, myself and two other 

 bee-friends "were obliged to wait for a train 

 at Ann Arlior. To while away the time, we 

 liad a friendly dish of oysters, in a clean- 

 looking restaurant. While paying our lulls a 

 troop of juveniles entered. Every one of 

 them had a cigarette in his mouth, even 

 away down to the small boy with short 

 trowsers. Why, he was not very much big- 

 ger than Iluber; and the siglit of this boy, 

 inhaling the fumes of tobacco, the blood in 

 his youthful veins being stimulated by the 

 vile narcotic, alnio'^t made me shudder. Dr. 

 Mason suggested to the proprietor that boys 



ought not to be allowed to smoke in such a 

 place. 



'• Why," replied one of the small ones, 

 '• he sells us the cigarettes hisself." 



That was a clincher. So long as the pro- 

 prietor sold cigai-ettes, the boys had a right 

 to smoke them on liis premises. It is posi- 

 tively appalling to see these little ones rivet 

 the chains of a vile habit while they are 

 too young to discriminate. I wish I could 

 see these boys' mothers. 



Friend Terry, I, too, thank God that you 

 do not use tobacco; i'or, to tell the truth, 1 

 did not know, until just now, but of 

 course I might have known, that men like 

 yourself. Prof. Cook, and, I think I may say, 

 the entire corps of contributors of Glean- 

 ings, without many exceptions, would not, 

 on general principles, use tobacco, because 

 they love their wives, as you put it (the 

 (lueens of our homes, you know); they love 

 their fellow-men, and they love their Maker. 

 Now, 1 feel glad to think that we can join 

 hands in this work, and that we can join in 

 our daily prayers in pleading with the great 

 Father for the boys of our land— yes, the 

 juveniles, even if it'is true that the grown- 

 up ones are, many of them, past saving. By 

 all means, let us have a I^ S. law for the 

 protection of minors. 



SMOKER FUEL; MANAGEMENT OP 

 SMOKERS, ETC. 



dOks heat cure diarrhea'/ 



AST winter, some time in February, if I re- 

 member correctly, there appeare«l marks of 

 1^^ diarrhea in a few colonies in one of my cel- 

 lars. The weather had been pretty cold, and 

 fires had been rather low. I increased the 

 temperature by better fires, and there were no 

 further appearancesof diarrhea. I do not conclude 

 from this that heat is a sure cure for diarrhea, 

 but I look upon it as a straw blowing in that direc- 

 tion. There are so many chances for mistake that 

 I may be deceived in the whole affair. 



SHAVINGS FOR SMOKER FUEL. 



In Gleanings for Oct. 15, Ernest tells how he 

 uses sawdust; and for such as have plenty of the 

 proper mate) ial on hand I do not know of any thing 

 better than to follow his instructions; for with my 

 plan and my shavings, instead of his sawdust (for I 

 can not get sawdust such as he uses) I am oblig- 

 ed to reiilenish my smoker oftener than he; 

 but some, I think many, can not get his saw- 

 dust; and even if other sawdust would do just 

 as well, there are some who do not have plenty of 

 rotten wood. Let me tell you just how I use shav- 

 ings; and for starting me in the use of them I would 

 not begrudge many times the price of Mr. Heddon's 

 book. In a convenient place in the apiary stands a 

 box, of one or two bushels capacity, in which I put 

 common i)laner shavings of i)ine. The bo.v is cov- 

 ered with a tin hive cover, so that it is thoroughly 

 rainproof. In this box is a snuill tin box contain- 

 ing matches, and a baking-powder can, to hold pre- 

 pared rotten wood. Ernest suggests another bak- 

 ing-powder can to be used as a sort of Ecoop with 

 which to fill shavings into the smoker. The rotten 

 wood is prepared in this way: In a stone crock or 

 other vessel I put something like a gallon t)f water 

 and a jiound of saltpeter. To (liis 1 add a little red 



