1 «'.!-' 



(JI.KAXINCiS IN HEE CHI/rilRE. 



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striii'tion. I linno soiiio inslriHMiuii is to ooiiic 

 to yod ill tliis talk to-day. I'lcasc IxMicvc your 

 old frioiid wlicn lu' tells you that, if you give 

 way to tlu'st' trmptatious, cvimi in ilic slijilucst 

 dcfrivc. llicy will firow in)oii you like wccils in a 

 rifii soil; and please iielieve me. too. when I 

 tell you that your friemls as well as your eiu- 

 ployor probably know all about it. May be 

 they tliiiik it is a small matter— too small to 

 make a fuss about: but tiiey foe! sad and sor- 

 rowful wliile tliey note it. It is a great blemish 

 oti your I'haiaeter— yes. a thousand times worse 

 tlian some physical defeet. espi-cialiy among 

 womankind, who like to appear well and look 

 well before the world. Why, dear sister, this 

 thing mars not only your spirituality and en- 

 joyment in life, but it hurts you more in the 

 eyes of all good men and gocni women than any 

 physical defect you can think of. And then 

 remember, again." that last great truth that I 

 have been trying to teach you to day: "It is 

 an abomination to fools to depart from evil." 

 Suppose, after what 1 have told you. and even 

 after liaviiig read this printed [)age. these 

 friends of whom I have spoken should go I'ight 

 on. continuing to do this very thing when op- 

 portunity offers. Why, you would say such a 

 one is a fool and an idiot, and that is jnst what 

 the Bible says. 



I have felt troubled about speaking thus 

 plainly to-day: and I have prayed over this 

 neighborly talk perhaps more than over any 

 other one during the whole past year: and as 

 I close. I am breathing a prayer to the great 

 Father above, that he may so bless and sancti- 

 fy this poor work of mine that its faults and 

 blemishes may be passed by and only the grains 

 of truth be gathered in. And may the result 

 and summing up of it all be. through Christ 

 Jesus, to you a merry Christmas and happy 

 New Year: for please believe me. dear friends, 

 when I tell you theic can be no real merry 

 Christmas, nor happy New Year either, with- 

 out honesty and truth in our hearts, that we 

 may make there an uhldlmj-place for the love of 

 Christ Jesus — he who came down to earth on 

 Christmas day to be a Sdrior to all who feel the 

 need of something that out]/ a messenger from 

 the great God himself can give. 



Notes of Travel 



FROM A. I. ROOT. 



OSTRICHES AND AN O.STRICH-FARM. 



Just as sure as you are alive, I finished up 

 our travels in Arizona without saying a word 

 about the ostrich-farm. It is a few miles out 

 from Ph(enix. among the alfalfa- fields. You 

 see, the alfalfa is just the nicest feed in the 

 world for ostriches. They will live and thrive 

 on it when it is green: and if put through a 

 cutting-box when it is dry. they eat it with 

 great avidity. By the way. there is something 

 funny about the way the ostrich eats. lie will 

 gobble up a great lot of dry alfalfa, and. of 

 course, it has got to go somewhere: so it forms 

 itself into a sort of wad. or ball, and then com- 

 mences making a slow passage — perhaps I had 

 better say voyaKf — down tliat long cranelike 

 neck. Imagine a lump as large as your double 

 fist slowly making its way from the'head of the 

 bird toward the body. The neck is so distended 

 that the lump of food is plainly visible all the 

 while the ostrich is eating. Well, we hired a 

 livery team and. drove out. The streets in 

 Pho'nix and the roads in the suburbs were just 

 about as bad as or even worse than any that can 

 be met here in our Medina County clay; and as 



we were there during the rainy season, it was a 

 pretty big task to get even four miles out of the 

 city. W<^ crossed (luitea number of the irrigat- 

 ing canals that one meets everywhere. an<l 

 found the ostriches in an alfalfa-field bordi-red 

 by beautiful large blanching cot ton woods that 

 grew on the banks of an itrigaling canal. We 

 first got sight of the old original trio of birds. 

 Imagine a Miahma rooster so tall that his head 

 is almost as high as a man on horsel)ack, and 

 tlH'ii you can get, an idea of something what tlie 

 " papa ostrich " looks like. In disposition, how- 

 ever, the IJrahma comitarison does not ap|)ly. 

 The disposition of the game-cock is not quite 

 the thing either, for the ostrich is more like an 

 enraged bull when you go around the inclos- 

 iire. We decided not to go inside of his domain, 

 as liis looks and actions were so warlike. I{ut 

 in an adjoining lot was a brood of chicks. Some 

 of these chicks were pretty nearly as tall as the 

 old fellow, but they were much more slender, 

 and they had a timid look and demeanor that 

 made one think of young turkeys. As we ap- 

 proached their inclosure they came up also, and 

 peered at us with great liquid eyi'S. Their 

 slender legs did not look as if they could do one 

 much harm: but notwithstanding, I was a little 

 afraid of the strange creature.s. My brother 

 Jess, however, crawled through the fence, and 

 went out among them. They evidently expect- 

 ed something to eat. vSome of them acted a 

 little bit vicious; and I think quite likely that, 

 if we had run and acted freightened. they 

 might have pursued us. 



A young ostrich is. in many respects, unlike 

 any other kind of the furred or feathered tribes. 

 They have a peculiar tipping and swinging 

 gait that tempts one to laugh: and it is more 

 like a young miss of sixteen, who begins swing- 

 ing herself and putting on airs, than any thing 

 else I can think of. I hope none of the young 

 misses who read Gleanings will take offense at 

 this, for I want to say that young ostriches are 

 remarkably graceful— at least most of the time. 

 Jess tried to see whether they would shoo, like 

 geese and turkeys. They did not shoo very 

 well, but he finally got them to cantering down 

 the lot: and when they spread their wings so as 

 to catch the breeze, it was one of the finest 

 sights that ever met my eyes. I should think 

 there were ten or twelve in that brood, of near- 

 ly full-grown chicks. f * 



Pretty soon my eye caught sight of another 

 inclosure with a low picket fence around it. Of 

 course, no ordinary fence would hold a full- 

 growMi ostrich. He would straddle right over 

 common farm fences. This last inclosure, how- 

 ever, was about the sort you see around a gar- 

 den to kei'p chickens out. And what do you 

 suppose we found inside? Why, a whole brood 

 of chicks not much larger than ordinary turkeys.. 

 Oil! but weren't they pretty I and they were 

 just as cute and full of fun as a lot of well-fed 

 and mischievous chickens and turkeys. They 

 would pretend to fight each othei-. and tlien 

 make the oddest grimaces, spreading their 

 wings, and jumping as if they were in their 

 native deserts. You may wonder where the 

 Kodak was. We managed to corner up the 

 chicks so as to get the group, and I had snapped 

 it once, and was just getting ready for them 

 again, while Jess was making them gallop 

 down the lot. I must remark here, there was 

 no dwelling near the ostrich-farm; and as our 

 time was limited we had not. found out where 

 to get permission to make our investigations. 

 The tem()tation was .so great, when we got in 

 among the birds, tliat we were really making 

 ourselves at home. At just the crisis mentioned, 

 however, the keeper came on the scene. I pre- 

 sume he was not very much pleased to se,^ a 

 couple of strangers chasing his birds, and point- 



