366 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May I. 



tilled water. About once a week the bottom 

 boiler A should be emptied out and cleansed. 

 Now, it makes very little difference what kind 

 of water you put into this apparatus. You 

 may dip it out of a muddy pool, or it ma}' 

 contain lime, saleratus, or any amount of 

 alkali, but the distilled water at K will be 

 just the same; but, of course, more sediment 

 will collect at A if the water is very impure. 

 Mrs. Root wanted to know if it would be just 

 the same if I were to put a solution of arsenic 

 into the machine. " Why, certainly," said I ; 

 " the water would be just as good to drink." 

 But she said she would rather let somebody 

 else try the experiment. Perhaps I should 

 add that the cheapest Sanitary still, made of 

 polished copper, is only !?10. If I am correct, 

 pure distilled water has no chemical effect on 

 copper ; but, to make assurance doubly sure, 

 the copper is lined with pure block tin inside, 

 so the apparatus should last a lifetime. The 

 Cuprigraph people are offering a nice little 

 book describing the apparatus, telling of the 

 different people who are using their still, etc., 

 all of which will be sent free to all applying. 



I feel so sure that a great many people like 

 mj-self would be greatly benefited by abso- 

 lutely pure water that I thought I would give 

 the above amount of space to the matter. A 

 great deal of money is paid out for water from 

 various mineral springs ; but somebody has 

 said, and I think he is right, that "the bes^ 

 mineral water is water containing no mineral at 

 all." If you have been troubled with a bad 

 taste in your mouth, and with a longing for 

 water or something to drink that would leave 

 no unpleasant "twang," try distilled water 

 for three or four days, and see if you do not 

 agree with me that it is the kind of water God 

 ititended we should drink. I believe our 

 medical men agree that a host of diseases, 

 especially those pertaining to the kidneys, are 

 the result of gradual accumulation of minerals 

 or other impurities that come through the 

 water we drink. Typhoid and other fevers, 

 almost all of them, are contracted through 

 organisms contained in water improperly used 

 for drinking-purposes. Occasionally we iind 

 soft-water springs coming from pure sand 

 rock where the water is almost as pure as 

 distilled water. If )-ou have such a spring, 

 thank God for it. If, however, you are not 

 satisfied with the water you are obliged to 

 drink, rig up a home-made apparatus such as 

 I have described above, and try it. If pure 

 water, pure air, and pure and wholesome food 

 do not restore you, then perhaps you are 

 excusable in applying 1o a doctor; but I would 

 try the other things first. 



ARNICA, AND I^IKE REMEDIES FOR SPRAINS. 

 In paying a bill at a drugstore a year or so ago 

 I found an item of something like a dollar for 

 arnica. My teamster bought it for a sprain on 

 the leg of one of our horses. For some years 

 I have been trying to discover whether arnica 

 is really any better than or as good as simply 

 hot water. T. B. Terry recently sprained his 

 ankle while traveling. He comments in re- 

 gard to it in a recent number of the Practical 

 Farmer as follows : 



Friends would come in and ask why I did not put on 

 this and that. One day I asked our family physician, 

 in whom I had confidence, if there wasn't .something 

 that co\ild be put on that would hasten the healing a 

 little, and he replied, " No, I am sorry to .say there is 

 nothing known to science that will do any good. We 

 must wait for Nature, and do nothing to hinder her." 

 This reminds me of what Dr. A. W. Bitting told us at 

 Indiana institutes about taking care of the wounds of 

 an animal. He said, " Wash clean in sterilized water; 

 then bind up in new clean chee.secapping. To .steril- 

 ize the water, boil it and all jw it to cool before using. 

 I'.se no old rags nor ordinary water. Nothing you 

 can put on will do any good, such as btnding on pork, 

 fish-worms, etc." How often we doctor our.selves or 

 our stock, and we get well, and we give the credit to 

 our work, while Nature did all the healing, and very 

 likely we hindeied her some ! 



Here is something else that I clipped from a 

 paper. It may have a bearing on this matter 

 of buying medicines : 



Mrs. J. C. Ayer, widow of the noted patent medicine 

 man, died in Paris last week. She had lived in Paris 

 ten years, "the richest woman in the world." Her 

 wealth was estimated at thirty millions of dollars, and 

 her annual income was two millions. It all came 

 from poor sick mortals. She loved display, and her 

 establishment was the grandest in Paris. 



Humbugs and Swindles. 



Ml . A. I. Root. — I send you by this mail a little 

 paper published in your State by a couple of men 

 named Bain. I wonder if one of the.se is our old 

 friend Bain. I consider the thing a batch of lies, and 

 would like your opinion of it in Glkanings. 



Napton, Mo. Jas. T. Shackelford, P. M. 



The paper published at New Concord, O., 

 is called the Money Maker, and its principal 

 business seems to be to puff egg-preservatives, 

 fruit-preservatives, hair-restoratives, and other 

 things to make money. A great part of the 

 articles published in the paper are from people 

 who tell how they made "lots of money " 

 buying these new-fangled preparations of the 

 editors. Here is a sample of the way they 

 start out : 



A GIRL'S GRIT. 



Editors Money Maker: — I want to thank you for 

 the article you published last month about pre.serving 

 fruit by the cold process. I was out of work, and did 

 not know what in the world to do; but after reading 

 your paper I borrowed a dollar, and .sent for a sample 

 of friiit, and 1.5 directions for preserving it, and started 

 out to sell it, it being my first attempt to sell any 

 thing. I gave a ta.ste of the fruit at every house I 

 went to, and I did not find a person but said it was the 

 nicest fruit he had ever tasted. I sold four recipes in 

 the forenoon, seven in the afternoon, and the other 

 four in an hour that evening, and got a dollar each for 

 them; and to every one who bought a recipe, I sold a 

 package of salyx, with which to put the fruit up, and 

 made oO cents on each package, so on that day's work 

 I made $21 above my expen.ses. This may not seem 

 much to tho.se who are used to having lots of money. 

 I then .sent for 2.5 more directions, and have just .sold 

 the last one of them, and a package of salyx with 

 each one; .'o I made ^30 clear money on that lot in less 

 than two days. I am going to push right along at this 

 till I get money enough to start up in the poultry 

 liusiness nicely. All the money I can make this 

 spring I am going to invest in eggs, and preserve 

 them by the algretta method. I thank you again for 

 your veVj' valuable paper, and inclo.se you S2 for it and 

 a package of per-algretta. Miss Mary A. Burns. 



Of course, they do not tell where Miss Mary 

 Burns lives, nor any of the rest of the con- 

 tributors, nor the address of those who contrib- 

 ute similar articles. Preserving fruit by the 

 cold process is such an old exposed humbug 

 that I did not suppose anybody could be duped 

 by it now. Look out for this sort of advertis- 

 ing, no matter in what paper you see it. 



