June 1. 1911 



get outdoors and luive a c-luinge. I will say 

 that my lungs are already affected. I went 

 down to Texas, and stayed in the ojien air 

 for a year. I got so much better that I ven- 

 tured" to go back and take uj) my work once 

 more; but it won't do. I have", (/of to give 

 it uj)." 



I expressed some surjirise that he, a phy- 

 sician, and a jirominent one too, should 

 want mi/ advice in regard to his health. I 

 asked him if he slept in the open air. He 

 said he did not. The oi)en air in that great 

 city, especially at the point where his home 

 is located, is so full of coal smoke and damp- 

 ness — that is, a great i)art of the time, ))oth 

 <iay and night, that he felt that a room with 

 plenty of windows was just as good or a lit- 

 tle better. I told him that all experience 

 .seemed to indicate that it was not. Our 

 boy Huber is most emi)hatic in tliis matter. 

 He says the best room in the world, with all 

 the windows you can ])ut in, would not 

 comjiare with a bed right out in the open 

 air with nothing but the stars above you. 

 He says that anybody who has once tried it 

 agrees with only a brief trial, and 1 am in- 

 clined to believe he is right. Now, very 

 likely I shall continue to talk open air so 

 long as (lod gives me life and strengtli to 

 keep it up; and if I continue to practic< 

 what I i)reach I have much hojjc that I may 

 have several years yet to talk " out-doorses." 



Wlien I came back from Florida this 

 same l)lue-eyed mother I have been talking 

 about had i)urcliased 2o day-old chicks. As 

 the weather was cold and bad she had them 

 in the Ijath-room where it was "nice and 

 warm." Jiut when I reached home cpiite a 

 few of tlie chickens had died, and others 

 were acting so dumi)y she had se])arated 

 them into two groups — the well ones and 

 the sick ones. The minute I got my eyes 

 on them I said, most emi)hatically. " Pvit 

 tliem outdoors." Ikit she urged that it was 

 too cold and dam]), but I insisted, "out- 

 doors! outdoors!" I found there was a lien 

 in the ])oultry-house that wanted to sit. I 

 got one of my C!)o])s out of the cellar, and a 

 bushel basketful of chaff from the barn. I 

 dumped tlie chaff on the grassy lawn, and 

 .set the coop over it. Then I i)ut the cluck- 

 ing biddy inside and gave her the chicks, 

 both the well ones and the sick ones. It 

 was some little time before slie could catch 

 on. She had wanted to sit for only about 

 one day; but l)y a little iiersuasion the 

 chicks were taught to get up under her 

 wings, and jiretty soon she took on the roh 

 of mother. The sick ones brightened uj) in 

 resi)onse to her cluck and other baby talk, 

 and not a chick died afier that, except one 

 that was so near dead that it was hardly 

 worthy of being counted among the live 

 ones. Then I went over to Huber's, and he 

 too had 25 day-old Barred llocks. Of course 

 they were indoors, wliere it was "nice and 

 warm;" but they had been dying about one 

 every day, notwithstanding he had a lamj) 

 ))roo(ler. I had hard work to convince him 

 that 25 chicks in the month of April wqqiX 

 IK) artificial heat. In fact, the artificial heat 



345 



was a tlamage and a detriment. Why, I 

 meet this thing at almost every turn; and I 

 honestly believe that thousands of chickens 

 are killed annually ))y artificial heat when 

 they do not need it at all. Now, I would 

 not s]>end so mucfi time in talking about 

 chickens were it not that chickens are ex- 

 ar-i'/y hke human beings. Our little green- 

 liouse has mo\'able sashes that can be taken 

 away wlien the weather is warm. We still 

 keej) some heat on the iron i)ipes, even 

 when the sashes are removed, for the ex- 

 haust steam costs nothing. Two years ago, 

 as some of you may remember, I purchased 

 25 day-old chicks; and as the sashes were 

 removed so the greenhouse was practically 

 oi)en air, I i)ut the chickens up by the wariii 

 ])ipes, anil for a while I thought I had made 

 "a great discovery." But my chickens 

 were not dinng well". They kept dying one 

 after another, and the rest of them spent 

 their time in hugging the warm pii)es when 

 I thought they ought to be running out in 

 the grass. PTnally I took what were left 

 and fastened u]) the greenhouse so they 

 could not get in around the warm i)ii)es at 

 all. At hrst they shivered and made a 

 great fuss; but in a little time, recognizing, 

 probably, that "what can not be cured must 

 be endured," they commenced chasing 

 about in the open air; and in so doing they 

 brightened up and fleshed up at once. Not 

 another chick died. Later on I had anoth- 

 er bunch of chicks in a brooder warmed 

 with hot-water pii)es by means of a lamj). 

 As the weather was bad I kept a little heat 

 on at night. liut thrij were not doing well; 

 so T blew out the lamps and covered the 

 metal pi])es with some soft cloth, so they 

 could not get u]) tight against them and 

 thus become chilled. They at once ceased 

 dying, and some that could hardly walk 

 when they had the artificial heat, ill a few 

 days strengthened u}), got tlieir ai)])etiles, 

 and made fairly good chickens. It seems 

 as if I meet this same thing wherever I go; 

 and even if our friend I'hilo has got a "pile 

 of money" by what he calls his "system," 

 I think he deserves the tlianks of tlie whole 

 wide world for doing so much to teach ]ieo- 

 l)le that (Jod's sunshine and pure air are 

 evfr so much Ixttfr than any form of artih- 

 cial heat that man has yet devised. 



I wish you would turn back to that mon- 

 key story found on i)age7;^9for Nov. 15, last 

 year, and read it over and over;* and while 

 doing so may <«od help you to recognize 

 that the same lesson taught there applies to 



* This matter is of such extreme importance that 

 I want to quote hriefl.v from the article referred to. 

 " Xothinff in years liad deUehted visitors so much 

 as what had now liecome an every-day sight — one 

 of those tropical animals, in zero weather, seated 

 ui>on a sn<nv-bank. contentedly eatin": a banana. 



Ai.i. THE insidp: monkeys die. 

 "lUit the twenty monkeys that, early in the winter, 

 had entea'ed the steam-heated monkey-house in 

 splendid 'physical condition had not fared so well. 

 Ry spring not a single one was alive— all had died 

 of tuberculosis. The artificial reproduction of 

 'troi)ical conditions' had killed them, as it had 

 killed hinidreds of their predecessors. The five out- 

 door animals, however, never showed the slightest 

 trace of the disease." 



