December, 1920 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



751 



over in sonic corner. Everything: was as 

 spotless and as clean as Mrt<. Root herself 

 would have it. I suspect she will scold a 

 little when she sees this, but I am going to 

 take the chances. 



I will now digress a little right here. Yes, 

 dear friends, I wish to digress a lot in the 

 story I am going to tell, and I pray that 

 the story may do good. 



Some years ago when taking a trip down 

 to my Florida home I decided to investi- 

 gate the toilet rooms so far as I could. In 

 one county seat where I had to stop to 

 t-atch a train there was no closet, and I was 

 told that I would have to go over to the 

 courthouse, a block or so away. They had 

 just erected a new edifice, and it was a 

 model of neatness and beauty. A nice room 

 had been fixed up for a closet, with marble, 

 porcelain, nickel silver fixings, and all 

 modern improvements; but, altho the edi- 

 fice had been but recently finished, tobacco 

 juice was spattered over all the marble 

 lloor, porcelain closets, and elsewhere, until 

 the whole place was just awful, even to 

 look at. I think the poor janitor must have 

 become disgusted with the habits of the 

 men folks and lost courage. I am afraid 

 some of these filthy habits belong to some 

 lawyers, doctors, and possibly professors, 

 and the poor janitor had evidently given 

 up all hopes of keeping things neat and 

 sweet and clean, altho he had all modern 

 appliances for doing his work. 



At the great Union Depot in Miami, Fla., 

 things were for a while so well kept that 

 I rejoiced; but on my last visit in that same 

 depot it looked a good deal like the court- 

 house I have described. 



In Jacksonville, Miami, and I presume 

 in many other cities, they had special closet 

 looms where one could open the door only 

 by putting a nickel in the slot. These for 

 a while were kept in pretty fair shape; but 

 at the time of my last visit in one of these 

 city places the locks had been broken off, 

 the doors swung wide open, and I think 

 one door was hanging by only one hinge, 

 and the same filthiness was evident once 

 more. Maybe I am exaggerating the mat- 

 ter. If so, I shall be very glad to be cor- 

 rected. 



Just one more digression. 



Mrs. Eoot dreads riding on the cars be- 

 cause she gets carsick. On our last trip, 

 however, from Florida to our Medina home 

 she did not get carsick at all. But / did. I 

 will tell you why. The smoking room in the 

 Pullman car was right close to our berth. 

 An electric fan was put up to insure 

 "good (?) ventilation." The fan was so 

 placed that it pulled the tobacco smoke and 

 other fumes from the smoker right into my 

 face. Yes, I could have gotten another seat, 

 but almost every b'^rth was occupied, upper 

 as well as lower, and I could not just then 

 get another seat without trespassing on the 

 good nature of some other tired passenger. 

 Why did I not complain? Well, since I am 

 getting old I have thought many times I 



would stof) gruTiibling and try to put up 

 with what others put up with. 



Let us now get back to my text. I do not 

 mind so much the little inconvenience my- 

 self; but when a great part of humanit.y is 

 suffering, I feel the responsibility is placed 

 on my shoulders, at least to a certain ex- 

 tent, by the great Father above, and that I 

 ()U(jlit to complain and let my voice be 

 heard. 



Well, it was my pleasure to be in and all 

 about that wonderful sanitarium for about 

 four days. In this place we are told there 

 are 50 expert doctors and something like 

 400 nurses. I took a full course of treat- 

 ment — that is, as full as .1 could in four 

 days, and every doctor who examined me 

 was free from anything in his breath that 

 would indicate tobacco. May God help us 

 to work for a time when our physicians (to 

 sa}^ nothing of anybody else) shall be free 

 from the tobacco habit. I do not know for 

 sure, but I imagine that quite a large part 

 of these 50 "expert doctors" are women; 

 and I was so much impressed during the 

 four days of my stay at Battle Creek that 

 the words of my second text came into my 

 mind involuntarily — "And there shall in 

 no wise enter into it anything that defileth, 

 neither whatsoever worketh abomination or 

 maketh a lie." I found this in the next to 

 the last chapter in the last book of the 

 Bible. For several years past the children 

 have insisted that I should have frequent 

 examinations by competent physicians. Now, 

 with no disrespect to the city doctors who 

 have looked me over, I want to say that 

 the clean, sweet men and women at Battle 

 Creek are doing their work better and 

 more thoroly than any I have ever met any- 

 where else. I was particularly impressed by 

 one doctor — ^Dr. Stewart. Instead of being 

 very sober, as most doctors seem to think 

 they must be, he, in a kind, friendly way, 

 asked me more questions than any other 

 doctor ever asked me before- — ^gave me 

 time for a full inspection, made some sug- 

 gestions, and seemed as anxious to help me 

 over my few minor troubles as if he were 

 my own son.* Right here I wish to ask the 

 users of tobacco, whose eyes rest on these 

 pages, to look over that second text of 

 mine, and see how well their lives contrib- 

 ute to make, such a place, o.f this world of 

 ours. Perhaps I might mention right here 

 that my son, E. R. Root, took me up to 

 Michigan in a brand-new Dodge automo- 

 bile. I rode 200 miles in one day, and over 

 some roads about as bad as you can find 

 anywhere, and felt "as spry as a cricket" 

 when I reached home at night; and I might 

 almost say that I did not have a nap from 

 daylight till long after dark. I have been 

 thank.^ng the Lord for it ever since, and am 



The abbve is not only true, but there is another 

 thin? connected with it that impresses me. In some 

 respects this sanitarium seems to be conducted on 

 the principles of some of our modern factories. It 

 is, in fact, a sreat factory for health. As I passed 

 from room to room I found otlier patlent.s ahead of 



