1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



895 



may baffle even an expert." Of course, 1 

 never heard from them further. 



Now, friends, do not be humbugged or 

 misled. All around me I find people who 

 have been receiving these humbug imitation 

 letters. Yes, some of my own relatives 

 hold up these printed letters and say, ' ' Why, 

 Amos, you surely must be mistaken. Here 

 is a letter right from the doctor himself, 

 and I know it has been written to me. See 

 the different places where he speaks of my 

 special trouble, and of the money I have sent 

 him, etc." 



I often have hard work to convince them 

 that the letter they are holding up would 

 apply to hundreds of persons. The amount of 

 money sent is not mentioned, ror the name 

 of the trouble. The letters are very ingen- 

 iously made to fit a large number of cases. 

 These quack shops have great piles of such 

 letters. A stenographer looks them over 

 and picks out one that will fit the case best. 

 In fact, the stenographers, who know no 

 more of medicine than a dog does of astron- 

 omy, do the whole business. The head of 

 the firm can go off on a vacation, and the 

 clerks run the whole medical sanitarium 

 just by printed blanks, and they rake in the 

 money during the proprietor's absence until 

 he gets to be a millionaire. These bogus 

 sanitariums send out "health journals." 

 Of course, they are gotten up in fine style, 

 and pretend to be periodicals devoted to the 

 good of humanity, etc. But if you will no- 

 tice the wrapper you will see a stamp on it. 

 The Postoffice Department will not receive 

 them as they do genuine magazines, so the 

 postage has to be paid on every number. 

 Now, look out for these humbug magazines. 

 They are not magazines at all. They are 

 just swindling pamphlets to puff this partic- 

 ular doctor. Only a few of our papers and 

 periodicals are exposing these quacks, be- 

 cause the fellows pay them big money for 

 advertisements in their own columns; and 

 when they accept this advertising they are 

 under contract not to let any thing go into 

 their reading-columns that will hurt the bus- 

 iness. Read Collier's Weekly, Ladies' Home 

 Magazine, and the various agricultural pa- 

 pers that are helping to expose these frauds. 

 The reason the law can not get hold of them 

 or does not get hold of them is exactly the 

 same as the reason why the law can not 

 banish cigarettes in all the States as they 

 have done in Indiana. These rich fellows 

 manage with their money to get Represent- 

 atives and Senators at the head of our gov- 

 ernment who will block any movement to 

 break up their traffic. The New Voice, in 

 commenting on the matter a few days ago, 

 remarked that we had got one Senator in 

 the penitentiary; another one (worth about 

 six millions) committed suicide, and the 

 third has been expelled from the Senate. 

 It looks just now as if the people were soon 

 going to have the privilege of voting straight 

 for both Representatives and Senators. God 

 hasten the day! May he sustain and 

 strengthen President Roosevelt in pushing 

 reform measures as no other President has 

 ever done befor>^ him. 



DOCTORING WITHOUT MEDICINE. 



Yesterday, June 8th, I had a very severe 

 attack of acute inflammation. Now do not 

 get impatient, and grumble because your old 

 friend has so much to say about his pains and 

 aches. I do not know why this special pain 

 and ache came or what brought it about un- 

 less it was that God sent it in order that I 

 might tell you something more about "God's 

 medicines." Do you remember that, when 

 the people asked whose fault it was that a 

 certain man was bom blind— that of his par- 

 ents or himself —the Savior said that neither 

 he nor his parents had sinned, but the afflic- 

 tion had been permitted that the works of 

 God might be made manifest. Well, I groan- 

 ed and bore it as long as I could— that is, 

 after trying all the remedies I could think 

 of. I never had had such a trouble before, 

 and I did not know but it might be diabetes, 

 Bright's disease, or some of these other 

 awful things most of you have heard about. 

 Of course, I prayed for deliverance, as I al- 

 ways do in times of trouble. I do not know 

 that I would have sent for a doctor had it 

 not been for the fact that the children in- 

 sisted on it. They said it was dangerous 

 business to let such a thing go. Right here 

 comes in one very good reason why we should 

 send for a doctor, some good man whom we 

 are acquainted with who makes it his busi- 

 ness in life to give us relief from our pains 

 and aches. The doctor said right away that 

 I need not be worried or troubled. He said 

 it was a simple matter that could be easily 

 managed. But I almost interrupted' him 

 something as follows: 



"But look here, doctor; this is just now 

 something pretty serious; it is most excru- 

 ciating. I do not suppose it is in your power 

 to wind it right up all at once; but how long 

 have I got to stand it as it is now?" 



He smiled good-naturedly and replied, 

 "You have not got to stand it at all. We 

 can wind up every bit of the pain in just 

 about three minutes." 



I do not need to tell you the rest he said. 

 It has no particular bearing on what I wish 

 to teach you; but let me explain right here 

 that somehow when such troubles come to 

 me in my old age, especially when my nerves 

 are all racked out of shape, as it were, I be- 

 gin to think it is the natural result of old 

 age, and that I have got to take my share 

 of it as everybody else does; that my life is 

 drawing to a close; that my Home Papers 

 will soon be wound up— that even the doctors 

 can not do much with such a trouble as I 

 have this time. I do not know but I begin 

 to lose faith in God somewhat, and in his 

 loving kindness and wonderful gracious 



