1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1093 



ence what church we belong to. When we 

 come before the great judgment- seat we 

 may be very sure we shall not be asked the 

 name of the denomination to which we be- 

 long." 



A. I. root's bath-room. 



There is a good deal said about bath-rooms 

 nowadays, and I am glad of it; but the most 

 of them are expensive affairs, and within the 

 reach of only well-to-do people. Another 

 thing, it is usually quite a task for the good 

 wife and mother to look after these expen- 

 sive affairs and keep them neat and tidy. 

 Of course, hired help may do it. Yes, they 

 may do it, and, again, they may not—at 

 least in such a way as Mrs. Root would 

 want it done. Somehow I always dread 

 clearing up after a bath. Here at the cab- 

 in, when it is cool I take my bath in a large 

 tub, close by the kitchen stove; but in spite 

 of many admonitions I almost always slop 

 water over the floor, and I don't have water 

 enough even then. When I take a sun bath 

 and water bath, both together, out in the 

 woods, as I have told you about, there is no 

 clearing up; but it is a good way from the 

 house, and, besides, some hunter or other 

 individual going crosslots might come along 

 and make it a little embarrassing. 



Well, I have been so strongly impressed 

 with the advantages of the combined sun- 

 and- water bath, I recently devised the fol- 

 lowing scheme: If you turn to the picture of 

 the cabin, page 658, June 15, you will notice 

 the ground slopes to the south, just below 

 the little low wood- shed. This ground is 

 now covered with a heavy growth of soft 

 June grass, making it a nice place to sit 

 down on when you are tired. The rubber 

 hose that brings the spring water up near 

 the back doorstep is usually coiled up just 

 at the foot of this grassy slope. To make a 

 bath-room here, all I did was to get a strip 

 of cloth, eight or ten yards long, and a full 

 yard wide. Stout rings were sewed at each 

 corner, and the apparatus was ready. Four 

 stout nails were driven into the wood- shed 

 to catch the rings, and two stakes a yard 

 high and about two yards apart at the lower 

 end. This makes an enclosure of cloth about 

 2x3 yards, giving plenty of room to sit 

 down on the soft clean grass while you take 

 your bath in the full blaze of the noonday 

 sun, or, better still, at about two or three 

 o'clock in the afternoon. Some nails in the 

 wood-shed wall on the north side hold the 

 clothing. If you take this sun-and-water 

 bath two or three times a week, or every 

 day, you will not need clean underwear eve- 

 ry time, but your sweaty things can be hung 

 in the sun, and get thoroughly aired and 

 dried while you bathe. I am not sure you 



will need soap every time; and when you do 

 use it, be sure you wash every bit of it off, 

 for I for one find it an irritant to the skin if 

 not removed thoroughly with plenty of wa- 

 ter. No towel is needed, for you are to rub 

 yourself dry in the sun; and when you are 

 done, unhook the rings, roll up your long 

 sheet, and that is all of it.* The grassy 

 floor takes care of itself, for it just thrives 

 on plenty of soap and water. A hose and 

 running stream of water are, of course, de- 

 sirable, but not absolutely necessary. As 

 our iron pipes run a good deal on top of the 

 ground in the sun, the water is plenty warm 

 on almost any sunny day; and during this last 

 week in September I have been having the 

 nicest kind of baths. You want to com- 

 mence " taking lessons " on some very warm 

 day. Sit right in the sun, and commence 

 with your feet. Get them sweet and clean 

 with soap, then give them a big rubbing un- 

 der a stream of water from the hose. If 

 the water feels chilly, rub your limbs and 

 body first with a wet hand. After a good 

 rubbing with just the wet hands, run a 

 small stream from the hose on the ankles, 

 then knees, and so on up, over the whole 

 body. Don'tget childish, and say you "can't 

 stand it." Let the body recover a little, 

 then try again, and pretty soon you will 

 agree with me that running water applied 

 all over the body is just about the nicest 

 thing in the world. Your whole body, in 

 just a little time, will become immune to 

 cold water, just like your hands, face, and 

 feet, and it is the best preventive of " catch- 

 ing cold " of any thing ever invented. 



How about cold weather, and, finally, 

 winter time? Well, I haven't got to that 

 part of it; but some glass sashes overhead, 

 and perhaps in place of the cloth sheet, will 

 take us along until well into winter, and a 

 little greenhouse warmed with a cheap fur- 

 nace or hot-water pipes might be quite a 

 little cheaper than the "doctor bills " we 

 often pay, to say nothing of trained nurses 

 at " $4.00 a day, and board and lodging." 



After such a bath, with rather cool water, 

 you can stand a draft or a northwest wind in 

 a way that is truly wonderful. God intend- 

 ed that we should have plenty of sun, air, 

 and water, and we can not safely skip any 

 one of them. The sun especially has been 

 ignored and neglected, and it ought to strike 

 right on the bare flesh of every part of our 

 bodies once every few days; and the more of 

 it, and the oftener, the better. 



In regard to air, let a single ray of sun- 

 light come into the average sleeping- room in 

 the morning, and then look at the dust and 

 trash that are floating all through it. Do 

 you ever see the air around your bedside, 

 when you sleep out under the trees in a 

 hammock, like this? Surely not; and this is 

 why consumptives are now sleeping out- 

 doors almost all over the world. Now, un-- 

 less you can make the air in your bedroom 



* This sheet can. of course, be more than a yard wide ; 

 but if wider it cuts off more sun. While you are seated 

 on the grass I find a yard in height gives privacy and 

 cuts off the cool breeze. 



