44 



GLEANINGS IN i3EE CULTUKE. 



Jan. 



ter or summer, need never use a dust-pan, 

 for she can sweep it all right under the 

 grate, and let it fall into the ash-pit, in the 

 cellar. Still one thing more : Doctors tell us 

 that no means of ventilation has ever been 

 devised, equal to the old-fashioned fireplaces 

 that take all the air ia the room up the chim- 

 ney with a rush and a roar, at the same time 

 they dispense heat to the rosy -cheeked, 

 healthy boys and girls gathered around. 

 Whether a tire is burning or not, air is al- 

 most always going up the broad open chim- 

 ney ; and if one should be so thoughtless as 

 to shut all the doors and windows when go- 

 ing to sleep at night, the open fireplace does 

 its duty in bringing about a regular and con- 

 stant exchange of'air in the room. Stoves 

 may do something the same ; but the air 

 from a heated room is not good. Don't I 

 know y ]^isten : — 



I have always a dread of riding in the cars 

 when the weather is cold, for I am pretty 

 sure to get a sort of sickness that has a kind 

 of nigtmare horror to it. When returning 

 from the recent convention, during the zero 

 weather in the fore part of December, 1 had 

 a taste of it. As the stoves are what seems 

 to be the olfensive feature, I always get a 

 seat in the middle of the car, if I can. I do 

 not know whether they have tobacco spittle 

 dried on all the stoves in cars or not ; but I 

 have sometimes got a way of imagining they 

 do, and after 1 have breathed the peculiar 

 burnt air they give off for about so long a 

 time, I get poisoned, and sort of half-way 

 crazy. VVithout being asleep at all, fright- 

 ful dreams, as it were, run through my im- 

 agination as a sort of under current. If 

 Satan and his allies are tobacco-chewers, and 

 pass away their time in sitting around a 

 rusty red-hot stove on which they from time 

 to lime squirt tobacco-juice, — well, if I 

 were to go among them, I would rather not 

 stay very long. One reason why the word 

 Christianity is sweet to me, is because it 

 seems to speak of pure air and clean people. 



We arrived at Elkhart. The depot build- 

 ings were beautifully l)uilt, and are finished 

 in hard wood, just as our new house is ; but, 

 oh what a place ! Even in the ladies' room 

 were great tin pans for spittoons, so full of 

 green filth that matches and bits of paper 

 were swimming around in it. The stove 

 was red-hot and rusty, and gave oft that 

 same burnt smell. I went and stood in the 

 open air, so full of frost that it pricked like 

 needles, then I went back and sat down by 

 the stove again. I presume these rooms see 

 droves of tired travelers ; for although I 

 should judge the building was comparative- 

 ly new, the floors, dooi-latches, and seats 

 seemed worn by much and constant use. 

 Money had been expended plentifully, but 

 no one seemed to have charge of the rooms 

 who was alive and thorough, or who had the 

 spirit of Christianity at heart, to prompt him 

 to think of the comfort of these neighbors 

 who, perhaps, waited only one hour as I did 

 in these waiting-rooms. May God help in 

 this great problem of securing cleanliness 

 and purity, not in our homes only, but for 

 those who travel ! I got on the train again, 

 and the craziness commenced. Happening 

 to glance toward the forward part of the car, 



all at once it seemed to bend down, as if it 

 were diving down into the ground. You 

 need not laugh, for I have heard of people 

 who saw the ground jump up and strike 

 them in the face. But it wasn't any thing I 

 had drank that made the cars start to run 

 down into the ground. It might have been 

 the effects of tobacco ; but if it was, it was 

 taken under a most emphatic protest. I 

 raised a window and drank in the pure icy 

 air; but it only partly answered, and made 

 my neighbors uncomfortable. " Lord, help!" 

 welled up from my heart, as it always does 

 in any trouble, and a way was opened. 



I shall have to make a little confession 

 right here. A sleeping-car costs $2.00, and 

 it has seemed to me that a strong healthy 

 man like myself would be acting selfishly in 

 using that sum of money for such a short 

 ride. You are sending me money freely, and 

 I ought to use it wisely. I do not feel that I 

 have any right to any better lodging or fare 

 than the average bee-keeper of our land. 

 The case was, however, a little different just 

 then. I felt pretty sure, after my brief 

 prayer, that almost any one of you would 

 say, when the cars got a trick of '•'• ducking " 

 down into the ground, " Brother Root, go 

 and get a sleeper ; never mind the $2.00." 



l''ou see, I had been away from home for 

 three days, and there would be a " power " 

 of wojk to be done when I got back, and if I 

 didn't have my brains " at my fingers' ends" 

 next day, it might cost me a good deal more 

 than $2.00. When I opened the door of the 

 sleeper I was a little strigu;ered to find my- 

 self in tobacco-smoke again ; but back of 

 this I came into an atmosphere ttiat seemed 

 like a spring morning compared to that 

 where I had been. A good-natured porter, 

 who wasn't patronizing, assured me that, no 

 matter how far the mercury went below 

 zero, no one would be uncomfortable in that 

 car, which was a new one of the latest pat- 

 tern. It was warmed with water-pipes ; and 

 while there wasn't a particle of dust, smoke, 

 nor any kind of disagreeable smell, the air 

 was as soft and balmy as summer. The 

 bedding was as sweet and clean, and as well 

 aired, as that in my own home ; and in the re- 

 tirement of my berth I could kneel and thank 

 God, as earnestly as I prayed for help but 

 a few minutes before in that suffocating car. 



I awoke in the morning bright and fresh, 

 with no trace of any unpleasant feeling or 

 headache, even though I had been riding all 

 night. As I was up before any one else, I 

 had ample time to carefully note the conve- 

 niences of the wash-room while I leisurely 

 made my toilet. If the combs and brushes 

 had ever been used before, they bore no 

 traces of it. After I had finished, the oblig- 

 ing porter asked me if I would not prefer to 

 sit in the smoking-room. He didn't know 

 me, and I didn't know him, you know ; but 

 after a while we both found out who the oth- 

 er was. When he found out that I did not 

 like tobacco he pulled a knob in the wall, and 

 out came the prettiest little seat you ever 

 saw ; and after it was out you couldn't see 

 the place it came from either. While I sat 

 on this seat, he " tidied up " After I saw how 

 he did it, and the neat way in which he put 

 all his things in their place. I began wonder- 



