Saloon's Threat Again Fulfilled on Humbird's Church.
The New Voice.
Humbird, Wis., September 26 (Staff Correspondence).— The new Free Methodist church of this village, erected since the destruction of its predecessor by fire, presumably kindled by liquor anarchists, last April, was burned to the ground Sunday night, and the adjoining parsonage was totally destroyed with it.
The new church, which, though not wholly completed, had already been used for the regular Sunday services several times, was a concrete expression of self-sacrifice, undaunted Christian heroism, and patient industry.
Though positive evidence is not yet available, there are sufficient facts at hand to support the deliberate assertion that liquor anarchists, chagrined at the speedy restoration of the meeting-house, repeated the foul achievement of last spring, and fired the beautiful new house of worship. At least, animated by precisely the same damnable conception of life that nerved the saloon-reared Czolgosz to fire the assassin's bullet, the fiend of the torch destroyed in an hour what Christian industry and Prohibition heroism had built with painstaking skill.
The incendiary chose for his business the midnight hour, when a fresh autumn breeze had placed both church and parsonage in equal danger from his torch, and a time when the pastor was absent, attending the annual conference.
Humbird is a cozy little village nestling down at the foot of one of those picturesque Wisconsin cliffs; but despite its scarcely three hundred inhabitants, three saloons flaunt their indecency and defiance of law, not far apart on the main street of the place. They have licenses to sell liquid damnation to all comers, and debauch the whole village at so much per measure, but despite their lawful privileges, they defy every law on the statute book that conflicts with their imperious ideas of personal liberty, and defile the youth of the community with equal impunity.
The story of their fear and hatred of the Rev. Mr. Ghormly and his loyal supporters was told in the New Voice last spring. Though the saloon was outlawed last year, the newly elected whisky board had given three rum holes licenses two months prior to the close of the no-license year, despite the protest of the better element. The rum shops began instantly to defy all restrictions, respecting no laws whatever, in their usual anarchistic fashion. The villainous seduction of the young men of the little village, contrary to law, and the violation of every other regulation imposed by the Wisconsin statutes, aroused the temperance people of the place to vigorous indignation. Mr. Ghormly is a young man in his early thirties, who has never shown the white feather in any battle with wickedness. The son of a fearless Abolitionist, who was proud to recall his intimate connection with the “underground railway,” and who in later life had espoused the Prohibition cause with equal enthusiasm—bred from such stock, young Ghormly developed similar backbone; and in Iowa and South Dakota Prohibition campaigns he learned to love the great reform and hate the rum traffic. He has seen his father egged and mobbed in the Hawkeye State, and the characteristic argument of the liquor anarchist had no terrors for him. So it was natural that he was most prominent in this little crusade, although it was merely to require the rummies to respect the law.
One conviction was secured. This incensed the saloon men. This victory might encourage the temperance people to further agitation. The thirteen straight Prohibitionists of the community were among the leaders of the crusade. The members of the Free Methodist church, scarcely more than a score, were unanimously loyal to their pastor. His earnestness and Christian heroism, his preaching of God's truth with unvarnished plainness, won him the esteem and admiration of the community. In the midst of all this the little house of worship of the Free Methodist church was fired by miscreants on the night of April 10. It was burned to the ground. Nothing but charred timbers and formless debris were left the next morning. The scoundrels who had conceived and carried out this outrageous barbarism had fully covered their tracks. But the villainous threats of the whisky criminals were well known.
When the news had been told the whole country through the columns of the New Voice, an unlooked-for response immediately came. Prohibitionists from many parts of the United States contributed to the fund for the rebuilding of the church. Members of other denominations besides the Free Methodist sent in liberal checks to help. Even France was represented in the response. A Roman Catholic priest sent his warm sympathy, and accompanied his message with a five-dollar bill. And thus, with the hearty co-operation of his friends at home, the pastor set about to erect a new meeting-house. Himself a carpenter, after the fashion of his Master, he drafted his own plans for an attractive and inviting new church. Donning jumper and overalls, he not only superintended the work from the first, but himself wielded the hammer and the saw, and only needed occasional assistance as the structure grew steadily day after day. For weeks during the hot summer months Mr. Ghormly kept at it. His church people met in a near-by house of worship each Sunday. Everything was manifestly going happily. By the beginning of September the new building was so nearly completed as to be usable.
The week of September 16-22 was conference time. Mr. Ghormly temporarily suspended his labor on the new building, and went to the official gathering of his church. He returned to find the meeting-house, almost the sole creation of his own brain and patient industry, a ghastly pile of ashes, exactly like its predecessor. His home, adjoining, was a rubbish heap of twisted iron and blackened timbers.
Insurance covered the most of the church's loss, but the young pastor lost several hundred dollars' worth of valuable books and other property.
For the time being the anarchists seem to have triumphed. The ginmills continue night and day to defy every restriction, as if law was an old woman's whim.
HOSPITALITY
By A. J. Read, M. D.
A. J. READ, M. D.
(October 27 to November 2.)
The New Testament word “hospitality” means “love of strangers.” The kind entertainment of strangers is contemplated in the second great law of the decalogue, which enjoins that “thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
The custom of entertaining strangers is not as rare as one might think. It is common even among many half-civilized tribes to provide suitable accommodation for the comfort of strangers.
In the Pacific Islands it is customary to say to strangers, “The house is our mutual home.” The Mexicans welcome the stranger by saying, “My house is at your disposal.” In Hebrew times a guest was simply the “called one,” the word suggesting the custom of calling to even passing strangers. Gen. 18:2-5. In Greek times the guest was the “loved stranger,” and in Roman times to treat a stranger properly was to show hospitality or “stranger-ality.”
Ledyard has said, “Hospitality I have found as universal as the face of man.” It is principally where hospitality has been abused that cold inhospitality exists. The true nature of hospitality is expressed in the term itself, “love of strangers.” Various motives of hospitality are manifested by the hosts of to-day. Some entertain for the name of being hospitable, and bore their guests with long speeches, or worry them by the stir and extra work they make.
It was mentioned of Homer as a distinguishing virtue that he never detained his guests with long speeches, but first fed them from his simple fare and attended to their needs.
Some feel that they cannot entertain without making such radical changes in the home economy and in the diet that the whole family feel out of place, and reflect the same feeling of disquietude to the guest. To such there is instruction in Christ’s words to Martha when she was “cumbered about much serving.” “But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”
Others are restrained from entertaining by their poverty, and a feeling that they must make great and unusual expense to entertain. They fear that necessary additional expense will compel them to deprivation. Even such may be made partakers of the blessings of hospitality, for if they have the “one thing needful,”—the humble Christian love and discipleship,—the less important accessories of food, fuel, and shelter will be provided for all alike as needed, for our Heavenly Father knoweth that we have need of these things, and “my God shall supply all your need.”
“Christ keeps account of every expense incurred in entertaining for His sake.” “He supplies all that is necessary for this work.”
The principle was beautifully illustrated when Jesus and His disciples were in a desert place, with no shelter, no place to lay their heads, and no provision for food, surrounded by the hungry multitude who, in their hunger and thirst for the words of eternal life, had forgotten their physical food. Jesus, in response to the anxious question of His destitute disciples, said, “They need not depart; give ye them to eat.”
No costly provision was made. The Creator of all foods, fruits, and delicious flavors simply spread before the people their accustomed food, manifesting His gracious power in such a way by miraculously multiplying the food, that the minds of His disciples and their guests were attracted not by the luxurious spread, but by the benevolent spirit which presided at that simple repast, and the power of God in His Son to provide for all our needs.
The spiritual and intellectual refreshment is always to be considered of first importance, and the physical provision is to be only sufficient for the occasion, and not the chief center of attraction. The essentials of practical hospitality are really only the needs of our every-day lives.
First, the one thing needful—a humble Christian heart and discipleship.
Second, cleanliness—a common but essential virtue.
Third, a hospitable spirit that will impart to the guest a feeling that he is received as a member of the family, to share with them its freedom and the joys and comforts which the home affords, not depriving the others, but contributing at least a share of the intellectual and spiritual blessings for all.
Guests treated as God directs in Lev. 19:34, will certainly be made to feel at home: “The stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself.” “God . . . loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.” Therefore He commands, “Love ye . . . the stranger.” Deut. 10:19. “Use hospitality one to another without grudging.” 1 Peter 4:9. “Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren, and to strangers” (3 John 5); and, “Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, . . . and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.” 1 Cor. 13:3. The same spirit of charity makes the home at all times a place where God’s honor dwells, and therefore a hospitable place to entertain strangers.
Fourth, due care for the health of the household by providing healthful foods. A well-aired and dry bed, with extra blanket at hand; water, soap, towels, and toilet articles to refresh the travel-fatigued body; a little plain writing material at a convenient place for ready use; a Bible always at hand; the accessories so distributed as to be at the disposal of the guest when needed, and not forced upon him by collecting after his arrival,—these make a homely but practical category.
Whom shall be entertain?—Strangers. Certainly strangers are to receive our hospitality. The Word tells us, in commemoration of Abraham’s experience with the two strangers of Mamre, to be not forgetful to entertain strangers, and adds that thereby we may entertain angels unawares.
THE TRAVELER.— A guest coming from a distance can often be greatly aided and cheered by a welcome, friendly face to meet him at the railroad station, and guide him to the home. Of course, as is often done, the stranger may go to some hotel and lodge till he can find his friends, but it is not the spirit of true hospitality which allows our friend to do so. Job says, “The stranger did not lodge in the street; but I opened my doors to the traveler.” Job 31:32.
THE NEEDY.— In time of calamity or bereavement, whether friend or enemy, the distressed one will be blessed and helped by kind hospitality. “If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink.” Rom. 12:20. “If ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin.” James 2:9.
OUR OWN BRETHREN.— Whether ministers or laymen, canvassers or Bible workers,—if they are earnestly serving God in any capacity,—they should receive especial consideration, and whatever help is possible we should cheerfully give to aid them in their work. We should “use hospitality one to another without grudging.” 1 Peter 4:9. “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.” Gal. 6:10. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, . . . be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another; . . . distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.” Rom. 12:1, 10, 13.
QUESTIONS.
1. What does “hospitality” mean as used in the New Testament? Where has the Lord himself directed concerning the entertainment of strangers?
2. Tell something of the custom of entertaining strangers among half-civilized tribes. What was the guest called by the Hebrews? the Greeks? the Romans?
3. What instruction of Christ shows that guests should be entertained simply? By whom are all actual needs supplied? Who keeps account of every expense incurred in entertaining for the Master’s sake?
4. How did Jesus illustrate true hospitality? Mention some of the things that go to make up this grace.
5. Give some texts of Scripture showing how the Lord regards it.
6. Mention some of the simple things that should receive attention.
7. Tell how one Bible character set a commendable example in entertaining strangers. What promise is given concerning this feature of hospitality.
8. To what other classes should we extend privileges of our homes? How has the Lord directed that this should be done?
The Chief End of a Christian's Life
“THE chief end of a Christian’s life is to glorify God.”
NEED OF WORK FOR THE CHILDREN.
One important part of the work to be done by “Elijah the prophet,” just before the coming of the day of the Lord, as set forth in the concluding portion of the prophecy of Malachi, is the turning of the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers. Mal. 4:6. This points to a work to be done for the children in the closing days of time; and we can readily understand that if a special work needs to be done at this time for adult people,—if a special message from God must be sent to parents to save them from the destruction that is coming through the follies and iniquities of the age,—certainly a special work must be done for those whom parents have in their charge. And truly the characteristics of the age are seen in the children to-day, and to show this we have only to quote from the observations of others who, though they are not standing in the light of the knowledge that the end is at hand, nevertheless are moved to comment upon the unusual degree to which youthful folly and depravity are asserting their evil power at this time. As an illustration we quote some observations made by the editor of Saturday Night, published in Toronto, Ontario:—
“A fifteen-year-old girl poisoned herself in this city the other day because she was lovesick. She had had a quarrel with her lover, who was evidently older than she, as he is spoken of as having a position as a bookkeeper in a down-town business house. A young fellow about twenty shot himself and fell into the water because a girl failed to meet him at a time and place where no girl should meet a young man. It is said that he had begged her to elope with him, and that he had seventeen dollars with which to do the eloping and begin married life. These are recent and local instances, but the newspapers are daily recording similar performances in all parts of the United States and Canada. Probably, like other crimes, self-destruction is suggested by the chronicles continually furnished by the daily newspapers, but no one with a good training or a reasonably well-balanced mind should be influenced by such examples. There must be something radically wrong with the bringing up of children who commit suicide before they have properly arrived at manhood or womanhood. While governments are seeking to suppress anarchy, and philosophers are endeavoring to discover the cause of it, it might be well for the modern parent to devote a little more attention to the impulses which drive apparently sane but really unbalanced youngsters to self-destruction.
“In the two instances quoted, home life seems to have been lacking; and loneliness, a desire for sympathy, and the craving for love, which is stronger in youth than in age, made these despondent ones victims of the thought that all could be ended by poison or a pistol. A girl of fifteen should never think of having a lover; indeed, she should be so carefully guarded that such an amour as this poor young thing drifted into should be impossible. She thought she had a broken heart, as she said in her farewell note, but at fifteen a girl should not know that she has such a thing as a capacity for falling in love with a man. The boy who shot himself was simply suffering from ‘calf’ love, from which he would have recovered as easily as a child gets over the measles. Yet how did either of them get an idea that their whole future was to be dull and gray because some one had been ‘jilted’? . . . Is there no one in church or school, or in the families into which strangers go as servants or boarders, who has a word to say to these unformed and foolish youths who are at the impressionable age when they have neither wings nor pin-feathers? . . .
“It is almost a hopeless task attempting to guide those young people who have had no foundation of common sense laid in their earlier up-bringing. Many children are let run wild in the evenings; and when they are approaching manhood or womanhood, they insist still, though the dangers to be encountered are increased a hundredfold, that they be unhindered in their evening rambles and the picking up of strange companions.
“Unfortunately it is true that in nearly every family either the father or the mother is inclined to let the children do as they please. If it be the mother who is thus easily wheedled, the youngsters find many opportunities during the daytime, and often in the evening, of gadding about in a way which can do them no good, and is liable to end in harm. If it is the father who is easy, he feels well rewarded by the unusual but temporary affection of his children if he conspires to let them have a fling whenever the mother’s back is turned. In marriage the two extremes generally meet, but frequently in the government of children they are not harmonious, and there is not a settled rule of conduct upon which both parents insist. The irregularities which follow permit of a bad class of reading being brought into the house, a poor selection of companions being made, late hours being kept, going out without permission, and returning without being rebuked.
“The modern idea seems to be to let children bring up themselves, and frequently attempt to bring up the parents. A boy once confided to me on board ship that during a tour in Europe he had had a great deal of difficulty training his mother to let him do as he liked; but at the rate at which he was going, I think he had had more than usual success. In olden times perhaps children were too strictly handled, and were taught to believe that they should accept in marriage those their parents selected. Nowadays we seem to have gone to the other limit, and ‘love’ of a very mushy and unstable sort, and as applying not to parents, but to some youthful person of the opposite sex, is supposed to outweigh every sense of duty, filial obedience, and even rudimentary reason. If this goes on much further, children will hardly be out of the cradle before they will form some unfortunate and fatal attachment, and will prefer carbolic acid to milk.”
THE DIVINE LULLABY.
By Eugene Field
I hear thy voice, dear Lord;
I hear it by the stormy sea,
When winter nights are black and wild,
And when, affright, I call to thee;
It calms my fears and whispers me,
“Sleep well, my child.”
I hear thy voice, dear Lord;
In singing winds, in falling snow,
The curfew chimes the midnight bell.
“Sleep well, my child,” it murmurs low;
“The guardian angels come and go;
O child, sleep well!”
I hear thy voice, dear Lord;
Aye, though the sighing winds be stilled,
Though hushed the tumult of the deep,
My fainting heart, with anguish chilled,
By thy assuring tone is thrilled,
“Fear not, and sleep.”
Speak on, speak on, dear Lord;
And when the last dread night is near,
With doubts and fears and terrors wild,
O let my soul, expiring, hear.
Only these words of heavenly cheer,
“Sleep well, my child!”
—Eugene Field.
SOME DISEASE STATISTICS.
By L. A. S.
From the figures obtained by the census of last year, it appears that the death rate from certain diseases is on the increase, while that from other diseases is on the decrease. On the whole, the decrease is greater than the increase, the difference amounting to ten per cent since the previous census taken in 1890. In other words, the death rate has decreased ten per cent in the last decade. These figures do not apply to the whole country, but to a large territory having a population of about 29,000,000. This decrease in the death rate, it should be further mentioned, is confined wholly to the cities.
Of those diseases which show an increase in the death rate, influenza leads. In 1890, 6.2 persons out of each one hundred thousand in this area died from influenza during the year. In 1900, 23.9 persons per hundred thousand died from this cause. Next to influenza come diseases of the kidney. Twenty-four more people in each hundred thousand now die from disease of the kidney than died in 1890. Next comes apoplexy. Whereas in 1890 49 persons in each hundred thousand died of this disease, the number in 1900 was 66.6. Heart disease is also largely on the increase, the figures for this malady being 121.8 per hundred thousand in 1890, and 134 in 1900. The figures for cancer are, in 1890, 47.9; in 1900, 60. A little over 9 more persons per hundred thousand now die annually from old age than died from the same cause ten years ago. This, of course, does not prove that old age is a more fatal ailment now than it was then.
Of those diseases which show a decrease in the death rate, consumption leads, with a decrease of 54.9 per each hundred thousand over 1890, the figures for the two years being, in 1890, 245.4 per hundred thousand of the population, and in 1900, 190.5. This disease is now headed, in the territory in question, by pneumonia, from which 191.9 people per hundred thousand now die in a year, an increase of five over the number in 1890. Other diseases which are on the decrease are diphtheria, the mortality from which is only about half what it was ten years ago; cholera infantum, which likewise is only about half as fatal as in 1890; croup, which is but little over a third as fatal now as then; typhoid fever, from which 33.8 persons per hundred thousand now die annually, as compared with 46.3 in 1890; bronchitis, for which the figures are (1890) 74.4 and (1900) 48.3; diarrheal diseases (1890) 104.1 and (1900) 85.1; diseases of the brain (1890) 30.9 and (1900) 18.6; malarial fever (1890) 19.2 and (1900) 8.8. Whooping cough, paralysis, and scarlet fever show a slight decrease. These figures do not always show a decrease in fatality of a given disease, since they are due to increased prevention as well as increased cure. L. A. S.
God Passes By: Call to Family Reform
“God is passing by our homes to-day, and He looks upon the unsanitary condition of families, the lax habits. Had we not better reform, and that without delay?”
HOME AND HEALTH NOTES.
Stretching is a very good means of exercise.
The perfect human form is the best fashion-plate to follow in the making of clothing.
What an improvement would be effected in the schoolrooms of the land were every teacher to become an earnest and determined physical culturist! How many acts prompted by nervousness, impatience, dyspepsia, and other physical ills, would thus be eliminated from the day’s work!
A physical-culture teacher prescribes the following remedy for weak ankles: “Adopt common-sense style of footwear, and take the following exercises twice a day barefooted: Stand erect; rise on your toes until tired, then let weight fall on heels, and lift toes from floor till tired.” Walking and hill climbing are also good remedies for ankle weakness.
It has been truthfully stated that the best mineral water is that which contains no minerals at all. If one cannot obtain pure water from nature, it is possible to turn the foulest water into the purest drink by means of a still. This useful invention may easily be procured in any part of the country, at a moderate price. Prices range, according to different makes, from $4 to $15 or $20.
In discussing “the causes of invalidism in girls,” Flora Brewster, M. D., states that “it is a sad comment upon our twentieth century civilization that there are so many girls and young women among the clientele of the gynecologists and nerve specialists. I find a very general impression that ‘the higher education of women’ is responsible for this physical degeneration.” The dread of hard physical work lies at the root of much of this evil.
It is said that the Hindus uniformly have excellent teeth. The reason given is that they are very careful and regular in the cleaning of their teeth, such cleansing being a part of their religious ritual. The process is very simple. The Hindu uses “a small twig, one end of which he softens out into the form of a painter’s brush. Squatting on his heels, and always facing either east or north, he scrubs all his teeth well with this brush, after which he rinses his mouth out with fresh water.” If all Americans did as well, Yankee dentists would have less work to do.
It is possible to cool water without ice. The process consists in “wrapping the pitcher containing it in a towel of loose texture, which has been previously impregnated with ammonium nitrate (and dried), and moistening this with water. The same towel may be used repeatedly, after being dried each time.” People in Mexico are said to keep water deliciously cool by placing it in earthen jars of porous material. Those living in India attain the same object by wrapping moist cloths about the water jars, and swinging the latter back and forth, suspended by cords.
Those who live where “chiggers” or “jiggers” abound will do well to rid themselves of those pests by carrying out the following instructions furnished by an exchange: “Take a homeopathic vial, and stuff it with absorbent cotton; then saturate the cotton with chloroform; cork it tightly until needed. Then apply the mouth of the bottle tightly over the point of irritation (chigger) for one or two minutes, then proceed to the next. The relief is immediate, and the chigger dies a painless death.” Those who have had experience state that the chigger runs away.
One of our exchanges informs us that “the Turkish authorities have, within the past year, arranged for the sinking of a large number of wells along the historic pilgrimage route to Mecca, and are providing them with windmills. In this way it is believed that the hardships of the annual pilgrimage can be lessened, and the pilgrims kept in reasonably good health. The sickness of former years has been almost entirely due to the impure water along the route.” With these improvements a journey to Mecca may do one fully as much good as one to Saratoga Springs, N. Y., or any other popular watering place.
Field sports and athletic games have been made an important factor in the treatment of patients at the Manhattan Hospital for the insane, Ward’s Island, New York. The inmates enter into these sports and contests with great zest. They have their daily plunge in the swimming-pool, baseball games, swimming races, tugs-of-war, high and broad jumping contests, etc., and do “all kinds of light garden work, pulling up weeds, tending the flowers, running the lawnmowers,” etc. The managers of the institution consider outdoor exercises and pleasures to be far more beneficial to the patients than the “padded cell” or the “straight jacket.”
What Really Killed the President.—
Says Elmer Lee, M. D.: “A long experience in active practice has taught me that at the beginning of all acute cases, medical or surgical, accompanied with shock or injury to vital organs, as in the case of the President, the safe method is to withhold every form of food so long as there is fever or other complications. Water, and water alone, is food and drink at such times, and is the only safe thing that may be taken by the patient. Food in any form or of any material may not be digested. Undigested food is the principal factor in producing septicæmia. The President was surely in a septic state from the second day, as shown by the low fever and high pulse rate. At such moments of danger even a little food, and especially if it is not digested in the mouth, may lead to fatality. Such is, unfortunately, the termination of the President’s case.”
Says Julian P. Thomas, M. D.: “If our President had been at —, he would have learned that he could get along nicely for weeks without food. In this great strain upon his vitality he would have refused food, no matter by whom ordered, and would have dismissed any one who knew no better than to order whisky for an inflamed stomach, and the chances are he would have made a speedy recovery.”
Says Dr. Aug. F. Reinhold: “The wisdom of the unsuccessful operation on the late President might be questioned, as it increased the wound inflicted, and, causing a further loss of blood, decreased his vital energy and chance of recovery. Notwithstanding his age, the deceased would probably have overcome this second onslaught had he been left entirely without food and drugs till the wound healed. In typhoid fever, patients can live without food for weeks and months; and Dr. Tanner and others have demonstrated that we can exist without nourishment for a considerable time. This shows that the President, being rather corpulent, would have subsisted on his own adipose tissue for several weeks.”
“But how was he fed?—On beef juice and whisky, strychnine and other drugs. From every text-book on physiology it can be learned that beef juice contains but one per cent of nourishing life-sustaining albumen and ninety-nine per cent of excrementitious matter. As a noted physician puts it: ‘If he could think of anything very nearly approximating beef juice, it would be concentrated urine.’ The beef juice alone was sufficient to cause and explain the rapid decline. If you dip a piece of red flesh into alcohol, it turns gray and hard, the same as if it had been cooked; this is because both the alcohol and the cooking process coagulate the transparent albumen of the flesh. But the same as boiling kills the life of an egg, so coagulation of flesh by alcohol deprives it of its life. Hence, feeding the President with whisky further accounts for his sudden demise.”
“And now, as to the saline injections, strychnine, and digitalis. Do they nourish? Are they capable of forming normal tissue?—By no means. Suppose you have an old horse that is pulling a load uphill. Would it be wiser, when the horse shows symptoms of exhaustion, to drive him on until he breaks down, or to allow him to rest, and thus gain the summit by easy stages? The administration of those poisons corresponds to the whipping up of the horse; it stimulated the heart till it could go no further. In my opinion, Mr. McKinley died a victim of the routine physicians’ delusion as to the excellent qualities of the poisons mentioned. If they had understood their business, the President would be alive to-day and Czolgosz would not be a murderer.”
Says the editor of Physical Culture: “My opinion may not be worth much, but I believe firmly that had President McKinley been compelled to fast, as nature clearly indicates in the healing of all acute inflammatory conditions, whether produced by a wound or an acute disease, he would to-day still be the living, acting Chief Executive of the United States.” No one questions the fact that the late President steadily improved until solid food was administered.
A Cure Easily Applied
By A. J. B.
The following simple method of treating infants or adults troubled with diarrhea, is described by W. D. Wattles, in the October number of Woman’s Physical Development: “A movement which, if properly executed, will cure any case of dysentery, diarrhea, or cholera infantum, that is not beyond the reach of anything but a resurrection. There is absolutely no need of allowing children to die of ‘summer complaint,’ and the thousands of little graves in our cemeteries are monuments to the ignorance and prejudice of drug doctors and parents. Place the patient on the back; put your hands under him a trifle above the waist line, with the fingers pressing against the sides of the spine. Now lift him until only the back of the head and heels touch the floor, and hold him for a moment in that position; then let him gently down. Repeat the movement twice, at intervals of five minutes; then allow a half-hour’s rest, and if necessary, repeat the treatment. Only a very stubborn case will require more than three treatments. Absolutely no food should be given until the cure is complete. In the case of cholera infantum, hold the child by the nape of the neck and the heels; lay it, back down, across your knee, letting the head and heels hang down, so as to stretch the abdomen strongly. If the person be too heavy to lift, seat him on a low stool, and yourself on a higher one behind him; put your knees against the small of his back, grasp him by the shoulders and bend him backward strongly, over your knees. For self-treatment, balance yourself, on your back, over a bar or the footboard of your bed, letting your head and heels hang down. Repeat, in all cases, as often as necessary. I have used this movement many times, and have recommended it to numbers of people; and I have yet to learn of a case where it has failed. I believe it to be infallible, when properly done. The pressure upon the abdominal plexuses of the sympathetic nerve appears to check the excessive peristalsis of the bowels, and to reverse their action. This knowledge, if it were in the possession of parents and physicians, would save thousands of lives every year.” One runs no chances in trying this remedy. It is simple, can be followed by all, and can result in no harm to the patient. A. J. B.