Chapter 6

In tenderness, in appreciation, in love, let us dedicate these thoughts, and voice these expressions to Mother, who gives her life, by inches, and who would give it all on the instant for her children, if necessity called for the sacrifice.

How feeble are words when we try to describe Mother!

OUR BODIES

They Are Made Up of Mineral Substances

We speak of the three kingdoms: the animal, the vegetable and the mineral kingdoms, and every substance is classified into one of these.

The exact truth is there is but one kingdom, which is the mineral. The vegetable substances and animal combinations are made of mineral elements.

In a rough way we distinguish the mineral kingdom as those substances called elements, such as iron, sulphur, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, sodium and the like.

These elements are unchangeable in themselves; they do not grow. The animal is made of mineral elements associated in certain proportions, such as albumin, carbon, lime, water, salt and the like. The vegetable kingdom consists of these various chemical combinations also.

Seed when planted extracts from the air and the earth the minerals and combines them into a plant which grows and has for its object the making of seeds to reproduce and perpetuate itself.

The plant has life but it has no spiritual or mental equipment and therein vegetable life differs from the animal life. The animal eats vegetable and animal flesh. Through the vegetable he gets the mineral necessary for his body building. Through the animal food he gets the mineral from the flesh he eats, which flesh was first of all built up through the vegetables the animal ate.

These are definite facts; there is no theory about them.

The human body analyzed and separated into something like a dozen substances, among which are water, which is three-fourths of the body's structure; carbon, lime, phosphorus, iron, potassium, salt and so on.

By reading a book on anatomy you can learn just exactly the proportions of the substances in the human body.

All these chemicals are formed in the shape of little cells, myriads of which are in the body. These cells are constantly being destroyed and new ones made to take their place.

Parts of the body are replaced every twenty-four hours, other parts less often.

Scientists tell us that the whole body is replaced every seven years. Every move you make destroys cells which nature has to replace. Isn't it reasonable then to conclude that if a man should fail to eat enough lime for his body-building, his bones would suffer. If he does not get enough iron his blood will suffer, and so on.

I am definitely convinced that most of the actual physical ailments are caused by a deficiency of the mineral elements in the body.

Phosphorus and potash are necessary to the human welfare. These elements are in the husk of the wheat and the husk is taken off in making flour, and the flour is mostly starch.

The person who lives mostly on white bread will suffer from lack of phosphorus and potash.

Phosphorus also is found in the skin of an apple, so if you peel an apple you do not get the phosphorus.

FOOD

The Food We Eat Is Fuel for the Human Engine

The practice of medicine in the past has been directed towards the curing of developed disease and physical ailments. The practice of medicine in the future is to be along the line of preventive practice. Science is showing us how to prevent infection. Science is fighting the deadly microbe which comes to us in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat and the infected things we touch.

Nature has supplied the human body with a home guard of necessary bacteria and in the circulation system are phagocytes which fight the invading microbes and generally destroy them.

When the system is weakened through disease, through lack of exercise or through improper food, disease has an easy time.

The important thing to prevent disease is to keep yourself fit, and the golden prescription which I have given in PEP will serve to keep you in perfect health.

I want you to remember this golden prescription; it is composed of the following: Good Air, Good Water, Good Sunshine, Good Food, Good Exercise, Good Cheer, Good Rest and Good Thought. If you take this golden prescription you will make of yourself a giant in brain and brawn strength.

You can't get health out of a bottle. You can't get the system to absorb iron if you take it in the form of tincture of iron. You can eat a pound of rust, which is oxide of iron, and none of that iron will be absorbed in the system.

As I have explained in another chapter you must take the mineral in the system through the vegetable route. You will get iron, that will be assimilated, when you eat beefsteak. Beefsteak has blood, the blood has iron. You will also get iron when you eat spinach.

Every element necessary for your body is found in some vegetable or animal food; therefore, you should refrain from confining yourself to a very few articles of food.

Don't pay any attention to the faddist who gives you a rigorous diet or unpalatable food. You simply make yourself miserable and you generate more worry and unhappiness by your discipline than the good you get from these freak fads.

We all eat too much, especially too much meat.

That a strict vegetarian diet is the necessary thing for good health I deny. The sheep, the cow, and horse are vegetarians and they are short lived. The eagle, the lion and man, eat animal food and they are long lived.

I may be prejudiced, but it does seem to me that the strict vegetarians are skinny, sallow looking lot of humans, speaking generally. I do find that the healthier specimens of vegetarians are those who eat plenty of eggs and drink plenty of milk, both of which are animal food, and both of which have nearly all the elements necessary to sustain life.

I don't like the fads in the matter of eating. The amount a person should eat is in exact accord with the law of compensation.

The human body is a machine from a food standpoint. It is an engine that has work to do and accordingly the amount of fuel necessary for the engine should be in proportion to the amount of work that engine is called on to perform.

The hotels, restaurants and food purveyors invent palate tickling food to tease the human to eat, and hotels and restaurants are mostly patronized by people who do not have much physical work to do; the consequence is they eat too much.

You do not often find dyspepsia or indigestion among men or women who work hard physically.

You who work indoors with little physical exercise will find wonderful benefits if you will cut down the fuel.

You will get sick if you pile in more fuel than is necessary for the engine.

If your engine needs twenty pounds of steam how foolish it is to keep up a hundred pounds pressure.

If you had five-horsepower work to perform how foolish it would be to install a two-hundred-and-fifty-pound engine.

Much of the physical trouble comes from filling up the boiler too much.

Cut down the food and you will feel better.

DAUGHTERS

A Message From a Daddy's Heart

Dear little Mary Elizabeth and Nancy Lou and dear little girls everywhere who read these lines: here is a message and a wish from daddy's heart.

I want you to be golden girls, girls who love home and children; girls who love simple things, natural things; I want you to be sweet rather than pretty, lovable rather than popular.

May the mirror never reflect paint, rouge or make-up on your face. A little talcum powder is all right.

Do not look upon matrimony as a means to provide food and finery for you.

Do not be ashamed of an old-fashioned mother. Do not be a "good fellow." Do not be afraid to say "I can't afford it."

Help the family; be part of it, and not apart from it.

When you are old enough to have a beau, do not be afraid to bring him into your home, no matter how humble it is.

When I was a beau I courted my sweetheart in her home. My treat was red apples and a walk down the lane. Most every beau nowadays courts his girl with a taxi to the theatre, and red lobsters after the dinner; ten dollars they pay where I paid ten cents, and I had ten times more happiness.

Be modest, girls; it is your greatest asset.

Don't gossip or belittle other girls; find the good you can say of others; that quality makes you more attractive.

Keep your voice low, be gentle, sweet, kind, human and simple; that is what my sweetheart is; that is why our married life has been a honeymoon all these years.

Watch out for word candy and flattery; these things mark the hypocrite and a hypocrite is an abomination. Flattery is a practiced deceit--a dishonorable bait to catch affections.

Do not allow any young man to relate a story in your presence that has the slightest risque turn to it. Show by your words and your actions that such presumption is an insult.

Fine feathers never make fine birds; don't borrow finery; don't be attractive for your fine dresses; the men attracted by fluff, frills, feathers and furbelows are not worth shucks.

Be square with yourself and square to the man who is after your heart; put yourself mentally in the place of a wife, when a man gets serious.

Don't hurry, girls; don't judge the man by his money prospects but by his character and ambition.

Have nothing to do with any young suitor who isn't always kind, considerate and attentive to his mother.

Marry a man of character who courts you in the sweet, simple old way.

If a young man spends money extravagantly before marriage, hard times will always be around during his married life.

The most precious possessions in the world are happiness and love, and these; come from simple things, genuineness, and usefulness.

Learn to cook and to sew. You can't be happy and idle at the same time.

Learn to be independent of dressmaker and milliner and cooks. You may have them, I hope you will, but master these useful vocations yourself, then you will have dresses and hats and dinners worth while.

The world is full of new-fashioned slangy, dancy, fancy, foolish girls who marry for style, stunts and society, and their married life is failure, worry and sorrow.

Be the golden, pure, old-fashioned, sweet, simple, quiet, modest girl who knows things, rather than one who is a show-off girl.

And here's a tip to you, young man, who reads these lines, get a golden girl like I have described; a girl of pure gold and not glittering tinsel; a sweet, natural, sensible girl, that will do team work and be a helpmate to you and not a drawback and money spender.

Daddy knows these things; he's been around the world. He is endowed with an ability to observe, analyze and benefit.

He's had experience, he's seen the world from cottage to castle, and these things he tells you because of his love for you and because he wants you to have such a home life as he has.

And these truths, these hopes, are from the very bottom of his heart to his daughters Mary Elizabeth and Nancy Lou and all the other girls who have read these lines.

POISE

A Necessity to the Person Who Accomplishes

There are men who cannot be kept down by circumstances or obstacles.

These men progress with confidence in their hearts and smiles on their faces. They do not lie in wait for the band wagon or favorable winds; they make things happen.

They are, of course, alert and alive to favorable opportunity and helpful influences when they come their way.

These men are men of good health. They are out of doors much, they carry their heads high and breathe in good air deeply. They greet friends with a smile and put meaning and feeling into every hand clasp.

Let's you and I follow their trail, for it leads out on to the big road.

Do not fear being misunderstood, right will finally come in to its own.

We will keep our minds off our enemies, and keep our thoughts on our purpose; we will make up our minds what we want to do. We will mark a straight line on the log and hew to that line.

Fear is the dope drug that kills initiative, hate the poison that shatters clear thinking.

Hate and fear are iron ore in our life's vessel, it deflects the compass and prevents our holding to the course.

There are splendid worth-while things for us to do and with continuity of action and singleness of purpose the days will pass by, as we are seizing opportunity and making use of the things required for the fulfillment of our desires.

We are like the coral insect that takes from the running tide the material to build a solid fortress. Our running tide is the gliding golden days.

Let's waste no time in trying to make friends or in seeking to attach ourselves to others. True friends are not caught by pursuit; they come to us, they happen through circumstances we do not create.

Self-reliance is ours and we must first use it for our own betterment. We will then have a surplus of energy to allow us to help others.

Solitude beats society, relaxation beats conventional function, and foolish so-called pleasures.

Our energy hours must be devoted to our purpose and ideals. Atween times we must rest, relax and recuperate the waste that strenuosity makes.

Breathe good air, bask in the sunshine, see nature and say to yourself, "All these treasures are for me, all these things I am part of."

Do not prepare for death, prepare for life. Preparing for death brings the end before your allotted time.

Like Job of old that which we fear will come to us. We must not think of death, or waste time preparing for it. It makes us miserable today. It makes us weak and fills us with fear and it draws the day of our departure nearer.

Today is ours. Live, freely, fully today. Be unafraid, unhurried, and undisturbed.

We are building character, and the way we build it is by mental attitude, by our acts, and the way we employ the precious time today.

Lay hold of the great forces of nature, realize the wonderful power of the will and you will be strong, a veritable king among men.

PIONEER MOTHERS

Knitting From Necessity Today, Knitting for Pleasure Tomorrow

As I write these lines I am riding on a slow train through Oklahoma. Purposely I am in the day coach smoker for that's the place to study local color, and see the natives.

The atmosphere around is oil and gas, the talk is "bringing in a gusher," "tanks," "rigs," "leases," "wild cat sales," "offsets," "selling stock," and the like; all the phrases, all the talk is striking it rich, getting money.

Indians, Mexicans, Negroes, college boys in surveying crews and speculators form a hodge podge. Men from all parts of the states are here seeking dollars.

I have been around these oil and gas fields in autos and by teams. I've been observing life, character, passions and habits.

I've seen brave women here with nursing babies living in tents or patchwork shacks. Some of these women dream at night of silks and satins and mansions and position.

By day these poor women work and mend and cook and sew, doing their part to help things along. Many of the husbands are earning five to eight dollars a day and spending most of it on foolishness. The poor wives get only enough for bare necessities, and yet they patiently work and mend and cook and sew.

Talk about patience; talk about devotion; talk about grit; talk about courage; just come down to the oil fields and see these poor pioneer women.

Talk about selfishness; talk about cowardice; talk about brutality; talk about debasement; come down and see some of these men making $25 to $50 a week and never a cent in their pockets Monday morning.

Woman is called weak--that means the rich woman--the poor woman possesses strength that psychology cannot explain. Men can be analyzed, but you are at a loss to understand woman. Poor women grow into a sweet replica of their mothers, the most unselfish, patient, generous, forgiving, lovable, adorable creatures on earth.

Man grows away from his mother; he roughens and cools and grows selfish and expects and demands the woman shall love him with all these faults, and generally she does.

The poor woman makes an idol of her husband and in her love thinks he is ideal.

Let him spend his money, she sticks to him; let poverty and want come to the home, she sticks. Let ill treatment be her portion, she sticks; and withal there are smiles on her lips most of the time.

I'm sorry for the poor woman in the oil fields, and the only glimmer of compensation I can find is that she doesn't have nervous prostration like her wealthy society sister has.

Those little husky children I see over there in the yard playing Indian will likely know the worth of a dollar later on. I peep into the future and predict that those boys will get on in the world, and Mother who is chopping wood for supper I see some day with a nice black grosgrain silk dress and a ball of knitting in her silk hand bag.

I see her from necessity knitting stockings for her children. In the future some day, far beyond want, for her sons will be successful men, she still is knitting and mending and helping, a smile on her lips and a soft light in her eye.

Plump, round and well fed, she sits there knitting with pleasure and dreaming of the pioneer days she spent in the Oklahoma cabin. Yes, that's the picture of the future.

The train is pulling into a city; I don't want the picture of the poor, hard-working, unselfish, sacrificing woman and her worthless husband to remain in my memory.

The sons will come out all right; they always do when they have a shiftless dad and a good mother. And somehow in this great open splendid Western country there is opportunity for such boys.

The big men here were all poor a short time ago. Their grandfathers were rich, their fathers spent their inheritance, they suffered poverty and want and their extremity was the son's spur to ambitious activity.

In the car are four young sports coming home from college on a vacation. Their daddies are all oil kings, and these youngsters will inherit fortunes.

Those youngsters who were playing Indian will get on in the world; these four young millionaire kids will go broke; their heads are not shaped right; their jaws slant back; it isn't in them. I know something of character.

Bye-bye, Mamma, with your little cabin and your boys; some day you will have peace and plenty.

Those four oil Johnnies will marry girls who have plenty and some day those girls will have to do the family washing.

The wheel turns, it's the history of the past. From shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations.

Lincolns, Garfields, and Edisons came from just such little cabins and just such rough, hard, bare life as I have been seeing this afternoon.

ANGER

It's a Temporary Mental Derangement

Anger and acts of revenge are great pull-backs to health.

Anger makes the blood rush to the head, weakens the body, and distorts the vision.

When a woman gets angry, she quarrels with her lover, her husband or her children. Any one of these things is a calamity.

When a man gets angry he is a wild man, his eyes glitter, his mouth is cruel, his fists clinch, his body trembles, his blood veins strain and he does more harm in five minutes' anger than nature can repair in a day.

Anger makes weak stomachs, dizzy heads, poor judgment, lost friends, despair, sickness and likely the confirmed habit will lead to apoplexy.

When two men have differences, watch the cool man finish victor, the angry man always loses.

Keep your head; let the other fellow fret and fume.

He will tie himself up in a knot and finish loser.

Serenity is a God's blessing and fortunate is the man who can hold his serenity.

When you get a letter that stirs you to anger, don't answer that letter for forty-eight hours, then write a moderately vitriolic letter,--and then tear it up.

I know you are tempted, goaded and your limit of endurance is sometimes exhausted.

I know revenge is sweet only in anticipation. I know that revenge by anger and by the cruel "eye for an eye" measure is never, never sweet.

I have had imposition, ingratitude, insincerity and advantages taken of me because I kept my poise and serenity.

I have been called easy, and soft, and friends have shown me where I was imposed upon, but I was stooping to conquer. I kept my reserve, my resistance and my power ready until time, place, and preparedness let me spring my coup and then I cashed in beautifully in principal and interest for those acts and hurts.

I have power now in my hands to make others suffer, keenly and deeply, for wrongs they have done me. Yet I do not exercise that power to revenge.

I have been misjudged and misunderstood because cowardly persons have lied and villified me and accused me of motives and acts of which I was innocent.

I am well hated now by one person in particular who blames me for things another is guilty of. A word from me would clear me, but it would bring gloom and despair to that person and would not make me any less cognizant of my innocence.

Time somehow will bring out the truth; the cowardly, guilty individual who basks in the favor of the one who is angry at me will surely pay for his wrong.

This I know and I am satisfied with the ultimate result.

My former friend who is angry at me would simply switch the anger current to the guilty one if I told the facts; the guilty person couldn't stand that anger like I can. My act would break up a home and bring misery.

I am far removed from the location where these people live, and I can stand the anger of the one who puts the blame on me and accepts the lies of another as truth.

I have the documents in black and white, yet I don't use them because I have poise and the consciousness of knowing I am right and those who are dear to me know it, too.

I could be angry, but I couldn't live and enjoy and write books like "Pep" and this book if I let anger get in and spoil the serenity which is mine.

I've tried both plans, anger and poise, and I like poise better.

I believe I hear more birds, I believe I get more pleasure out of life and living than the man who gets angry and loves revenge.

Anyway I think so, and "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."

SALT

It's a Drug; Too Much Is Bad for You

Don't eat too much salt. Salt is a drug; it carries with it lime and magnesia and they tend to clog up things.

Too much salt will likely cause gall stones or gravel.

Some persons sprinkle salt over potatoes, beef and everything they eat; it's a bad practice.

You get enough salt in your bacon, and in the meat you eat. The food as it comes from the kitchen has plenty of salt in it.

Those who eat too much salt must suffer.

People have told me that the craving for salt was a natural thing; it isn't so, it's a cultivated taste. You didn't like salty olives the first time you tasted them.

Because deer and cattle greedily lick salt is no proof salt is natural and good, and needed in quantities. Cattle and horses will eat loco weed and when they get the habit they will eat and eat until they get crazy.

Man will crave tobacco; it isn't a natural taste, it's merely a cultivated taste.

The desire for excess salt on everything you eat is a habit and a bad habit.

It tends to make calcareous deposits in your system, and it will affect the blood and the muscles and the bones.

Nature puts practically enough salt in the food and cooks certainly add enough salt in their seasoning to furnish all the system needs.

Excess salt eating dulls the finer sensibilities of taste just as excess pepper or Worcester sauce or mustard does. It kills the fine natural flavor.

There's enough salt in butter to season the eggs you eat. Try your eggs next time without putting pepper and salt on them.

Learn to get the natural flavors and you will enjoy your food more.

Remember again excess craving for salt is simply evidence that you have a drug habit, not as dangerous as other drug habits, but bad for you just the same.

Check yourself every time you reach for a salt cellar.