Vesta J. Farnsworth

“ As you already know, it is the largest room in the body. We might call it the store-room; for after the fuel is ready to use, it is stored up in the liver, where it is kept till needed, just as the tender carries a supply of coal for the engine.
We can not always be eating, and the body needs fuel when we are asleep as well as when we are awake, so the liver stores it away and sends it out when needed. Now if the master of the house sends a lot of alcohol to his liver, at first the little rooms fill up with fat, so they can not do their work or store up food for the body. ”

“ I was reading not long ago about a little girl who was told of the wrinkles that smiles leave on our faces, and the wrinkles that scowls leave, as well as those left by pain, thought, and care. The child listened, and then said brightly, “My grandma has lots of wrinkles, but they’re all smile wrinkles, every one of them.”
So, my children, as the days pass by, see that your mind is pleasant, and your body-temple kept clean and pure. Thus you will live useful lives, and be a blessing to yourselves and others. ”

“ Elmer: It ticks much faster, and will soon run down.
Mother: It is much the same way with the heart of a person who takes drink with alcohol in it. His heart beats faster; his face gets red, and he can think and talk fast. It is like an engineer putting on steam and sending his train at lightning speed down a steep grade. If nothing worse happens, he will find when he comes where the track is up-grade that his power is gone and he has wasted his steam. ”

“ We should never eat till we feel so full we can take no more. If a builder was beginning to build or mend a house and you should pile bricks, timber, stones, and lime around him till he had no room to work, he would say, “Please take part of this out of my way, and then I can do something.” So the stomach wants just enough, but no more, and we should not make the cook cross by abusing her in this way. She also dislikes hot things, such as mustard, pepper, and spices. How would your eye feel if you should get some pepper or mustard in it? ”

“ Helen: If moving about kills the cells, will they live longer if we keep still?
Mother: No, they are made to live just so long, and will die anyway. If we should not work or play, the dead cells would stay in the body, and make no end of mischief; but when we move about, it helps to carry them away, and new ones take their places. So you need not be afraid to run and jump, play and work; for the cells will take care to keep the house you live in all right, if you only give them the right kind of food, and not too much of it. ”

“ When you wink, you do it without thinking, for the little muscles over the eye know it is their duty to keep the eye clean and bright, and they keep at their work even though you should tell them to keep still. Your heart is a hollow muscle, and it works faithfully night and day as long as you live. The stomach is made of muscles, which take care of your breakfast and dinner without a word from you; and there are many more of these faithful servants who work to keep our house in order. ”

“ There is still one other thing that I wish you never to forget, and that is that many men become drunkards because they do not have the right kind of food. It may be it is made so hot with pepper, mustard, and spices that it creates thirst, or it may be but half cooked, so they feel poorly fed. Such men are much more apt to go to the bar-room than the man who sits at a neatly-spread table furnished with plain, healthful food.
Percy: But isn’t alcohol a kind of food, mother? I have seen drinking men who looked so fat and strong it seems as if it must build up the body. ”

“ The right side of the heart, which has nothing but soiled blood in it all the time, sends it to the lungs in a hurry, and it fills the thousands of hair-like veins which are in every part of the lungs. The walls of the veins are so thin that the oxygen in the lungs soaks through into the blood, and the poison in the blood goes through into the air, and is breathed out of the body. ”

“ Alcohol says, “I am a food, and will make your body warm.”
Truth says: “It’s a lie. You do not feed any part of the body. It is true that you make it feel a little warmer for a time, because all the servants work so hard to throw you out; but the whole body is colder afterward than at first.”
Alcohol says, “I will make your body so plump and fat that you will look very healthy.”
Truth says: “It is true that you make the body fat. The liver ought to weigh about four pounds, and you have made it sometimes weigh as much as fifty. The fat you give is disease, not strength.” ”

“ It may be he knows he is taking poison into the house, which will make his servants, the muscles, unfit for work. Perhaps he knows, too, that the drink will hurt himself more than any other part of the body-house, for it puts him to sleep when he ought to be awake telling his servants what to do, yet he does it, and often suffers all the rest of his life for his folly.
Elmer: Does alcohol hurt the brain?
Mother: Surely it does. It makes the blood impure, so it can not furnish good food for the brain. It causes more blood to go to the head than ought to be there. ”

“ When God made us, He desired that we should be happy; so He gave us eyes to see the beautiful things He has made, ears to hear the music of the birds, taste to enjoy the fine flavors He placed in our foods, and smell to breathe in the fragrance of the violet and the rose. We ought to be very thankful for all these senses, which make us happy. ”

“ Elmer: But is it the best food, mother?
Mother: No, we can not say it is the very best; for, as time has passed, the animals have become sickly, and many wise doctors say it is unsafe to eat their flesh. Cattle which have been killed to eat have been found with diseased lungs, livers and kidneys. People sometimes become very ill and many have died from eating their flesh.
Helen: I should think if they choose such food it would be like the engine driver filling his furnace with poor coal when he could get plenty that was better. ”

“ Blood is made from the food you eat and the water you drink. If you eat good food it makes good blood. Bad food and drink make bad blood. It might be called the caretaker, or the housekeeper of the body. Without it your body-house would go to ruin; for the Bible says, “The life of all flesh is the blood.” After passing through the kitchen, serving room, and dining room, the blood enters a dark tunnel and comes to your heart. ”

“ Yes, everything that has life must have food of some kind. You remember I told you we had iron, lime, and other things to build the body-house, just as a man must have wood, brick, iron, and glass when he wishes to build. We have looked at the outside of the house we live in, and we have learned some things about its frame, its servants, the telephone system, and the master who lives inside. ”

“ Elmer: Do we need anything else to make the muscles strong, mother?
Mother: Yes; one of the best things to make them strong is plenty of good, plain food. As the muscles are used, they wear out, and must have new timber to build themselves up. You would think it strange if a carpenter brought brick, mortar, glass, and timber to mend a house, and without his help each part should take just what it needed, putting in half a dozen bricks in the chimney, a board in the floor, a new pane of glass in the window, and some mortar in the right place. ”

“ That is just what happens when a person uses tea, coffee, tobacco, beer, or whisky. At first only a little will make him feel rested and as though he were stronger. But soon he wants more, and does not feel as strong as before he took the stimulant the first time. These drinks stimulate, but do not give strength. When a horse is tired he does not need a whip, but food and rest. The same is true of a man or woman when tired. Instead of putting poison in the stomach they need good food and rest, and these will make them really stronger. ”

“ We should always take the very best care of our eyes. Alcohol makes them red and bloodshot; for it makes too much blood go into them, just as it does all over the surface of the body. Tobacco injures them by making the nerves weak. It is a dreadful thing to be blind or have weak sight, and while we prize our eyes we will never take such poisons to injure them.
Percy: I wish I could get a peep at the master when he looks through the windows. ”

“ Helen: How can we get to sleep if wakeful when we go to bed?
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Mother: Those who can not sleep well should spend much time out-of-doors during the day. One should not eat for several hours before going to bed; for if the stomach must work, it often keeps the rest of the body awake. Every one should have a clean bed, and sleep where he can have plenty of pure air. To work till one is tired, if not carried too far, will also help. But, even though a person does all these things, if he tries to sleep when the mind is worried or excited, the gentle nurse will not come. ”

“ If you throw a piece of fat into the fire, it will burn. If you eat the fat, it will make just as much heat in your body, but it will last a long time.
Percy: How queer to think we are burning, bit by bit, just like a candle!
Mother: Yes; just as long as we live, the fire is kept going.
Amy: But I shouldn’t think that blood going around with oxygen in it would keep us warm.
Mother: If that was the only way to heat the body, it would not. Where it is very cold, some houses have a grate; there may also be a furnace, and perhaps a stove besides. ”

“ Our lungs are like the bellows of the organ, and the voice cords are like the reeds. When the master of the body wants to speak low, he sends an order to some muscles in the throat to let the cords hang loose. If he wishes a high tone, he tells them to stretch the cords tight. If he would make no sound, the cords hang loosely, and the air passes between them without making any sound. ”

“ You would not expect a housekeeper to keep everything tidy and clean in a house, and not give her what she needed to make her strong and able to work; and so the master of the house gives the blood plenty to eat; and it makes no complaint as long as it can do its work well. It is a very busy person, we might say, and, as there is no end of things to do in the house in which you live, the blood works night and day. ”

“ You know the brain is the master of the house, and there are hundreds of muscles waiting to do what he bids them. But the brain is upstairs, safe in his own strong little room. How can he tell the fingers how to work, and the feet where to walk? ”

“ All he needs is to be taught that he must keep his proper place, and that he is not to rule the house. If boys and girls begin to eat between meals; if their Taste calls for rich food and sweetmeats; if they want spices, pepper, mustard, and hot sauces with their food, they are letting Taste become their master, and it will be easy for them to begin to use cigarettes and to drink beer. When they open the gate for Taste to become master, they know not where they will end. They have entered the path to death and ruin. ”

“ The picture passes through the clear, jelly-like substance of the eye to the back, where it is spread out, and the nerves of sight carry it into the brain, for the master to see. We may have perfect eyes, but if anything is wrong with the eye nerve, we can not see; so we really see and hear with our brain instead of our eyes and ears. ”

“ This is an important room indeed. It is a good thing to have a good, strong will if we only will to do the right thing, for it helps any one in doing right; but if he is doing wrong, it causes him to do more wrong.
To show what I mean, we will say that a man who has been drinking beer or cider learns that the reason he likes these drinks is because there is alcohol in them, and he sees that they will do him harm, and that the more he drinks them, the more he will want them. He doesn’t want weak muscles, a bloated body, a fatty liver, or a weak brain and nerves. ”

“ Every building must have a foundation and a frame of some kind to make it strong and give it shape. It is the same with the house we call our body. The frames of houses which men build are made of wood or iron; but the framework of the body is built of bones. Perhaps you have noticed that in the frames of buildings some pieces of timber are short, and some are long, and they are cut into many different shapes and sizes. So it is with the bones of the body. ”

“ These hot things which people sometimes put in the stomach make them thirsty, as I have said, and so they think they must have beer or something stronger. Such drinks do not quench thirst, and so they keep on drinking more and more. If you want the walls of your body-kitchen to be a pretty pale pink color, you will keep the doors shut tight against mustard, spices, pepper, and all hot sauces. You can teach your taste to like the fine flavors which are in our foods already, and which do no harm to the body.
Amy: But sugar is a good food, isn’t it, mother? ”

“ The first thing tobacco does is to put the nerves to sleep, just as a thief would kill a dog that would warn its master of his coming. You can see, I think, what a foolish thing it is for a boy or man to do anything which would put the faithful nerves to sleep so they can not warn him of danger. ”