Golden Age, January 27, 1937
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the Golden Age
A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE AND COURAGE
in this issue
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT MAN
THAT DELUSION CALLED “LOVE”
PERILOUS TIMES
MORE ABOUT HUMANITY
DISOBEDIENCE BRINGS LOSS
OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD
WITNESS MURDERED
IN ARGENTINA
every other
WEDNES DAY
five cents a copy one dollar a year Canada & Foreign 1.25
Vol. XVIII-No. 453 January 27, 1937
CONTENTS
A Little Bit About Man 259
8 Feet 4 and Still Growing 259
The Human Hand 259
Composition of the Hand 260 Hands Worth a Fortune 260
The Interesting Left-Handers 261 Other Strange Manual Exceptions 261 The Beautiful Human Foot 261 The Perfect Foot 262
The Feet in Scripture 262
Standing and Walking 262
Walking Barefoot 263
American Feet Getting Larger 263 Black Mark for Shoe Clerks 264 From Sandals to Shoes 264
High Heels and Fallen Arches 265 Care of the Feet 266
Mankind Has Double Brain 266 All People Insane at Times 267 Afraid of Peter Moody’s Brains 267 That Delusion Called “Love” 268 Sinister Side to Sex Attraction 268 The Love of God 268
An Intensely Practical Problem 268 The Ideal Motive 269
Is Sex Attraction Love? 272
The “Love” Racket in the United States—Inciting to Lust for a Money Consideration 270
True Love According to the
Word of Jehovah 271
Perilous Times 273
More About Humanity 274
Some Men Love to Murder 274
"What Is Americanism? 274
Economic Madness 275
Betterment Desperately Resisted 275
Workers Have to Aid Themselves 276 Lounsberry’s Will 276
The Will of Herman Obleweiss 277
Subscribers with Opinions 277
Another Honest Man Found 278
The Colorado Strong Man 278
When You Get to Seventy Years 279
The Heart of Womankind 279
Women Can Be as Mean as Men 279
DA.R. on the Toboggan 280
Of Peculiar Interest to Women 281
Ever Try Drinking Minerals? 281
Good Business Being Born 1 of 5 282
A Little List of Don’ts 282
7,400,000 Children on Relief 282
The Future Dads and Mothers 283
Straightening It All Out 283
Disobedience Brings Loss of
the Kingdom of God 284
Two Men Put an Army to Flight 284
The Ruin of Saul 284
Think of All Saul Lost 285
But Saul Was Disobedient 286
Witness Murdered in Argentina 283
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the Golden Age
Volume XVIII
Brooklyn, N.Y., Wednesday, January 27, 1937
Number 453
A Little Bit About Man
ARE you not glad, and happy and thankful, that you were horn into the human family, and that you were not a Gibbor? Not long ago the bones of one of the Gibborim, drowned in the Flood, were discovered in Nicaragua. They have been found elsewhere, in France, in Arizona.
The ribs of the Gibbor found in Nicaragua are a yard long and four inches wide, and the shinbone is too heavy for one man to carry. The find was made at El Boquin, on the Mico river. The head was missing. The Gibborim (Hebrew for “mighty men”, in Genesis 6:4) were the children of angels mating with women of the human family, so the Scriptures plainly declare. References to these giants are to be found not only in the Bible, but in the mythology of Greece and Rome and other countries.
Collier's magazine says:
The tallest man in history, according to the record of all authenticated cases, lives today in Bushire, Iran. Although only twenty years of age and still growing, this Persian giant is ten feet six inches in height and weighs 450 pounds. Incidentally, he is so weak that he cannot walk or hold up his head for more than a few minutes at a time.
Goliath’s height was six cubits and a span, which, at 21 inches to the cubit and 9 inches to the span, is 11 feet 3 inches. The Septuagint and Josephus give Goliath’s height as four cubits and a span, or 7 feet 9 inches. Some of the accurately measured giants of the past 1900 years were of the following heights: 10 feet 3 inches, 10 feet 3 inches, 9 feet 4 inches, 7 feet 6 inches, 9 feet 3 inches, 8 feet 6 inches, 8 feet 4 inches, 8 feet 7∣ inches, 8 feet 2 inches, 8 feet 9 inches, 7 feet 9 inches, and another 7 feet 9 inches. The Gibborim (children of angels and women) who perished in the Flood were very much taller than any of these, as calculations made from portions of their skeletons amply demonstrate, but there are no accurate measurements available.
8 Feet 4 and Still Growing
Robert Wadlow, seventeen-year-old Alton (Ill.) boy, is 8 feet 4 inches in height and still growing. He now weighs over 400 pounds, and seems to be in excellent health.
The proprietor of the department store in Budapest, Hungary, that supplies most of the clothing and furniture for midgets throughout the world estimates that there are 56,000 of these little folks. He himself is but 3 feet 4 inches high.
Men and women are growing taller; northern people are bigger than southern ones; both sexes are much smaller at the hips. These are some of the physical changes in mankind established by thousands of measurements, and are world-wide.
Did you know that you have 17,000 nerves in your spine, some of them twenty times as large in diameter as others? These are all grouped together into what is commonly designated the spinal cord.
It seems incredible that the human arm could be 20,000 times more versatile than the human tongue, yet that is the claim made by Sir Richard Paget, who has been conducting lessons in sign language at the Royal Institution, London. He claims that with one hand alone over 700,000 distinct and elementary signs can be made.
The Human Hand
No other living creature can touch each of his fingers with his thumb. The human hand is the instrument of instruments. The manner in which it can be bent forward, backward and sidewise, and the thumb and fingers moved in different ways, calls forth from the reverent heart the most profound awe at the wisdom of the great Creator.
God made man to perform the most intricate and difficult tasks of life; his wife to be a help, suitable to her less exacting sphere. It is no reflection upon the fair sex to record the simple truth that the finest surgical work is done by men.
At Sanford, Maine, is a factory for the making of the finest, most costly, most luxurious velvets. The sorters of the Angora goat hair are required to divide it into fifteen diameters of hairs. A single hair misplaced injures seriously the appearance of the finished fabric. The 35 men engaged on the work seldom make a mistake, but they cannot do the work if for any reason they have had a sleepless night. No woman has ever been able to qualify for the job.
In the making of the great dies used to cut out automobile parts the men go over the parts with their calipers and fine files until they have done the very best that can be done with instruments; but the human hand is finer still, and the last thing done to the die is by the most expert worker of all, who tells by the “feel” of the casting just where another slight abrasion with the file is necessary to make a perfect job.
The fool of an evolutionist cannot explain these things. All he can say is that man “had the good fortune of having a more favorably shaped hand”. You bet he did. And he also had the good fortune to have a grand and glorious Creator that gave it to him. It would serve some of these evolutionists justly if some fine morning they would wake up with monkey claws instead of hands and start to do some real thinking with the fungus growth above their ears.
Composition of the Hand
The hand is composed of twenty-seven bones: eight bones in the wrist, arranged in two rows of four each; five bones forming the palm of the hand; two forming the thumb; and three in each of the four fingers.
Modestly, truthfully, and scientifically, The Encyclopedia Americana says:
The hand, with its highly specialized muscles, belongs to man alone. It cannot be considered, as in the ape, a normal organ of locomotion. It is essentially the organ of touch and prehension. It molds itself to a body to ascertain its form; it comes to the aid of the eye in completing or rectifying its impressions. The functions of touch devolve principally on its anterior or palmar face, the nervous papillae abounding especially at the ends of the fingers. A layer of adipose tissue very close in texture protects, without lessening its power or its delicacy, the network of muscles, vessels and nerves with which this remarkable organ is equipped.*
The hand is an aid to speech. Some talk almost as much with their hands as they do with their tongues. An orchestra leader without arms would be an anomaly. Gestures are much used in motion-picture and in radio studios. The normal conduct of every person can be judged from his handwriting. One votes with the uplifted hand. One asks for the hand of a woman.
Hands Worth a Fortune
Elaine St. Maur, of Hollywood, California, has her hands insured for $150,000. She is much in demand by sculptors and artists who affirm that hers are the most beautiful hands in America. The hands of actresses are almost uniformly beautiful. A woman without long, slender fingers, meticulously cared-for nails, and smooth contours and white skin covering her hands, would find it hard work to secure employment as an actress.
Women’s hands have grown appreciably larger since the World War. Twenty years ago fives and sixes in gloves were much in demand; now the call is for sizes six and one-half to seven and one-half. The enlargement of the feminine hand is charged to automobile driving, tennis and golf.
Women’s hands differ structurally from men’s. With men the first finger is shorter than the third finger; with women the first finger is almost always longer than the third finger. This result was obtained by examining the hands of 630 adults. The reason for the difference is not known.
There is no use trying to stop the women who have decided to paint their fingernails. The natural pink tint of the healthy fingernail is attractive.
Women who patronize manicures are advised not to insist upon deeply cut nail corners; this often leads to infection. Hangnails are bothersome and dangerous; frequently they result in abscesses. When first observed they should be snipped off with scissors as closely as possible, and the finger be swathed or at least bathed in antiseptics.
*The skin of the human palm is seventy-six times as thick as that of the eyelid. No Designer, eh?
Warts are removed by applying the milk of the common milkweed every day until they dry up and disappear. Yellow spots on the hands of aging persons are like freckles, but are permanent; friction helps some. Small pimples like goose flesh on the arms are removed by rubbing in almond oil, then washing in soap and water and applying cold cream. A lotion of equal parts of glycerin and camphor is good for chapped hands. Hands that are too thin can be built up by massage with pure olive oil, preferably done by a friend.
The Interesting Left-Handers
The lower animals are ambidextrous; those that have “hands” would as soon use one as the other, but the Creator has made man differently. Among men there are a very few that are ambidextrous; the number is negligible. About 97 percent are right-handed; the remaining 3 percent are left-handers, naturally so, and should be let alone to develop as they were designed.
Parents and teachers that have forced or tried to force left-handed children to become righthanded are responsible for causing naturally fine boys and girls to stammer, to misspell, to become irritable, to lie, and to steal. To such children the “q” tends to become a “p”, the “b” to become a “d”, “not” becomes “ton”, and sometimes whole sentences are backwards. More boys than girls are left-handed. The left-handed, if let alone, are in every respect equal to the righthanded.
Left-handedness is hereditary. In families in which one or both of the parents are left-handed 17.34 percent of the children are left-handed, while in families in which neither of the parents is left-handed only 2.1 percent of the children are left-handed; in such latter cases the children inherit from a grandparent.
Instances of dumbness, in children coming in families with a definite left-handed strain, hesitancy, tantrums, pugnacity, seclusiveness, and even criminality, are all traceable to well-meant efforts to make right-handed people out of lefthanded ones. Such persons have their nervous systems upset and their whole development is interfered with. What right has any person, parent or other, to assume the responsibility of slowing up and reversing the mental processes of another? It is easy to understand how a child, forced to do a task in the way hardest for him, may become irritable and unmanageable.
Other Strange Manual Exceptions
There are some people who are without sense of touch, i. e., they are unable to distinguish the shape of an object by handling or touching it, even when the object is perfectly round or square. This odd disability corresponds with that of those who are color-blind or tone-deaf.
Most singular of all the manual exceptions are the inhabitants of Palazuelos, Spain. A great majority of the people in this hamlet have two thumbs on each hand. Most of the men of the village work in stone quarries, and it is conjectured that the great strains put upon their thumbs has had an effect. Intermarriage has spread the peculiarity.
The Beautiful Human Foot
If there is anything in nature more beautiful, or better adapted to its purpose, than a baby’s foot, name it. After a few decades of mistreatment by its owner the foot can lose most of its charming appearance, and usually does, but it is still a marvelous mechanism, supple and adaptable, built to carry 200 pounds or more cheerfully, for a lifetime.
There are twenty-six bones in the foot, some long and placed parallel, others cuboid in shape, at the ankle, all lashed together by flexible cords, built up into arches, four in number, running lengthwise and crosswise, and enabling the owner to make his way over terrain of every description. The bony structure is in three divisions, commonly called ankle, instep, and toes, but if more aristocratic-sounding names are desired, the three divisions may be called tarsus, metatarsus, and phalanges.
Persons who have never abused their feet, and who have trained them, dance for hours on end without fatigue, run marathons, walk 100 miles in a day, and do other seemingly incredible things with these instruments that can be bent, twisted and turned and yet always come back to their normal shape and position if given a chance. There are more than 100 ligaments in the foot. The endless muscles play over one another in perfect harmony.
Occasionally, at athletic meets, one senses the marvels of the human foot when he sees a two-hundred-pound man throw himself some six feet in the air or leap some twenty-five feet in a running broad jump. Those arches, tendons and muscles were all designed with exquisite care to permit the owner to walk, run and jump with ease and grace. The arches give spring to the motions of the body; they act as shock absorbers; and nerves and blood vessels are stowed away under them, in the safest and best place.
The Perfect Foot
The perfect foot must have toes. They are essential for maintaining the balance; and while one could imagine it possible to hobble about without them, they are absolutely essential for easy walking, or for running, dancing, cycling, football, tennis, baseball, golf or other athletic games. And if toes are essential, perfect toes are essential; they need to be kept in the condition in which they were when the owner came into the world.
The experts say that the perfect foot should be exactly one-seventh of its owner’s height. Thus a man five feet ten inches tall would have a foot exactly ten inches long; but, trying it out on three specimens in the office, all had bigger feet than they were supposed to have, and it may be doubted if the experts have it just right.* They also say that the perfect foot should be three times as long as its greatest breadth. This seems to be correct.
A big shoe company uses 79 different lasts. This shows that there is a great difference in sizes and shapes of feet; and if there are some perfect ones there are many times that number that are just a little off standard.
Beauticians claim that a man is judged by his feet and neckties, and a woman by her feet and face. It would certainly seem that a man seeking a job would do well to shine his shoes and have on a clean necktie, and if a shine and a clean tie are good to get a job they are good to keep it. An employee cannot afford to have an employer form the opinion that his mind is untidy. If a girl’s shoes need a shine she might just as well not powder her nose; for her shoes will be noticed before her nose will.
The Feet in Scripture
‘The slipping of the foot,’ ‘the stumbling of the foot, ‘footsteps’ and ‘from head to foot’ are Scriptural expressions which require no explanation. To be ‘‘under one’s foot” refers to the ancient custom of conquerors’ putting their feet on the necks of their future servants, as is mentioned in Joshua 10: 24, and shown on the monuments of Egypt, Persia and Rome.
* The rule among sculptors is that the length of the foot should be one-sixth the height of the body, not one-seventh, and seems about right.
The Hebrew language is so extremely modest that the word feet is made to stand for parts and acts which are unnamed; hence such phrases as “hair of the feet”, ‘water of the feet,’ ‘between the feet,’ to ‘open the feet’ and to ‘cover the feet’.
Nakedness of feet in public was a sign of mourning or humility. Moses removed his sandals in the presence of God. The priests served with bare feet both in the tabernacle and in the temple.
Where Paul says he was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel he stated the exact truth. In ancient law schools the teacher sat on a raised seat, but the pupils were seated on the floor at his feet. The picture persists in the modern courtroom, where the judge sits on a dais.
In Galatians 2:14, where the apostle says he saw that they walked “not uprightly”, the literal wording is “not with a straight foot”. Peter and others “did not foot it straightly”; i.e., they were crooked, in a measure, walking disorderly, and came in for just reproof. Seems too bad that Peter did not say something about watching your feet; maybe he could have helped his alleged successors to avoid having kings and other self-seekers kiss their feet.
Justin was the first emperor to kiss a pope’s foot, A.D. 525. But Diocletian, Roman emperor, had his courtiers kissing his foot 225 years earlier. He had gems fastened to his shoes to coax the poor sycophants to bestow this honor (?) the more willingly. Every new cardinal has to kiss the pope’s foot, and every time one of their number is made pope they all kiss his foot. At public audiences persons presented to the pope (if they are Roman Catholics) kiss his foot to indicate that they hold him to be the vicar of Christ. Jesus never asked anybody to kiss His feet; Mary’s act was spontaneous and beautiful, not planned and required.
Standing and Walking
To learn to stand, get a pole the height of your body; stand sidewise in front of the mirror; the top of the pole should come back of the ear; the bottom should be in the middle of the foot, where the instep runs into the ankle; the middle of the pole should be in the exact center of the hip; the abdomen should be held in; the back has a shallow bend in the center; the knees protrude slightly forward of the pole; the lower leg to the ankle comes back of the pole; the head should be level; the chest begins right below the chin. After one has learned to stand properly, one can learn to walk properly by walking around the room without the pole and then come back and see if the correct posture has been retained.
When standing it should be easy to put three fingers under the inside of either foot, beneath the largest arch. The body is really supported by a tripod at the end of each leg.
If people are going to stand they must have legs. Sir Arbuthnot Lane, English surgeon, made the statement that American girls have the most perfect legs in the world. How he dared go back home, after making a statement like that, is an unsolved mystery. La Argentina, famous Spanish dancer, agreed with Dr. Lane.
But a committee of the University of Missouri scanned 100 pairs of feminine legs on the street and voted that only five pairs were good-looking, thirty-nine pairs would do, and the remaining fifty-six pairs were impossible. Needless to say this committee remains nameless, but secure.
Dr. Hillman, New York osteopath, more courageous, says he has looked at thousands of legs, and out of every ten pairs six are lopsided, because one leg is shorter than the other. That is the reason why persons that are lost, unless they have some visible objective, usually travel in circles. Many lives have been lost due to this fact. A person blindfolded can learn to walk straight forward only after long practice.
Explaining the act of walking Dr. L. M. Shakesby, osteopath, says:
The act of walking brings into play all the functions of the foot. As the heel is laid to the ground, the foot should be relaxed. The burden which it carries is then distributed unconsciously from the heel to the outer side of the foot, and then across the ball of the foot to the big toe. The step is then completed by means of the broad hinge represented by all the toes.
When standing, the weight of the body should be transmitted down the legs to the heels, along the outer sides of the feet to the balls of the little toes, and then across the ball of the foot to the ball of the big toe; the inner long arches bearing only a portion of the weight.
The United States Department of Agriculture has done a good work in trying to show farm women that there is a correct posture for dishwashing, mopping, handling foods in the oven, sitting to prepare vegetables, etc. Posture is habit, and habit is health or illness. Poor posture means fatigue, backache, strain on the wrong parts of the body, narrow chest, round shoulders, protruding abdomen, bodily distortions and unattractive appearance.
Walking Barefoot
Animals walk barefoot, and walk gracefully. Boys and girls are animals, and when they walk barefoot they walk gracefully. A grown-up who does not enjoy walking barefoot in the sand or on the grass is ready for his showcase. Some people are such slaves to the automobile that they hardly know how to walk. There is a great increase in leg and ankle injuries because young people use the automobile too much.
A party of 24 South Sea islanders went on a sightseeing trip to Japan. They had theretofore always walked barefoot, but were talked into buying shoes. The shoes stayed on only a few blocks; after that they came off and stayed off all the while the party was in the country. Lasts used in making shoes for Americans cannot be used for making shoes for the Filipinos; the latter have been accustomed to bare feet for centuries and their feet are more nearly natural.
The correct way to walk is to carry the chest high, keep the chin level, and swing the arms and legs freely. Inhale seven steps and exhale seven steps.
It is a matter of record that most of the long walkers, like Weston and O’Leary, lived to a good old age. Daniel O’Leary died at 90 years of age, having walked in his lifetime well over 300,000 miles, 125,000 of which was in competition. At 66 years of age he walked a mile at the beginning of each hour for 1,000 consecutive hours, perhaps the only time it was ever done. Up until then physicians had considered such a feat impossible.
Experienced shoemen say that a shoe expert can tell at a glance if a woman is French, English or American. If French, her feet are short and broad; if English, longer and narrower; and if American, so much narrower that she can with difficulty be fitted with an English shoe. American widths are AAA, AA, A, B, C, D, and E. British widths begin with C, which they call width “3”.
American Feet Getting Larger
American feet are getting larger; they should. A European woman entering the films at Hollywood heralded her entry by insuring her feet for $100,000 and announcing that she wears size No. 1 shoes and has the smallest feet of any white woman. The lady is mistaken. Up to ten years ago ladies’ No. 1 shoes could be regularly obtained in America; now they are very hard to get. A lady like one little lady in mind, who has a No. 1 foot, can still get all kinds of promises from shoe dealers everywhere, but when the shoes finally come forth from their hiding places they are 1½, 2, 2½, or even 3. If anybody knows where ladies’ No. 1 shoes may now be obtained, be so good as to send a postal card to the editor of The Golden Age and supply the information.
There is no advantage in having very small feet; there is a decided disadvantage. Anyway, according to the dealers, athletics in ten short years have given American women feet half an inch longer and a full size wider. It is to their well-being all round. The ideal of Chinese women of a generation ago, to hobble around in shoes as small as possible, is not and should not be the ideal of a sensible woman now. In the Victorian era it was considered improper for a lady to show her foot; now she shows everything and nobody thinks anything of it.
Some firms now advertise men’s shoes up to size 14 or 15, and women’s shoes up to sizes 11 and 12. The trend toward larger shoes is so definite that sevens and eights for women are common, especially among the younger ones; so the saying has come about, “An inch on the shoe, a year off the age.” Women of good height are, as a matter of course, expected to have good, generous feet. It is noteworthy that ancient statuary of women all shows them with large feet. The average woman today takes a 5 or 6; size 4-B is in the minority; very few size 3 are sold at all, and smaller sizes seem almost impossible to obtain.
Black Mark for Shoe Clerks
Tally a black mark against the shoe clerks. It is their business to know that a person sitting takes a shoe two sizes smaller than one standing, yet they have persisted in fitting the customer to the smaller shoes, as if they were to sit forever. Put another black mark against them for looking at your shoes when you come into the store and mentally determining that by no possible chance will they give you a larger shoe, but that they will squeeze it down at least one size smaller, if such a thing is at all possible. They have a lot to answer for.
Shoes too small give corns, calluses, pains in the leg, fatigue, headache, and fine lines of pain clear around the eyes. Seventy-five percent of high-school girls acquire lifelong foot troubles in their high-school days because the shoe clerks catered to their vanity instead of really trying to fit them properly. And the girls were partly to blame, too. Nearly all children are born with perfect feet. Why ruin them with wrong shoes?
Shoes must be wide enough and long enough to bear a load when their possessor is on his feet. When army recruits are fitted with shoes they are first given the full weight of equipment they must carry; then they have to stand with the weight thrown forward on the ball of the foot while it is measured. Uncle Sam is not taking any chances of a rookie’s traveling around in shoes that are too small for him.
From Sandals to Shoes
It is quite a jump from a pair of sandals that were each made of a single piece of leather to a modern pair of shoes that requires 26 pieces of leather, 14 pieces of cloth, 28 nails, 80 tacks, 2 tips, 2 heels, 2 box toes, 2 steel shanks, and 20 yards of thread, and the services of 57 operators, on 42 machines. The record for a pair of the latter is 13 minutes from the time the shot was fired. It probably took a long time to cut out the first pair of sandals. How would you go about it if you had neither knife nor shears?
There is not so much to be said in favor of sandals. They kept out neither rain, mud nor dust. The Japanese and Chinese still wear them. They are sometimes ornamented with lines of gold, silver or silk and embroidered with jewels. The oriental sock has a separate compartment for the great toe, so that it may be inserted under the strap of the sandal.
On the walls of Egyptian temples are paintings of the different steps in the making of footwear, from the tanning of the leather to the finished sandal. By the time of the Roman empire there were shoes with nails in them. Josephus mentions that the centurion Julian slipped on the marble pavement of the temple from “his shoes being full of nails”, and was killed thereby.
The currying knife, awl, lapstone and other tools of the Egyptian sandal-maker are still to be found in the cobbling shops of the West. Sandals were made of woven palm leaves and papyrus stalks as well as of leather, and are still so made in China. In the latter country the merchants and other so-called “higher classes” still wear the loose, thick-soled, quilted slippers often seen in Chinese shops in American cities.
The Greeks first made the shoe, while the Romans first made the sock. High-top boots faced with metal were worn by the Roman soldiers and have survived in the military puttees of the present uncivilized era. In Russia and the Balkan states high and heavy boots are needed and used by both men and women. In Holland, Belgium, France and Germany wooden shoes (sabots, klompen), or leather shoes with wooden soles, are much worn by the laboring classes. These shoes are admirably adapted to dairies and other damp places. In parts of Spain sandals, slippers and shoes are made of esparto grass, light in weight, and wearing for a generation. Esparto grass has the faculty of gathering, holding and using fine pebbles, which become, in fact, the sole of the shoe.
The first shoes made by the Greeks had the appearance of the Indian moccasin. Shoes, in the modern sense, made theiτ appearance about the time of the Crusades. In the reign of Richard II of England it was customary to have boots of different color for each leg, without heels, and with toes so long that they were frequently attached to the knees.
In 1857 the McKay sewing machine made possible the mechanical sewing of the outer sole to the inner sole (the edges of the upper being between the two) with a strong chain stitch, a channel or furrow being cut in the outsole to protect the part of the thread extending to the bottom. Prior to that time shoes could be made only by hand; now they are all machine-sewed, the production in the United States being up to 350,000,000 pairs per year.
Footwear is preserved by the application of neat’s foot, cod and castor oils, tallow and wool grease, or mixtures of these, and is ruined by being kept either wet or dry. Annoying and painful foot eruptions have been traced to the effect of the chemicals used in fashioning of tan shoe leather.
High Heels and Fallen Arches
The use of high heels has its advocates among physicians, and it has opponents too. The claim is made that 75 percent of American university girls have menstrual troubles, cramps, hemorrhages, headaches, backaches, etc., and that this comes from high-heeled shoes. The relative position of the spine and the body cannot be interfered with without disturbing the lower abdominal organs. At least one physician who recommends moderately high heels for women makes the admission that if the heel is not so fixed on the shoe as to bring it well under the toot, it may cause fallen arches; and that a great many cheap shoes suffer from this defect.
Shoes have been made to sell; the shape and especially the mechanism of the human foot have not been studied; and as a result about half of the children suffer from flatfoot, or have a disposition thereto, while about 70 percent of the population as a whole are affected.
The North American Indians who still wear moccasins are never troubled with fallen arches or flat feet; which shows that the shoemakers have a lot to answer for. Formerly there were twice as many men afflicted with fallen arches as women; now the conditions are nearly reversed ; men’s shoes have become more sensible; women’s, less so.
It is rare to find men’s boots or shoes with a heel higher than one inch, which, assuming the sole to be half an inch thick, gives a lift to the heel of only half an inch. Women’s, heels are seldom less than two inches high, while the sole is but about a quarter of an inch thick. Some women have heels as high as four inches; the feet are not properly supported at the critical point, which is just at the front of the heel, and the arches give way.
Some who had fallen arches, and abandoned high-heeled shoes, found their feet return to normal. People that are much on their feet, as waiters, bakers, dentists, barbers, housewives, need shoes that are not too short, not too narrow, not too high-heeled, and that do not require to be laced tight across the instep. Shoes for such workers should also fit the bottom of the feet, and not be as flat as a board, as are most shoes. It takes a large amount of so-called “medical science” to get the shoemakers to use lasts that, on their lower sides, are shaped to the contour of the foot.
Various remedies are offered for lifting the arches, once they have fallen. But the first remedy is to get the right kind of shoes. Arch supports can be had, some of them air-cushioned. Walking and standing Indian-fashion and bending the toes forward when in bed are recommended.
Health Culture magazine recommends the following method for lifting arches:
Obtain a roll of 1/2-inch-wide zinc oxide adhesive plaster about 6 yards long; place the feet with the toes pointing inward. The first strap is commenced from the outer ankle bone, taken under the foot and then up the inner side of the leg as far as the lower part of the calf. The second begins at the same place, but about one inch farther forward, the strap overlapping about half an inch. This one passes under the foot in the same way as the first strap, but then up over the instep to the outer side of the leg, and wound spirally around the leg. A third strap is placed around the leg, just above the ankle, to further secure the first and second straps. Every third night remove the straps carefully, bathe the feet in salt water, and dry thoroughly. Leave straps off for one day and one night, and then re-apply as before. It must be borne in mind that at each application of strapping, the straps are drawn up tighter, thus lifting the arch.
If shoes are too small or hose are too short the result may be hammertoes, thickened toenails, or corns. Corns are also produced by having shoes too large. They are mentioned in literature written 200 B.C.
Care of the Feet
For an excellent article on the care of the feet, see the contribution on that subject from the pen of R. S. Nester, chiropodist, published in The Golden Age of March 2, 1932.
Other suggestions are that cold feet may be helped by plunging them first in very hot, then in very cold water, for two minutes at a time, back and forth three times in each. Massage is also recommended for this.
Daily bathing of the feet in either tepid or cold water is an excellent habit. Socks should be changed frequently, as often as possible, and preferably should be white in color, so as to avoid coloring matter in a place where it is susceptible of doing much harm.
A strong solution of tannic acid is said to be a splendid remedy for tender feet and for unpleasant odors arising from perspiration of the feet.
Soft corns are helped by scraping a piece of common chalk, putting it on the corn, and binding a rag on it. To get rid of hard corns soak the feet half an hour (no less) in water hot as can be borne, when the corn can be taken off in layers.
It is a good plan to change the shoes frequently.
Mankind Has Double Brain Lobes
Many have wondered why humans ordinarily use but one half of their brains, the other half remaining apparently idle. Occasionally an incident occurs that shows the wisdom of the great Creator in this regard. Thus, in Port Clinton, Ohio, an eleven-year-old boy was accidentally shot by his brother. The bullet entered the left lobe of his brain and split into six pieces. The boy must have been right-handed, because right-handed people always use the left lobe of their brain. After the boy was shot he lost his ability to talk and reason, but is now learning again to read and write and is able to remember much of what he previously learned in school. His complete recovery is anticipated. He is probably now using the right lobe of his brain, and when fully recovered is liable to be left-handed or ambidextrous. The human organism is the most marvelous of God’s mundane creation, fearfully and wonderfully made. The man who says “There is no God” is in much worse condition than this boy who had half his brain destroyed.
In the effort to do something that would bring dishonor to the Creator, certain so-called “scientists” contended that some brains of the darker races have what they termed “ape-like ridges”. These ridges were supposed to show the humbler origin of the Negritic races. But now the Bekhteroff Institute of the Brain, of Leningrad, Russia, has made critical examinations of more than 500 brains and found that these “ape-like ridges” are as common among white scientists as they are among Negroes; and so that ends that.
Several types of lie detectors are in use: the polygraph, which indicates increased blood pressure when a lie is being told; the psychogalvanometer, which measures the increase in perspiration; the mirror-confession chamber, in which the suspect is surrounded by mirrors and questioned through a crack. As he answers the colors of the lights are changed. The pneumograph registers quickened breathing. The oscillograph takes pictures of the sweat glands in operation. Scopolamin is a drug, a serum, which so affects the brain as to leave it incapable of manufacturing lies until the power of the drug has worn off.
All People Insane at Times
Said John Randolph Stidman, in Baltimore Evening Sun:
A professor recently announced that all people are insane at times. A survey of the incomprehensible antics of the human race leads one to conclude that he is right.
Hitler urges his legions toward oblivion. Prating of glory and honor, he smashes a treaty because, he asserts, France has violated another one.
Mussolini wastes national substance and Italian blood in a conquest which will benefit him little. The League of Nations taps him lightly on the wrist.
France’s leaders rush around like frightened rabbits, yelling to England for help, who does nothing. France reaches out a friendly hand to Russia.
Japan stretches a ruthless arm into China. Oh, no, not for conquest! Just to chastise the Chinese bandits. Her statesmen announce blandly that there will be no war in Asia.
All the proud nations prate of national honor and default to a country that drew a horrible war to an end for them. They tell you that they desire only peace, yet are spending vast sums for armament.
In our own country clowns cavort in Congress, in courts of justice, in governors’ seats, in editorial chairs and over the radio. . . . The one clear, refreshing note comes from the youth of the nation in the satiric suggestion of the organization of the Veterans of Future Wars. It is almost a call to common sense, as insanity marches on.
Afraid of Peter Moody’s Brains
Peter Moody, Wofford, S.C., college student, wrote a skit “To the Cotton Mill Worker” which was published in the college journal. It gave such evidences of brains that the South Carolina House of Representatives ordered a psychiatrist to examine the young man and see if it was really so. The Augusta Chronicle contained a picture of “Reverend” S. P. Chapman, York county clergyman, who said he would like to kick Mr. Moody for writing the following:
Your shoulders are humped and your head is bent; your dull dead eyes are spiritless and your mouth is just a hard straight line in a yellow face under the blue lights in the mill.
You are diseased and unhealthy looking, standing there in your faded overalls, with one suspender loose. Your voice is cracked and your throat and lungs are lined with cotton.
Every night the whistle blows and you plod home to swallow your bread and beans, comb the cotton from your straggly gray hair, wash your wrinkled face, and then lie down on your hard, unclean mattress until the whistle’s blast calls you back to your machine in the mill.
In these close, four-room green and yellow houses, filled with soot from the mill’s smokestack and dust from the road, you breed countless children, dirty and ill-fed, who will grow up and take your place in the cotton mill.
You are narrow-minded and ignorant, you with your six years of schooling. And you are afraid, afraid of your bosses, afraid of being laid off. You are desperately frightened by knowledge. Therefore you shun it, and are content to stay a coward.
Recreation for you is in talking baseball and in seeing, on Saturday nights, some cheap western movie full of guns and ropes and horses and fights. And your pleasure is wasting your nickels in the drug store slot machine.
On your day off, dressed in your shiny cheap suit and dingy white shirt, you come down to the village square and sit in the sun in front of the company store and spit tobacco juice on the sidewalk from between your decaying yellow teeth. You gossip with other factory bucks, and miss the clamor of the mill.
You join a union and pay your dues. And you attend meetings where loud-mouthed bunk-shooters shout lies at you and yell against the stretch-out, and tell you that if you strike and lose your jobs you will no longer be poverty-stricken. And you believe them. These mealy-mouthed hypocrites tell you that you are the salt of the earth and the bulwark of the nation, and then grab your dollar contributions “to the cause” and then put it in their pockets while your children go without shoes.
On Sundays you put on your red tie and go to church with your consumptive wife, and while she goes in and sits on the left side of the narrow wooden church, you stand outside, you and your cronies, and spit tobacco juice. And then you go in and sit down on the right side, away from your wife. You hear the preacher speak of Christian living and high ideals. What do you know about high ideals, you broken $16-a-week mill hand?
Listen, you lint-head, you are just another poor, illiterate, cotton-mill worker. You stand with a thousand others just like you for five days a week, eight hours a day, running and watching and nursing and tending a power loom, all for 40 cents an hour. What do you know about life? What do you know about music? What do you know about art or literature? What do you know about “love”? What could you know about anything? You are dead! You died on your 16th birthday, when you went to work in the cotton mill.
That Delusion Called “Love” (Contributed)
EVERYONE knows that a very high percentage of all fiction stories, motion picture features and popular songs have what are termed “love stories” as their principal theme. Nor is there any great cause for wonder that this class of mental pabulum finds at all times an unfailing market. With perhaps one exception, nothing in all human experience produces the ecstasy that is felt by two of the opposite sex who are deeply “in love” with each other. Then, too, it is quite commonly believed that whatever expediency may dictate as a motive for marriage, such as monetary, social or other material advantage, the ideal motive, the one that may be expected to produce the greatest happiness, is “love”.
To mankind in general, a “love match” seems to hold out the promise that the happy couple will, as the stories have it, “live happily ever after.” With this implication story and picture are brought to a close, leaving the “lovers” in each other’s arms.
But, say the Scriptures, “man looketh upon the outward appearance,” and the outward appearance quite commonly misrepresents the actual facts. What a bonnie sight the soldier hoys present as they march along the streets on parade, with their trim uniforms, orderly step, flying colors and bands playing such stirring music that even indifferent civilians will sometimes straighten the stooped shoulders and pick up the dragging step. But what becomes of this gay picture when these same lads face their fellows in mortal combat and slaughter? Thus it is with that which is so universally accepted as ‘love”.
Sinister Side to Sex Attraction
There is a sinister side to this "love” such as it would seem is surpassed only by that which is revealed in the horrors of war. First of all, this “love” creates an illusion of desirable qualities in its object that are more or less unde-finable, and, as a matter of fact, do not really exist. Then it glosses over undesirable qualities that ought to be perfectly obvious. It is soft in speech and seemingly tender and considerate in action. “Love” is a past master in window dressing, and presents an exceedingly attractive front.
But what do we find stored up in the vast warehouse of Fact that lies back of this charming exterior? Innumerable murders perpetrated for “love”. Hosts of suicides committed because of unrequited or departed “love”. Infidelities and divorces brought about because of “love” for some other man or woman. Note the multitude of petty tyrannies exercised by “loved” ones over their “lovers”, the disappointments, the hatreds, the jealousies, and the unrest in absence. Last, but not least, note the fact that “love” has even changed the course of nations.
Now, then, in the light of the foregoing, can it possibly be true that the “love” which is at the foundation of these evils is the ideal motive for marriage, or that it is of God, a blessing from the Creator to His creature man, or to members of His new creation the remnant? Can it indeed be rightly said that such is properly called love at all? If not, what should it be called? Then, again, should this that is called “love” be sought or shunned? should it be welcomed or repelled?
Before attempting to answer these questions, it is strongly urged upon all readers of this article to endeavor to secure the opportunity of hearing the electrical transcription of a lecture by Judge Rutherford entitled “Love”. Hear it two or three times if possible, and weigh every word. Its importance cannot be overrated. It may well be likened to an unfailing antidote for the poison of a deadly serpent. The lecture appears in print in the booklet The Crisis.
The Love of God
The Scriptures assert that God is love. It is manifest therefore that the name of God is involved in the questions which have just been propounded. We shall certainly therefore be able to learn from the Scriptures that which will enable us to reach a proper conclusion as to the correct answer to. these questions.
But just how is the name of God involved in this matter? In this way: As already intimated, the Scriptures emphasize the tremendous importance of love, in setting before all creation the fact that love is so prominent a quality of Jehovah as that it is placed on record that “God is love”. The only “love” that hosts upon hosts of humanity have any substantial knowledge of is that which most of them experience at some time, or other and which is ceaselessly depicted to them day in and day out in a deluge of pictures and stories with one or more concomitants of murder, suicide, jealousies, tyrannies, criminations and recriminations, infidelities, desertions or divorces. Whether intelligently realized or not, this so-called “love” has surely brought profound reproach upon the holy name of Him who is LOVE.
Coming then to the consideration of the several questions raised in a preceding paragraph, we will address ourselves to the first, which is, “Is ‘love’ the ideal basis for entering marriage ?”
No one who has any reverence for the testimony of the Bible will decline to consider relative facts therein recorded bearing upon this and the other questions set forth. While it is true there were variations in the manner of acquiring a wife, even amongst God’s typical people Israel, this does not alter or prevent us from learning what Jehovah’s original purpose was. When Jesus was on earth the Pharisees, trying to trap Him, asked Him some questions regarding the marriage relationship; then, thinking to corner Him in respect to a statement He had made, put a final question to Him regarding the law as given by Moses. They said, ‘Why did Moses then command to give a bill of divorcement, and to put her away?’ He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so."
An Intensely Practical Problem
So, then, we need not concern ourselves regarding the variations in the way that a wife was acquired in olden days, but go right back of these to what it was in the beginning.
How did Adam acquire his wife? Did God take the rib of Adam and make a number of different women therefrom and then wait to see which Adam would fall in “love” with to make her his wife? No, He did not. Could God have done this ? Surely He could. Instead, however, God made just one woman and gave her to Adam for his wife, and Adam took what he was given, and Eve perforce likewise.
Now Adam, we are told, was a son of God. Therefore it may be laid down that the manner of acquiring a wife in the beginning was by Paternal provision. No courting? No “lovemaking” before marriage? None.
This method was also followed in the case of Isaac. Abraham sent his servant to his own country to secure a wife for Isaac, and Isaac accepted the choice without question, and Rebecca without having seen Isaac.
It goes without question, of course, that as created and provided, Eve was perfectly compatible with Adam in every respect. It is also no doubt true that even though there should be normal variations among perfect humans as characters, perfect fathers would have no difficulty in selecting in the spirit of the Lord suitable wives for their sons.
The Ideal Motive
Concisely, then, it may be set down that “love” so called is not the ideal motive for marriage. In other words, it is not the natural way for a man to acquire a wife.
We come now to the second question, “Is ‘love’ (commonly so called) of God, a blessing to His creature man?”
The writer of this article has profound reason for being very compassionate and sympathetic toward those reading it who are “in love” with some member of the opposite sex. Sensitive and on the defensive they usually are, yet greatly in need of light upon their experience. Such will no doubt seek to assure themselves and each other by reference to the ecstasies that associate with their mutual regard, and to the amiable arid seemingly admirable qualities manifested by their object. But the addict of opium also experiences ecstasies while under the influence of the drug, and there are those who display great generosity and other pleasing qualities after imbibing too freely in alcoholic beverages. Would any sane person claim that the condition of these two classes of persons is a blessing from the Lord? In both of these cases, the individuals are not themselves, the powers of reason and moral responsibility are temporarily disturbed and unbalanced by the drug or stimulant used, and the consequences of such disturbance, being unnatural, are almost invariably evil. Putting this in other words, abnormal action is inevitably followed by abnormal reaction. Now, if “love” were indeed a blessing from the Lord, no abnormal reaction would result from it, for the Scriptures definitely state, “The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich; and he addeth no sorrow with it.” There is no “morning after the night before” coupled with His blessings. By their normal and reasonable action they produce only normal and reasonable reaction, free from sorrow, regret, bitterness, disappointments, etc.
Not so, however, with that which is called “love”. Universal history, observation and experience record the shocking and dreadful reactions manifested by “lovers” in all times, ages, and countries.
We may properly conclude, then, that “love” so called is not a blessing from the Lord, since it works injury to His creatures and brings great reproach upon His name.
Is Sex Attraction Love?
The next question before us is, “Can this so-called ‘love’ be properly called love at all? and if not, what should it be called ?”
From what has been set forth in the foregoing paragraphs, it will be fairly evident that the state or feeling universally considered as love is not love at all. This conclusion is established beyond question in the electrically transcribed lecture by Judge Rutherford on “Love”, to which reference has already been made in this article and which the readers are again urged to take steps to secure the privilege of hearing.
In addressing ourselves to the consideration of the second part of the foregoing question, “What should it be called?” we approach what is perhaps the most painful and humiliating phase of this subject, and yet the most salutary, since to face the facts stripped of the glamour of romance with which the archenemy has undoubtedly clothed them is to be furnished the help to deal with those facts as they exist or impend, or become a possibility in our own lives, in a way that becomes those who are consecrated to do the will of God.
Before designating this state or feeling called “love” by its more appropriate name, let us see it for what it is: an abnormal manifestation of a preliminary phase of the procreative instinct common to all animals, of which man is the highest form. This preliminary phase, which is manifested by some of the lower animals, cats, for instance, in amorous sounds and movements, is elaborated in the human male and female, subjecting to itself, as it does, the moral, intellectual and social faculties as accessories to its expression, and manifests itself in tender looks, clasped hands, close bodily proximity, hugs, kisses and extravagant professions of endearment and regard.
Sex Desire Is Not Love
This preliminary phase does not contain the element of craving for sexual intercourse, but no matter how long it may persist, even if so be for years, unless aborted or thwarted, it finds its consummation only in the second phase of the procreative instinct, that of craving for sexual intercourse with its object.
So, then, stripped of all its glamour, what do we find instead of love? We find “desire”, in many cases so strong as to be properly termed “lust”. Popular “love”, then, is nothing more nor less than desire or lust for possession as distinct from desire or lust for consummation, into which the former is extended in due course.
Love as set forth in the Scriptures is the perfect expression of unselfishness. It is manifest, then, that “desire for possession” is a definitely selfish sentiment, even though at times it appears to display self-abnegation. Moreover, it is extremely self-centered; its expectations, its hopes, its gains, its losses, are of tremendous consequence. No matter how serious they may be, the affairs and happenings amongst their fellows about them are as nothing compared to the mutual interests of the “lovers”.
Surely, then, in the light of what we have hereinbefore noted, this so-called “love” should be shunned rather than sought. To avoid it, however, is not easy; as, like other snares of Satan, it is brought about very subtly. Frequent contact and association with those of the opposite sex is generally a matter of necessity with those who are engaged in a common service. For them to avoid the entanglements and servile bondage of “love” (desire for possession), it would be wise to avoid anything in the nature of personal confidences or intimacies with associates of the opposite sex, no matter how seemingly innocent those confidences or intimacies might be.
While, as the Scriptures plainly set forth, marriage is an institution of Jehovah God, the apostle Paul under inspiration of the spirit of God makes it evident that with the Devil and his organization rampant in the earth, God’s consecrated people do well to refrain from marriage unless they find themselves continually tormented with desire for sexual intercourse, in which case they should marry. For those of the younger or older who have need to marry on this score, let them dispose of the matter in candor and honesty, so far as possible along the line of the original divine institution, shunning the blight, the delusions and illusions of “love” so called and “courtship”, which bring reproach upon the holy name of Jehovah.
Perilous Times
A five-minute talk by Judge Rutherford
DURING the past few years times have been more perilous than ever before. Cyclones, earthquakes and distress afflict the people everywhere. What is the reason? The Bible gives the full and satisfactory answer to the question. At 2 Timothy, third chapter, it is written: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.” What is meant by the words “the last days” as there used? The meaning is, the last days of the existence of Satan’s rule on earth. In further proof of this: Jesus was asked by the disciples what would be the evidence of Satan’s uninterrupted rule of the world; and He answered, in part, World war, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, great distress and perplexity upon the people.’ That uninterrupted rule of Satan came to an end in 1914, and the World War followed, and the distress has increased since. The Devil knows that there is only a short time now until the great battle of Armageddon will be fought, in which his power will be completely destroyed, and he is now endeavoring to bring all woe possible upon the people to turn them away from God and into destruction.
What effect is Satan’s wicked influence having upon men in these last days ? The Scriptures answer (2 Timothy 3: 2-5): “For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”
The conditions now prevalent exactly fit the prophecy, thus showing its fulfillment. Any person who is diligently obeying the commandments of God is doing good. Some men and women are going about calling the attention of the people to the truth of God’s kingdom, and are thus doing good. Religious organizations, ruled by selfish men as above stated in the scripture, are now false accusers and despisers of those who are doing good. Such selfish ones are under the influence of Satan and falsely accuse
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