p. 84 | SECURE YOUR TENTS WELL by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 5, 1878

SECURE YOUR TENTS WELL.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

EVERY summer we have more or less reports of tents blown over. Every minister knows that this is a very disagreeable affair. It always occurs in a storm, just when you want shelter the most. Sometimes it happens during meeting. It is a very damaging affair, all around.

1. It often injures the tent itself a great many dollars’ worth.

2. It wets and injures everything in the tent.

3. If it does not hurt somebody, it frightens the people and tends to lessen the attendance at the meetings.

4. It often causes the loss of a day or two in the midst of the meetings.

These are very serious consequences, and should be avoided if possible. I have been led to inquire whether it is really necessary to have a tent blown over, and I am fully satisfied that there is not a particle of need of it. If those who put up the tent will take proper precautions, there need be little more danger of having a tent blown over than of having this accident happen to a house.

Within thirteen years, I have had a tent blown over three times, and each time it was simply on account of my own carelessness, a lack of proper precaution in pitching it; and I believe that investigation will show that this is so almost invariably. A hurricane may tear a tent all to pieces, which is quite a different thing; but to have a tent blown over, to have the center pole come down, is entirely unnecessary. Only three things are requisite to avoid this catastrophe:—

1. A center pole of sufficient strength. Do not get a weak little center pole, which the wind and storm can twist off easily. Better take a little more pains and get a good one. It costs but a trifle more, either of money or of labor.

2. Four good, reliable guy ropes, reaching from the top of the center pole to the ground. Don’t trust old rotten ones, but have strong, new ones for this. If there is any doubt about your ropes, get new ones. It costs but a mere trifle compared with the cost of having a tent blown over.

But generally the real difficulty is in putting down the stakes. In every case where I have seen a tent blown over, examination has shown that the stakes to which the big guy ropes were fastened were too small, or, else were not driven down deep enough. All who have tried it know that it takes a little muscle to put down a stake properly. I have had to contend a great deal with tent masters to get them to drive the stakes deep enough. They are generally ready to stop when the stake is about half as deep as it should be, just when they ought to keep on. If it feels a little solid and goes hard, they stop.

After my tent had blown down the third time, I was determined to make it stand. I obtained stakes four feet long, and from three to four inches in diameter on both ends. With a spade and a crow bar, it only took about ten minutes to dig a hole and put down one of these stakes three feet into the ground. Then I put in stones and jammed them down solid. To four of these I fastened the big guy ropes. Do you think there was any danger that the tent would come down then? A storm might tear it all to pieces, but could never blow it down. What is the cost of fixing a tent securely, like this? In money, nothing; in extra labor, an hour or two of hard work. The feeling of security one experiences during the first storm pays for it all.

Brethren, let us make our tents stand. When you report that your tent has blown over, we shall think that it is simply because you did not bestow proper labor in pitching it.

D. M. Canright.