TAKE CARE OF YOUR TENT by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 5, 1879

TAKE CARE OF YOUR TENT.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

THIS season our people will have over $12,000 invested in tents for the preachers. By careful observation, I am satisfied that several thousand dollars are carelessly wasted, each season, for lack of proper care of these tents. A fair tent should last five years or more; yet many of them are useless after three seasons, some even after two, and indeed some are ruined the very first year. This is too bad. If they were properly pitched, and watched, and cared for, it never need be so.

In a damp day, a drizzling rain, or a quick shower, a tent may be spoiled in a day. Great care should be taken to watch a tent with every change of the atmosphere, loosening it as it becomes damp, and letting it down a little every hour while it rains, till it will shrink no further. After a shower, it should be immediately opened all around, and the wall raised, in order to dry it out inside, and prevent molding.

Would it not be well to let each minister have the same tent till it is worn out? Would he not be more solicitous about it? While we ask the brethren to buy the tents with their hard-earned money, we must take every reasonable precaution to make them go as far as possible. A tolerably good tent should not be condemned and thrown aside too soon, even if it does leak a good deal. By patching it, and using oil-cloths, you may make it go another year, and save $50. D. M. CANRIGHT.