The care given to a tent is very important. The tent master should feel it his responsibility to give it the best of care.
The seats should be adjusted and kept in line at all times, so that those who pass by will find everything in order. All seats should be dusted at least an hour before the time of each meeting. Muddy or wet spots that appear after a rain should be taken care of at once, either by being drained or filled in. Care should be taken to see that there are no bare spots, in case sawdust or shavings are used on the floor. The grass and weeds around the tent should be kept cut. Tools and lumber not in use should be kept out of sight. No coverings of canvas or tent sacks should be left exposed when the meetings are in progress. All trash and paper should be picked up and disposed of, so the premises will always look clean and neat. Generally the walls should be rolled up before each meeting, rolling the canvas on the inside of the wall, and tied so it can be let down quickly by pulling on the tie ropes.
When the tent has been vacated the walls should be lowered unless the dampness needs to be dried out. The guy ropes should be inspected, if metal cable is not used for guying the center poles. If rope is used, generally the end rope should be tightened or slackened, and it is the only one that will need adjusting. However, in a rain that lasts for a long time the other two guy ropes may have to be loosened because of shrinkage during the rain, or lengthened after they dry out. The guy ropes generally need some adjusting every day. Care should be taken to see that they do not get too slack and drag and wear on the canopy top, or tight enough to break or pull stakes. The top should be kept medium taut and the side-wall poles should be toed one against the other so that every other pole toes in opposite to the one next to it. The amount of toe given to each wall pole raises or lowers the drawing strain on the canopy top.
To test the amount of toe to be given to each wall pole, one should lift on the wall pole. When it can be lifted an inch from the ground without much difficulty, the strain has been taken off the canvas. In case of a windstorm the tent should not be left in this way, but each wall pole should be tight, and the side wails down.
It is a good thing always to keep the side walls down at night and the tent closed in case a storm might rise and whip the canvas to pieces. Care should be given just before you retire to see that all ropes are adjusted and wall poles set with the proper toe to allow for the shrinkage resulting from the night dampness and dew that falls before morning.
One of the tent master's duties is to be up before sunrise every morning and open the tent so that the air will circulate freely through it. This should be done in a triangle of three large openings, so that no matter in what direction the air is moving it will circulate through the tent. No less than half the canvas wall should be completely rolled up. This means that one sixth of the total length of the wall will be rolled up at each opening. This is very important, because if it is not done in a very few minutes after the sun's rays hit the tent in the early morning, the canvas may mildew, and once mildew sets in the tent is ruined. Mildew shows up as little black spots which soon become holes.
A tent master must always be on the alert and be prepared for any emergency. When a storm is brewing he should see that the ropes are properly tightened and the walls let down. He must have his sledge where he can get his hands on it, also extra stakes if needed, and be prepared to work in the dark if necessary. He should see that the switch to the lights is properly protected and easily reached, and know where to find an extra rope if needed, also a needle for sewing canvas and twine for quick repair. He must always know that everything is as it should be day or night.
Rain causes the ropes to shrink in length from six inches to two feet, and one must adjust the tension and length of each rope before and during the rain. Sometimes it is necessary to loosen the ropes at the stakes. If the rope has become too tight to be loosened easily, a hammer will be useful in driving the knot loose.
A tent master should never leave the tent for a very long period of time or go very far away. He should always be able to get back to the tent quickly. One who feels the great responsibility entrusted to him will always be on duty when it begins to rain, day or night, and will be up before sunrise every morning to look after the tent ventilation.
People will come and go during the day and even sometimes late at night. The tent master should always be on hand to give them a cordial invitation to attend the services, to answer their questions, and to give them literature. At times enemies visit our tents and damage them, with the purpose of stopping or hindering the services. Tents have been set on fire, ropes cut, stones thrown through the canvas, and items stolen. In one tent effort all the furnishings were carried out and dumped in the street. Therefore it is necessary that the tent master be on the job to protect God's property and prevent all such occurrences.
IV. Patching Old or New Canvas
There are a number of waterproof cements on the market which are excellent for patching canvas. You can generally obtain one or more of these brands through a canvas or awning dealer. However, if you cannot obtain one readily, a most economical waterproof patching cement can be made by buying a small box of Casco or Cascamite powdered casein glue, which is mixed with cold water, and proves very satisfactory. Cascamite is the better one of the two kinds, provided the regular canvas cement cannot be obtained. This can be obtained from almost any ten-cent store or hardware store. The canvas used for patching purposes should be a lighter weight canvas than that used in the top itself and should overlap the place to be repaired sufficiently to make a strong binding when cemented together. For a small hole the lap should be at least one inch over the edge. For a larger one the lap should be greater. The cement should be applied to both pieces of canvas to be cemented together, and worked well into the material with a case knife or stick, then placed in position and pressed well together until dry.
V. Waterproofing Old Tents
When a tent has become old and mildewed it may leak all over, but it may still be used for a year or so, provided it is waterproofed. The simplest way to waterproof old canvas is to use a gasoline and paraffin mixture. One pound of paraffin is used to one gallon of gasoline. Both the paraffin and gasoline have to be heated almost to the boiling point in order to dissolve the paraffin, after which it is applied to the dry tent, which has been spread out on the ground. This can be done very easily with a sprinkling can. The entire surface must be wet with the solution. It takes from ten to twelve gallons to treat a so' x 70' tent top. To heat the gasoline and paraffin, one should have separate containers for the gasoline and the paraffin in a larger tub of boiling water that has been taken a long distance away from any fire. If one is in a location where steam is available from a steam heating plant, the gasoline and paraffin are easily heated by turning the steam into the water around them. After the paraffin is once dissolved it can be carried some distance and even applied cold to the tent. Another method is to heat stones or pieces of iron and drop them into the gasoline in an open bucket. In doing this one should be sure that the heated stones or irons are not red hot, because if red hot, they will ignite the gasoline.
VI. Taking the Tent Down
Everything should be removed from the floor of the tent in preparation for taking it down. The weather must be such that the tent and all its ropes are thoroughly dry, including the ends of the guys. All the moisture of the night dew should be dried out before the tent is lowered to the ground.
Each piece and parcel should be carefully and tightly folded, put in its proper sack, and labeled. Each label should tell the kind of piece, and give the necessary length or width or height, so that whoever pitches the tent the next time will not have to unroll each piece to find out the information he needs. A little time spent in properly labeling each article will save more time and effort when it comes to pitching than it will take to do the labeling. The labels on the semicircles should tell the number of guy ropes on each end. Each tag should bear the name of the evangelist who used the tent last and the date it was used; and one label should be placed just inside the bag and one on the outside, so that if the outside one is lost by any means, one can simply look inside and find the necessary information there.
No tent should be put away without being patched or having the necessary repairs made. The condition of the tent should be stated on the label. In lowering the center poles take care not to drop them to the ground with a crash, for this bends or breaks them. This should be done in reverse to the method used to erect them.
