672 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Oct. 15 



prolong her life. My friends and neighbors 

 at that time thought it was a sad thing to see 

 a good business man going crazy over bee 

 culture. But now let us get back to the 

 mothers. I invested all this time and mon- 

 ey in that one queen because she was the 

 mother I expected to rear a large family 

 from. May be, however, she did not expect 

 any thing; but I tell you J did. I built big 

 air castles all that winter about what I was 

 going to do with her. Well, if it paid me to 

 invest so much time and money to lake 

 good care of that one queen, how much more 

 will it pay us — you and me, friends — to take 

 the very best of care of the ''queens " in our 

 homes especially. Dear brother and sister 

 (and I wish to include the whole wide world 

 in what I am going to say), for God's sake 

 let us take the best of care the world can 

 give of the wives who are approciGhing moth- 

 erhood. 



Our second text tells us of the terrible bur- 

 den laid on poor weak women's shoulders 

 — the burden of motherhood. And this is a 

 burden that can not be escaped. We all 

 laugh about the folly of the fellow who fill- 

 ed a hollow tooth with dynamite; but before 

 he applied a match he recollected he could 

 not run away from it to a place of safety. 

 My illustration is a poor one, but it may 

 help us to comprehend how the poor mother 

 is chained down to her burden. She must 

 meet the crisis and endure the pain and 

 sorrow. There is no escape except through 

 crime, and a terrible crime, too, against 

 both God and man. ( )f course, there is such 

 a thing as escaping the pangs of mother- 

 hood by having no children at all; but the 

 older I grow the more I am impressed that 

 this, too, is a sort of crime in God's sight if 

 not in the sight of man, and a sin that 

 brings its own punishment. How many 

 times do we find otherwise happy homes 

 where there are no children ! When Mrs. 

 Root and I formed a ])artnership and start- 

 ed in life together, we planned to have sev- 

 eral years together without children; but 

 God, in his infinite love and wisdom, as I 

 have before told you, sent little prattlers 

 stringing 'along until there were five of 

 them. Now, where would The A. I. Root 

 Co. be to-day had we been permitted to 

 have our own way in the matter? and 

 where would have been the nine beautiful 

 grandchildren that are the delight of our 

 lives every day in the week? When I saw 

 three baby girls on the street a few days ago, 

 that in my eyes were as beautiful children 

 as the world ever produced,* and when I re- 



* Little Katherine, Ruber's baby, is just learning 

 to walk. They thought it best to hold her back a 

 little rather than to encourage her in walking too 

 soon; but just now they have decided that she is old 

 enough and strong enough to go ahead. She was 

 out on the walk in the sunshine. and her grandmoth- 

 er was her teacher. She became so excited about 

 it that she ran back and forth till she was almost 

 out of breath. When I put my hands out toward 

 her she came to me with a rush: but when I at- 

 tempted to hold her so as to give her a little rest, 

 and help her recover her breath, she kicked and 

 wiggled to get down on the ground again, and once 

 more test this new and novel method of locomotion. 

 It made me think of the young birds when they test 



fleeted that they were not only my own 

 flesh and blood, but also flesh and blood of 

 the dear woman whom I love now more 

 than any thing else in the wide world — yes, 

 I might almost say more than all else— my 

 heart bounded with such a thrill of joy and 

 thanksgiving that I felt like breaking out 

 with a good old-fashioned Methodist shout 

 of praise. For heaven's sake, dear reader, 

 do not think of planning or even wishing 

 for a "childless liome." If you are not al- 

 ready married, get about it; and then as 

 soon as circumstances will permit, lielp our 

 nation to avoid " race suicide." People the 

 world with godly and God-fearing people 

 in order that we may hi ve a better chance 

 to stem the rising tide of evil. Take care 

 of the mothers and then take care of the 

 children. In spite of all that has been done 

 during the past hot summer to save the lives 

 of the little ones, I find this sad record in a 

 recent issue of the Cleveland Plain Dealer: 



ALL DEATH-RECORDS BROKEN. 



All records for a single day's deaths were broken 

 in Cleveland yesterday when the health-office sta- 

 tistics showed fifty-one mortalities. 



Of the total, twenty-two were children under one 

 year old, Mdiile four more were less than two years. 

 The health-department officials, while not blaming 

 the hot weather directly for the unusual death-roll, 

 believe that it was largely responsible, since most 

 of the children succumbed to cholera infantum. 



Never before in the city's history has a day's death- 

 roll exceeded forty-one. 



That we may have a better chance to save 

 these children after they have come into our 

 homes, let us give every possible aid to the 

 mothers. There is no doubt that thousands 

 of infants have gone into their little graves 

 because the mothers did not have the means 

 to care for them properly — especially the 

 mothers' homes where the father was a drink- 

 ing man, and, under the influence of liquor, 

 burdened the poor mother with infant after 

 infant tnore rapidly than God designed. No 

 wonder that such children go to the bad with 

 a handicapped mother, and, worse still — 

 yes, a thousand times worse — with a vicious 

 disposition that was inherited from a drunk- 

 en father. Lord, help. 



I am now coming to the point of my whole 

 talk. Why should not the mothers of our 

 land have a voice in making our taws, in 

 voting on the disposition of public money, 

 and deciding whether a saloon shall be plant- 

 ed near the home, and a thousand other 

 questions? Drunken men, or at least drink- 

 ing men, are permitted to vote. Many 

 times they vote wet, when, if sober, they 

 would vote dry. The drunken father can 

 vote, but not the sober and godly mother of 

 the children. Unless I am mistaken, an ig- 

 norant, drunken, and vicious ne.gro can vote, 

 but not the ablest and best-educated woman 



their wings for the first time; and, later still, of the 

 Wright brothers' students with their flying-ma- 

 chine. What opportunities God in his infinite love 

 and wisdom has placed over us all — first to creep, 

 then to walk, and finally to swim, run a bicycle and 

 avitomobile, and last, but not least, to .soar aloft in 

 the blue dome of heaven! As we go to press, some 

 aviating stvidents have succeeded in reaching an 

 elevation of more than two miles in the air. What 

 is coming next? 



