1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



67 



«dge his weakness, and to ask direction from on 

 ihigh, just because he has lost his way in the 

 woods only a little way off from human habita- 

 tion at the worst. I felt weak and tired out in 

 working my way through the tangled brush; 

 and, almost before I knew it, that little prayer 

 burst forth — " Lord, help!" Almost as the 

 words were on my lips I stooped down to get a 

 better view away oft' through the bushes and 

 underbrush. In one direction I could see quite 

 a distance; and at the end of this view a little 

 patch as big as one's hand showed something 

 that looked as if it might be a log house; and 

 the words, "O Lord. I thank thee," followed al- 

 most as swiftly after ihe appeal for guidance. 

 Before I reached the log house I struck a trail 

 that led me to the door. There I found that I 

 must turn around and go right back, for I had 

 just come in from the very neighborhood of the 

 sunken half-acre. I do not think it comprises 

 more than a quarter of an acre-— perhaps a lit- 

 tle more all together; but the sight of it fully 

 rewarded me for all my toil. The largest trees 

 in the forest had gone right square down until 

 their tops reached but little above the ground 

 where I stood. I managed to slide down 

 through the sand and dirt until I came to a 

 point choked up with bushes, briers, trees, dirt, 

 and stones. It seemed as if an opening had 

 broken through and let every thing run down 

 into it until the trees, etc.. stopped the hole up. 

 I got right down into the very crater; and then 

 it occurred to me. what if my feeble weight 

 should start the thine going once more, and I 

 too should go down, down, who knows where? 

 I confess the thought of it made my heart beat a 

 little faster as 1 climbed up the steep sides 

 through the loose dirt and stones. I found the 

 road that had been broken suddenly oft' where 

 the ground went down. This drop, too, like 

 the others, was near the summit of a hill. Can 

 some geologist or somebody else tell me why it 

 is the hills instead of the valleys that suddenly 

 give in. down here in the Ozark Mountains? 

 Has this any thing to do with the reason vol- 

 canoes burst forth from the summit of the high- 

 est mountains? 



Of course. I had many pleasant visits in Leb- 

 anon, the county-seat. It is a very pretty town. 

 The stores are neat and attractive; and as 

 business is dull, goods are sold, many of them, 

 at very close margins. The merchants are vie- 

 ing with each other in getting the trade of the 

 country people, and may be they know their 

 own business better than an Ohio wheelman 

 ■can tell it to them. But I want to venture a 

 suggestion. If some merchant in the town of 

 Lebanon would put up a watering-trough, so 

 the farmers could water their horses in front of 

 his store, giving them thatbeautiful "electric" 

 ( ? ) water, it seems to me it would be a bigger 

 advertisement than all the signs he could put 

 up. or all the advertising he could do in the 

 county papers. If I am correct, there is not a 

 place in the whole town where hor.«es can be 

 watered— that is. no public watering-place. A 

 little out of town thereis.it is true, a sort of 

 millpond where horses can be watered by driv- 

 ing right down into the mud. My brother-in- 

 law told me that this pond arrangement was a 

 recent improvement. Where is the Humane 

 .Society down in Missouri? By the way, there 

 are no sucli watering-places in the whole of 

 Missouri — that is, none that I found — like those 

 we have here in Ohio. In our own and adjoin 

 ing counties where I have traveled with my 

 wheel we find substantial watering-places 

 «very four or live miles in almo'^t every direc- 

 tion. These are more frequent, however, in 

 hilly countries, where springs furnish perpetu- 

 ally running water. Through the level parts 

 of our State, town wells with good nice-work- 



ing pumps are found in the center of most of 

 even the small towns. Let us now go back to 

 Lebanon. 



All through the southwestern part of the 

 State of Missouri there is a sort of general 

 agreement that hitching-posts should not be 

 placed in front of stores. In fact, you seldom 

 see a team standing in front of a store at all. 

 When i^rmers come in from the country they 

 hitch their horses near the church or to the 

 fences in the outskirts, and then travel on foot 

 to the stores. When they get ready to go home 

 they can, if they choose, drive up in front of 

 the stores to load in their purchases. On one 

 occasion a friend missed a train because he had 

 to drive out of town to find a place to hitch his 

 horse. This whole matter is fixed by ordinance 

 passed by the town; and I was surprised to 

 hear one of the teachers at the farmers' insti- 

 tute pitch into hitching-posts. The only rea- 

 son he gave was. that it made the town look 

 untidy; and hitching-posts, where horsesgnaw 

 them, afford means of communicating disease 

 from one horse to another. Now, I am sure 

 this whole matter can be managed. In Medina 

 we have iron hitching-posts that horses can not 

 gnaw, and I know a good many of the country 

 people feel bad the way they are being used. I 

 asked Robert which of two towns would get 

 the trade if one would furnish convenient 

 places for hitching teams in front of the stores, 

 steps for the people to get out on the sidewalk, 

 and public watering-places where horses could 

 drink, while the other town furnished no such 

 inducement. He said the farmers would al- 

 most in a body patronize the town that tried to 

 make them welcome in the ways mentioned 

 above. 



Terry said, at one of his recent institutes in 

 Indiana, that the merchants of a certain town 

 provided a good dinner for all the farming 

 friends who came to the institute. When the 

 farmers expressed some surprise at this, one of 

 the men of the town got up and said: "Look 

 here, neighbors, when we happen to be out in 

 the country at dinnertime your doors are al- 

 ways thrown open; your wives bring out their 

 best things laid away for company, and you 

 never think of asking us to pay. It is a pity if 

 we can not return the compliment when you 

 have a meeting here in town like this, once a 

 year." 



Now. that is the sentiment exactly. Farmers 

 throughout our country have been having a 

 tough time of it. Sad will be the day when the 

 people of our towns and cities think it behooves 

 them to look down on the farming community, 

 or to laugh when drouth and flood prove dis- 

 astrous to the crops, rnited, we stand; divid- 

 ed, we fall. 



When the people found out how curious I 

 was about caves, sinkholes, etc., somebody told 

 me there was a natural tunnel not ten miles 

 from the county-seat— a place where a horse 

 and buggy could be driven through under 

 ground nearly a quarter of a mile— a tunnel of 

 God's own making through the hills. Few peo- 

 ple, however, could tell me much about it. 

 One man said that, instead of being a quarter 

 of a mile long, it was only 7.5 or 100 feet thro\igh 

 it. He said, too, there were stalactities and 

 stalagmites like those in Saltpeter Cave. I 

 suggested that it was a natural bridge, but he 

 said it was not a bridge at all; it was. rather, a 

 tunnel through the hills, and a tunnel that 

 crooked and turned. 



The weather turned cold, however; reports 

 came from home that Ernest was laid up. and 

 Mrs. Root said I had .seen enough holes in the 

 ground for one visit. So I reluctantly bade 

 adieu to Laclede Co., Mo.; but it made me 

 feel a good deal as it did in leaving Tempe, 



