1S95 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



411 



Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom 

 his lord shall make ruler over his household?— Luke 

 13:43. 



In order to take the above little text in the 

 sense I wish, let us first commence by suppos- 

 ing ourselves all to be servants to somebody, or 

 servants to the great wide world, as you choose. 

 In a measure I am your servant, dear friends, 

 for you expect certain things of me. You have 

 a right to expect them: and if I do not render 

 these services to you faithfully, you have a 

 right to complain. Come to think of it, I 

 rather like to get letters taking me to task 

 right In this line. Once in a while somebody 

 says, " Look here, old friend; does this sound 

 just like A. I. Root, or what we might expect 

 of him?" Then follows an extract from some 

 letter I have written wlien I may not have 

 been exactly in the right frame of mind. Well, 

 if we all recognize, then, that we are all ser- 

 vants, I am ready for my little talk to-day. 



It is the first day of May, and, as usual, there 

 is a general activity everywhere. Nobody is 

 looking for a job; but a great many, on the 

 contrary, are inquiring where they can get a 

 man or boy to plant ptitatoes or make garden. 

 Why. everybody is so busy here in Medina that 

 Mrs. Root was telling me of a widow lady who 

 got her garden spaded up and planted by a 

 woman over seventy years old. Shedid it tip- 

 top too. Of course, you know I rejoice in see- 

 ing everybody have something to do. Yester- 

 day I met a man from the great oil regions of 

 Findlay, O. He said that, since the recent ad- 

 vances in oil, new wells were being drilled, old 

 ones were starting up, and the manufacturers 

 of drilling-appliances were working day and 

 night with all the help they could scrape up. 

 During the past week we should have been 

 running day and night, could efficient help 

 have been obtained. As it was. we asked those 

 who could bear the strain to put in twelve 

 hours a day until we could get a little ahead of 

 orders. Well, at such a time there is more 

 than ever a demand for not only skilled labor- 

 ers, but for those capable of taking charge of 

 the unskilled, to see that they do their work 

 right, and that mischief is not done. Above all 

 things, we want reluthle men. Of course, we 

 can not demand that every man, woman, and 

 child, be at their post invariably; but we do 

 like to have notice, so that provision may be 

 made for absences when it is necessary for 

 hands to be away. But a great many people 

 do not seem to have any conscience in vacating 

 their posts. 



The most serious annoyance comes where 

 somebody stays away without a word of ex- 

 planation. Perhaps he runs machinery. Three 

 large boilers are now furnishing steam to do 

 the work. Our big engine is crowded to its ut- 

 most capacity, and we have so many men in 

 readiness to fill up any vacancy, and keep 

 every thing moving, that, when they happen to 

 be all well and on hand, it is sometimes a puzzle 

 to find a place for them. Where a man is not 

 running machinery, his absence without any 

 notice throws things out of shape, and hinders 

 those who are depending on him; but it is not 

 quite like having a machine standing idle 

 when somebody away off is urging us by letters 

 and by telegram to hurry up the stuff which 

 that machine is to make. Some people have a 

 reputation for reliability. Oh how I do like 

 that word reliability I It speaks of faith and 



of hope; and I do not know but it speaks of 

 charity too. What a comfort it is to have re- 

 liable people around you I A few days ago 

 Mrs. Root paid me a compliment. Isn't that a 

 strange thing to write about? What do you 

 think it was? Why. she had been talking 

 with somebody who had the blues, and would 

 have it that every thing was "going to the 

 dogs." I ciime in just afterward, and she said 

 something like this: 



'• You do not know, dear husband, how thank- 

 ful I am that you never get the blues. You are 

 always hopeful, always full of life and energy." 



Of course, she did not mean to say that I nev- 

 er get tired out. Well, I told her this morning 

 that I wanted to pay her a compliment. The 

 compliment was, that my wife had always been 

 reliable. She never failed in any thing since I 

 knew her, when it was a possible thing, not 

 only in keeping her promises, but in coming 

 up to what was expected of her. I do not be- 

 lieve I ever knew her to shirk, or play truant. 

 And now if you will excuse me, that Is enough 

 of " my home" for the present. 



Some years ago a young man worked for me 

 who was a pretty good sort of fellow, but 

 nothing remarkable that I know of in the way 

 of reliability. When our neighbor across the 

 way was short of an engineer, and asked if he 

 could have John for a few days, I let the latter 

 go; and as we were not rushed much at the 

 time. John kept on in his new place. Years pass- 

 ed, and we had a revival in our town. John 

 was one of the brightest new converts. His con- 

 version extended clear to his fingers' ends — yes, 

 and toes' too, I might say. Once or twice it 

 seemed necessary, where he worked, to have 

 some repairing done on their engine on Sunday, 

 so as not to hinder work during the week. 

 John objected. By and by things came around 

 to where it seemed very desirable that we 

 should get John back again, if his present em- 

 ployer could spare him. I went over and talk- 

 ed with my neighbor about it. He did not 

 want to let John go. I was not much surpris- 

 ed; but during the conversation he made a re- 

 mark something like this: 



"The fact is. John is mighty reliable." 



I could not help smiling. What an expres- 

 sion — "mighty reliable" 1 That is pretty 

 strong language, friends, and it paid our friend 

 John a very high compliment. My friend did 

 not say so. but it seemed to be summed up 

 something like this: "John has some peculiar 

 notions, and it is sometimes quite inconvenient 

 to have him refuse to help us when it Is very 

 desirable that a little bit of work should be 

 done on Sunday; but notwithstanding all this, 

 John is mighty reliable." Mind you, my neigh- 

 bor did not say just the above, but I have sort 

 o' paraphrased it so as to express about what I 

 have reason to suppose he thought. 



Now, my dear friend, has anybody ever said 

 of you that yori were "mighty reliable"? 

 Why, that very fact gave John fi'om fifty cents 

 to a dollar a day extra, year in and year otit. 

 He is not as good a mechanic as some other 

 men who do not get the pay he does. He al- 

 ways does his best, however, and he is a groio- 

 ing young man. In fact, he could not well be 

 otherwise. Do some of you want to know 

 whether his becoming a Christian made him 

 more reliable? Why, to be sure it did. It 

 would be a funny sort of Christianity that did 

 not make a man more reliable. If instead of 

 becoming a Christian he had become only a 

 hypocrite, then of course It would make him 

 less reliable. A great deal has been said about 

 hypocrites; but, to tell the truth, I have never 

 found many of them in the churches. The at- 

 mosphere is not congenial. 



Let me tell you another story about rellabili- 



