1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



iol 



Almost every visit I made showed me not only 

 model apiaries, but model appliances for 

 poultry. 



Friend B. has no boys, but quite a family of 

 girls, and they and their mother look after 

 their chickens. It is no strange thing in Flori- 

 da to see hens with 1.5 chickens apiece of their 

 own hatching: and where the u'omc?i-folks 

 have charge of them they generally raise- the 

 whole brood. But every thing In the poultry 

 line has to be carefully shut up nights. 



Away up north, when we heard people talk 

 of Manatee we imagined it was a big city. I 

 was somewhat surprised, therefore, to find it 

 only a little village. Why, the great county of 

 Manatee contains only about 3000 inhabitants, 

 and so it is with many other counties of large 

 area. You can readily understand, therefore, 

 why they do not have graveled roads, expensive 

 bridges, schools, churches, and other things. 

 In our trips around the country we passed by a 

 colored church, and I began making inquiries 

 about the people and their religion. Poultry 

 brings a high price in Florida — the colored 

 people, a good many of them, paying as high as 

 a dollar apiece for them. You know how nat- 

 urally colored people take to chickens. Well, 

 this colored church got in debt. In fact, a 

 mortgage hung over it. To raise the mortgage 

 they commenced having '"chicken-festivals."' 

 The church people would go to a chicken-festi- 

 val, but they loouldn't put their hands into 

 their pockets to lift the mortgage, and so they 

 kept buying chickens of friend B. in order that 

 the mortgage might be raised. Do you know 

 how it turned out? They did not get the mort- 

 gage raised, but they did eat up the chickens, 

 and had them, the chickens, to pay for besides 

 the mortgage. Just now it occurs to me that I 

 have heard of white people managing church 

 debts something after that same fashion. 



To this end was I born, and for this cause came I 

 into the world, that I should bear witness unto the 

 truth. Every one tliat is of the truth heareth my 

 voice.— John 18:37. 



These words are quoted only by that beloved 

 disciple, John, the faithful and intrepid follow- 

 er — the one who kept nearest to Jesus during 

 that terrible time that shook men's faith — the 

 time of the mock trial and crucifixion of the 

 Savior. Jesus spoke these words while alone 

 with Pilate. The latter asked Jesus, you will 

 remember, whether there was any truth in 

 what these people were saying. " Art thou a 

 king, then ? " Then comes the wonderful ans- 

 wer: "To this end was I born." The great 

 purpose for which God gave his only begotten 

 Son to humanity — the principal reason why he 

 sent him down to earth to battle alone single- 

 handed with the wickedness of humanity, was 

 that he should bear witness unto the truth. 

 Sometimes people say. when sorely provoked 

 by the shortcomings of humanity, ""There is not 

 any truth anywhere." And Pilate replied, per- 

 haps in sarcasm, perhaps in sorrow, "' W^hat is 

 truth? " My impression is. that Pilate had be- 

 come so accustomed to untruth — he was so 

 familiar with fraud, dishonesty, deceit, treach- 

 ery, and crime, that it seemed almost a sarcas- 

 tic joke, as we would say in common parlance, 

 to talk about truth. I think Pilate was satis- 

 fied, however, that for once in his life he had 

 met at least one human being— one individual 



— who was honest and true. He goes back to 

 the Jews and says to them, " I find in him no 

 fault at all."' In the other gospels we are told 

 also that Pilate seemed to recognize the whole 

 thing as a farce, and a piece of Jewish spite 

 and jealousy; for they had not succeeded in 

 raising even a shadow of any reasonable excuse 

 for fault-finding; yet they hated him all the 

 more. Were there no good people in the world 

 at that time? Oh, yes! but Judas and his 

 band had planned to have this whole thing 

 hatched up and carried out when the honest 

 and true friends of the savior were sleeping. 

 The high-priests and their followers feared the 

 multitudes, so they arranged their plan to have 

 their mock trial when none of his friends were 

 around — in fact, when no honest people were 

 near. They hated the truth, and did not want 

 it to come out. They were determined to cru- 

 cify him because they knew he would speak 

 the truth fearlessly and honestly. Their self- 

 ish, greedy schemes' could not prosper while he 

 was around; therefore the cry was, "Put him 

 doivn and crucify him." They did not want 

 truth. They feared the truth. They loved 

 darkness because their ways were evil, and ?ie 

 was the light of the world. 



Oh dear me! if this were true only of the 

 wicked and greedy high-priests of (Aden times, 

 it would not be so bad: if only those who pro- 

 fess to be the chosen servants of God and of the 

 Christian religion lived in olden time, and 

 olden time oiiij/, we might console ourselves 

 with the thought that the world is growing bet- 

 ter, and we might take things easy, and not 

 worry ourselves. 



On page 27(J of our issue for April 1, I men- 

 tioned, at the close of my talk, visiting the 

 spiritualist camp-meeting at Lake Helen; and I 

 mentioned that it seemed as if I were thrown 

 there providentially. I did consider, at the 

 time that Home Paper was written, mention- 

 ing some things that I heard rather than any 

 thing that I saw that was not so pleasant; but 

 I decided then to finish my chapter that day by 

 speaking only of the good and not of the evil. 

 A circumstance, however, has opened the way 

 for me to say things that perhaps I ought to say. 



I told you I employed a liveryteam to take 

 me five or six miles. The driver and I natural- 

 ly discussed this camp-meeting. I can not at 

 this late date remember exactly the words of 

 this conversation, but it was something to the 

 effect that he had attended one or two of the 

 meetings. Once a week— Saturday night, if I 

 remember correctly — they held a "seance," if 

 that is the right name for it, where the spirits 

 not only wrote on slates, played on instruments, 

 operated telegraphic machines, etc., but ihe 

 faces of the dead appeared to the audience, and 

 the departed ones conversed with their friends, 

 shook hands, etc. The young man told me the 

 admission fee was fl.OO. 



'• Why, my friend, are there people around 

 here who can aflord to pay a dollar to see 

 things of this kind, especially after the terrible 

 losses around here by the freeze, and the gener- 

 al widespread feeling of poverty, etc.?" 



He assured me they did come in great num- 

 bers. In fact, he said it was a great place for 

 boys and girls to visit. Somebody has told me 

 since that they charged $2.00 admission for each 

 person. Never mind — it does not matter par- 

 ticularly. I asked him if the exhibition was 

 made in the daytime. 



" Oh, no! always in the night, and in a pri- 

 vate tent." 



I turned, and looked him full in the face. 



" Do you believe in the things that yoti saw? 

 Were you convinced that these wonderful 

 things were really miracles, and that they were 

 the work of departed spirits?" 



