1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



495 



schools and churches. I could not discover that 

 any minister, missionary. or pastor, either black 

 or white, was making any protest against it. 

 The railroad company probably did not inter- 

 fere so long as the darl<ies kept the cars loaded 

 as fast as they were wanted. If they spent so 

 much time in gambling they could not do this, 

 then I suppose more men or different men were 

 put on. These colored laborers were mostly 

 without families. They were a sort of adven- 

 turous, irresponsible set. Some of them were 

 accustomed to change their locality as soon as 

 they got into some trouble; and the vast extent 

 of wilderness and swamps all about them made 

 it an easy matter to evade the law. 



Not long before, one of this same class of 

 fellows shot a white man in a quarrel. He ran 

 for the woods, but nobody put after him; and 

 the locality was so far from towns or cities 

 that it was almost out of thf question to think 

 of sending an officer of the law after him. 

 Now. I do not mean to say that nothing is be- 

 ing done in Florida for the colored people. 

 Again and again I vvas obliged to admire, 

 reverence, and respect lhe efforts that are being 

 made for the education and Chri'^iianizing of 

 the race. Several times I walked through a 

 part of different towns and cities allotted to the 

 colored people. I saw the mothers and chil- 

 dren. I saw the colored pastors making their 

 calls, taking down the names of the people, 

 number of children, ages, etc., and asking 

 what church they attended. I believe these 

 colored pastors are, for the most part, good 

 men; and while I felt sad to see these men 

 spending their money in gambling, I could not 

 but reflect that they were by no means the only 

 transgressors in breaking that last and impor- 

 tant commandment. Let us look at it. These 

 men worked side by side day after day. through 

 the hot sun, and most of them did good honest 

 day's work. Onf would suppose they might 

 have a kindly feeling, oup toward another; 

 and that each one might f^el happy, when pay- 

 day came, in seeinsr his comrade get the re- 

 ward of his toil. What sort of disposition or 

 heart must a man have when he would volun- 

 tarily appropriate the wases of a fellow-work- 

 man? If he took it while this brother was 

 asleep, it would be robbery. I do not know 

 just what the laws of our land are in regard to 

 gambling: but I do know that laws have been 

 framed, tim^ and again, in the endeavor to put 

 it down. We respect in th^orv if not in prac- 

 tice the command. "Thou shall not covet thy 

 neighbor's house." etc. T'^ it not a fact that 

 almost all the wron^-doing and wickedness in 

 this world come about because men covet that 

 which does not belong to thr>m ? Whv, how 

 can any man, woman, or child deliberately plan 

 to appropriate that for which a neighbor or 

 companion has worked hard? Whv should wo 

 not have as much interest in seeing that our 

 neighbor has his just rights as that we have 

 our own rights and just dues? Well, it is be- 

 cause we are imperfect and sinful. It is be- 

 cause of the inborn depravity of humanitv. I 

 say »'C. because 1 am every dav and almost 

 every hour conscious that this sin of covetous- 

 ness lurks in my own heart as well as in the 

 hearts of others. I have worked and prayed 

 industriously for years and years, and yet I am 

 splfish still. God have mercy on rnc a sinner! 

 In one sense, however, I am not covotnus. I 

 despise and abhor the man who would take 

 from his neighbor without just and fair equiva- 

 lent. I loathe and abhor the sight of a pack of 

 cards, just because they have been the recog- 

 nized tools of this kind of genteel highway rob- 

 bery for ages and ages past. A certain class of 

 people seem to be continually striving to make 

 card- playing respectable. They bring it into 



their homes, and they engage in games of cards 

 with their own children. Sometimes they suc- 

 ceed, appare?it?j/. in proving that this terrible 

 work is harmless and innocont. A man well to 

 do once put a billiard table in his barn, and 

 told his boys that, when they wished to play 

 billiards, to play at home. "Don't go off to 

 doggeries: don't go in company with the evil 

 and vicious. Play at home." Somebody, in 

 telling of the above, claimed that the father 

 had succeeded. His boys played billiards in 

 the barn, and grew up to be straight, square 

 men. 



" Hold on, my friend," remarked a bystander. 

 "May be what you have just said is all true — 

 at least, we will let it pass for truth just now. 

 But I happen to know a neighbor's boy — a 

 child of Christian parents— one who started in 

 church and Sunday-school, and who, I verily 

 believe, might have been a good iL.an this day 

 had it not been for that billiard-table in the 

 neighbor's barn. The boy started there. He 

 started there because it was made respectable. 

 He got his taste for gambling then and there; 

 but now he is nearing a gambler's and a drunk- 

 ard's grave. That billiard-table in the neigh- 

 bor's barn spoiled him for every thing good and 

 useful." 



We pity, censure, and despise the poor color- 

 ed laborers who have lost their money in 

 gambling year after year as fast as they can 

 earn it. tint, dear friends, is it not true that 

 they are only a little more bold and, reckless in 

 their manner of transgressing and breaking this 

 tenth commandment? 



The daily papers of this whole land of ours 

 are just now teeming with accounts of hun- 

 dreds and thousands that have been stolen on 

 the sly. A good deal of the time the money Is 

 taken from the government by some sharp 

 management. Men get into office by bribery, 

 and then they seem to think it is expected as a 

 matter of course they will get their money back 

 that they have expended, by some hook or 

 crook. Officers of the law agree to let offenders 

 go on in their transgression providing they pay 

 them enough, etc. Are there no people left 

 who do not want and can not be hired to touch 

 that which justly belongs to some fellow-man? 

 or that which justly belongs to the United 

 States and our public institutions? Oh, yes! 

 there are a good many people; but there are so 

 many things to be seen to and looked after, with 

 all the machinery and multiplication of modern 

 industries, that good people have not time to 

 look after every thing: and a good many of 

 them have such a dislike for going down into 

 the filth and wickedness to straighten things 

 up that they leave it for somebody else to do. 

 Here and there a wicked man is converted to 

 Christ Jesus, and loves his Savior more than he 

 loves any thing Satan has to offer. Even 

 should the prince of darkness say. " Here. I will 

 give you the wliole world if you will fall down 

 and worship me." we have instances of men 

 who stand firm and steadfast all their lives, 

 who never yield to Satan one inch:* but as 



* Yes. I have met quite a good many men who val- 

 ue a clear conscience, as they go to bed at night, 

 more thim they value the money they may have re- 

 ceived during the day. Why, a good many times 

 people liave come to me, saying, "Mr. Root, you 

 paid me a little more than you ought, in that deal 

 yesterday." 



When T \oo\i up and laugli at them (T always feel 

 like laughing in real good nature and joy when that 

 un«elfish feature of humanity comes out>, and tell 

 them I guess it is all right as it is, sometimes they 

 will say, " Well, did you get rid of the stuff so as to 

 come out wliole V" 



If I hesitate a little, down goes the hand of my 

 neighbor into his pocket, and out comes a handful 

 of silver. 



