1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



271 



could not ply their trade and secure victims in 

 the United States, they concluded, like our ven- 

 erable friend Hail, of the water-cure, that some 

 foreign country might nfford a Held for their 

 work; and so they offered a ittllUon of dollars 

 a year for the privilege of running the lottery 

 business unmolested in the little republic of 

 Honduras, in Central America. There is a very 

 significant fact here. These lottery men are 

 keen and sharp. They had plied their trade so 

 long, and knew humanity so well, that they 

 risked this large sum. They have learned by 

 experience that ignorance and superstition con- 

 stitute the best soil in which to plant their 

 seeds. There is not a nation on the face of the 

 earth— that is. where the people have any sort 

 of property— where you can not start the gam- 

 bling mania and the mania for strong drink. 

 Just let them get a taste, and, if they have any 

 property to gamble away, the lottery men will 

 get it. While in New Orleans I asked the 

 qui'Stion how this company could make it pay 

 when everybody seemed so tremendously up in 

 arms against it. The reply was: 



" Why. Mr. Root, they get their money from 

 ignorant, unlettered people. The colored pop- 

 ulation are crazy on it. If they have a dream 

 a little unusual, they jump to the conclusion 

 that it is an omen of good luck, and that it 

 has something todo with numbers. In the same 

 way. the most trivial incident of everyday life 

 is interpreted to mean that they shall buy a 

 certain number and get rich:"" and when some 

 one near them dois get a prize, the whole com- 

 munity goes wild overit. no matter whether this 

 affair is a put up job or whether somebody act- 

 ually drew the lucky number in good faith — if 

 it is possible to have any "good faith" in the 

 matter at all. 



When these villainous thieves go to Hondu- 

 ras (if they ever do go,i, all they will need to do 

 to start the craze is to give away a little money 

 in the shape of presents, and their million of 

 dollars will cqme back with tremendous inter- 

 est. 



A little over a year ago I told you something 

 about the tern peranc<' and morals of Mitchell, 

 Dakota. Are tney holding the fort? Last sum- 

 mer, when they had their corn palace, the 

 crowd was so great, and the excitement ran so 

 high, they could not stop their revelry Mhen 

 Sunday came. The proprietor of a merry-go- 

 round began bartering with the mayor and' 

 town council for the privilege of running his 

 machine on Sunday. Mitchell is a godly town, 

 and there are tnany earnest and devot d Chris- 

 ians there. I presume this man was told at 

 first that he could not run his business on Sun- 

 day for any sum of money: it was demoralizing 

 and wrong. But finally, when he offered the 

 lo\\n$2()0 for said privilege, even though they 

 admitted that it was wicked, and a wrong thing 

 to do, they decided that, if he could afford such 

 a sum as that, they could not very well stand 

 out. If I have been misinformed, and if this 

 statement is not true. I wish some of the good 

 friends in Mitchell would set me right. The 

 point is, where money enough is offered, and 

 especially where there are people of tolerably 

 good standing who are in favor of letting up on 

 time-honored customs, then; is great danger 

 that Satan will gain the day. 



I rejoice to know that there is one paper in 

 onr land that is not afraid to speak right out 

 plainly and clearly, no matter who gets offended, 

 and no mattfr who t.akes exceptions. That pa- 

 per is the Runil Neir-Yorker. There may be 

 religious papers, and papers of wide influence, 

 that are taking the high moral stand the Rural 

 does in such matters: but if so. I have not 

 seen them. Will somebody call my attention to 

 it, if such there be? Here are .some lines that I 



clipped froiu the Ritrat I was reading last even- 

 ing: 



For years Louisiana was tlie g"amblers' paradise; 

 For years they held her lirmly wltli a throat-grip 



like a vise. 

 Till, stung to desperation, from her sin and shame 



slie rose, 

 And tlirust the evil from lier and sht)ok oflf her curs- 

 ed foes. 

 Thank God I Louisiana from tlie sinful curse is free. 

 Hut sliame on yvu. New Jersey, that you weakly 



bend the knee. 

 Burn np your honest eliarterl Turn your lieroes to 



tlie wall, 

 Rebind the e.ves of Justice that she may not see 



your fall. 

 Toll bells in all your steeples; let their mournful 



notes proclaim 

 How Jersey's boasted honor has been turned to 



blackest shame. 



Now. I do not know how this matter in New 

 Jersey is coming out. I hope the above may be 

 held up before th;' eyes of the powers that be. in 

 New Jersey: and I hope that the Christian 

 people who are leaving nu stone unturned to 

 circumvent the schemes of gamblers and poli- 

 ticians will come out ahead. Let us remember 

 them in our prayers. 



There are some other things connected with 

 this gambling mania that I wish to mention. 

 .Some of you may think I am notional, and think 

 I make a big fuss about nothing. My friend, if 

 your children were playing with matches close 

 by a strawstack. in a dry time, you would not 

 think me meddh'som;'. even tiiongh 1 gotoveron 

 to your premises and kick;'d ui> a row among 

 your children: and I assure you the circum- 

 stances arc much the same. A while ago there 

 was an unusual demand for pumpkins from our 

 market-wagon. I asked what it meant, that 

 pumpkin pies had all at once taken such a hold 

 on the affections of the [)eople. The man who 

 drives the wagon replied, " Oh! it is not the 

 pies, Mr. Root. P^very child in town is busy 

 counting the seeds in a pumpkin in order that 

 he may be able to guess with some degiee of 

 accuracy. Vou see, they are offering prizes to 

 anybody who comes nearest to the exact num- 

 ber of seeds in a certain pumpkin or squash." 



Some of our agricultural papers are offering 

 large sums of money in gold to the one who will 

 guess how many beans or peas or seeds then^ 

 are in a jarftil. The thing is varied in a thou- 

 sand ways. The proprietors of a certain kind 

 of soap oU'red a snm of money to th<' person 

 who would write the best advertisement in the 

 form of a poem for their particular soap. The 

 Sunday-Schnol Times tell us that over liS.OOO 

 •' poems'" were written. Just think of it — 3s,ooo 

 people worked hard: but only one, or a small 

 number of them, got any i)ay at all. A good 

 Christian friend of mine suggested there luight 

 not be any thing particularly wrong about it. 



Suppose you set a thousand men at work 

 sawing wood. Each one saws and piles np a 

 cord: but instead of paying each one of the 

 thousaiid a fair price for his work, you give the 

 money all to one person and the rest get no pay 

 at all. They went to work by your direction, 

 with some expectation of gi'tting some pay. 

 One man got a thousand times more than the 

 proper price for cutting his cord, and the rest 

 got nothing. Is there any glimpse of a gam- 

 bling mania in this direction? Some of you 

 may urge that writing poetry is different from 

 sawing" wood. Yes. it is different. But if I 

 were going to do oiu^ or the other for pay. I 

 think I should prefer to saw wood. The Youth's 

 Companion offered a large sum of luoiuiy for 

 the best story. It s<'ems to me it was about 

 keeping bees, but it might have been soiuething 

 <^Jse. One reader of (xLEAXiNfis worked hard 

 a great number of days and nights, and finally 



