GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apk. 1. 



neglected her work and her family, and sat up 

 the whole of one night. She did not get any 

 thing for lier work bur disappointment, and 

 there were titoiisands who did likew ise. You 

 may say that it stimulated their ambition, and 

 gave them a wholesome e.xercise in mental drill. 

 So does sawing wood give one wholesome exer- 

 cise: but what would a man think if you were 

 to tell him that the muscular exercise he had 

 had was all the pay you thought he ought to 

 have. One of our neighbors went to a cloth- 

 ing store in ihe city of Cleveland, and made a 

 purchase. They asked him to draw a ticket, or 

 pull out an envelope, or something of that kind, 

 and he drew a i)OJi(/. It was a nice little ani- 

 mal, and the children were crazed with the idea 

 that he got that pony by just drawing a lucky 

 card. He did not have to work for it at all. In 

 traveling through different towns, many such 

 ponies and carriages were exhibited to my — 

 not admiring gaze. I admired the pony and 

 carriage, perhaps: but the feeling that this 

 beautiful little animal was used as a medium 

 for encouraging the gambling craze made me 

 teel sick at heart; yet professors of religion, 

 and, I fear, some ministers of tlie gospel, stood 

 by and looked pleased. Thank God, the pastor 

 over us here is not one of that sort. He said, 

 the other evening, that any scheme that could 

 be devised to get money or property, without 

 rendering some kind of equivalent, was gam- 

 bling. Oh how much better it would be for our 

 nation if there were more peoole who thought 

 sol How much better it would be if there were 

 more parents and teachers who maintain that 

 this gambling craze is even worse than giving 

 the children matches and a strawstack near our 

 barns and dwellingsl In San Diego, Cal., when 

 real-estate speculation got to be a gambling 

 mania, and nothing else, a bystander told me 

 that he saw a carpenter who was a good work- 

 man, and who was receiving large wages for 

 his work, throw down his tools and say, " I'll be 



if I am going to earn my money by slow 



day's work when everybody all around me is 

 making it hand over hand, without lifting a 

 finger." Very likely he was not a profane man; 

 but the excitement was such that nothing but 

 an oath would tit the occasion; and he became 

 a swearing man, and a gambler too, at the same 

 instant. His employer could not induce him to 

 go on and finish his contract. I was on the 

 ground where this thing happened. I visited 

 the place again three years afterward. Did the 

 gambling fever then run rampant through the 

 town? You probably know already how it 

 turned out. In three years' time, the pretty 

 little homes that had been built up in that beau- 

 tiful land of sunshine and flowers had gone to 

 ruin and decay. Bankruptcy, suffering, and 

 desolation were the fruit. Let us guard care- 

 fully these little ones that are growing up 

 around our hearthstones. Let us explain to 

 them the end and result of guessing at the num- 

 ber of beans in a jar — riding, running, wrest- 

 ling, or any thing else for a prize of some sort; 

 and let us teach them to refuse to tOKc}i any of 

 these good things that God has provided for us, 

 unless they can feel that they have honestly 

 earned them, or rendered a just and fair equiv- 

 alent of some kind. 



Since tlie bicycle has been perfected as it is 

 now. and since it has come into general use, as 

 a matter of course a certain class have tried to 

 use it as a means of gambling, like horse-rac- 

 ing and other contests of skill and endurance: 

 but all of our readers may not know that the 

 L. A. W. (League of American Wheelmen), an 

 organization numbering toward 50,000, has been 

 from the first most positively and vehemently 

 pronounced against riding for sums of money, 

 or betting in any shape or manner connected 



with it; and, in fact, any member of the L. A. 

 W. is at once expelled in disgrace when he is 

 found guilty of any thing in this line. Of 

 course, the racing and betting classes are 

 against it, and they are waging an unceasing 

 warfare to break down this ruling that is really 

 the backbone of the organization. 



I have hardly space left to mention this mat- 

 ter of offering prizes for tlie biggest crops. 

 Some agricultural journals have been doing 

 this, and also a great part of our prominent 

 seedsmen. It may be urged that these large 

 sums of money have a tendency to stimulate 

 and encourage improved agriculture, and per- 

 haps it does in one direction; but I believe I 

 would let agriculture go unstimulated and un- 

 improved before 1 would run the risk of sowing 

 seeds of the gambling mania. There may be 

 differences of opinion in regard to this matter; 

 but let me remind you, friends, that you have 

 never seen T. B. Terry's name among the con- 

 testants for the biggest crop of potatoes, no 

 matter what prominent journal offers the 1500 

 in gold. Inventors of chemical fertilizers are 

 also offering large sums of money to those who 

 will produce the largest crop by the use of their 

 special brand. I am sure this is mischievous. 

 Hundreds ot earnest hard workers in the soil 

 are, by these reports, encouragf^d to invest un- 

 duly in these brands of fertilizers, overlooking 

 the fact that it is as much the man who uses 

 them, as it is the fertilizer itself, and often 

 more. The great exposition of 1876, recognizing 

 the danger and quarrels that would probably 

 result from offering prizes, you will remember, 

 offered no competitive prizes of any sort. They 

 rewarded each exhibitor according to the mferit 

 of Ills product, without any reference whatever 

 to what his neighbor had done. I.s not this by 

 far tlie better way '? 



Our stenographer suggests, right here, that 

 my teachings might do away with premiums at 

 fairs. I have thought of this; but should not 

 fairs follow the example of the great exposi- 

 tion I have mentioned? Let the judges award 

 each exhibitor (according to merit) something 

 to pay him for making the exhibit, the amount 

 to depend on the care and pains he had taken, 

 and have it managed so as to encourage all and 

 discourage none. The man who takes some- 

 thing that he did not produce, fi-om one fair to 

 another, just to get the money, doesn't need 

 much encouragement. How often do you hear 

 some disappointed exhibitor say. " Well, this is 

 the last time you will catch me bringing any 

 thing to a fair to compete for a premium "! 



Rijiliteousiiess exaltetli a nation, but sui is a re- 

 l)r<)ach to any people. —Pkov. U: 34. 



Order No. 18,061, sliii)i>ed Feb. 21, received, and g-ives 

 entire satisfaction. J. B. Griffin. 



Cat Creek, Ga., March 13. 



The display of my "ad " in gleanings is all right, 

 and I am already getting- answers from it. It always 

 pays meto advertise in Gleanings. Long- may it live. 



Bristol. Vt,, Mar. 13. A. E. Manum. 



I received the extactor all right, and was well 

 pleased with it; and after trying- T tind it works to 

 perfection. I tried it on honey taken last fall, and 

 it worked splendidly. John H. Whitmore. 



Minard, Mich., March 16. 



Your articles as religious matter from time to time 

 give a little Sunday reading for the family, and. I 

 am sure, add very much to the value of the .journal, 

 as it is thereby appreciated by the women or other 

 members of a family, even if the bee-man does not 

 see any good in it; and as the money that pays for it 

 comes init of tht famUji, they each have a right to re- 

 ceive .some return in the pleasure of its contents. 



Assumption, TIL. Feb. 30. Wm. N. Root. 



