360 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May L 



ings must certainly be down to the very lowest 

 depths of depravity. 



1 do not know anything about this woman 

 who suffered this indignity and wrong; but, 

 judging from our own teachers here, and the 

 teachers of my acquaintance, she was most like- 

 ly a good, pure, high-minded woman— most like- 

 ly a faithful and devoted servant of humanity. 

 She and the class she represents should have 

 the very best treatment this world can give. 

 When it is needful for them to go out among 

 the world it should be our delight to honor them. 

 If they wish to find health and exercise out in 

 the open air or country, it should be the busi- 

 ness of every man and every boy to watch over 

 and protect them— yes, to watch over and pro- 

 tect them as we would watch over a mother, a 

 sister, or a daughter. Many of them, as I hap- 

 pen to know, are looking about and seeking il- 

 lustrations from nature and art in order that 

 they may interest and teach their pupils under- 

 standingly. It should be our delight to help 

 them. " As the twig is bent, the tree's inclin- 

 ed." They should not be poorly paid. 



I was rejoiced to find that, in the Pacific 

 States, women teachers are paid much better 

 than we pay them here in the East. When you 

 get a really good, competent, faithful teacher 

 for your children, or for your neighbor's chil- 

 dren, do, for God's sake, be liberal toward this 

 teacher. If you scrimp and dicker on every 

 thing else, don't dicker about the wages of your 

 teachers. Pay them liberally — that is, where 

 they are faithful and competent. Have the 

 best, no matter what it costs. Sometimes we 

 say it is better to invest liberally in proper food 

 and clothing than to pay doctors' bills. If this 

 be true, it is a thousand times wiser to invest 

 liberally in means for properly educating your 

 children than to pay the consequences of letting 

 them grow up in ignorance and vice; and this 

 leads in the direction of the man who brutally 

 struck down that woman that he might get hold 

 of her earnings. A big stout man — no, no! — not 

 ma7i — God forbid — a big stout brutish fiend in 

 human shape, because he had strength to run 

 faster than a poor, weak, helpless, unprotected 

 woman, knocks her down, and robs her of her 

 scanty earnings. Why! ever since I read that 

 paragraph, and while it has been running 

 through my mind again and again, I have fair- 

 ly boiled over with a desire to try my feeble 

 strength on such a one as he. It seems to me 

 as if God would lend me strength, or something 

 better than strength, to teach such a one at 

 least some sort of lesson. If energy and fierce 

 indignation in a righteous cause ever lent any 

 man strength, I think it would come to me 

 then. 



But yet that is not the thing, after all. It is 

 the same old story. Some temperance lecturer 

 said, that, if every saloon-keeper in our land 

 should die to-night, somebody else right behind 

 him would be ready to step into his shoes: and 

 if all the saloons were not open and running the 

 next day, they would be the day after. If some 

 policeman could be near at hand to shoot down 

 -.this man in the very act, it would, perhaps, 

 frighten some others behind him, who have the 

 same low purpose in their hearts; but I fear it 

 would not change very much the state of the 

 heart of such people. 



There is no use to say these things do not hap- 

 pen often, and that there are so many newspa- 

 pers nowadays that everybody knows of every 

 thing that is liappening. The moral stands out 

 sharp and clear. "Hell and destruction " fwe 

 abroad in our land. Shall we build more pris- 

 ons, and hang more people? God forbid! 



I looked narrowly to see if any thing was said 

 in the paper as to whether this man was intoxi- 

 cated. There was nothing said about it. If he 



was, it would explain the whole affair very 

 clearly. In such a case it was tvhisky, and not 

 the man who did the act. The saloon-keeper 

 who sold him his drink, and those who insist 

 that the liquor-traffic is a commendable indus- 

 try, are particeps crlmmis to the crime. As 

 there is nothing said about his being intoxicat- 

 ed, I think we may take it for granted, at least 

 for this time, that he was not intoxicated — at 

 least, not with alcoholic liquors. Through a 

 fault in education, in bringing up, or from un- 

 restrained vice on his part, he was just that 

 low and brutish, and this case only illustrates 

 the fact that there are such in our land, right 

 among us, in our land of liberty. For self-evi- 

 dent reasons, those with such depraved natures 

 keep their inmost thoughts from the light of 

 day; but it crops out here and there too unmis- 

 takably to permit us to say there is not much of 

 it in the world. What shall we do? Does God 

 know? And if so, why does he permit such 

 terrible exhibitions of wickedness and sin? We 

 can not answer all these questions; but our 

 text tells us plainly that God does know; and 

 the Bible tells us, too. again and again, where 

 we are to look for the remedy. These exhibi- 

 tions of evil speak plainer than words, to the 

 effect that even we who profess to be Christians 

 are not working and praying as we ought to do. 

 "God, help," should be the prayer of every 

 Christian in our land, as he sees these things as 

 they come up before him. Then he should be 

 up and doing. 



I do notknow whether this Home talk of mine 

 will be read in Fostoria or not; but even though 

 I do not live there, I live in the State of Ohio; 

 and every true knight-errant of the cross ought 

 to be ready to spring forth to the rescue of that 

 schoolteach(>r. I am a good deal in debt, and I 

 have not much money to spare; but I am just 

 now burning for the privilege of putting my 

 hand into my pocket to start a reward, or to 

 help in a rewai'd that may be started already, 

 for the apprehension of the man who did this. 

 I beg pardon again— I did not mean to say 

 " man.'" Let us get hold of the ivretch who did 

 this, even though it cost the State a pile of mon- 

 ey. Let us convince him that there is a God in 

 Israel, and that there are Christian people in 

 the State of Ohio. Let every father and moth- 

 er help. It is a disgrace to our iSfote that such 

 a thing happened within its borders. Let us 

 rest not until we follow the thing out to its ut- 

 termost limits. Let us have the history of this 

 man. Where was he brought up? Can he read 

 or write ? Has he ever been to church or Sun- 

 day-school ? Does he know of the existence of 

 such an organization as the Y. M. C. A.? 



By the way. here is a case in hand that it 

 seems to me the Christian young men ought to 

 take up. Several times our Y. M. C. A. has 

 been called "effeminate."' Boys, let us show 

 these fellows whether we are effeminate or not. 

 May be they think Christians think it is wrong 

 to fight, even in defense of a schoolma'am. I 

 do not know how much my life is worth; but it 

 seems to me I never before felt so much like sac- 

 rificing it, if there is 7ieed of such sacrifice, to 

 redress such wrongs as these. I have heard 

 women reformers sometimes, when they got up 

 into their high flights, say, "Oh! shame on the 

 men!"' And now I say, "Shame on the men," 

 myself included in the lot, if they let this pass 

 and do nothing. I want the W. C. T. U. to help 

 us; and the Endeavor society; and the Sunday- 

 schools; and the ministers of the gospel. Why, 

 if somebody were setting your houses on fire, 

 you would pull off your coats, and fight, the 

 whole of you. But this is worse than setting 

 our houses on fire. During this present summer, 

 men and women, and especially teachers and 

 those whose occupation keeps them indoors, are 



