568 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



July 15. 



with little or no regard as to how they get it. 

 When the bill-posters came along they wanted 

 to give me some tickets for the privilege of 

 using steam from our boilers, to make their 

 paste. What ought I to have done? Well, 

 may be I did not do the wisest thing; but after 

 studying a moment I told them they conld have 

 the steam, but that, if they would excuse me, I 

 did not care for any tickets. They may have 

 given some tickets to the engineer and his 

 assistant. I decided it was their business to 

 accept them or not. :is tliey might choose. 

 Then they wanted to water the animals at our 

 hvdrant. I have never yet refused drinking- 

 water to man or beast, and I hope I shall never 

 be obliged to; but while they were watering 

 the animals, one of the bosses, to show off, or to 

 show his authority, gave vent to a string of 

 oaths that was really hideous. Very likely he 

 thought it was a good opportunity lo impress 

 the people, mostly boys and girls, with the fict 

 that skill and practice had made him pretty 

 nearly perfect in doing more cursing and blas- 

 pheming in fifteen minutes than anybody pise 

 they had ever heard. It was before our Sunday- 

 school children, members of our Endeavor 

 societies, and before little boys and girls who 

 had probably never before in their lives heard 

 any thing like it. You may say the managers 

 of the circus were not responsible for this; and 

 yon'may urge, too, that many railroads an^ 

 managed by a good tnany of that sort of people. 

 Yes. that is true; but I think the worst swear- 

 ing I ever heard in my life was around circuses, 

 and I never saw a circus free from it. Again, 

 we not only have swearing and drinking, but 

 more or less guinbling, interwoven all through 

 the network of the circus management. I have 

 been told there is such a vigorous protest 

 against the gambling that there is less of it 

 now than there used to be. I sincerely hope so. 

 Last, but not least, every circus must have a 

 troop of women performers. Without them 

 the circus would go down. Let it even be 

 noised abroad that there are no women, and 

 see how it would kill oat the show. As an 

 illustration: Popular tastp. or a sort of low 

 ■ brute taste, demands that rope-walking be 

 done so high up, that, if a performer falls, it 

 will be very apt to kill him. Pray tell me why 

 people could not pay just as much money to 

 see it if the rope were only two feet above the 

 ground. In the same line, popular taste de- 

 mands that the acrobat perform on a trapeze 

 up in a balloon. People would not pay over 

 their money unless the performer is so high up 

 that, in case of an accident, he will be crushed 

 to a jelly. Now, I think it is the same taste, or 

 a worse one, that demands that ivornen and not 

 men shall come before- an audience in a nude 

 state, or as nearly so as the laws will permit, 

 and perform. I once heard of an enterprising 

 showman who found a man so womanlike in 

 his appearance that tliey fixed him up and 

 passed him off for a woman. It was discovered, 

 however, that a monstious fraud had been per- 

 petrated on an innocent and unsuspecting pub- 

 lic. A woman was pictured on the bills, and 

 she was advertised as a woman: but after they 

 had paid their money, with the full tmder- 

 standing that they were to see a wcmian. it 

 turned out to be a 7i((ru fixed up. Now, is it 

 not true that the taste that demands one shall 

 risk life before you pay over your half-dollar, 

 is exactly the same surt of taste (only n. worse 

 one) that demands tiuxt a woman should risk 

 or throtv away what is more to her than life? 

 1 am not preaching at j/ou. dear friemls; for it 

 would very poorly behuove me to do so while I 

 remember that, when I usfd to go to circuses, I 

 demanded pretty much the same things that 

 you demand; and if I listened to that same low 



spirit that demands that men shall risk their 

 lives, and women risk something more than 

 life. I should feel indignant, with the rest of 

 the world, after I had paid my money to see a 

 ivoman perform, and then discover that she 

 was not a woman. When somebody will come 

 out with a circus without women performers, 

 without risking life and limb, and with no 

 more profanity, intemperance, or gambling 

 than we meet at fairs. I believe I shall go to 

 circuses and take all the children. Skill in 

 gymnastic exercises is a good thing. It is 

 taught in our schools, and some of the finest 

 experiments in mechanics and natural phi- 

 losophy I have ever seen were in circuses. I 

 like to see a wheel-rider so expert that he can 

 take a common wagon- wheel and ride it around 

 before an audience. But this will do for the 

 matter of circuses. Let us now turn to our 

 text. 



Our boy Huber is of just the age when it 

 would be supposed he would find it a hard mat- 

 ter not to go with all the rest of his playmates 

 and associates. I rather expected he would go, 

 and felt sorry to think I could not conscien- 

 tiouslv go with him. I gave him permission to 

 do as he, thought best in regard to the matter, 

 as I have done with all of nur children. He 

 made up his mind, however, before circus day 

 came, that he was not going — not becan.se his 

 fai her said he must ?iot go. but because he did 

 not choose to go anywhere that his father could 

 not approve of. I confess it made my heart 

 ache- to see him move his playthings to the 

 opposite side of the house from the one that 

 gave a view of the great tent with its crowds of 

 people. May God help me to reward him! And 

 3ust here comes in the thought expressed in our 

 text. If any man will be a follower of Christ 

 J >su=, he must deny himself— not only now and 

 then, but "daily." as Luke puts it. Toward 

 evening, after the show was over, some of the 

 family. I do not remember which one, asked 

 the question: 



" Hut what is the good of depriving ourselves 

 of these things that everybody else seems to 

 think not particularly wrong? In other words, 

 what shall we gain by being so very strict and 

 precise?" 



As soon as the question began to be framed, I 

 was dimly conscious that there was some 

 special promise in the Bible to the faithful, 

 right along this very line, but I could not recall 

 it just then. I said .something like this, how- 

 ever: 



"Dear friends, we have a plain and clear 

 Bible promise that we shall receive tenfold 

 more than we give up. here in this present 

 world, and eternal life beyond." 



As I passed on down the walk with the 

 thought in mind. I began trying to recall where 

 it was that Jesus gave us this promise; and I 

 found it in the 19th chapter of Matthew. Be- 

 fore I quote it I wish to say to you that one of 

 my besetting sins in my early life was exagger- 

 ation. I always liked to put things strongly; 

 and when 1 wanted to make a point, I was very 

 apt to oveistate. For years I have been bat- 

 tling against this temptation; and finally I 

 decided that I would make a practice of under- 

 stating, or, as you might say, bending the bow 

 in the opposite direction, that it might be more 

 likely to lemain straight when it was let loose. 

 In fact, I wanted it to bend the other way. It 

 is far better to put the thing too mildly than to 

 get into the habit of being too extravagant. 

 You may be sure I felt glad, therefore, when I 

 turned to the 29th verse, and read, "And every 

 one that hath forsaken houses or brethren or 

 sisters or father or mother or wife or children 

 or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive a 

 hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life." 



