1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



93.-) 



one of the valves. He cried, and seemed to feel 

 nuich remorse at the conseqnences of his boyish 

 blunder. He did not tell us to charge up to him 

 his part of the affair; but as lu! had been a 

 pretty good and faithful boy. I concluded to let 

 it pass. Imagine my surpris.', a few months 

 later, when the engineer told me he guessed I 

 had better have a talk with V. Ele said that F. 

 was all the while complaining that he did not 

 get as much pay as he thought he ought to have, 

 and it was really spoiling his value as a boy. I 

 had a pleasant, good-natured talk with F., and 

 reminded him of the accident that had cost me 

 more than ?100. just because of his forgetting 

 to open that valve. Said I: 



" Look here, F., if you should work for us a 

 whole year for 2 cts. an hour less than you are 

 really worth, it would not make up for the con- 

 seqnences of your blunder. If I were you. I 

 think I would keep pretty quiet about an in- 

 crease of pay for quite a little spell, after what 

 has happened." 



He took it good-naturedly, and finally said 

 that, if I would give him a steady job right 

 through the winter at 10 cts. an hour, he would 

 be perfectly satisfied. Well, you know that, 

 during the fall, there has been a financial de- 

 pression all over the land. We found it hard 

 work to find something to do for even our old 

 regular help. One hand after another was 

 droi^ped. until we should have been glad indeed 

 to give F. a vacation with the rest: but my 

 promise stood in the way of that. In a very 

 few days, however. T was relieved of the neces- 

 sity of finding him something to do. in a very 

 unexpected way. The engineer told me that F. 

 was still dissatisfied with his pay. and that he 

 guessed T had better let him go i^or a while un- 

 til he could discover for himself when he was 

 well off. In fact, he said he thought F. would 

 not stay any longer without an increase of 

 wages. T talked with F. again, and reminded 

 him of his promise. But this boy in his teens 

 had got a raise of wages in his head to such an 

 extent that there was no help for him. He 

 finallv said something like this: 



"Mr. Root, you know as well as I do that I 

 am worth more than 10 cts. an hour." 



" No. F.. I do not know any thing of the kind; 

 and it seems to me the common-sense way to 

 settle all disagreements of this kind between 

 capital and labor is to ask the question wheth- 

 er you can get more than that anywhere else. 

 Are you .sure you can find a place where you 

 can get more than 10 cts. an hour? Please re- 

 member the hundreds and thousands who are 

 out of employment— good capable men. Why. 

 F.. a good mechanic offered yesterday to work 

 for me during the winter for 10 cts. an hour, 

 rather than be idle any longer. You are a boy. 

 It is true, you have, through diligence and good 

 behavior, learned enough in one special line so 

 you could earn what you are getting with us, 

 providing we had plenty to do. which we have 

 not. However, as you feel so sure that some- 

 body else will give you more, suppose you try it." 



Accordingly, he did give up his job. and 

 started out to find somebody who would pay 

 him ivli( it he wns tvorHi. This getting restless. 

 uneasy, and dissatisfied, seems to be a sort of 

 disease sometimes, and there is only one kind of 

 medicine that I know of that has any effect on 

 it. Good advice, a plain statement of well- 

 known facts, and all that sort of thing, do not 

 seem to make any difference. The onlv way is, 

 to let the boy have his own way. like the prodi- 

 gal .son we are told about in the Holy Scriptures. 

 F. put off his greasy overshirt and overalls. 

 donned his Sunday clothes, and looked, as he 

 is. a nice, bright, clean specimen of a young 

 man. I do not know how miu'h hunting he did 

 for a place; but he came back in a couple of 



weeks, and said that, if I would give him his 

 place back again he would be contented to do 

 the best he knew how. I?ut it was too late. 

 Another very good boy was doing so well in F."s 

 place that we could not tliink of turning him 

 off. This other boy was also skillful in tiie ma- 

 chine-shop, where he worked a great parlof his 

 time, so there wa'^ no prospect, for some lime to 

 come, of an opening for F. anywhere. Another 

 thing, the nuin who employs labor dreads hav- 

 ing any thing to do with dissatisfied people. A 

 dissatisfied man is seldom a profitable hand. 

 Peter Henderson suggests, in one of his books, 

 that it is better to pay a good man a little more 

 than he is worth, sometimes, rather than have 

 hitri go about his work in a dissatisfied way. 

 Well, I have tried that remedy, but it has sel- 

 dom worked satisfactorily. The man who is 

 dissatisfied at l.'i cts. an hour will pretty soon 

 become uneasy again until he has 30 cts. F. 

 finallv came around again and said that, if I 

 would give him something to do, he would work 

 for whutever wages I thought I could give him, 

 and try to remember when he was well off. But 

 still I could do nothing for him. He became 

 weary in well doing, in the language of our 

 text, and he is now reaping the reward, for I 

 suppose the text works both ways. The man 

 who becomes weary in well doing shall also 

 reap. In fact, we have iScripture for it. " What- 

 soever a man soweth. thut shall he also reap." 



Perhaps the most direct application of the 

 text I have quoted is in regard to spiritual 

 things. All along down through the ages people 

 have become weary in well doing. In that 

 wonderful chnpter in Malachi the prophet says 

 the people are dissatisfied, and break forth in a 

 general complaint something like this: 



'•yehavesaid.lt is vain to serve God; and, 

 What profit is it that we have kept his ordi- 

 nances, and that we have walked mournfully 

 before the Lord of hosts?" 



That word •'mournfully" seems to me to 

 come in very aptly. There are people in every 

 age and generation who talk that way. They 

 say. " Who wants to go about always with a long 

 face, and be afraid of doing this, that, and tlie 

 other, because somebody may call it wicked?" 

 Then the Christian— perhaps oftener the young 

 Christian, but perhaps sometimes the old one — 

 says to himself. " Well, I declare ! I do not be- 

 lieve it worth while to be so very precise. Oth- 

 er folks are having a good time all around us, 

 and why shouldn't we have our share, instead 

 of being so very conscientious and puritanical ?" 

 Like poor F. they give up reasonably fair pros- 

 pects, spend what little they have laid up for a. 

 rainy day, and then repent at leisure because 

 they did not know when they were well oft'. 

 Sometimes it is not money alone that they have 

 wasted. The conseqnences of having a good 

 time, "as the rest of the boys do," are a terrible 

 appetite, or. worse still, a contagious disease 

 that hangs to the poor victim every day and 

 every hour for the rest of his life. "Whatso- 

 ever a man soweth. that shall he also reap." 



Now. then, dear friends, old and young, if you 

 have been thinking that a careful, honest 

 Christian life was almost too tame and hum- 

 drum for this day and age of progress, consider 

 what T have just said. Let me give you one 

 more illustration right before me: 



A man came to me a few days ago and asked 

 for work. I told hitn there was no use in de- 

 tailing his circumstances — it was absolutely im- 

 possible for me to help any more peoph^ in that 

 way. He pleaded that lie was a stranger in the 

 town, out of money, with a sick child on his 

 hands: and hesaid, furthermore, that /o//c.s totc7. 

 him, if he would come to me, I would give him 

 some work — that I always gave people work 

 who were in distress, and he was even beginning 



