1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



261 



WHY SO JIANY PEOPLE ARE OUT OF M'OllK. 



Pipe A was in place, and covered with 

 dirt. Pipe B was ttie one that came under 

 the bank ; and as 1 came in sight the men 

 were carrying it to its pUice. One had hold 

 of the pipe at 1) ; the other had hold of C. 

 Fearing they would step on the bank where 

 it would not bear much weight, I ran for a 

 rope and was just in time to put it around 

 C, giving one of the men the ends to hold. I 

 stayed by him until I saw it lowered until it 

 struck the end of A. Then 1 went awa>^ to 

 attend to others who might need my direc- 

 tion, and forgot about the pipe. As soon as 

 I finished my dinner I went out to see if the 

 pipe was all right. One of the men was on 

 hand, and informed me that the bank had 

 caved in. '•'• Well,'' I replied, "■ it does not 

 matter much, if it did. We got the pipe in 

 place just in time, didn't we V " 



He pulled off his hat, sf^ratched his head, 

 and answered a little slowly, "Why, Mr. 

 Koot, we did not get it quite in place." 



""You didn't get it in place!'' said I. 

 "Why, I stayed with you until I heard the 

 end of the pipe strike the bell where it was 

 to go in." 



" Yes, I know you did," said he ; " but be- 

 fore we got it quite in place the whistle 

 blew for noon, and we had to stop." 



I presume very likely my temper came up 

 a little just then. 



" Why, Mr. , one minute more would 



have been ample time to have drawn the 

 pipe back until the end would go into the 

 bell ; and yet because the whistle blew, you 

 two great men went away and left it right 

 there ; and this, too, when you could plainly 

 see that the sun was shining right on the 

 frozen bank ; and the way it is thawing now 

 must very soon have let it down." 



" Yes, I know ; but the other man would 

 not stay any longer when the whistle blew, 

 and I could not get the end in place alone, 

 so it had to be left until after dinner.'' 



I went to the other man, and demanded 

 of him why he went away, even if the whis- 

 tle did blow. He said the^cs^ speaker was 

 the one who went away tirst. I left them 

 disputing as to who it was that first aban- 

 doned the job when the whistle blew. Please 

 notice, friends, that the rope was around at 

 the point C. The man on the bank had an 

 end in each hand. All he needed to do was 

 to raise up until his comrade could draw D 

 back two inches, and then push it into the 

 bell. Had I been present, one minute of my 

 time wuuld have saved a hard Imlf-daifs 

 imrk in the mud. Thus it is : there is "no 

 lack of miisde; but, O my friends ! there is 

 a constant lack of men to superin'.cud — men 

 who love their "?jeiV//<,^o(s" more than their 

 "dinners." Now, inind you. the ability to 

 superintend must be acquired. It is the re- 

 sult of being"' faithful in lew things" for 

 months and years. " He that overcometh, 



and keepeth my works unto the end, to him 

 will I give power over the nations." 



The men both felt quite bad, and suggest- 

 ed that they could tafce a crowbar and pry 

 the pipe back enough to let it go in place. I 

 showed them, however, that this could not 

 be done, because a great quantity of dirt 

 had fallen under the pipe at E. One reason 

 why I did not want to dig a new trench was 

 because a great heap of ashes lay over the 

 bank that had ca\ed in. This heap of ash- 

 es 1 wanted to spread over our giounds ; and 

 now it had gone down with the bank, right 

 over the pipe. I have read somtMhere of a 

 man who was carrying a hod full of bricks 

 to the top of a very tall ladder. When the 

 signal for dinner sounded, he dropped the 

 hod full of bricks, and hurried down the lad- 

 der because it was "quitting time." The 

 latter, of course, was an exaggeraiion ; but 

 there is a grand moral in it nevertheless. 

 Some people, when they work, study the in- 

 terests of their employer, whether it is quit- 

 ting time or not. There are others who 

 seem to have very little care or legard for 

 any thing beyond receiving pay every Sat- 

 urday night. It pains me to write these 

 words, dear friends ; and I am glad to be 

 able to say that the operation ot lajing the 

 cast-iron pipe, described above, is the worst 

 case of the kind 1 remember in all my busi- 

 ness experience, although we do, however.^ 

 see it cropping out in little things almoi-t 

 daily. Some of you may suggest that I 

 should have required these men to dig up 

 the pipe and put it in place on their ow n 

 time. I thought of it, but I am very glad 

 now that I did not do it. It has never been 

 my custom to oblige a full-grown man to 

 make good any loss unless he chooses to do 

 so of his own accoid. My daily prayer is, 

 that God may forgive my debts as I forgive 

 my debtors; and had I not forgiven them it 

 would have troubled me afterward. I will 

 say this for them, that they seemed to feel 

 very badly about it; and I tell you. that 

 caved-in bank went out in a hurry. Before 

 they got done with the pipe-laying, their 

 clothes were pretty muddy ; and when quit- 

 ting time came, one day after the ditch was^ 

 finished 1 gave each of them half a dollar ex- 

 tra, telling them to give it to their respective 

 good wives, to make up for the trouble they 

 would have in cleaning the mud fn m their 

 husbands' clothes. I preferred to do this, 

 that they might rest assured I had no 

 grudge laid up against them, even though 

 they did a verv foolish thing in leaving the 

 pipe as they did. 



Now. then, friends, we are all working 

 tor yortiehndy. We are ail working for the 

 great wide "world ; we are all working for 

 "our neighbors" in some sense or other. 

 If the prevailing motive is .sf//. then shall 

 the concluding words of our text be true : 

 " But from him that hath not, shall be taken 

 away even that which he hath." If, how- 

 ever, your first and foremost and inspiring 

 motive is to work for the interests of the 

 great tcnrld instead of for self, and instead of 

 "self for Christ's sake, then sliall the first part 

 of our text be verified : " Unto every one 

 which liath shall be given, and he shall have 

 abundance.'''' 



