1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



8G1 



Then one of tlie twt-lve, called .ludai? Iscariot, went 

 unto tlie chief priests, and said unlo them, What will 

 ye give nie. and 1 will deliver liini luiio you? And 

 they eovenanted with him lor thirty i)ieees of silver. 

 And from that time he souKht opportuuily to Isetraj 

 liim.— Matt. 26: 14~lt). 



Judas betrayed his luastor. Christ Jesus, tlie 

 Son of (iod. for thirty pieces of silver. Was lie 

 crazy, or was he a fool? Oue can hardly be- 

 lieve tiiat pure rascality or depravity, or seiljsh 

 greed, should e\-er |)r(iiiipt- any human being to 

 such an awful piece of liyjiocrisy and treacliery. 

 especially for such an insigniticant stun of 

 money. How n>uM Judas iiave ever been in 

 such a strait or in such need of a little uKuiey 

 as to go into such an (iii\fiil speculation as the 

 one narrated above? .Slaid<ind luis for all 

 agi's stood aghast at the fearful inconsistency 

 and folly of this sliameful deed, especially 

 when lie by a kiss indicated to his enemies 

 Avliich was the Master'. We are tempted to say 

 tiiat lii^ could not ha\e been in his riglit mind. 

 Tin' poor fellow must ha\e been a monomaniac; 

 and yet we read nothing of the sort in the 

 Scriptures. God's holy liook siiii])ly gives it as 

 an illustration of sin in the human heart, and 

 Judas is lield ii]) before vis as a warning. In 

 one sense. Judas (/v/.s crazy; hnt isn't any man 

 crazy in the same way. who barters his good 

 name and ins cliance of futun^ liappinoss for a 

 few paltry pieces of silver? Cherished sin 

 makes an\ih<><l\i crazy. He loses his ordinary 

 good sense, and lie becomes iiicapabh' of exer- 

 cising ordinary judgment. 



A great many excuses have been made for 

 Judas, sucti as, tiiat liis laith in his ^Master was 

 so great that he believed lie would deliver him- 

 self by some wonderful miracle, and the result 

 would only be for the general good. A good 

 many people, since the time of Judas, have de- 

 cided to do evil, and have excused tliemselvcs 

 by saying that tiiey titoinjht good would surely 

 be the outcome of it. 



Well, what have bee - keepers and honey- 

 dealers to do witli Judas and his thirty pieces 

 of silver? It has occurred to me this morning 

 that many of us have something to do with 

 Judas' inconsistency. We see a chance to 

 get some money, and we pusli ahead to get it 

 in our hands, witli a foolish, shortsighted dis- 

 regard of consecjuences. We barter oui' good 

 name for n few pieces of xilvcr. I do not know 

 but I had bettei' put it stronger than to say ivc. 

 and come right down to the point, and say" tiiat 

 sometimes it looks very miicli as if ^. I. -Root 

 had been tempted to Ijarter his good name for a 

 few pieces of money. I want to make a plea 

 for mercy, tliough. riglit here. Dear friends. 

 you do not know what an awful busy life mine 

 is. 1 am tan Ixisy tx) do Jiistly, but Crod knows 1 

 do love ■• mercy;" and I am sure I try, about as 

 well as a busy man can try, to " walk humbly 

 before God.'" 



You may, perhaiis, say tiiat I have no husiDcss 

 in having so much "/xrv/ucss." Well, tliat is 

 true; and that is tlie worst thing I atn guilty of. 

 And I do not know but it is a pretty bad sign to 

 have so much business tliat you "can not see 

 that it is all attended to as hoiicstJy as it should 

 be. I will tell you liowitis. I liave been work- 

 ing very hard during the past fall. For some 

 weeks I lia\-e not liad iiny fun in the garden, 

 hardly, because tiiere are so many things to be 

 looked after, and arranged and decided on. I 

 have not even had tlie fun of studying over 

 greenhouses— the new kind, you know, that is 

 to b(> a (jiinleii when it rains and tlie sun is 

 warm, and to be a (jrcdihimxc whenever every 

 thing is frozen up solid. It is true, I iuivi' lieen 



dreaming of this new greenhouse niglits. after 

 going to bed, and at otlier times when I do not 

 "liave to" do something. Yes. I say to my 

 sluitne, that my trnanl mind sometimes gets 

 awiiy on Siuidays. even during sermons, and 

 plans this new greeniionse. instead of listening 

 to our good pastor. I have felt liad about it, 

 and ijiayed over it; but the plans would keep 

 working themselves out. And now during this 

 tine weather in Xovemlier I have b(>en trying to 

 get time to instruct workmen how to build it 

 after the plans have been so long working and 

 evolving in my busy brain. As a consequence, 

 things have been somewhat neglected. Some 

 days I feel as if I had no business in thiid^ing 

 about greenhouses at ail— that I had better let 

 well enough alone, and "•stick io mv knitting" 

 —the journal, factory, etc. Wliy. I told .Mrs. 

 Root, only last summer, that, if my present 

 frame of mind did not change. I would give up 

 gardening. I fear it changed in about two or 

 three hours. Overwork in the office pulled me 

 back to my old nervous iirostration. and then it 

 began to be a ([uestion, ••Should I enjoy myself 

 out in tlie open air, witli growing plants, and 

 /('re, or stay in the office and defend my good 

 name before the children of men, and dief" 

 None of you need be worried, dear friends. I 

 am going to live, and enjoy God's gifts outdoors, 

 just as long as I can. If I can not do any bet- 

 ter, when somebody says he has been wronged 

 I will ask him how much money it will take to 

 make it right, and fix it that way. without go- 

 ing into details. Some of the "friends have, 

 however, "got awful mad " because I suggested 

 such a way of defending my good name. Two 

 or three have declared that money \\ouk\ not do 

 it. and I am afraid tiiey are pretty nearly right, 

 after all. Let me give you a sample of some of 

 the Imrdens that oppress me just now. Please 

 read the following letter: 



A. I. Hoot— Dear Friend:— While it is an unpleas- 

 ant task, yet I feel it my duty to write to you. 

 This fall I bought of you alfalfa and mesquite iKincy 

 to the amount of one hutidred and tne)i1y four AoUnis 

 and some cents" worth. I aslced you to do the best 

 you coiilil in the way of rates. After waiting- a long- 

 time after 1 got the bill, the honey came, witli. I 

 thinlc, .fS.iMI freight on it. It had been billed at local 

 rates all the way. making- thi-ee ditfeient billings. 

 I wrote you abt)ut it, and got an answer wliich 

 seemed to me quite shoit and inditferent. In this 

 letter you say you liad asked for rates; and as soon 

 as you got them you would malie it riglit with me, oi- 

 words to that effect; but I have never heard from it 

 yet. 1 af iCrwai-d sent you an ordei- for more honey, 

 "which came to hand all right, but it is awful stutf to 

 call honey. It is about as dark as a low grade of 

 New Orleans molapses— nothing- whatever like the 

 saini)le sent me. I sold .some of it, and had some of 

 it refused and returned. I will inclose some if the 

 answers 1 got from the parties whom I sold it to. 

 These letters are from ueighhoring towns where I 

 sold it. where I h;id sold my own honey; the rest of 

 it I sold in our own town; and I never did any thing 

 in my life that has been so unsatisra', toiy. I wcaild 

 not/or o/ic hundred dolliirs have my reputation in- 

 jured as this iioney has done. 



Wliile 1 do not want to accuse you of willfully sell- 

 ing honey of I hi-; kind after prai.sing it up as you 

 have done through GIjKanings, yet I think some 

 one is grossly at fault foi- selling such honey and 

 branding it tiist class. I do not a.sk you to take my 

 word for it. If you doubt my word, I will send you 

 a sample of it, and .you can then see for yourself. 

 Very resp'y, tr. IJ. Shelton. 



Brownsville, Pa„ Nov. 21, 



P. S.— AftiM- i-eading Our Homes these many years, 

 and longing for thein to come, and feeling that I 

 know you iiersonall.v, I do not think thai >-ou would 

 allow this thing to go on if you knew it. G. H. S. 



Below are the letters our good friend Shelton 

 refers to. omit ting addresses, for olivions reasons. 



Mr. G. I*. Shei.ton:— I return .-ibovf. being very dark and 

 uiis;Ual)le. I could use K""<1 honey like lasl year'.i, l)ut not 

 this kind. J. K. B. 



