1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



H08 



iiHMi arc (Misagcd in huiUliiig aiiil niaiiagiiia: 

 railroads: hut lor all tliat. tlicy carry the gos- 

 pel of Christ .It'sus everywhere they go. 



Yon (ieflar(> that the railroads ai'e I'ich. Are 

 the railroads of our eountry ((// rich? Why. 

 deal" brother, they iiuist have cupiidl, or they 

 could not exist, iiut look about you. and see 

 how many of them fail to pay exixMises. and go 

 into the hands of a ivceiver. Such a thing has 

 hat)pened t\\ ic(> to the only railroad that has 

 been in oui' town foi' the last nineteen years. 

 and yet you call them " robbers."" and others 

 say these companies have no smils. To whom 

 do" these expressions refer'.' They must surely 

 refer to somebody. Is it the engineer, the con- 

 ductor, those who handle the ficight. or is it 

 the president of the I'oad and the stockholders? 

 I am somewhat acfpiainted with these individ- 

 uals on our road. Some of them are ])rofessing 

 Christians, and good men; others are not. just 

 as in all other avenues of life. We ai'e seeking, 

 however, to bi'ing them to Chi'ist Jesus. Shall 

 we do it by calling them robbers? In another 

 column. Dr. Miller has alluded to the stul)born- 

 ness of the railroad officials in regard to giving 

 us reduced rates to tlie cenventlon. I have in 

 my possession two very kind, gentlemanly let- 

 ters from railroad olficials explaining why they 

 could not give us reduced rates. They have 

 learned by past experience that the attendance 

 is too snuiU. We all know that the attendance 

 at our national conventions is not what it 

 should be. In asking them to give us reduced 

 rates it is something like having a neighbor 

 want you to come in from the lield to weigh 

 him up /('(?/ (/ pound of honcji. If you have 

 ever had to do that very much, you have 

 learned that yon can not stand it. especially 

 when time is valuable. If you call a neighbor 

 a robber, and tell him he has no soul, you are 

 taking the very shortest cut to make him a rob- 

 b<'r and a soulless knave. By such treatment 

 you may make him so ugly that he loses his 

 ordinary good sense and sense of justice. What 

 does oui" text say ? 



Do you really think that Jesus had in mind 

 our railroad men when he spoke about making 

 the house of prayer a den of thieves? It was 

 on only one occasion that he used such words 

 as these. The traftickers had invaded the house 

 of God, and used it as a place to drive their 

 sharp bargains. On such an occasion our 

 Savior took upon himself the responsibility of 

 reproving them and turning them out. When 

 our railroad men go into God"s hou.se, they are 

 surely as well behaved as other people; and 

 when it comes to the contribution-box, they 

 usually give libei'ally of theii' jjossessions. 

 Many a church is indebted to some railroad 

 man for its foundation, and may lie something 

 more. In California the railroad comijanies are 

 so Hrmly convinced that the house of God is a 

 symbol of ])i'osperity that they build beautiful 

 churches outright; nay. more, ^^'hen^it comes 

 Sabbath-day they are on hand with their fami- 

 lies, and they set a good example to many of the 

 inhal)itants of a faruilmj community. It is 

 true, when asked if they were membei's of the 

 church, many of them would say, "Oh ! my wife 

 belongs. She sings, and reads the Bible while 

 I listen to the sermon and help pay tin- running 

 expenses." My friend, the latter is not '(?J we 

 could desire, but it is enough for us to be thank- 

 ful for. Let us pray and work in tln^ spirit of 

 our text, and we have God"s ])romis(! that tin- 

 rest shall come. 



Friend Terry is at present staying at our 

 honH». We are having a two-days' farmers" 

 institute. Yesterday he told us in his talk of a 

 place in the Avestern part of Ohio where l)utter 

 is .selling at 10 cts. a pound. He (examined 

 some that'a farmer brought into the store, and 



he said it was e\-ery bit as good butter as In^ pays 

 ?-5 cts. a pound for in Hudson. O. In fact, he 

 gave •■=<:.•.").()() lor 100 lbs. ol such buttei'. He ate 

 the buttei' at the hotel tables, and the landlord 

 assured him that he paid only 10 cts. a pound 

 for it. Now. what does this mean? Bee-keep- 

 ers have complained of such a state of affairs 

 in I'egard to honey; but so staple an article as 

 hitftrr. and butter of tine quality— why. I was 

 astonished. How does it come? This way: 

 'I'liere are no railroads thei'e to equalize prices. 

 Perhaps the peo|)le have not enterprise enough 

 to demand one, and to go to work and build it 

 as we did. Another thing, the producers are 

 snuill farnu'rs. with a few cows a])iece. The 

 amount ol butter they nuike is so trilling that 

 they do not inquire into it. They do not read 

 the quotations in the city papers.' Very likely 

 these men who sell their butter for 10 cts. a 

 pound sit around the stove in a country store, 

 and call capitalists soulless robbers.' What 

 shall they do? Why. bless your hearts, dear 

 biotliers and sisters, they should make a little 

 ■■ trust company "" of their own. if you will ex- 

 cuse the expvcssion. Yes. call it a "ring'" — 

 they need a ring to defend themselves, and they 

 need to work in a brotherly band. If a ring 

 means a brothei'ly band, theii I am in for rings\ 

 This little brotherly band of farmers sliould 

 pack their butter all together, each man putting 

 his name on his package, and send it to son\e 

 commission house in the nearest large city. 

 Think of the difference — 10 cts. and 25 cts., fora 

 staple article like butterl Now, nothing but 

 railroads can cui'e this stale of affairs — railroads 

 and the right sort of spirit between the small 

 faiiner and the railroad officials. Youandyour 

 neighbor need not be at swords' points because 

 you are a day laborei' living in a little rented 

 house while he lives in a tine mansion. Your 

 relations may be of the most friendly nature 

 imaginable. He may help yon, and you may 

 help him. 



If any one will take an unbiased glimpse of 

 the great industries in progress at the present 

 day, I think he must admit that the only pos- 

 sible way to accomplish numy things is by com- 

 bined capital, and by lorming great companies. 

 You may call them "" trusts"" and "rings" and 

 "monopolies."' if you choose; but they are real- 

 ly a necessity of the present age. In our talk 

 at the institute I have mentioned, the Hon. 

 Thomas H. Palmer gave us a history of the at- 

 tempts that have been made, not only in Ohio, 

 but in other vStates, to improve our coiuitry 

 roads. That we might do this intelligently, 

 many good public-spirited citizens labored hard 

 to change the existing state of affairs, and (>ven 

 laws were passed in sonu' sections to have the 

 road-tax paid in money instead of day's work. 

 This mom-y was to be used by competent 

 engineers and mechanics in making permanent 

 roadways. Many of you kiu>w that the labor 

 and money exix'iided in working on the road, 

 especially in clay soils, does no pernianent good. 

 In front of our residence and factory, the travel 

 last winter crowded the clay all out of the roads, 

 and almost up on to the sidewalks, until the 

 center of the road i)ecanie a filthy, reeking pool 

 of nnnl. After long delay in the spring until it 

 dried off. our i-oad-nuikers scrai)ed the clay up 

 in th<> center again, and rounded it up nicely, 

 and during the summer we had a very lair clay 

 road; but during the two rainy months of 

 October and November, the travel pushed th(! 

 clay out into the ditches again, and the road 

 is now aixiut as bad as before. All the labor of 

 l)acking il- uj) amounted to nothing except a 

 tem|K)rai'y gain, lasting a few montlis. Now. 

 this kind of work has been going on for f/i/rfi/ 

 or forty years in many districts. Enough 

 labor and capital have been expended to have 



