108 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



was easier and pleasanter to do right than 

 to do wrong. Why did I not become a 

 Christian then? Why did not the excellent 

 sermons I heard during that period make 

 me a Christian, rather than a skeptic and 

 infidel? Simply because I was, all the time, 

 in an attitude to sin, if the favorable oppor- 

 tunity presented itself. I had no idea of 

 bowing humbly to any higher authority than 

 my own will, if any sufficient temptation 

 presented itself. During those years I at- 

 tended to my own business, and let other 

 people attend to theirs. I did not believe in 

 meddling. I did not believe in ministers 1 

 calling on people, unless they were sent for; 

 and if a man chose to get' drunk and go 

 down to a drunkard's grave, it was his own 

 doing and no fault of mine. If he abused 

 and wronged his wife and children, they 

 must take care of themselves as best they 

 could, as I said of the other sex, a few sen- 

 tences back. 



This is a very independent doctrine, my 

 friends, but I know from experience that it 

 is not one calculated to make a man enjoy 

 life here on this earth. I did considerable 

 business, and employed a good many hands, 

 both men and women, and people considered 

 me a valuable citizen. In fact, I was often 

 quoted as being as good a man as any of the 

 church members, and yet I "made no pre- 

 tensions." I used to take pride in being 

 thus compared with others. 



Please bear with me, my friends, in what 

 follows. Nothing but the thought that it 

 may be a beacon light to warn others, 

 would ever prompt me thus to lay bare the 

 secrets of my inmost soul. With a prayer 

 that it may help some one, I cast it out on 

 the waters", and leave it in foil's hands. 



I well remember the day. in early winter, 

 about 12 years ago, when the first tempta- 

 tion came. The bees were all nicely cared 

 for. and there was nothing more to do until 

 spring. How should I pass away the time? 

 There was no need of my being idle, but for 

 some reason, I sauntered into the room 

 where the girls were at work making chains, 

 as I was then manufacturing a great many 

 silver watch chains. Up to this time, I be- 

 lieve, I had faithfully treated my boys and 

 girls alike, without any partiality. Among 

 the girls was one who had recently come. 

 She had been for several years a school 

 teacher, and I had been told that she had 

 rather more than an average education. I 

 was but little acquainted with her, because 

 she kept steadily at her work, and seemed 

 to have little to say to anyone. I valued ed- 

 ucation, and it was perhaps this that put it 

 into my head to draw her out and get ac- 

 quainted, and thus pass away time during 

 the winter. 



I wish to stop here, to state distinctly that 

 the matter was premeditated, and that it 

 did not come about unconsciously, as some 

 urge, by way of excuse, that such things do. 

 The minute the intention was framed, I 

 thought, instantly, of the wrong that would 

 be done my wife, and decided she should 

 know nothing about it. As in the opening- 

 text, I would "make lies my refuge, and 

 under falsehood would I hide myself." 



An acquaintance was not so easily made, 



and I began a little more cautiously. Her 

 work was well and faithfully done, and I 

 could, after a little time, advance her wa- 

 ges. She was promoted little by little, and, 

 in due time, took charge of the book-keeping 

 of the establishment, which work her edu- 

 cation well fitted her for. This arrange- 

 ment was a very wise and proper one, had 

 the motive that brought it about been one 

 of the right kind. In justice to myself, per- 

 haps I should add, that I am, naturally, con- 

 siderable of a teacher. I like to see children 

 learn any handicraft, and have always felt 

 a pleasure in seeing anybody grow and be- 

 come proficient in any especial calling. To 

 delight in seeing the boys in my employ be- 

 come expert in any 'branch, and earn higher 

 wages, is, to a certain extent, natural with 

 me. When spring opened, I proposed that 

 my new friend should learn bee culture. 

 This she strongly objected to, but I finally 

 succeeded in getting her interested in the 

 work, and ere long she became quite enthu- 

 siastic in demonstrating that women could 

 keep bees. 



During all this time. I do not know that I 

 had any definite plans in view, of doing any- 

 body any wrong, but I was only amusing 

 myself, by having my own way, untrani- 

 meled. My wife, although liberal and gen- 

 erous in the extreme, and as unsuspicious 

 as a woman could be, could not fail to see 

 from the outset, that her husband was losing 

 his naturally frank, honest way. I knew it 

 too. and, ere long, I felt it incumbent on 

 me to take a little more pains to be cheerful 

 at home, and finally took pains to "explain 

 things." so as to make everything pleasant. 

 There are a great many paths that lead to 

 the bottomless pit, but I believe that poor 

 humanity behaves about the same, no mat- 

 ter which path it takes. I had voluntarily 

 entered the toils of Satan, and soon he be- 

 gan drawing his bands about me. The lib- 

 erty I craved, and declared I would have, 

 began to assume the phase of fetters. My 

 home that my wife and I had toiled for, and 

 had fixed and shaped with so much pains, 

 began to be distasteful. I did not watch 

 for her as I used to when I came home, and 

 the thought of her smile, was no longer 

 fondly remembered through my daily toil. 

 Is it always so? Do married people always 

 get over being lovers after awhile, and come 

 down to the dull realities of every day life? 

 So I tried to reason to the little woman who 

 had faith in her husband still. The book- 

 keeper too insisted that things were not 

 right, and I "explained things" to her, and 

 insisted that my wife was perfectly satisfied, 

 and had made no complaint at all, which 

 was partially true, for my wife was not one 

 who complained very much of anything. 

 To allay suspicion, I managed to have the 

 two women become better acquainted and 

 to be seen considerably in public together. 

 I studied to make myself agreeable and 

 pleasant to both, and imagined I had done a 

 very commendable thing. Little things 

 often indicate the state of the heart. I will 

 mention one. 



Shortly after this acquaintance com- 

 menced, I learned incidentally that my 

 friend had been much interested in the 



