342 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 



to slavery his little ones that he loves, as you 

 do yours, more than life? To be sure you 

 would right ; if you would not, you do not 

 deserve life and a free country. Think of 

 having your boy or your girl sold as a slave, 

 to be lorded over by you know not whom, to 

 have their little lives ground out of them, 

 and every spark of manhood or womanhood 

 killed out, in its very incipiency, and to be 

 told that there was no remedy ; it was one 

 of the inexorable combinations of circum- 

 stances, and the only way was to put up with 

 it. What would you do? 



Do you say these things are passed and 

 gone'? and do you wonder why I have gone 

 away back, and raked up old and forgotten 

 memories, years after these things have 

 ceased to exist? Do you say let us consider 

 the present and the future, and let by-gones 

 be by-gones? Very well, let us see to the 

 future then. The following I found on a 

 scrap of paper, that I picked up accidentally: 



Three saloon- keepers in Chicago were found 

 guilty of selling liquor to minors, and the following 

 is the address of the Judge who sentenced them, as 

 reported in the Chicago Tribune: 



"By the law you may sell to men and women, if 

 they will buy. You have given your bond and paid 

 your license to sell to them, and no one has a right 

 to molest you in your legal business. No matter 

 what the consequences may be, no matter what pov- 

 erty and destitution are produced by your selling 

 according to law, you have paid your money for 

 this privilege, and you are licensed to pursue your 

 calling. No matter what families are distracted and 

 rendered miserable, no matter what wives are treat- 

 ed 'with violence, what children starve or mourn 

 over the degredation of a parent, your business is 

 legalized, and no one may interfere with you in it. 

 No matter what mother may agonize over the loss 

 of a son, or sister blush for the shame of a brother, 

 you have a right to disregard them all and pursue 

 your legal calling; you are licensed. You may fit 

 up your lawful place of business in the most enti- 

 cing and captivating form; you may furnish it with 

 the most costly and elegant equipments for your 

 lawful trade; you may fill it with the allurements 

 to amusement; you may use all your arts to induce 

 visitors; you may skillfully arrange and expose to 

 view your choicest wines and captivating bevera- 

 ges; you may then induce thirst by all contrivan- 

 ces to produce a raging appetite for drink, and then 

 you may supply that appetite to the full, because it 

 is lawful; you have paid for it; you have a license. 



You may allow boys, almost children, to frequent 

 your saloon; they may witness the apparent satis- 

 faction with which tbeir seniors quaff the sparkling 

 glass; you may be schooling and training them for 

 the period of twenty-one, when they, too, can partic- 

 ipate, for all this is lawful. You may hold the cup 

 to their very lips, but you must not let them drink 

 —that is unlawful. But while you have all these 

 privileges for the money you pay, this poor privi- 

 lege of selling to children is denied you. Here par- 

 ents have the right to say, "Leave my son to me 

 until the law gives you the right to destroy him. 

 Do not anticipate that terrible moment when I can 

 assert for him no further right of protection; that 

 will be soon enough for me, for his mother, for his 

 sister, for his friends, and for the community to see 

 him take his road to death. Give him to us in his 



childhood, at least. Let us have a few years of his 

 youth, in which we may enjoy his innocence to re- 

 pay us in some small degree for the care and love 

 we have lavished upon him." This is something 

 you, who now stand a prisoner at the bar, have not 

 paid for; this is not embraced in your license. 



For this offense the Court sentences you to ten 

 days' imprisonment in the county jail, and that you 

 pay a tine of seventy- five dollars and costs; and 

 that you stand commited until the fine and costs of 

 this prosecution are paid." 



A few days ago, as I was passing along 

 the streets of our town, I was startled by 

 hearing a perfect volley of oaths, curses, 

 blasphemy, and obscenity. In fact, the lan- 

 guage was so foul that passers-by turned 

 out and crossed over involuntarily to the 

 other side of the street. I went up to him, 

 and found that it was one of our Medina 

 boys, in a state of beastly intoxication. He 

 could not stand up, but lay partly against 

 the fence. My first impulse was to have 

 him arrested at once, as a public nuisance : 

 but a second thought admonished me that I 

 had not yet tried the power of kind words, 

 and after learning his name I left him, for I 

 have learned that it is generally words wast- 

 ed, to attempt to talk to a drunken person. 

 After he got sober, I had a talk with him. 

 His drunken spree had been on the very day 

 he was 21. He had been a frequenter of sa- 

 loons, and had seen others hand over their 

 money and drink, but he had been refused 

 because he was not of age. The very day 

 he became of age, his first work was to go 

 and ask for whisky, and drink. He was 

 simply celebrating his liberty. Was it liber- 

 ty that he was enjoying as he lay there on 

 the side walk? If he was a slave, whose 

 slave was he, judging from his language? 

 Why does a man or boy who is under the in- 

 fluence of liquor invariably take God's name 

 in vain? Why does their demoniac hatred 

 seem to vent itself almost entirely against 

 the Bible? 



A few years ago, during a temperance re- 

 vival, many of our townsmen were reformed, 

 and just in proportion as they dropped their 

 intemperate habits they turned to the study 

 of the Bible. One of them reformed and 

 gave temperance lectures in different parts 

 of our county, but, as he had not yet em- 

 braced religion, he asked me to go with 

 him, and open the evening exercises with 

 Bible reading and prayer. The man had 

 been a skeptic ; but, during these evening 

 rides, I had much talk with him, and con- 

 siderable on the subject of prayer. He said 

 he felt like thanking God, especially when 

 he got up in the morning; and, since his 

 life had changed for a better one, he many 

 times felt like thanking God, with real hon- 

 esty and sincerity. I felt that he was on the 

 threshold of a new life, and was deeply anx- 

 ious that this spirit might prevail, and that 

 he might put on the whole armor of a soldier 

 of the cross. His reform proved only tran- 

 sitory. I remonstrated with him in regard 

 to it, and he admitted that he had "back- 

 slid, just as you Christians do sometimes," 

 and promised to do better- but, without 

 God's help, it could not well be lasting. A 

 few days ago I passed a little group of men 



