1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



21 



Mr. Utter, the bee-man, to employ the best 

 legal talent, and, in addition, furnish expert 

 testimony on the bee side of the question, so 

 that an unprejudiced jurj', seeing and know- 

 ing the facts, would render a verdict accord- 

 ingly. 



This case was a hard-fought one from be- 

 ginning to end. There was no lack of legal 

 counsel on either side, and no lack of wit- 

 nesses ; but, thanks to the Association, we 

 were able to show that the evidence adduced 

 by the plaintiff was, for the most part, to put 

 a most charitable construction on it, founded 

 on misapprehension, ignorance, and prejudice. 

 There is no doubt that some witnesses for the 

 fruit-men actually believed that the bees did 

 puncture sound fruit with their " horns or 

 bills." If they did so believe, and if they 

 heard our evidence, their belief must have 

 been most severely shaken before they went 

 away. 



OUR 



homes; 



BY A. (. R O OT. 



What doth the I,ord require of thee but to do justly, 

 and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? 

 — MiCAH (i:8. 



I presume there has always been a great de- 

 mand for men for office who will be jus/ ; but 

 at present there seems to be greater need of 

 men who can be trusted than ever before since 

 the world began. Our text speaks of not only 

 doing justly, but loving mercy, and walking 

 humbly with God. Sometimes we feel as if 

 we could get along very well if we could find 

 men who would " do justly," to say nothing 

 about mercy or having the fear of God in their 

 hearts. The people who take lead in these 

 shameful scenes of lynching excuse themselves 

 by saying there is no justice to be obtained, 

 and no redress to be secured by law; and when 

 we notice the hundreds and thousands of dol- 

 lars that are required to get one criminal pun- 

 ished by law, it does seem somewhat discour- 

 aging. The man Ruthven, whose life was full 

 of crime, and who not only shot a policeman, 

 but tried to shoot other people right and left 

 in broad daylight in Cleveland, had to go 

 through a long-drawn out and expensive law- 

 suit before he could be found guilty and sen- 

 tenced to death as he has been. No one ques- 

 tions, unless it is his own attorneys, the mat- 

 ter of his guilt. And, by the way, I can not 

 quite understand how it is that lawyers will 

 spend so much time and money to try to get 

 such a man (with no monej' to pay them) out 

 of the clutches of the law. Perhaps I had 

 better stop here or I shall be finding fault, and 

 criticising our courts, when I started out to do 

 just the reverse. 



In our last issue, on page 974, I expressed a 

 fear that our colored friends could hardly ex- 

 pect protection from our laws — especially such 

 protection as our white citizens have a right 

 to expect. Since that was written I have had 

 a pleasant experience along that line. 



Just a week ago to-day, Dec. 15, I visited 

 Goshen, Orange Co., N. Y., in the interest of 

 bee keepers in the suit between the Utter 

 brothers ; but as Ernest will tell you about 

 this, I wish to speak about something else just 

 now. Our suit was to be taken up at 9 o'clock 

 on Monday morning, the 17th ; and when all 

 the parties were on hand we found there was 

 another suit in ahead of us that they thought 

 would occupy only an hour or two. However, 

 it occupied almost the entire day. As we bee- 

 keepers and fruit-growers wanted to be on 

 hand promptly, we remained in the court- 

 room and witnessed the trial between an elec- 

 tric-railway company and a colored man who 

 had been knocked down and thrown off the 

 car by the motorman. During my busy life I 

 have hardly found time to be present at csurt 

 proceedings. In fact, I am not sure I ever at- 

 tended unless I was called in as a witness, and 

 just one time when I was on the jury for two 

 days. Well, in this case the colored man sued 

 the trolley company for damages. I very 

 soon made up my mind that, even though he 

 had been roughly handled, he stood no chance 

 of getting any damages at all. Between Mid- 

 dletown and Goshen there is a park. I notic- 

 ed it as I passed through, and saw the signs 

 on the buildings of the different kinds of beer 

 that were sold there in the summer time. By 

 the way, that park ( I have forgotten the name 

 of it) or, rather, the buildings with inscrip- 

 tions on them, are a disgrace to Orange Co. as 

 well as to the whole State of New York. But 

 as I say it I recognize that our own State of 

 Ohio is cursed with any number of just such 

 summer resorts. The row that brought this 

 case before the court occurred on Sunday, as 

 you might expect, and after some if not all 

 the parties had been drinking. Green, the 

 colored man, said under oath that he had had 

 two glasses of beer and one glass of whisky. 

 He claimed the motorman was drunk also, but 

 this was not proved conclusively. 



Near the park a second drunken man was 

 permitted to get aboard. The conductor did 

 not want to let him get on, but Green desired 

 that he should. The conductor tried to put 

 him off because of his profanity and obsceni- 

 ty. Green and his wife quieted him down and 

 tried to get him to behave himself. When the 

 drunken man had no money to pay his fare, 

 the conductor again tried to put him off. 

 This, of course, started the profanity once 

 more. Green evidently tried to act as peace- 

 maker, and says he volunteered to pay the 

 fare for his friend ; but the conductor evident- 

 ly thought best to put him off. Being unable 

 to do this he called the motorman to his aid. 

 Green remonstrated, either by words or ac- 

 tions, and the motorman struck him with his 

 trolley-crank, knocked him off on the ground, 

 and laid bare his skull. He climbed back on 

 the seat, however, and every thing went on 

 pleasantly. 



Let me pause right here to say that I was 

 forced to admire the skill and ingenuity with 

 which four lawyers went to work to bring out 

 every little item of fact regarding the matter. 

 More than a dozen witnesses were examined, 

 and it was really wonderful to me to see how 



