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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



We have made a covenant with death, and with hell 

 are we at agreement.— ISA. 28 : 15. 



As I sit down to write this Home Paper, my 

 conversation with Mrs. Root at the breakfast- 

 table comes vividly to my mind. We were 

 speaking of the bank robberies that are men- 

 tioned in almost every daily paper of late. 

 First it is here, then it is there, then it is some- 

 where else. No portion of our country seems 

 to be exempt These hardened criminals are 

 either scattered all through the community 

 or else they are canvassing the country to find 

 little towns or other places that promise a 

 good field for their work. If some old farmer 

 who does not read the papers, and is not up 

 with the times, has been foolish enough to se- 

 crete a sum of money in or around his home, 

 these emissaries of Sitau, by some hook or 

 crook:, get hold of the matter. It does not 

 matter how careful the old farmer has been to 

 find a hiding place for his money. It is of no 

 avail. A gang of ruffians sufficient in number 

 to overpower him and all the inmates of the 

 home break down the doors, bind and gag the 

 father, and make him tell where his money is 

 hidden by torturing him by burning his hands 

 or fee: until he tells where his money is. Just 

 lately, not far from here, a new scheme in 

 this line (that must have been hatched out in 

 the bottomless pit) is reported. When the 

 farmer refused to tell where his hard earnings 

 of thirty or forty years past were hidden they 

 grabbed his daughter, 19 years old, and — I 

 dare not put it on these pages ; but one of 

 them added, "Tell us where your money is 

 and we will let the girl alone." The father 

 still refused. He was probably a sort of mi- 

 ser ; but the mother could endure it no longer. 

 She took them down cellar, and told them 

 where to dig in the ground. They got their 

 money and went away. 



Bank buildings are being wrecked with 

 tremendous charges of nitro -glycerine. In 

 fact, they do not hesitate to leave the most ex- 

 pensive building in a little town in ruins ; and 

 if the people come out and undertake to show 

 fight, half a dozen or more desperate wretches 

 hold the town at bay. Of course, we (some- 

 times) capture some of them ; some of them 

 are shot in the encounter, and our policemen 

 and sheriffs are shot down. But they go to 

 work and build up their town again, get a 

 stronger safe, and put on additional night 

 watches. I fear criminals sometimes get off 

 by some technicality in law, and then go at 

 the same thing again. 



In the neighborhood of Medina there has 

 been for forty years a gang of criminals ; but 

 I understand that now the last ®f the notori- 

 ous Foster gang is in prison. These fellows 

 have been arrested time and time again, and 

 stood trial. But their numbers were sufiicient 

 so they brought witnesses in such a crowd 

 they got off almost every time. If the officers 



were getting the upper hand of this thing, 

 even though slowly, we might cease worrying 

 about it. 



The loss of the people's hard earnings, es- 

 pecially the rural people, and honest, hard- 

 working people who generally reside around 

 these country banks, is a bad thing — yes, it is 

 a terrible thing to think of that there are 

 wretches in this land of ours who are so utter- 

 ly devoid of conscience or principle that they 

 would want the money that has been saved 

 little by little by sweat and toil. How can 

 these people — how can any one in human 

 form be so heartless and selfish ? 



But, dear brother and sister, there is some- 

 thing more terrible still than the loss of prop- 

 erty or the loss of money, that is going on in 

 our land. For months past a book has been 

 on my table, the title of which follows me like 

 a nightmare. I looked the book over, and 

 said that, although there is a great deal of 

 truth in it, its statements are largely exagger- 

 ated. Then I began watching the papers — 

 yes, I began watching our own State of Ohio, 

 and finally our own neighborhood.- The very 

 title of this book startles one. It is, " Ttaffic 

 in Girls.'' Why, the thought is horrible. It 

 is a disgrace to our country. It is a disgrace 

 to the whole wide world to be obliged to ad- 

 mit there is any truth in the title at all — that 

 there is really in the United States, as well as 

 in other countries, a traffic in girls. 



In my childhood I used to hear about the 

 traffic in colored people. We used to read 

 about the slave trade vessels ; we read of hu- 

 man beings being sold at auction ; and those 

 of my reiders whose hair is white like mine 

 will remember the struggle and fight we had 

 to cast off the reproach that for so many j ears 

 rested on us as a Christian nation. May God 

 be praised for Abraham Lincoln and the pub- 

 lic sentiment that was back of him. 



Well, now, let us go back to the title of the 

 book. I tear, dear friends, that the title 

 might have another word put in that would 

 make it still more horrible, and yet the word 

 might belong there. Suppose we put it "Traf- 

 fic in Little Girls." As I think of it my little 

 prayer wells up from my heart, not exactly 

 "Lord, help," but, rather, "May God help 

 us. " God help us as a Christian nation to 

 rouse ourselves with such determination and 

 Christian courage and heroism that this thing 

 shall be stopped before it goes any further. 



If a man should come into your town with a 

 great club, striking down the little children go- 

 ing to school, killing them, or maiming them 

 for life, would you, after he had done a lot of 

 this work, have him arrested and tried, and 

 then let unprincipled, greedy lawyers get him 

 off by some technicality, or say he is insane? 

 If it transpired, when you came to get right 

 down to the bottom of the matter, that he was 

 a millionaire, and had plenty of money, would 

 the people be content to say his money shall 

 save him ? Or, if you choose, after he had serv- 

 ed a short time in the penitentiary, would you 

 permit some governor with a heart as foul and 

 wicked as that of the criminal himself, to par- 

 don him out and then let him set to work and 

 do the same thing over again ? Perhaps my 



