448 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



and declared again and again before God that 

 he was honest and true, and would not harm 

 the child for the world. I listened to others, 

 and tried for a time to think that he was hon- 

 est and sincere in what he said ; but before 

 the end came he admitted to me he was get- 

 ting a divorce from his wife as fast as the law 

 would move along, and then he was going to 

 marry the child. Some people would object 

 to my calling her a child at the time she went 

 away from here ; but the beginning of the 

 whole disgraceful affair was when she was only 

 a trusting and confiding child, such as I have 

 described. 



Now, dear friends, it would hardly be in 

 keeping with my profession as a believer in 

 the gospel of Christ Jesus if I let this matter 

 drop right here. Jesus, when here on earth, 

 taught us there was not only redemption and 

 pardon for these poor lost girls, but redemp- 

 tion and pardon for the author of and leader 

 in their sin and ruin. Sometimes when speak- 

 ing of the sin and crime of this new century, 

 my consc'ence has troubled me because, as 

 memory carries me back, I can see a finger 

 pointing to the time when the writer of these 

 same Home Papers was little better, zw heart, 

 than some he denounces so vehemently. 

 Some great and good man once said, as he 

 pointed to a drunken sot in the gutter, " But 

 for the grace of God, there lies myself." And, 

 dear friends, as I look back, honesty and truth 

 compel me to say that, but for the grace of 

 God and the love of Christ Jesus, your old 

 friend A. I. Root might have been — God only 

 knows where. But still I shall have to con- 

 fess my faith wavers when I think of reclaim- 

 ing and reforming such wretches as I have 

 described. May God help me, when I pray, to 

 pray with more faith for those who seem to 

 be lost through Satan's wiles. 



Let me emphasize, in closing, the point made 

 in that extract I have given. The traffic in 

 strong drink is at the bottom of all this. The 

 papers have told us how this traffic in our new 

 possessions has led directly, in a very short 

 time, to a traffic in human beings — yes, and I 

 fear not only to a traffic in girls, but to a traf- 

 fic in little girls. "When African slavery reach- 

 ed a point in the United States where the peo- 

 ple would stand it no longer, there was a great 

 revolution, and we at once and for ever threw 

 off Satan's yoke. . We are fast approaching 

 the same state of affairs in regard to the traf- 

 fic in strong drink. Our local option bills 

 here in Ohio have been again and again de- 

 feated when the voice of the people was in a 

 large majority in favor of the bill ; and I be- 

 lieve the lime is near at hand when the people 

 will rise and unite as they did in slavery times, 

 to throw off this yoke imposed on us by 

 drunken or drinking legislators and senators. 

 May Good speed the day. 



Objections have been frequently made that 

 it is better for children to know nothing about 

 these things. I do not agree with this. Thou- 

 sands upon thousands of children might have 

 been saved had they known in time something 

 of what I have been telling you in this Home 

 Paper. If their fathers and mothers will not 

 tell them and warn them, let them read it in 



the papers and journals. I for one shall be 

 glad to have every child ten years of age or 

 more, who cares to read what I have written, 

 read it. Our own boys and girls were all 

 taught by their father and mother, after they 

 were old enough to be in danger of having 

 their young minds poisoned by having the 

 matter presented from a wrong standpoint in- 

 stead of the right one, by some one who does 

 not care for their future welfare as the father 

 and mother do. 



What I have written above refers to this 

 traffic in the United States. The papers are 

 just now informing us that the traffic is open- 

 ing up, both in the Sandwich Islands and in 

 the Philippines, and that, too, under a sort of 

 sanction of this government of ours. Yes, 

 the LTnited States government that proposed 

 to Christianize and civilize these heathen lands 

 is, in one sense, in partnership with the men 

 who barter, not in African slaves, but in girls 

 of every nationality. Their excuse is, pro- 

 tecting the soldiers from contagious diseases — 

 the same excuse these men offered for continu- 

 ing the sale of beer to the soldiers (to keep 

 them away from uorse places). What a tre- 

 mendous compliment we pay the manhood 

 and Christianity of our soldier boys when we 

 claim they will have beer in spite of us ! 



Well, our great generals have decided, we 

 are told, that sanitary measures must be en- 

 forced to protect our soldiers ; therefore these 

 women and girls, after examination, have a 

 permit from the government of the United 

 States — I think I have got it right — to continue 

 their traflBc. They pay so much a month for 

 this permit ; and these great generals defend 

 the traffic by telling how much money it brings 

 into the treasury of the government. In the 

 Sandwich Islands they have put a high fence 

 around a certain part of Honolulu. I would 

 not dare to print the rules and regulations, 

 more than to say that one of them is that bo5'S 

 under age can not enter the inclosure. An- 

 other is, that no girl under 16 years of age 

 will be permitted to occupy one of the — I was 

 going to say buildings inside of the inclosure, 

 but I guess I had better call it a " booth." A 

 girl too young, generally speaking, the world 

 over, to trade off her doll-baby, or any of her 

 other childish treasures, is permitted by this 

 government, under God's blue sky, to sell 

 herself, soul and body ! A great string of 

 names in the form of a petition from the 

 Young Women's Christian Association of the 

 United States has been sent to President Mc- 

 Kinley, pleading with him for humanity's 

 sake, and for the sake of the women under 

 the stars and stripes, and for God's sake, to 

 use the authority that is vested in him to at 

 once and for ever put a stop to this part or 

 partnership that this government has in this 

 awful traffic. Now, father and mother, broth- 

 er and sister, every one whose eyes meet these 

 pages, let your prayers follow this petition ; 

 and let us each and all, by every act in our 

 power, put down this growing traffic as we 

 put down the traffic in African slaves through 

 the pen of Abraham Lincoln, who died a mar- 

 tyr because he was not afraid to take the 

 lead. 



