1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE, 



465 



poor woman is wasting strength— wearing 

 herself out, perhaps, and laying the founda- 

 tion of future doctor bills. Get her such a 

 saw as I have described, and then file it 

 yourself or else see that it is kept sharp. If 

 the boys dull it, teach them how to put it in 

 order again, and insist on their doing it. 

 Have a good screwdriver and wrench, and, 

 above all things, an oil-can, or, better still, 

 oil-cans of different sizes, and some good 

 oil. If a door squeaks, or opens hard, fix it. 

 Don't you get oil on the carpet, either, nor 

 on any thing else. If the spring in the door- 

 lock is broken, fix it yourself, or hunt up a 

 man to fix it. By t lie way, how many men 

 do you know of in your vicinity who will lix 

 a door-lock, and do it well the first time r 

 How many men do you know of who would 

 fix up a clothes-wringer in the way I have 

 described, and do it right? Men who can 

 do these things, or who have taught them- 

 selves to do them, are never without em- 

 ployment. 



"Shall we all turn tinkers ?" say you. 

 Yes, my friend, turn tinker by all means, if 

 you have nothing to do. lie that is faithful 

 in few things shall be made ruler over 

 greater things. These are the Savior's 

 words. " Not to be ministered unto, but to 

 minister." These are also the words of the 

 Master. How much experience havq you 

 had in employing workmen to lix things, 

 and then find them no better than they were 

 before — sometimes not as good. I know 

 without your telling me. A great many 

 times a piece of work is sent home without 

 even testing: it to see whether it will work 

 or not. When you want a lock repaired, of 

 course you send along the key. Well, there 

 are people who will repair a lock and send 

 it home without even taking the trouble to 

 put the key in the lock to see if it will turn 

 the bolt. They are too shiftless to test their 

 work before sending it home. They have 

 not been schooled or drilled in thorough- 

 ness. People who are professing Christians. 

 it seems to me, can not love their neighbor 

 even a little i let alone loving their neigh- 

 bors as themselves), or they would consider 

 how much vexation of spirit it makes him 

 to send him something that cannot be used. 

 Perhaps some of you think I had better look 

 at home. O friends, I do know it, God 

 knows I know it. A foundation-mill was 

 once sent across the ocean ; but when the 

 friend over there across the seas attempted 

 to put the crank on the shaft, it would not 

 go on. The hole in the crank was too small. 

 He accused us of fraud, saying that the mill 

 had never been tested, because the crank 

 would not go on, and never had been on. 

 He was a little uncharitable, however. As 

 it soils a new crank in testing it in the wax- 

 room, we have one soiled crank that is used 

 to test all the mills ; but the man who bored 

 the hole in the crank was too shiftless to 

 see whether the hole was large enough for 

 the shaft or not; and the one who packed 

 the mill up to send it off to a foreign coun- 

 try did not have love enough in his heart to 

 prompt him to try the crank on the shaft, 

 to see that it was all right. In our own 

 household, in other households, on the 

 street, out in the fields, and everywhere I 



go, I hear this longing, " Oh for somebody 

 who would b; 1 careful to do things right ; 

 who would return borrowed tools, and— bor- 

 rowed umbrellas ; for somebody who would 

 be constantly thinking of the comforts and 

 needs and rights of the neighbors around 

 him, instead of simply self — getting out of 

 the rain, perhaps ; getting a cultivator long 

 enough to do his own garden— not caring 

 whether the tools he borrowed were return- 

 ed or not ! " It has been said, that, should 

 the Savior come on earth now, he would 

 find a great improvement over the time 

 when he did come. 1 grant, dear friends, 

 that he would find much improvement in 

 intelligence, in the progress of invention, 

 etc.; but, oh what a wide held he would 

 find for the exercise of Christian spirit and 

 love ! Not to be ministered unto, but to 

 minister. 



It is not only that you will thus do good 

 and make people happy, but you will ac- 

 cumulate money. When in California I 

 told you of the great call for something to 

 do— people out of employment ; but yet our 

 skillful bee-men are constantly wanted. 

 Well, most of these bee-men are experts in 

 repairing things. They can fix almost any 

 piece of machinery. People came to them, 

 and offered them big pay because they were 

 skillful ; and, my friend, if you are skillful, 

 people will come to you and offer you big 

 pay. You may say that your talent does 

 not lie in that direction. I want to contra- 

 dict you. You can be skillful if you want to. 

 and nothing in this world will help you to 

 be skillful like having the love of Christ 

 Jesus in your heart. If it gives you pain to 

 see a friend or neighbor work with a poor 

 and inefficient implement, a loving desire 

 for his welfare will prompt you to study 

 into the whys and wherefores of things— to 

 get acquainted with implements and ma- 

 chinery, and with the ordinary affairs of 

 this busy world. You can "learn to fix 

 things," by practice. Just keep at it dur- 

 ing all your idle moments, and you will 

 soon get to be a proficient. Y'ou may think 

 it a small thing to use a hammer with skill. 

 Why, a good mechanic with a nice hammer 

 that just suits him will do four times the 

 amount of nailing in an hour that an ordi- 

 nary person does. A great many times I 

 say,' " Friend, will you just let me get hold 

 of that hammer?" and oftentimes I will 

 just make him laugh while I show him the 

 tricks and turns, and the amount that can 

 be accomplished by the skillful use of a 

 hammer. And it is the same with almost 

 all other tools. When 1 first commenced 

 business, the inspiring motive was not love 

 for Christ Jesus : it was simply love for a 

 nice little woman about 18 years old, who 

 lived off in the country, across the river. 

 That was not a very bad incentive, 1 admit ; 

 but if it had been Christ Jesus, it might have 

 included the other. Her father feared I 

 would never "make a living.'" Said I (I 

 guess it must have been one moonlight 

 night while we stood by the gate), " We will 

 see." So when I opened a jeweler's repair 

 shop I solicited repairing of all kinds. I 

 fixed door-locks, umbrellas, parasols, coffee- 

 mills, etc. If somebody suggested they had 



