866 



business; and every Sunday night they had 

 what the folks roundabout called the 

 " Dutch dance." The great feature of this 

 dance was beer by the kegful, drunk by 

 boys and girls and men and women. At the 

 time of my conversion, at one of our church 

 conferences I spoke of this plague-sj^ot in 

 our county of Medina, and declared the 

 responsibility rested on our church to start 

 a Sunday-school or some sort of mission 

 work in tins little town. There were quite 

 a fcAv smiles, I suppose because of my in- 

 experience, for I was young then, and esi^c- 

 pecially j'oung in Christian work. Some- 

 body suggested that I was probably just the 

 one to open up and carry on a Sunday- 

 school in order to correct or counteract the 

 effect of so much iniquity. I cheerfully ac- 

 cepted the task, and started out. I did not 

 suppose the people roundabout that neigh- 

 borhood had any idea that I was going to 

 attack the beer business, and I was pretty 

 careful about touching the Sunday traffic 

 or the Sunday dances until I had gotten 

 the school pi'etty well established. It was 

 a novelty in that region; and not only the 

 children but tlie parents and gi'own-up 

 people came from quite a distance around. 

 1 taught the little boys and girls to come up 

 on the platform and repeat scripture texts; 

 and the parents were greatly pleased to see 

 their children show off their ability in their 

 childlike Avays in this direction. One little 

 chick especially used to please the audience 

 by standing up on the platform by the side 

 of the superintendent while she sang 



I am Jesus' little lamb ; 

 Kappy all the day I am. 



The Sunday-school became such a success 

 that one bright day I shall long remember 

 the seats were all full, and the standing- 

 room was all occupied: and as it was warm 

 weather with the low-down windows clear 

 up, there was a little crowd outside around 

 each window; and you may rest assured 

 that T left for home happy and praising 

 God after the school Avas over.* 



At our prayer-meeting last evening the 

 good pastor said that no great reform was 

 ever started v/ithout having its ups and 

 doAvns. He said that sometimes the reac- 

 tion is such that things go awmj down, and 

 people lose faith. But he said if the pray- 

 ing men and women just have grace enough 

 io hold on Ave shall soon find the ups go a 

 little higlier, and the downs not quite so 

 loAv, so that real progress is being made, 



* It just occurs to me that one of my plans for 

 fretting up enthusiasm in Sunday-school was by 

 offering a pretty little text-card to every boy or girl 

 who would get up before the school and repeat a 

 verse. They would keep these text-cards; and when 

 they had received a certain number the cards were 

 exchanged for a pretty little Sunday-school book. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



even at times when we become sadly dis- 

 couraged. I Avonder if this is not going to 

 be true in our work of voting Ohio dry. 

 We had one of the " doAvns " in our failure 

 a year ago; and if we fail during this com- 

 ing election we are surely not going down 

 as deep as we did a year ago. May God 

 help us; and noAv let us get back to that 

 Sunday-school not far aAvay from the 

 breAvery and saloon. 



Sundaj^, as 1 liaA'e said, was one of the 

 big days for selling beer: and pretty soon 

 the man Avho owned the brcAvery began to 

 be suspicious that tliis popular Sunday- 

 school Avas drawing away his customers. 

 By and by the attendance, especially among 

 the boys and men, began to fall off; and I 

 well remember one Sunday that, although 

 there was a fair-sized school of girls and 

 women, there Avere less than half a dozen 

 men and boys pi'esent. I made some in- 

 quiry as to Avhat Avas the cause, and one of 

 the women informed me the brcAver during 

 the Sunday-school hour Avas giving away 

 beer to our Sunday-school boys, and, as a 

 consequence, my Avhole school of men and 

 boys Avere nearly all over at the brewery. I 

 cut short the exercises that day, and Avith 

 the little prayer in my heart, " Lord, help," 

 ] started for the brewery. The boys pres- 

 ent, and some of the girls, followed to see 

 Avhat Avould happen. Before I got there I 

 heard the noise of revelry. I presume I 

 felt something as Moses did Avhen he came 

 doAvn from the mount with the tables of 

 stone and found the people worshiping the 

 golden calf. Somebody looked out of the 

 open door and saAv me coming, and out of 

 the open hack door the whole croAvd of boys 

 and some of the men put out on a stampede 

 and hid in some bushes just back of the 

 brewery. I spoke pleasantly to the man- 

 ager, and asked Avhy the wliole croAvd of 

 men ran when I came in sight. He said 

 he did not exactly know, but granted me 

 permission to go after them. You will re- 

 member the text, " The Avicked flee wlien no 

 man pursueth.''' It was one of the favorite 

 ones that the little girls used to repeat on 

 that Sunday-school platform. I suppose it 

 Avas a favorite text because it was short and 

 easily remembered. Well, I went out and 

 found a great part of my Sunday-school in 

 the bushes. Said I, "Why, boys, Avhy should 

 you run Avhen j-ou see me coming? You 

 certainh'^ are not afraid of your old teacher, 

 are you"? " 



They laughed, and hung down their 

 heads, and finally, by a little urging, they 

 came back into the brcAvery. I asked the 

 brewer to give me permission to talk to 

 them, and I was pretty careful of my 



