1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



389 



a little more for him than he expected me 

 to do. It has been a great pleasure all my 

 life to see if I could not, according' to the 

 terms of my advertisement, do a little more 

 for the man who trusted me with his money 

 rather than do a little less. It is this fash- 

 ion, or sort of spirit, if you choose, that has 

 built up our business. I know there are 

 some who, every little while, throw out 

 flings about the Root Co., saying- they are 

 grasping- and greedy — after the almighty 

 dollar, etc. But I do not feel troubled about 

 such things now as I once did, because any- 

 body who follows us up, and gets acquaint- 

 ed with us, knows it is not true. A single 

 transaction maj^ look bad ; but if an ex- 

 planation is asked for, I think it will be 

 forthcoming. It is not fair to judge a man 

 by a single incident.* We must look at his 

 record all along, day after day, week after 

 week, and month after month. Well, this 

 fashion of mine, of trying to do a little 

 more than I agreed to, is one thing that has 

 built up our business. I am sure the boys 

 feel just as I do about this, although they 

 may not have the peculiar gift that God 

 seems to have granted me to talk things 

 over and make an explanation and make 

 things pleasant. 



Now, that is considerable bragging, is 

 it not? But I want to brag just a little 

 more, before I take the other side. In all 

 my 3'ears of business, amounting now to 

 about fiftj% I have been averse to going to 

 bed at night until every wrong was righted 

 — that is, so far as it could be. If I gave a 

 man an ounce of onion-seed and took his 

 money for a pound, I could hardly go to 

 sleep until I had sent him the other 15 

 ounces. If it was the other waj-, and I had 

 g-iven him a pound by mistake, and charg- 

 ed him for only an ounce, theti I felt dis- 

 turbed. Funny, isn't it? Well, the funnj' 

 part of it is that sometimes the man would 

 pay me for the 15 ounces he got by mistake, 

 and sometimes he wouldn't. A good friend 

 in Pennsylvania (I might give you his 

 name, but I guess I will not) once by mis- 

 take received a receipt in full on all ac- 

 counts up to date. At the time that receipt 

 was given he had a big box of foundation 

 that was not paid for. He held on to his 

 receipt up to date, and said it covered the 

 whole matter, and said he would not pay 

 us a cent more. I labored with him for 

 over a year, and finally induced him to ad- 

 mit that he had not paid for that lot of 

 foundation. He said, however, he was a 

 poor man, and hadn't the monej^ then, but, 

 God helping him, he would paj'^ it all. Aft- 

 er that he got over into Satan's hands 

 again and repudiated the whole thing. We 

 put it in a lawyer's hands, and spent some 



*We clip the following from iYis Morning Star, oi 

 Boston, Mass.: 



It is easy to suspect a man of being a rascal, to charge him 

 with being a rajical, and even to prove him a rascal, provid- 

 ed that lies are good evidence, and he has no opportunity of 

 contradicting or disproving them. 



But suppose when you have proved that man is a rascal, 

 the man himself refuses to be a rascal. What can be done 

 tlien '.■' Proving a man a rascal does not make him one— it 

 M.\T only show the rascality of those who have tried to 

 blacken and defame an honest man. 



money in trying to collect it. The decision 

 was, that his contrite letter, admitting his 

 indebtedness, was wrung from him under 

 great pressure, and would not stand law. 



Now, I believe it is true that I have all 

 my life been troubled just the same, whether 

 the money that was lost went into my pock- 

 et or into that of somebod3^ else. This 

 thing was true, even before I became a fol- 

 lower of Christ Jesus — that is, to a great 

 extent. I seem to have been "built that 

 way," and therefore no very great credit is 

 due me. I think the credit belongs more to 

 my good father and mother for having so 

 carefull}' taught me to be honest and square, 

 even in my childhood days. Now, if you 

 will excuse so much boasting we will talk 

 about something else; but we shall proba- 

 bly get around to the same subject before 

 we get through. 



Last Sunday evening our pastor gave us 

 a sermon on the life of Jesus Christ. He 

 said, among other things, that Jesus never 

 preached a temperance sermon; he never 

 gave us a sermon on gambling. He warn- 

 ed us against licentiousness and other evils, 

 but he did not exhort mankind to be special- 

 ly careful in regard to any one sort of sin. 

 He said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, 

 for they shall see God," and that covers 

 the whole thing. If the heart is pure, and 

 in it is an honest, sincere love for truth, 

 righteousness, temperance, and purity, then 

 these other things are all unnecessary; and, 

 in fact, the only real remedy for sin in all 

 its forms is a change of heart. Christ said, 

 "Ye must be born again;" and this new 

 birth means that the whole being shall be 

 filled with the spirit that stirred Christ 

 Jesus when here on earth. I told you I am 

 naturall}^ unselfish where money matters 

 are concerned. Let us take a glimpse of 

 sin where money does not figure. 



A dail}^ paper of April 12 tells us that 

 Prof. Joseph M. Miller, a Detroit music- 

 teacher, has just been arrested for the mur- 

 der of a beautiful j'oung lady. Let me 

 make just one brief extract from that pa- 

 per: 



" When did you make up your mind to kill the girl ?'" 

 Miller was asked. 



" L,ast Wednesday afternoon," he answered. "I 

 was thinking of what could be done, and of my being 

 married and with a family, when ray eye fell on a 

 hatchet up at the house. It seemed to tell the way 

 out of the trouble, and the idea of killing the girl 

 swept over me with irresistible force then. 



"I felt that I had to do .something," he went on in a 

 lower tone. " I felt that I had to get rid of her. She 

 was infatuated with me, crazj' after me, and constant- 

 ly chasing me. If I gave a concert anywhere she was 

 sure to be in the neighborhood." 



I read over very carefully once or twice 

 the particulars as given in the dail}', and I 

 wish to paraphrase the account a little — 

 that is, I will supply some things from my 

 imagination that may be true in this case 

 or may not be true. Let us suppose this 

 music-teacher was acquainted with the fa- 

 ther of the girl. He was a married man, 

 and had children of his own, we are told. 

 These two men may have been friends. All 

 their deal maj'^ have been honest and square. 

 This music-teacher may have been just as 



