1032 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15 



the addresses, from beginning- to end, was 

 this very Beat law. I have spoken of the vic- 

 tory a^ Xenia. Rev. A. C. Turrel, pastor 

 of the First M E. Church of that place, told 

 us all about it; and every one in that au- 

 dience of two or three thousand understood 

 exactly how to go to work to get their own 

 home town "dry" if it is not already so.* 



"How we did Not Win at Ironton," by 

 Rev. H J. Smith, D.D., gave us a glimpse 

 of what we might expect in the way of un- 

 derhanded, illegal means, and the use of 

 money by the enemy when we undertake to 

 fight him in a large town where there are 

 many saloons. Thank God, men of capital 

 are now coming forward and furnishing us 

 the money to fight these good fights; but we 

 as Christian men can not stoop to the under- 

 handed means employed by the brewers and 

 their agents; but even if this be true we are 

 more than a match, for God is with its, and 

 the enemy have only Satan for their helper. 



The program announced the noon recess 

 at 11: 30; but the chairman found it next to 

 impossible to close before noon; but he said 

 at closing there would be a "school of meth- 

 ods " conducted by experienced workers 

 at 12:30. That left us just 30 minutes to 

 get our dinners. But I was agreeably sur- 

 prised to find a great crowd on hand at 

 12:30. 



Let me say right here that the beautiful 

 restaurants in Columbus seemed to recog- 

 nize the need of giving us something good, 

 and doing it ^/^/rX'/y, so we might get back; 

 and I am going to mention one in particular, 

 the Busy Bee and Candy Kitchen. This is 

 a temperance dining-room in every sense of 

 the word. Almost a dozen years ago I men- 

 tioned it on these pages; and it has grown 

 now to be one of the finest restaurants to 

 be found in Columbus or almost any other 

 city. We sometimes hear the plea made 

 that certain restaurants could not give the 

 nice service and low prices they do, were it 

 not for what they make on their liquors. 

 The Busy Bee gives better service than I 

 have ever found in restaurants in any city 

 where they had a whisky sideboard. They 

 have now three large stores in Columbus; 

 and while we were there they were full of 

 business. At the school of methods 1 found 

 our old expert friend in all matters pertain- 

 ing to temperance law, Mr. Wayne B. 

 Wheeler, answering questions in regard to 

 the enforcement of law as fast as they could 

 be fired at him. In fact, he had to ask 

 them to stand while he could decide whose 

 question came first. His audience was 

 composed of men and women who had been 

 right in the fights, and who, perhaps, were 

 in fights then to get their respective towns 



* In Xenia they had 33 saloons in a population of 

 HOOO and when that Methodist preacher showed them 

 he could fight as well as preach they threatened to 

 burn his home, put out the eyes of his children with 

 " vitriol," etc. But such threats as these rather 

 helped the preacher. They had a law-enforcement 

 committee of 100 of their best business men; and after 

 the saloons were ruled out, the policemen were in- 

 formed they could have their pay just so long as they 

 strictly enforced the law — no work no pay. 



dry instead of wet. Many of the questions 

 pertained to getting rid of the "speak-eas- 

 ies." Again and again somebody at my el- 

 bow would say, "There, that is where we 

 are in our town." Then somebody would 

 clap his hands, saying, "That answers 

 what I wanted to ask. We shall know just 

 how to take them now." 



Several asked about the distilling company 

 in Kentucky that is sending out circulars, 

 wanting to furnish "good old whisky" 

 wrapped up so securely that the temperance 

 fanatics can not tell what is going on, etc. 

 Mr. Wheeler told each one to send an order 

 for some of this whisky. One good brother 

 responded, "Why, Mr. Wheeler, I am a 

 Methodist preacher. If it should get out 

 that I was ordering whisky, what would 

 become of me? And then these fellows say 

 there is not a cent to pay until 3-ou have 

 drunk the liquor; and if it is not the best 

 3'ou ever tasted, you will not have to pay any 

 thing. You tell me to send and get some of 

 the stuff. You surely do not mean that I 

 must drink it so as to get a case against 

 them, do you?" Of course, there was a 

 shout of laughter at this. 



In the afternoon we had some stirring ad- 

 dresses from the respective authors of the 

 Haskell, Harris, Clark, and Beal bills. 

 Then Rev. E. C. Dinwiddle, Superinten- 

 dent of the Legislative Department of the 

 Anti-saloon League at Washington, told us 

 about the canteen fight they have had, and 

 the one that is to come. Unfortunately for 

 me I was obliged to be out of the room at 

 a committee meeting, and did not hear this. 



The afternoon was finished up by Rev. 

 Howard H. Russell, the originator and 

 pioneer in introducing the Anti-saloon 

 League in the United States. There were 

 four of the pioneers besides Dr. Russell who 

 were present at that first meeting of the 

 League in Oberlin. These four were" re- 

 quested to sit on the stage with the speakers. 

 It was lucky for me that I was one of the 

 above four, because my hearing is getting 

 now so that I can not catch every word un- 

 less I am near the speaker. 



At 6:30 the school of methods was opened 

 again, and it took two able lawyers to ans- 

 wer the questions. 



Tuesday evening the Rev. George R. 

 Stuart gave his celebrated lecture, "My 

 Stump-digger," in the great auditorium. 

 There are several reasons why I was most 

 intensely interested in this talk. We were 

 cautioned by Supt. Baker several times 

 during the day, unless we had tickets we 

 might not be able to get into that great 

 auditorium. Now, this building or inclo- 

 sure will hold about 5000, and I was curious 

 to know why four or five thousand people 

 should crowd each other to get a glimpse of 

 one little man, and hear him talk. And 

 that was not all. Something like 4000 peo- 

 ple were in a rush to pay 25 cents each for 

 the privilege of listening to him for an hour 

 or perhaps a little more. When he came on 

 the stage I was disappointed in his looks. 

 Most lecturers, where they receive $100 or 



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