1908 



Gl.F.ANINC^S IN BEE CULTURE. 



707 



temperanre orusade, oiu-e in a wliilc it gets somc- 

 thinjj from the other side. I suppose you are 

 well aware that we send a printed statement to 

 all of our subscribers when their time runs out, 

 asking them to remit if they wish tlieir journal 

 continued. I am now going to give you a brief 

 letter from one of our subscribers who is not ex- 

 actly pleased, evidently, with the course Glean- 

 ings has taken. I will give only the initials of 

 the writer and the name of his State, for I do 

 not wish to be personal: 



The d — d local-option law has knocked us out of business, and 

 so we have to cut down expenses. J. H. H. 



Illinois, April 24. 



Although this friend asked to have his journal 

 stopped, I am going to mail him one more num- 

 ber, and I want him to look at these pictures. 

 And permit me to say to him, and others who 

 may have their revenue cut off by the recent cru- 

 sade, something as follows: 



" Dear brothers, when you take a look at the 

 picture of those boys, and realize that it is in 

 your power to influence them either in the down- 

 ward path that leads to ruin or in the straight 

 and narrow path that leads to heaven, can you 

 for a moment think of doing any thing, no mat- 

 ter how much money you may get out of it, 

 that would lead them astray.? Are not the words 

 of our opening text the words spoken by God's 

 holy Son — words that bear the stamp of having 

 come from heaven rather than earth.? You may 

 get money, it is true; but more than one million- 

 aire has found his money to be a veritable mill- 

 stone hung about his neck." 



Just a few days before I left Florida a wealthy 

 man in our own neighborhood, who got his 

 money in the liquor business, made one of his 

 employees a Christmas present of a jug of whis- 

 ky. Just think of it! a /?/§■ of tvhisky for a 

 Christmas present! Well, this employee, al- 

 though he had not been much in the habit of 

 attending our Sunday-school at Osprey, on that 

 special Christmas eve he took his wife to the 

 Christmas-tree in that little chapel I have told 

 you about. The poor woman had suffered from 

 sickness and other trials, and was just getting 

 able once more to care for her little family of 

 two. After the Christmas celebration was over, 

 when this man and his family were sound asleep, 

 perhaps a little after midnight, two other drink- 

 ing men roused them up and demanded the jug 

 of whisky or what remained of it. In the alter- 

 cation which ensued, the man who received the 

 whisky was shot, and his poor innocent wife was 

 so prostrated by the tragedy on that Christmas 

 morning that she went insane and is now in the 

 asylum, and in a few days later the man of 

 wealth, who presented that jug of whisky to the 

 murdered man, himself committed suicide. That 

 is the sort of Christmas present that that jug of 

 whisky proved to be. 



Dear friends, if your former occupation is 

 gone, and you are obliged to turn to something 

 else for a livelihood, can you not thank God for 

 having blocked the way so that you can now en- 

 gage in something that will be useful to hu- 

 manity.? 



Now I want you all to take a look at that pic- 

 ture of the boys once more. Think of teaching 

 these little fellows to smoke cigarettes when the 

 whole wide world agrees in regard to the terrible 



damage the habit does to the boys physically as 

 well as mentally. The teachers in our schools 

 are a unit, and I may almost say the same thing 

 of our fathers and mothers, and yet this traffic 

 goes on. Seven States have already prohibited 

 their manufacture and sale. These States are 

 Tennessee, Oklahoma, Indiana, Wisconsin, Ne- 

 braska, Washington, and Arkansas. Ohio lias 

 once more been defeated in her effort to banish 

 cigarettes. Just one little woman, Miss Lucy 

 Page Gaston, is leading the fight. If you want 

 to write to her, address her at 1119 Woman s 

 Temple, Chicago, 111. 



In a recent letter she sends me the following 

 newspaper clipping: 



Probate Judge Samuel L. Black gave the anti-cigarette crusade 

 movement a great impetus Sunday afternoon in a forceful and 

 pointed address delivered at the mass meeting held in the Cen- 

 tral Presbyterian church, Columbus. After denouncing the cig- 

 arette as the means of ruining more boys than the open saloon, 

 he declared that, if the pending juvenile-court bill passes the 

 legislature, he would at once commence handing out heavy fines 

 and workhouse sentences to the hundreds of Columbus druggists, 

 and poolroom and tobacco-store proprietors, who persist in supply- 

 ing the young boys with the nefarious " coffin-nails." 



" The evil of the cigarette curse lies mainly in the ease with 

 which any youngster in Columbus can secure all the cigarettes he 

 can smoke," said Judge Black. " Very few saloonists will sell 

 liquor to a lad under sixteen. They are afraid to. But young- 

 sters of even the most tender years can purchase their tobacco 

 supply almost anywhere. The resulting havoc is evidenced in 

 our juvenile-court records. It is not fair to punish the boy for 

 smoking. The adult who furnishes the obnoxious weed, and de- 

 rives a lucrative revenue, is the real culprit. He is the man who 

 is filling our prisons and public institutions. If a good prohibito- 

 ry measure were passed in Ohio it would not be necessary for a 

 Colimibus police judge to parole fifty or a hundred prisoners in 

 order that room may be made for the constantly increasing 

 throng." 



Judge Black forcibly illustrated his talk with incidents that 

 came under his notice in the juvenile court and the graver cases 

 brought to his notice as probate judge. 



Just think of that, friends. These cigarette 

 manufacturers and venders say in substance, 



"We do not care a what becomes of your 



boys. We are going to have their nickels, if we 

 can get them, as long as the boys have any." If 

 the above are not the exact words they use, it 

 certainly is the spirit of what their actions mani- 

 fest, and all for a little money. By the way, is 

 it not true that there are a good many of us, and 

 some mothers, perhaps, as well as fathers, who 

 are straining every nerve for nickels and dollars.? 

 and yet when we come to die, of what use then 

 is this money or property.? And sometimes, even 

 before we come to die, we begin to realize that 

 money does not purchase peace of mind or happi- 

 ness. I have exhorted you many times lately 

 about laying up treasures in heaven instead of 

 here on earth. Now, is there any other way in 

 this world by which we can more surely lay up 

 treasures in hea-uen than by keeping a careful 

 and loving eye over these young boys and girls 

 just growing up, no matter whether they are 

 your children or those of your neighbor.? They 

 are God's children, and the responsibility rests 

 on us to look after them and protect them by law 

 as well as lies in our power. See that they are 

 brought into the Sunday-school; that they are 

 taught these precious and wonderful texts out of 

 God's word; that they are properly protected 

 from these demons in human form who would 

 blast their young lives just to obtain a few nick- 

 els. In closing I wish to give you one more 

 text: 



And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little 

 ones a cup of cold water only, in the name of a disciple, verily I 

 say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward. — Matt. 10:42 



