1142 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15 



the poor woman (God bless her) and the tired 

 old farmer and the aged deacon went to sleep just 

 because of a lack of •-ventilation. Opening the 

 windows just a little is not enough to accommo- 

 date a gieat lot of people. If, like Terry, we 

 could take the windows out entirely, during 

 church time, in summer, that would be better; 

 but it does not begin to compare with having all 

 the walls of the building so that they can be 

 thrown out so as to make a porch, keeping out 

 the sun in hot weather, and letting the air circu- 

 late freely. I repeaedly looked over that audi- 

 ence of five thousand people at that gathering, 

 without finding any one who even looked sleepy. 

 The great speakers may have had something to do 

 with it; but 1 think Ciod's free open air had still 

 more to do with it. 



There were something like 150 to 200 repre- 

 sentatives of the Anti-saloon League from the 

 different counties of this State. They were most- 

 ly ministers of the gospel — Godfearing ministers 

 who did not hesitate to stand up bravely and 

 squarely for the abolishment of the saloon. * 



While we were holding a commitee meeting — 

 in fact, while somebody was speaking — a bright 

 little woman came in from the outside. She 

 came in so quietly, walking on the sawdust floor, 

 that nobody, not even the chairman or the speak- 

 er, seemed to notice her. She walked up with a 

 pleasant smile on her face, and this smile was 

 rendered more attractive, it may be, because of 

 the slightly heightened color on her face. I be- 

 gan wondering what she wanted, and looked to- 

 ward the chaiiman as he rose. Finally she said 

 in a quiet voice, "May I be excused for having 

 the ' cheek ' to presume to interrupt your meet- 

 ing for just a moment in this unusual way.''" 



Of course, the speaker stopped and the chair- 

 man smilingly gave her permission to speak. 



"Well, friends, Governor Harris is coming, as 

 you know, this afternoon, and we want each one 

 in the Boys' Brigade to carry a little flag. We 

 have no flags, and we must get the order off on 

 the next car if we get them here in time. We 

 want a little money, and the women told me if I 

 would have the courage to come down and in- 

 terrupt your meeting I could get it without ques- 

 tion." 



" How much money would you like .'" 



" I think two dollars would do." 



In a twinkling a hat was passed around, and 

 the money was poured out on a bench; and while 

 she was counting it the speaker resumed. She 

 rose to thank us, and as she did so I noticed a 

 sort of roguish smile on her face, especially when 

 she informed us that she had something over six 

 dollars. I began thinking that she did not need 

 that amount to get a few little flags for the Boys' 

 Brigade, and thought that perhaps the prope 

 thing to do would be to give back a part of it; 

 but as soon as the criticism came into my mind 

 something (was it not the Holy Spirit.?) suggested 

 the incident about Judas complaining because 



* When Senator Rose, the author of the county local-option 

 bill, was introduced to that great audience, the applause was al- 

 most deafening. They could not make any noise by stamping 

 with their feet on the sawdust floor, and so they clapped their 

 hands, and shouted until they were tired. Then somebody start- 

 ed the waving of handkerchiefs and the outstretched hands of 

 fully 5060 people made a flutter such as 1 for one never saw be- 

 fore. Senator Rose is not only a great reformer, but he is a 

 great orator. 



the woman wasted a box of precious ointment. 

 Dear friends, ] have all my life been somewhat 

 backward abwut encouraging display, or, if you 

 choose, in using so piuch money for political or 

 other campaigns. Perriaps I have been making^ 

 a mistake. It surely is right and proper that we 

 should go to considerable pains to give reverance 

 and welcome to the chosen Governor of our 

 State of Onio. We should honor his position, 

 even if it should happen to be true that we could 

 not also honor the man. But may the Lord be 

 praised that at this time we have a Governor who 

 is a rugged, honest old farmer, a veteran soldier 

 of war time, and, more than that, a Christian 

 man who dares to come out in the open and in- 

 dorse and back up the Anti-saloon League of 

 Ohio. I will not repeat here the spet ch he gave 

 us, for most of you have probably seen it in the 

 papers. But I happened to be near when the 

 Governor got off the train; and not only did each 

 one in the Boys' Brigade have a little flag, but 

 a like number of little girls dressed in white also 

 had flags, and back of them were some larger 

 girls with flags. By the way, it may not be out 

 of place here to say that I not only love little 

 boys of the State of Ohio, but I love the little 

 girls too, and 1 do not know but I might almost 

 say, as somebody else has said, that, the bigger 

 they get, the more we love them. Yes, I am go- 

 ing further than he did. After the little giils 

 with the flags, and the bigger ones, came the 

 grown-up mothers, also dressed in white, and 

 each one had a little flag, and then came the old 

 grandmothers, perhaps a hundred of them, and 

 they had flags; and they were not only dressed in 

 white, but they had --ivhite hair, and 1 felt glad 

 and liappy to find that, ai\ay down in my heart, 

 I loved and aJmired the white-haired old ladies 

 more than I did any of the rest. May God bless 

 the mothers and grandmothers of our land. 



Now, friends, that bright little woman with 

 that pleasant smile on her face (enhanced by the 

 slight color because of the nature of her under- 

 taking) was right. She was doing God's work. 

 She was right in line with the second one of our 

 texts where it says "the king's business required 

 haste." We were all glad to see her come, and 

 we weie perfectly willing to be interrupted. I 

 think I omitted to state that she announced at 

 first she was a W. C. T. U. woman, and such a 

 woman can never interrupt or hinder the Anti- 

 saloon League. They have been our greatest aid 

 and our greatest help. In fact, the Anti-saloon 

 League would perhaps never have existed had not 

 the W. C. T. U. "started the ball rolling." 



Let me tell you something else that rejoiced 

 my heart. When the so-called Personal Liberty 

 League holds its meetings the members of it de- 

 sire secrecy, for all liquor people keep closed 

 doors. They do not want any spies to get in. 

 But it is not so with temperance workers. We 

 can say as Jesus did, "In secret have I done 

 nothing." Our deliberations are all wide open. 

 The W. C. T. U. women or anybody else on 

 the face of the earth can come right in. We 

 should be glad to have even the saloon-keepers 

 with us to listen to our reasoning. Some speaker 

 at one of the committee meetings said something 

 like this: " If you turn a strong searchlight down 

 into a rat-hole, that hole is spoiled for rat pur- 

 poses." The rats can not bear the strong light. 



