1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



1143 



" Men love darkness rather than light because 

 their deeds are evil " Our deeds are not evil. 

 They are right, in the sight of God; and the 

 more light there is thrown on them the better it 

 suits us. The enemy has just been saying that 

 the Anti-saloon League people dare not tell how 

 much money they have received nor what they 

 did with it. That is a vile falsehood. Our re- 

 ceipts and expenditures have been fully given, in 

 print, in black and white, ever since the League 

 was started. It may be true that the names of 

 the donors have not always been given to people 

 who have no right to them, for the saloon sym- 

 pathizers might boycott these donors or do them 

 harm, and every one has a right to have his name 

 kept out of print if he so desires. 



Bishop Luther B. Wilson, President of the 

 American Anti-saloon League, is a great orator. 

 His subject was "The American Flag, and the 

 American Saloon. " He put in a tremendous pro- 

 test against having the American flag float over our 

 saloons and breweries exactly as it does over our 

 schoolhouses. The first time I visited the city 

 of Indianapolis I inquired what massive brick 

 building it was that overtopped every thing else 

 in the city. I was told it was a bre'u;ery; and 

 floating over this brewerv was perhaps the finest 

 and largest American flag I ever saw. If I re- 

 member correctly, the flagstaff was held up by a 

 huge statue of Gambrinus. I hope and pray that 

 Governor Frank Hanly will have that flag hauled 

 down before he ceases to be Governor of Indiana. 

 May be he has had it pulled down already. 

 Bishop Wilson said he was one day waiting for 

 a street-car in one of the large cities of the East. 

 A man whose business it was to take care of a 

 little station was sweeping up around his post. 

 The bishop noticed that the man had an Ameri- 

 can flag tacked up on his little booth. Then he 

 began asking some questions something as fol- 

 lows: 



" My friend, why do you love this American 

 flag more than you do that of your own nation 

 where you came from.?" 



The man replied something like this: 



" I love the American flag more than any other 

 flag in the world because it means a square deal 

 to every citizen, no matter whether he is rich or 

 poor, white or black, educated or uneducated. 

 My girl here in America goes to school. She 

 has just the same chance and the same care as 

 the girls of the millionaires. She goes to the 

 library and gets books, and the librarian takes 

 just as much pains to find what she wants as if 

 she were rich or educated, or held some- high po- 

 sition. If they do not have the book she wants, 

 the librarian tries just as hard to get it for her as 

 he would for any one else. That is why I love 

 America, and why I love the flag that has stars 

 and stripes on it It means a square deal to all 

 this country's people." 



I will take space to relate two incidents in the 

 bishop's talk. He remarked that, in the natural 

 order of things, crime is of gradual growth. The 

 criminal usually goes along step by step; but by 

 the aid of whisky and the American saloon, 

 criminals are sometimes made in an hour. An 

 incident that most of you doubtless read in the 

 papers some two years ago was related, with some 

 sidelights that the papers did not contain. A 

 young man of good family and pretty good hab- 



its married a nice young girl, I think in New- 

 Jersey. It is true he had been with some ques- 

 tionable companions; but his friends hoped that, 

 after his marriage he would turn over a new leaf 

 — and he did, at least for a time. He had bren 

 sowing some wild oats, but not very many. Not 

 long alter his marriage some visitors came to see 

 them, and the young wife asked him to go down 

 town and get some needed things for dinner. 

 Before he made his purchases, however, a couple 

 of his old boon companions said to him, "John, 

 we were just wanting you. Come in and have a 

 drink." 



John replied, "You will have to excuse me to- 

 day, beys. Some company has come, and I must 

 hurry back with the things my wife wants for 

 dinner." 



Please note he did not tell his old friends that, 

 since his marriage, he had not used any drink, or, 

 better still, that he had joined the Anti-saloon 

 League, and was on a different track. He only 

 asked them to excuse him that day. I wonder if 

 some boy or man will not make a mark right 

 here and learn a lesson from this. But these old 

 chums were not to be so easily put off. One of 

 them said, "Well, John, you will certainly come 

 and have a cigar.? You can smoke that while 

 buying your stuff;" and as there was no good 

 reason (as it looked to him) why he should not 

 have a cigar he went along with them. We shall 

 have to draw the curtain now for the time being, 

 for the saloon has screens over its doors and win- 

 dows. It would be like the searchlight and its 

 effect on rat-holes if people could see inside. Let 

 me digress enough to tell you there was a very 

 pretty girl in that neighborhoad who had a wid- 

 owed mother. John, before his marriage, had 

 been on rather intimate terms with this girl — at 

 least she was well acquainted with him and trust- 

 ed him. These two fellows who invited John to 

 drink had got an eye on her. They knew she 

 would not speak to them nor have any thing to 

 do with them; but if they could make a catspaw 

 of John they thought they could get hold of the 

 girl. The next morning the whole city of Pater- 

 son was startled by the information that this 

 beautiful young girl was found on the banks of 

 a river, among the stones and bushes, dead. She 

 had no father nor big brothers to protect her, and 

 these two devils in human form had planned to 

 get John drunk, and then persuade him to get 

 that girl into their hands. The long trial that 

 ensued showed that John had been seen to invite 

 the girl to go into some place and have a glass of 

 lemonade that afternoon. Of course, it made a 

 stir in the papers, and we all felt glad when those 

 three men were sent to the penitentiary for a long 

 term. Not very long ago, however, my blood 

 was made to boil by seeing a notice in the papers 

 to the effect that a petition was being circulated 

 to get those fellows out of the penitentiary. The 

 excuse was that they did not intend to kill the girl. 

 It was only an unfortunate accident. Now, that 

 may be true — that they did not deliberately plan 

 to take the girl's life. That could have been no 

 object. But I want to ask you all, in Heaven's 

 natiie, how much better was it than death that they 

 did plan to do.' Now, friends, it is not at all un- 

 likely that the stars and stripes are just now float- 

 ing over the saloon that furnished the liquor — 

 yes, the drugged liquor — that took the life of that 



