1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1209 



Our Homes 



By a. I. Root 



Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Csesar's, and 

 unto God the things that are God's. — Matt. 22 : 21. 



Ml Root: — I have enjoyed very much your articles in Glean- 

 iN<;s; and as you seem to be in the business of " helping " peo- 

 ple, may I bring to you my problem, asking that you will please 

 help me solve it.' It is that of investing money safely. There 

 is no one among my acquanitances to whom I care to appeal. 1 

 am one of that class of women who must earn their own living 

 (by the way, I do it mostly by raising chickens in a small way). 

 I have saved a few hundred dollars, and I feel that it must be 

 placed in absolute safety, for it is all I have, and health is fail- 

 ing. I have thought of investing in government bonds. 1 wish 

 to invest $1000, but I have no knowledge as to this as an invest- 

 ment other than that it is supposed to be safe. Any information 

 or help you may offer me will be very gratefully appreciated. 



The letter above came some months ago; but 

 it has been so much on my mind that I have just 

 decided to malie it the subject for this Home pa- 

 per, omitting ths name and address for obvious 

 reasons. 



In the first place I wish to thanic the lady for 

 the very high compliment she pays my poor self 

 in thus addressing me. Under the circumstances 

 she feels that her dollars, the hard earnings of the 

 best part of her life, mujt be placed in absolute 

 safety, for it is all she has. Every daily paper 

 reminds us of the folly of keeping money hidden 

 away somewhere. Less than a week ago a man 

 sold some stock and gave the proceeds to his 

 daughter to carry to the bank. During the fol- 

 lowing night a couple of demons in human-form 

 took him out of his bed and demanded the mon- 

 ey. When he told them he had sent it to the 

 bank by his daughter they thought it was a sub- 

 terfuge, and then burned his feet with hot irons, 

 until he will probably be crippled for life, in their 

 endeavor to make him tell where he had hidden 

 it. Old people and poor helpless women have 

 been again and again cruelly tortured in just this 

 way. What shall the people do with the money 

 they work hard for and lay up for a rainy day.^ 

 Most people say, " Put it in the bank;" and we 

 supposed for a time that our national banks were 

 perfectly safe. But there is a difficulty — at least 

 there has been so far — in the way of creating 

 banks that will be absolutely safe. I shall have 

 to confess that I am not financier and politician 

 enough to understand these matters. I simply 

 know that every little while some one whom the 

 people have trusted proves to be only a wolf in 

 sheep's clothing; and poor widows and wash- 

 women, and others who have worked hard and 

 saved a little for that oft-mentioned rainy day, 

 have found their savings for years, and perhaps 

 for a lifetime, gone up in smoke. It is not men 

 only who do these things. Mrs. Chadwick's 

 shameless record shows that women too will ruth- 

 lessly, and seemingly without a scruple, rob and 

 throw away the hard earnings of a multitude of 

 poor people. 



Lately it has been the fashion to commit sui- 

 cide when a man found he was at the end of his 

 string. There seems to have been a discovery — 

 at least the prince of darkness would persuade 

 men that it is a discovery — that one can escape 

 the disgrace and humiliation of having it come 

 to light that he is nothing but a traitor, by put- 

 ting an end to himself. Now, I do not believe 

 that any man or woman does escape or f<(// escape 



in this way. One can, perhaps, avoid meeting 

 face to face the innocent victim of his treachery 

 by shuffling off this mortal coil; but does that 

 end it all.? is the deed wiped out.? God forbid. 

 There is a good deal of complaint made because 

 the Bible seems to teach the doctrine of endless 

 punishment. I suggested only recently that peo- 

 ple who commit suicide to get out of trouble are 

 probably only jumping out of the frying-pan in- 

 to the fire; and the more I think of it, the more 

 I am convinced that no one ever escapes his re- 

 sponsibilities by putting an end to his life. He 

 was a sinner before he killed himself, and he is 

 and must be, in the natural order of things, more 

 of a sinner a/fer such a death than he was before. 

 This everlasting punishment we talk about is 

 probably the remorse or shame of having wrong- 

 ed and ruined his friends who trusted him, and I 

 believe it will follow him through all eternity. 



Yesterday's daily told us of a poor man who 

 was held up by robbers, and when they found he 

 had only ten cents and a cheap watch they pound- 

 ed him all the more because they were mad at 

 him for their poor success; and the paper stated 

 that he would be a cripple, probably, for life, as 

 a consequence, 'ihis illustrates the awful de- 

 pravity and hellish spirit that sometimes actuates 

 human beings. I am convinced that, if we could 

 trace up such cases as this, we should find that 

 the open saloons of our land are responsible for 

 the greater part of such characters, if not all of 

 them. When the saloons are banished entirely, 

 such events in human history will cease to exist 

 to a great extent, if not entirely. Now, what 

 shall I tell this good friend of mine.? and what 

 shall I tell thousands of other good friends who 

 read these Home papers, who have faith in my 

 poor self? Shall I tell them to send all their mon- 

 ey to me because / am honest and fully responsible 

 while all the rest of the world is bad as — I was 

 going to say Thomas W. Lawson; but perhaps I 

 had better not say it. God forbid. I do not 

 want the money, and I have no place to put it 

 except during a part of the year when we find it 

 convenient to borrow money at the bank, and 

 sometimes from our friends more or less. But 

 there ought to be some good place to put money 

 — some place easily accessible to e-very ma/i, nto- 

 man, and child. The good woman who wrote to 

 me speaks about government bonds. If I am 

 correct they pay only a low rate of interest, and 

 you can not get your money again just when you 

 want it. As a rule, I would advise every one to 

 put his money out at the best savings bank in his 

 neighborhood. If you do not know just how to 

 do this, your best way is to go to some experi- 

 enced business man, a consistent member of your 

 church, of good reputation, and get him to ad- 

 vise you; and let us all hope and pray that we 

 may soon have a postal saojings bank such as has 

 been so much talked about. 



In my last Home talk I spoke about our Ameri- 

 can flag and what it represents. Now, this Amer- 

 ican flag ought also to represent a place where 

 every man, woman, and child who lives under 

 and devoutly believes in that flag, can place his 

 honest earnings, and where no power on earth can 

 wrest it from him. This can be done, and it is 

 a burning shame that it has not been done al- 

 ready. In old times the dear Savior reminded us 

 of the folly of laying up treasures on earth where 



