1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1449 



about. And now I will tell you frankly that 

 there is one other thing that is even dearer to me 

 than bees and bee culture — yes, of even more ac- 

 count, in my estimation, than a land flowing with 

 milk and honey. I have been reading your writ- 

 ings in the American Bee Journal, and later in the 

 Gleanings, that has been so well started. I see 

 that you have the rare gift of interesting human- 

 ity. You love rural occupations, and God has 

 given you the faculty of making others love the 

 open air and the great broad fields as you do. 

 Now, I want to see your influence, your zeal, and 

 your peculiar gifts employed in winning souls to 

 the Lord Jesus Christ as well as leading mankind 

 to love outdoor work and rural employments, and 

 that is mainly why I came here. I have hoped 

 and prayed that something might happen to give 

 me a glimpse of your home life. I knew you 

 felt somewhat annoyed, but I felt there was some- 

 thing at stake, and I (for once in the world at 

 least) crowded myself into a home where perhaps 

 I was not wanted — that is, until you people knew 

 me better. God has answered my prayer. I 

 have had here one of the pleasantest visits of 

 my life. You can not know or tell how I have 

 appreciated this. And now I am going to ar- 

 range my business and my plans so as to be a 

 bee-keeper and stay at home instead of being a 

 traveling man for a great music house, and I want 

 to keep in touch with you if you will not think 

 I am asking too much." 



There was some more conversation, that I can 

 not recall, about making the Lord Jesus Christ 

 my confidant and my friend. I tried to excuse 

 myself by saying that I was not hostile toward 

 Christianity; but my new friend said, very em- 

 phatically and solemnly, " He that is not for me 

 is against me." Then he reminded me that not 

 once in my writings in the American Bee Journal 

 or Gleanings had I intimated or recognized the 

 fact that the Savior of the world has claims on 

 each and all of us. I accepted hisfriendship just 

 then, but I did not accept Jesus Christ as the son 

 of the living God until some months afterward. 

 Since then I have thought of the way in which 

 Moody and Sankey were received when they 

 went over into England about that time. Our 

 friends across the water were suspicious of the 

 Yankees, and God knows they had reason to be; 

 and when the story was started that Sankey was 

 the agent for the little organ he used to accompany 

 his singing, he was obliged to reply publicly, and 

 assure the people that he had nothing to sell — 

 that his sole business in going from America to 

 England was to offer salvation as a free gift. " Ho, 

 every one that thirsteth! Come ye to the waters; 

 and he that hath no money, come." When the 

 people were really satisfied that there was no ap- 

 peal coming in for their money, they accepted 

 him, and a great work followed, and Moody 

 startled the world by showing that at least one 

 man actually refused the money the people want- 

 ed him to take. Both he and Sankey might have 

 become millionaires, but they did not want it 

 and did not take it. Dr. Miller was getting what 

 we considered at that time a large salary. I told 

 him he could expect nothing like it in the way 

 of bee culture. He said he did not care for a big 

 salary, and did not want it. When I read that 

 little Straw on page 1303 about living for a whole 

 week on 35 cents' worth of boiled wheat, I thought 



of what he said about living a humble life with 

 his bees. And now after all this preamble I want 

 to have a little talk directly with our veteran 

 friend. I think I shall have to call it an open 

 letter to Dr. Miller. 



Dear old friend, when I first saw that Straw on 

 page 1303, about your wonderful yield of almost 

 20,000 sections from 129 colonies, I wondered if 

 you remembered a conversation that you and I 

 had on that morning when you went back to 

 your work as a traveling man. We both had 

 high aspirations for the outcome of bee culture; 

 but I for one never expected you would ever 

 make any thing like that which you have already 

 reported. Of course, you have said repeatedly, 

 while God has been blessing your labors, "Praise 

 God, from whom all blessings flow;" and verily 

 he has fulfilled the promise found in our open- 

 ing text in helping you and me both to make this 

 " a land flowing with milk and honey." lean 

 hardly understand it now. When I made you a 

 visit some years ago you were getting a great 

 yield of beautiful white honey, and you said you 

 actually could not tell or suggest where the bees 

 got it. God sent it; and in this journal for Nov. 

 1, when I saw your statement of from 200 to 276 

 sections to a colony, I wondered again many 

 times if you said, " Praise God, from whom all 

 blessings flow. " Then the figures you give there 

 contain some lessons. If a queen, at least some- 

 times, is so valuable at two years of age, is it not 

 true that a Leghorn hen (begging your pardon) 

 may be valuable at two and three years of age? 

 One moral is, that we must not go to killing off 

 our queens or biddies just because they are t^vo 

 years old. But we should try to adopt some 

 means to let the actual record (trap nesting), and 

 not the age, decide how long to keep them; and 

 the same with humanity. Let the record, not 

 the age alone, decide in regard to a man's fitness 

 for an important office. 



I was wondering if you could not be induced 

 to start in with Terry and me for not only a long 

 life but a useful one. You have already, dear old 

 friend, by your long years of experience, saved 

 many a youngster from useless blundering. Of 

 course, we old fellows have a good opinion of the 

 value of our past experience; but there are plenty of 

 younger ones all around us now who can with lov- 

 ing hearts guide and direct owr footsteps while we 

 are getting feeble from old age. God bless the 

 younger ones; and may he help us to be ready, 

 when it shall seem best for us, to stand out of the 

 way and give place to the younger ones. I am 

 sure they will always be ready, at least to stop 

 and consider what we say, when we assure them 

 they are going wrong. I for one rather enjoy 

 growing old, especially when such friendly greet- 

 ings cheer me, not only in my home, but in my 

 writings. You say on page 1303 there are three 

 reasons for your great success — "forage better; 

 bees better; better bee-keeper." I wish these 

 younger ones and everybody else would remem- 

 ber that your success stands back of you to em- 

 phasize the value of your opinion on almost all 

 points in bee culture. I think I said recently, 

 " May God be praised that he has permitted me 

 to live and be in touch with such men as Edison, 

 the Wright Brothers, Moody and Sankey," and 

 last, but not least, with such a man and such a 

 teacher as my dear old friend Dr. C. C. Miller. 



