1450 



GLEANINoS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1 



TEMPERANCE. 



JOHN ALWAYS WAS A GENEROUS 

 FELLOW. " 



BY EDWARD F. BIGELOW. 



E'vidence i. — I sat by John at school on the 

 old. slab bench. The teacher's eye was sharp 

 and voice was stern. We watched him furtive- 

 ly till, selecting the time when his face was turn- 

 ed toward " the board " to explain some difficult 

 problem, we cut a sly caper. Now we "fired" 

 a paper wad, raising a quickly smothered laugh 

 from the opposite corner; then we held up briefly 

 a jumping jack, and, later, John (with truly ar- 

 tistic spirit) drew a cartoon of Sam and the teach- 

 er at the board. Then John and 1 would dive 

 beneath the desk, and he would share with me 

 his luncheon apple. Thus did John and I while 

 away the winter's day at school to the delight of 

 our companions. John always was a roguish, 

 chummy, generous fellow, but he set a pace in 

 merry play that I could not follow. 



TWENTY YEARS LATER. 



E'-vidence 2. — For a score of years I wandered 

 far away from the old farm, but John moved 

 nearer to the village, and there lived on. In a 

 mood that longed for boyhood days again, I vis- 

 ited the old schoolhouse. The walls were neg- 

 lected; strange trees were growing where bushes 

 had been; but the trees that I had known had be- 

 come smaller. There was not a child that I rec- 

 ognized; but Alice, the teacher, greeted me as 

 cordially as when she spelled the words I missed, 

 twenty years before. 



"And how are your father and Aunt Sue.? I 

 remember the walnuts she gave me." 



Alice sighed and shook her head sadly. " Fa- 

 ther isn't very well; Aunt Sue (didn't you know 

 that.?) died two years ago. " 



" But where is John, my chum.?" I inquired. 

 " He used to write to me occasonally, but for a 

 dozen years I have lost track of him." 



"John," said Alice," is his own worst enemy. 

 He can't keep what he earns, but spends it all 

 ■with boon companions in the barroom. He has 

 too large a heart. John always was a generous 

 fellow. " 



TWENTY YEARS LATER STILL. 



E'vidence J. — Again I wandered into scenes 

 afar, till at the end of another score of years a 

 similar longing led me back to the little village. 

 Only Uncle Eben knew me. He still keeps the 

 corner store, where I had tugged out supplies to 

 the farm wagon forty years before. How short a 

 time! how long a time it seemed! Uncle Eben 

 laughed heartily, and his grey beard bobbed up 

 and down as did a brown one forty years ago. 

 " Goin on eighty," said he; " pretty near time ter 

 call the job done. But you," he said, "how fast 

 you have grown taller! " But this seemed not to 

 me surprising. If one is ever to grow tall, it 

 should be within forty years I think. 



" But what are those boys doing out there.?" I 

 inquired. 



"They're plaguing John — get him so mad — 

 pull his coat and punch him; but, say; you know 

 John — why, John went to school with you out 

 on the hill — poor John! He gets so 'full' it is a 

 pity." 



"John! " I exclaimed, and up the walk I hur- 

 ried. And this old drunkard! I'll ask him 

 where is "John," Jumping Jack John, among 

 those plaguing boys. But this was my first 

 thought — forty years — can it be that the drunkard 

 is John.? I'll try to see, so I took up the shout 

 of the boys, but with a far different accent, " John ! 

 hey, John! they say you are John — don't you 

 know me.? " 



But, no; it can't be my John, for he reeled 

 backward on the walk and against the tree, brac- 

 ing himself there, muttering in maudling, drool- 

 ing, leering tones, "Well, what do you want, 

 with all the others.? I — I — s-a-y, you go to hell, 

 will you.?" 



" John always was a generous fellow. " 



Stamford, Conn. 



[Let me say to our readers that it made my 

 heart throb when I saw something from Prof. 

 Bigelow, written for my temperance column, and 

 I want to call attention to the fact that the above 

 is not only a grand temperance talk, but it is a 

 boiled-do-Lvn story. I am beginning in my old 

 age to recognize that one of the indications of a 

 great mind is the ability to tell much in few 

 words, and Prof. Bigelow has done it. Most of 

 us who have lived to be toward threescore and 

 ten have had the same experience in meeting some 

 old friends of our boyhood. May God grant 

 that the record of the next generation shall tell a 

 different &\.ory. — A. I. R.] 



OHIO SHALL BE FREE. 



At the present writing, the counties in Ohio 

 are going dry at such a rate that one can hardly 

 keep track of them. Big cities that have been 

 literally intrenched in the saloon business have 

 been made dry by the rural residents, even 

 though the brewers put in their money and left 

 no stone unturned to hold their trade. On page 

 1332 I gave a little clipping of the way in which 

 one of our bee-keepers and honey-men heads his 

 advertisement. Here is something more from 

 our enterprising young friend: 



Mr. Root: — Confirming my telegram of last night, it is my very 

 great pleasure to inform you that Muskingum Co. voted "dry " 

 yesterday by a majority of 1116. While the city went wet by a 

 little over 1400, this was overcome by the vote of the rural dis- 

 tricts. The wet majority in Zanesville was less than that con- 

 servatively estimated by the drys, while the dry majorities in the 

 country exceeded expectations. Our temperance organization 

 was well nigh perfect; and, in spite of thorough organization, 

 stubborn resistance, and an immense corruption fund freely ex- 

 pended, we have, with God's help, won a glorious victory. One 

 of the most gratifying results of this election is the breaking of 

 the backbone of the Republican-Liquor organization — one of the 

 most corrupt aggregations that ever dominated county politics. 

 Edmund W. Peirck, 



Zanesville, O., Nov. 17. Dealer in bee-keepers' supplies. 



THE SALOONS AND TAXES. 



Just now not only in Ohio, but more or less 

 in the whole United States, there is war between 

 the brewers and the Anti-saloon League workers. 

 The strongest argument that has been brought 

 forward by the saloon is that they help pay our 

 taxes. The following, from the Ohio Farmer, is 

 one of the best answers I have ever seen to those 

 who really think that the open saloon is of some 

 benefit in this way. 



SALOONS INCREASE THE TAXES. 



Because the liquor forces are flooding Ohio counties in which 

 local-option elections are pending with warnings to voters that 

 their taxes will be increased if they vote out the saloons, and 



