1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



323 



that he kept begging permission to take them to 

 a cock-fight. The owner finally consented, with 

 the understanding that his man did it entirely on 

 his own responsibility. In the course of time 

 the colored man returned, very much chopfallen. 

 The two beautiful game birds were covered with 

 blood. They were alive, but that was just about 

 all. The owner asked: 



"Why, 'Rastus, were you so foolish as to go 

 and put those two roosters in the same box.'" 



'Rastus, with his eyes full of tears, admitted 

 he did, and blubbered out: " Why, who'd 'a 

 supposed dem two fool chickens would go to 

 fightin' each odder when dey's bofe on our side.?" 



Now forgive me if my illustration is a poor 

 one; but does not the great outside world, the 

 readers of both kinds of periodicals under con- 

 sideration, feel within themselves, even if they 

 do not feel like saying so out loud, "Who 

 would have supposed that these two great agri- 

 cultural papers which are fighting, and have been 

 for years past, the wolves and thieves who are 

 constantly preying on the farmer and his best 

 interests — that these two great periodicals which 

 are both on one side — should so far forget them- 

 selves as to get to giving murderous clips at each 

 other?" Now excuse me in closing for a little 

 paraphrase from the words of Paul: 



"The editor and publisher of a great home 

 paper should not behave himself unseemly; he 

 should not seek his own, nor be easily provoked, 

 nor think evil; he should rejoice not in iniquity, 

 but rejoice in the truth; he should bear all things, 

 believe all things, hope all things, and endure all 

 things." 



OUR SCHOOLBOYS AND THE CIGARETTE BUSINESS. 



After I finished my Home paper in the last 

 issue I was thanking God that the little bottles 

 of whisky were no longer paraded in sight of 

 our innocent boys as they were less than twenty 

 years ago; yet there is one other terrible thing 

 now going on in our State of Ohio and in other 

 States. I refer to the permitting of certain hu- 

 man wretches to go about our land distributing 

 cigarettes or making it possible for our boys to 

 get hold of them. The testimony from our 

 doctors, teachers, ministers of the gospel, and 

 good men and women everywhere, is universally 

 and entirely against the cigarette. Why, then, 

 should this thing be permitted to continue? 

 Simply because these devils in human form want 

 the nickels that our small boys may happen to 

 have. There is no other motive in the world. 

 They want the money, and they do not care 

 where it comes from. If they would only ask 

 grown men, able to judge the cigarette itself, it 

 would not be so bad. 



Just a few days ago I was greatly enjoying 

 seeing a well-digger put down Mr. Rood's ar- 

 tesian well. One day the boy who had been 

 running the engine, and acting as general helper 

 in handling the tools, could not come. In his 

 place was a nice bright-looking spindling little 

 fellow, perhaps sixteen or seventeen years old. 

 When I first caught sight of him I felt that he 

 was entirely too young and slender to handle the 

 great heavy tools. He was just at the a^e where 

 a boy is generally making rapid growth. But 

 he had lots of energy, and seemed anxious to let 

 folks know that, even if he was not a man in size 



and strength, he was almost one. By the way, 

 did you ever see somebody trying to make a 

 young colt carry a bigger load than it ought to 

 carry? When I see any thing of that kind it 

 makes my blood boil. It is a shame to overload 

 or overtask a colt or any other young animal; 

 but, dear me ! what is a colt, or all the colts in 

 the world, for that matter, compared to one boy 

 with an immortal soul? When I saw that bright 

 young boyish face, and that boyish form lifting 

 a heavy sand-pump as it came out of the well, I 

 felt like making a protest, but he said he did not 

 mind it. Now, while this boy was doing work 

 beyond his strength, and, I fear, doing some- 

 thing that might hinder his physical growth, I 

 saw him, when he got a little respite, smoking a 

 cigarette. I do not know n.vhere he got them 

 nor hoiv he got them; but yet it is true that in 

 that dry county. Manatee, where there have nev- 

 er been saloons, there is somebody who sells or 

 gives away cigarettes. May God hasten the day 

 when our good men and women shall arise in 

 their might, and do as they have done with the 

 whisky business, and say as Paul said to the 

 sorcerer, " O full of all subtlety and all mis- 

 chief ! thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all 

 righteousness ! wilt thou not cease to pervert the 

 right ways of the Lord?" Well, friends, how 

 does it come, while most people are against it, 

 that this cigarette traffic still keeps on? It comes 

 about because these cowardly enemies of all that 

 is good have succeeded in getting somebody in- 

 to office who will protect them in their hellish 

 traffic. 



Just now the principal leader in the anti cigar- 

 ette war is one little woman, I will introduce 

 you to her by giving a brief little letter which 

 she sent me. I will give you the heading of the 

 letter as well as the letter itself: 



headquarters of the 

 National and Chicago Anti-cigarette 

 Leagues. 

 119 Woman's Temple, Chicago, III. 

 Mr. A. I. Root: — A great anti-tobacco man like you must be in 

 line with our million movement. When you fill out the card 

 would you like to send your ten-dollar fee instead of the dime 

 asked.' We are pressing the fight in a number of State legisla- 

 tures. The situation in Ohio is most encouraging. The work I 

 did last year helped to get things in fine shape. Several States 

 will carry the day this year. 



I have just written Mr. Coward, of New York, suggesting that 

 he enlist his great Sunc^y-school in our One Million Club. I 

 got his name from Gleanings. 



Why not tell your readers about this effort ! Bee-keepers are 

 the salt of the earth, and ought to be with us in force. 



Chicago, March 5. Lucy Page Gaston, 



SuperinUndent. 



Now, brother bee-keepers, what do you think 

 of her closing remarks — that bee-keepers are 

 " the salt of the earth"? May God help us to 

 make it true. 



Now to wind up with something encouraging, 

 permit me to give you the closing sentence of a 

 recently enacted Ohio law: 



Section 4. Any person or persons, firm, or any officer of any 

 corporation, who, directly or indirectly, after April 15, 1909, so- 

 licits orders for intoxicating liquor in any county or territory 

 where the sale of such liquor as a beverage is prohibited shall be 

 subject to a fine of not less than one hundred and fifty dollars nor 

 more than four hundred dollars for the first otTense, and for the 

 second offense not less than four hundred dollars nor more than 

 eight hundred dollars. 



Does it not look as if the way of the transgress- 

 or really promises to become rather hard in the 

 future? 



Now, friends, when we get a similar law in 



