1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



351 



ing to civilization, just as Japan astonished the 

 world only a few years ago — we might almost say 

 a few months ago. 



In many parts of China wonderful strides are 

 being made, not only in breaking up the opium 

 traffic, but in spreading the gospel, starting 

 schools, and giving the people not only sufficient 

 food but better food. I am told that the rich 

 and fertile ground where they have for years been 

 growing poppies is now being used to grow veg- 

 etables and fruits and good wholesome food for 

 the children. Just think of it — exchanging the 

 stupefying, soul-killing opium for that which 

 gives health and life and energy! May God be 

 praised for the change that is coming and has 

 come. Let us now go back a minute to that 

 heavy flagstone with the children playing under 

 its sheltering shade. 



It was a task for me to get to the point where 

 I felt as anxious about the children that were sep- 

 arated from our own by only a picket-fence as 

 for my own. It is a rather big jump, friends, is 

 it not, to take in the little boys and girls belong- 

 ing to that 400,000,000 of people on the other 

 side of the globe; but that is what God calls on 

 us to do. " Go ye into all the world, and preach 

 the gospel." With that same gospel, go the 

 schools and churches, asylums for the afflicted, 

 and every thing that upholds righteousness and 

 discourages iniquity. While in San Francisco I 

 was permitted by the kindness of a friend to go 

 through the Chinese part of the city. I saw the 

 women and girls and some of the Chinese babies. 

 They were just as bright and pretty as the little 

 children and babies in your own home or mine; 

 and yet that missionary woman told us that little 

 boys and girls only three or four years of age 

 were learning to smoke cigarettes that the great 

 American tobacco trust is distributing there free 

 of charge. Five States in our own country have 

 ruled out the sale and manufacture of cigarettes. 

 In order to makeup for this loss of their industry, 

 the American tobacco trust has turned its atten- 

 tion to foreign lands, where they bulldoze the 

 officials and carry things on with a high hand 

 just because they have millions of money to back 

 up their plans and undertakings. This good 

 woman who told us about it, I am informed by 

 my sister, Mrs. Gray, is employed to make a 

 missionary tour of the whole world, and will let 

 us know here at home what is being done. 



Well, it is not only cigarettes that they are 

 pushing among these innocent people — just as 

 innocent and happy as that little group I have 

 told you about under the stone flagging. It is 

 not only the manufacturers of cigarettes but the 

 breuuers of the United States, who have had their 

 traffic suddenly stopped to tiie extent of shutting 

 up several thousand saloons in the last hundred 

 days. These brewers and manufacturers of 

 American beer ha-i-e also got their eyes on China, 

 and are teaching the Chinese (I suppose boys and 

 girls as well as men and women) to drink Ameri- 

 can beer. You may remember that in an address 

 before a brewers' convention the speaker said 

 something to this efl^ect: 



" Gentlemen, nickels invested now in giving 

 the boys a drink will bring us good round dol- 

 lars in the future. If we wish our industry to 

 live and thrive we must cultivate the habit with 

 the rising generation." 



The above is not the exact language, perhaps, 

 but it is the sentiment. Now that they are cut 

 off from so large a part of the United States they 

 are going to "' cultivate the habit" in foreign 

 lands. God forbid; and if the good people of 

 our nation and other Christian nations would 

 unite and demand it, it tvould be forbidden in 

 quick time. If our great warships, that cost 

 toward $20,000,000, could be manned and used 

 in such a way as is indicated in the language of 

 our text, or, in other words, if these great insti- 

 tutions could be used for" deliverance to the cap- 

 tives, and recovering of sight to the blind, and 

 to set at liberty them that are bruised," then 

 we might thank God for our great battle-ships. 



I made a clipping of that item I took from the 

 Utiion Signal, about giving away cigarettes in 

 China, and sent it to the heads of some of our 

 missionary societies. In fact, I sent it to quite a 

 number of men high in office who ought to 

 know something about it. The reply has been 

 that it is all true; and some of the letters seem 

 to intimate that the tobacco trust with its mil- 

 lions of capital is almost too much for them. 

 The tone of their letters made me think of the 

 giant Goliath who said, " I defy the armies of 

 Israel this day."* But because he was a giant, 

 of great stature, and of commanding mien, they 

 were all afraid of him until the boy David came 

 on the scene. Then with his s'aff and five 

 smooth stones out of the brook he fearlessly ap- 

 proached the giant and said, "Thou comest to 

 me with a sword and with a spear and with a 

 shield; but I come to thee in the name of the 

 Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, 

 whom thou hast defied." 



Now, friends, this great tobacco trust with its 

 millions of money is the giant that stands before 

 us. This missionary woman told us how the 

 giant intimidated the missionaries and the help- 

 less people. What shall we do when this great 

 trust defies the powers of the living God.' Shall 

 we sit still and wait for some one who has the 

 courage and the faith of the shepherd boy David .? 

 God forbid. We have Davids among us now if 

 they can only be awakened and aroused to the 

 needs of the present hour. Who is there who is 

 ready to take his life in his hands, and go for- 

 ward and meet this great giant that is distributing 

 the cigarettes in China? 



OUR FLORIDA HOME DURING THE MIDDLE OF 



MAY. 



The following letter from my neighbor Rood 

 will explain itself: 



Mr. Root: — I went and looked over yoar place, as I had not 

 seen it for some days. I found every thing growing beautifully. 

 The bananas are growing, and look strong and healthy — a very 

 great contrast to the way they looked when the chickens were 

 eating the life out of them. I believe that, if you had a quarter 

 of an acre of banana-plants like those, you could create a real 

 stir with them. They are well manured, and are showing the 

 effect of their good treatment. The mulberries also look fine. I 

 did not cut off the limbs as you suggested, as 1 had never seen it 

 done, and now they have big vigorous leaves on them, and some 

 fruit, but not very much. Ordinarily they bear in March; but 

 the season was so very strange this year that they are away be- 

 hind. The grass that Wesley set out in the back yard is now 

 growing well, and I think it will cover the ground before you 

 return. We had over two inches of rain in two days the latter 



♦ We are told, I. Samuel 17: 16, that he said this, not only 

 once, but he came out with his defiance morning and evening 

 for forty days. 



