18 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



SPECIAL NOTICES 



A. I. ROOT 



ADVERTISING TOBACCO CULTURE FOE THE STATE OF 

 FLORIDA, ETC. 



Dear Bro. Boot: — Look out! look out! I'm after 

 you again with a sharp stick. You don't know 

 }iow pleased I was to see your roast of the cigarette 

 business as well as your condemnation of the grow- 

 ing of tobacco (page 677, Oct. 15). Think, then, 

 how amazed I was to see tobacco-growing advertised 

 (page 13, advertising matter. Seaboard Airline 

 Railway, same issue). I often feel like saying amen 

 to your articles, and slapping you heartily on the 

 back by way of encouragement ; and I trust that 

 you will give your advertisers to understand that, 

 if they wish to continue using your columns, they 

 must avoid the very appearance of evil or ques- 

 tionable advertisements. 



Lynn Valley, Ont. x\Rthur Laing. 



Many thanks, old friend, for your good- 

 natured criticism. You are certainly right. 

 If we protest against teaching our Ohio 

 boys how to grow tobacco, to be consistent 

 we ought to remember the good boys down 

 in Florida as well. 1 think our good friends 

 of the Seaboard Air Line will be quite will- 

 ing to leave out the tobacco. 



TYPHOID FEVER, THE HOOKWORM, AND EVEN AB- 

 SINTHE RULED OUT, BUT NOT A WORD OF 

 RECOGNITION IN REGARD TO THE RUM 

 TRAFFIC. 



Dear Uncle Amos: — A government under capital- 

 ism will ever sacrifice its privilege to make monev 

 from the vices of the weak and foohsh. Our gov- 

 ernment will bear all the limelight we can throw 

 on it, as is proven by past exposures. Something 

 like fifteen years ago, when the People's party was 

 working, I read the following. I quote from mem- 

 ory: "This liquor is placed in bond when first 

 manufactured, to enable it to get at its best, and 

 that the manufacturers may not be out of capital 

 while waiting the government advances." 



In other words, for which I ought, perhaps, to 

 apologize for its lack of that "repose which marks 

 the caste of Vere de Vere," this helljuice is bot- 

 tled and barreled until it gets "good" (and hellish), 

 and then released to do its devilish work. Do 

 you wonder at the lack of faith in Christian civiliza- 

 tion which is spreading over the world? If you 

 do, consider how Christian (and civilized) England 

 has fastened on China the curse of opium. I got 

 this from a missionary's letter published years ago, 

 either in a Sunday-school paper or missionary paper. 

 I have forgotten the paper, but the statement has 

 been confirmed later in our magazines. 



Don't be angry now, like those Blatherskites and 

 Socialists, for it is really a difficult problem to 

 make claims on the world multiply until the end 

 of time, and all good governments are doing their 

 best at it. Well, this much has been done at least: 

 The curse pronounced on man, "By the sweat of 

 thy face shalt thou eat bread," is removed, for a 

 favored few governments will sacredly guard in- 

 vestments, if it does not life, liberty, and the 

 temptations of the young or the weak from vice. 

 I enclose a clipping from the Appeal to Beason, 

 which you may find time to read. 



Exeter, Cal., Oct. 24. J. B. Colton. 



Here is the clipi^ing from the Appeal to 

 Reason — a periodical that I do not often 

 take the time to look at very much; but 

 before giving this clipping, however, I wish 

 to mention that my old pastor. Rev. A. T. 

 Reed, said one morning in his jjrayer that 

 he thanked God for his enemies as well as 

 friends, because his enemies would tell him 

 his faults, while his friends would not. 

 Perhaps the Appeal to Reason, along this 



same line, may tell us of the faults of our 

 nation and government. I think I will take 

 tlie liberty to head it: 



THEV SHALL BEAT THEIR SWORDS INTO PLOW- 

 SHARES, . . AND NATIONS SHALL NOT LEARN 

 WAR ANV MORE. 



The latest score in the great competitive game 

 of building battleships is made by England, who 

 announces that she will construct three more 

 "Dreadnoughts." To-morrow Germany may be ex- 

 pected to come back with a plan for four more. 

 ■Then it will be the move of the United States. 



In the pictures displayed to attract boys to the 

 navy a "Dreadnought" is simply a gigantic ship 

 with smooth, beautiful lines. 



But a "Dreadnought" is not built to lend beauty 

 to the landscape, except when it is used as bait for 

 the young. It is built to kill human beings by 

 wholesale. It is, perhaps, the most perfect machine 

 tl'.at the age of machinery has produced. In all 

 the factories of the world full of factories there is 

 nowhere else so marvelously ingenious a piece of 

 mechanism. 



On its construction the best minds of the age 

 liave been concentrated for years. The highest re- 

 wards have been held out to those who could invent 

 some improvement — some new device that would 

 make it more effective for its terrible purpose. 



If to-day some person could devise a method by 

 which the whole great wonderful instrument of 

 death could be sent to the bottom with the pressure 

 of a finger, he would be the only one who would 

 receive greater rewards than the one who should 

 discover a method by which this same instrument 

 could be made still more terribly destructive. 



Every portion of this marvelous mechanism is 

 devised with but one end in view — destruction of 

 human life. Its great guns are carefully built up 

 into the most perfect pieces of metal known to man, 

 solely in order that they may hurl life-taking missiles 

 through hardened steel to reach the bodies of men 

 behind those steel walls. Every device of steam and 

 electricity that fill the most hidden corners of the 

 whole murderous machine is constructed and cared 

 loi and brought to the highest state of perfection 

 only that human bodies may be torn to fragments, 

 that widows and orphans may be created, and the 

 fishes fed with mangled human tiesh. 



Here capitalism reaches its climax. It pours out 

 it 5 energies most effectively and most freely for 

 purposes of murderovs destrvction. 



The above would look as if not only 

 England and Germany but the United 

 States, were getting a great waj^ off from 

 the beautiful sentiment in the text I have 

 cjuoted. The vast sums of money needed 

 for these great warships is taken from the 

 hard workers and tillers of the soil; and, 

 if I am correct, it is taking it also without 

 their consent or approval. But, thank the 

 Lord, the ''voice of the people" is begin- 

 ninff to be heard and considered. 



SOME VERY KIND WORDS AND SOMETHING ELSE. 



Dear Mr. Boot: — First of all I want to say, may 

 God bless you in all ways, and open the windows 

 of heaven and pour out such blessings of the Holy 

 Spirit upon you that you can say, "Thou anointest 

 my head with oil ; my cup runneth over. Surely 

 goodness and mercy have followed me all the days 

 of my life." 



I have never met you, and, no doubt, never shall; 

 but I should like to very much, and clasp the hand 

 of one of God's servants who is not afraid to speak 

 the truth without a veil over it. 



Your mention of the brother and sister, p. 567, 

 Sept. 1, interested me particularly. Just such an 

 instance happened with a railroad man and his own 

 danfjhter. Upon his entering the room she was 

 greatly surprised but rejoiced to see him, expecting 

 tlie landlady (?) back with promised "cream and 

 cake." She said, "Why, papa! I thought you were 

 on your run;" but all he could say was, "O my 

 God! my own daughter." 



