1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



473 



R's who were receiving good wages throw down 

 their tools, and declared with oaths that they 

 were not going to work for a living wlien peo- 

 ple all around them were getting rich, "hand 

 over hand," witltout work. 



In a line with this gambling mania is the 

 love of excitement or show, or something new. 

 During the beautiful days of the present spring, 

 again and again have great crowds gathered 

 near our public square to listen to certain open- 

 lir concerts. They were given in a properly 

 •igged-out wagon; and after the concert some 

 5ort of patent medicine was sold. When people 

 ire needy, and out of employment, and not at 

 ill sick, why should they buy medicines under 

 such circumstances? I can not tell. But I am 

 old that the man boasted of how many hun- 

 Ircds of dollars he took from our town. He 

 uid excellent singers; yes, I admit they were 

 onie of the finest-trained singers I ever heard, 

 le must have paid them considerable sums of 

 noney to travel with him from town to town. 

 The music— that is, the melody and their train- 

 d voices— was beautiful to hear; but when I 

 topped in passing, to catch the words, what do 

 uiusuppose they were? Was there a single 

 ospel hymn? Not one. Was the sentiment 

 f the songs— any one of them— any thing that 

 ould elevate and ennoble? Was there any 

 liought expressed of " the kingdom of God and 

 is righteousness " ? Quite the contrary. They 

 ere selected and fasliioned with the sole view 

 f drawing the people and working them up to 



pitch where the manager could get their 

 loney. The crowd was not composed of men 

 nd boys only. There were women and girls 

 ho left their homes and gathered in the 

 iccts. Those who could not well go out on 

 11' street tilled the doors and windows. It was 

 /rtc concert, you know. Ah! but vou forget, 

 lends. The medicine man received a bigger 

 I'ice of admission from every one who stood 

 round him than people pay to go to our best 

 jncerts. 8ome paid a big price. Others did 

 ot pay any thing. Our boy Huber has always 

 3en a very obedient child. 1 have scarcely 

 7er known him to stay out nights— that is, 

 iihout permission. One moonlight evening 

 B went to pay his cousins a visit. As he did 

 Dt get back until it was long after his accus- 

 imed time, i took my wheel and started after 

 im, wondering mentally what influence could 

 3ssibly prevail upon the boy to break his life- 

 ng record of obedience and prompt regularity. 

 'Ik'h I got in sight of the square I saw the 

 a'L'h-lights over the wagon, and heard a man 

 ugiiig. Huber stood there in the crowd, right 

 J in front, with mouth and ears and eyes wide 

 )en, taking in the whole program— good, bad, 

 id indifferent. Some of you may say right 

 ire, •' Mr. Root, you are too particular; you 

 ■e too strict and puritanical. You are not up 

 ith the times." Well, come to think of it I 

 less I am not up with the times— especially 

 e s(»rt of times where thousands upon thou- 

 nds won't work, or, if you choose, can't work; 

 .e limes when our police and other officers of 

 e law are (at times) entirely inadequate to 

 ive the laws enforced. I do not want to be 

 ) with such times. Please let me add, however, 

 at I did not scold Huber a bit. The sur- 

 uudings were more than we could expect a 

 re "boy" to withstand. I laughed and he 

 ughed, to think he had been captured by a 

 reet mountebank. He did not pay out any 

 Dney. He has money to do what he pleases 

 th, and there is plenty more he could easily 

 t hold of if he were so disposed. But the 

 y, thank God, is much like his mother, and a 

 lole" house and lot "not his own would be 

 temptation to him at all. 

 [tis not ouly the medicine man who takes 



awa,y the people's money, but sharpers who sell 

 halt-dollars lor 3.5 cts., and who sell goods at 

 auction, and then give the money back with 

 the goods. An offer of "something for noth- 

 ing ' usually linds many customers. If people 

 were seeking, instead of these things I have 

 mentioned, the kingdom of CfOd and his right- 

 eousness, how quickly these sharpers and these 

 great lottery companies would be starved out 

 of business! Yes, if even Uhnstmn people- 

 members of churches— if they alone, without 

 the rest of the world, could not be tempted by 

 otfers of "something for nothing," I fear these 

 fellows would have a terribly hard time in 

 making expenses. 



Just a word about patent medicines in gen- 

 eral. The proprietors of these things get rich 

 I have seen their princely residences in Califor- 

 nia. \ou can tind them scattered all over our 

 land. Many of them are millionaires. They 

 get a dollar a bottle for some compound that 

 does not costi them a nickel, bottle and all 

 Sometimes they boast of it. A certain class of 

 people say that it is all right because they have 

 to pay such enormous prices for advertising 

 But It is not all right. It is not seeking the 

 kingdom of God, and his righteousness. It is 

 not right to charge your neighbor or anybody 

 else a dollar for what costs you only five or ten 

 cents. It may be legitimate trade and traffic in 

 the eyes of the law, but it is not in the sight of 

 God, and it brings its own reward. 



Perhaps in my former writings I have been 

 inclined to ascribe the troubles that are upon 

 us too much to the fact that so many people 

 were lazy or indifferent. If this were true the 

 burden of the wrong would rest upon the will- 

 fully stupid and indifferent class, i think I be- 

 gin to see my mistake. Jt rests upon all of us 

 We are all forgetting the spirit of our text We 

 are letting self take a large part of our 

 thoughts; and the rest of the world— well we 

 are too much inclined to let them take care of 

 t/iemselves. And this sort of doctrine, carried 

 out, means " everybody for himself." A vehe- 

 ment young friend in our county jail said last 

 Sunday, "There ain't a lawyer anywhere 

 around who wouldn't tell a lie for a dollar " 

 I he above is rather rough on our legal friends 

 1 admit, and i remonstrated with the boy and 

 got him to take back part of it. I also suggest- 

 ed that people might think he was iudgine 

 others by himself. Now, I do not believe there 

 are many people who will tell a lie for a dollar- 

 but I am afraid there are quite a few who 

 would keep stilL for a dollar— yes, even if some- 

 thing were going on that they know ought to be 

 stopped. And right here comes in another 

 cause ot our troubles. We are having more dif- 

 ficulty at the present time in enforcing law 

 than perhaps at any other time in the history 

 ot our country. What is the reason? Well 

 one reason is, there is not enough public senti- 

 ment right back of and close up to our officers 

 to make it easy to enforce the laws. There is 

 no use in blaming our police; there is no use in 

 scoring our lawyers, nor in finding fault with 

 judges, while we are heedless and indifferent 

 or so intent on our own affairs (buying lottery- 

 tickets for instance) that we have no time to 

 look after our neighborhood and our nation 

 A case of intemperance recently came to my 

 notice. I was a good deal disgusted to find that 

 the probability was, nothing could be done to 

 the ottetiders. The evidence, I was told, was 

 not sufficiently strong and clear. First the 

 witnesses would probably not testify. Second 

 If l^etore a jury, the probabilities would be that 

 at feast a part of the jury would be more or less 

 given to intemperance, so they would have 

 sympathy with the transgressors. Further- 

 more, a good many of our judges, so it was said, 



