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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15. 



great besetting sin of the world — in other words, 

 the great stronghold of Satan— is in making us 

 magnify and enlarge the faults of our neigh- 

 bors, and inducing us to jump at conclusions. 

 It is an awful thing to steal from one's neigh- 

 bors. We ought to be careful how we use the 

 word "steal," in just the same way that we 

 should be very careful how wr use the word 

 " lie," or call people liars. Nothing but the 

 most extreme and aggravated cases should 

 authorize us to use these severe words. A great 

 many times in my life I have decided, " Here is 

 a clear case of stealing, and nothing else; there 

 can be no mistake about it." Notwithstanding, 

 'however, remembering past experiences of 

 where I jumped at conclusions in such matters. 

 I decided to commence by being very mild and 

 gentle. In fact. I have a good many tinips gone 

 to the bflfender. and chosen my words with such 

 gentleness that it seemed to me for a time al- 

 most as if I was making a hypocrite of myself 

 in not being outspoken and plain, and calling 

 things by their right names. But later on, 

 again and again I have been, oh so glad! that 

 I did not call folks thieves and liars. A case is 

 right before me now. 



Our people here now all get their pay at the 

 bank. The time-clerk figures up the number 

 of hours they have worked: and Saturday 

 night, as they stop work, tliey get their check 

 on the bank. A young man came to me a few 

 days ago, saying his envelope and check could 

 not be found, although the time-clerk knew it 

 was made out. I told him it was probably 

 given to somebody else by mistake, and that 

 we should hear from it in a day or two. Final- 

 ly he went to the bank, and, sure enough, 

 there was the check duly paid. It was paid to 

 another young man. The case seemed to be 

 very plain a-.d clear. The offender had discov- 

 ered that two checks were given him instead of 

 one. He presented them both; but when an 

 explanation was required, he said the absent 

 party had desired him to get the cash for him. 

 As this latter is frequently done — that is, as 

 one workman frequently goes to the bank and 

 draws the cash for one or more of his comrades 

 — nothing would be thought about it. But the 

 one who lost his wagfs told me that he was not 

 even acquainted with the boy who drew his 

 money. As there were over a hundred at work 

 for us, he did not even know there was such a 

 person, in fact. Now, I was foolish enough to 

 forgpt former experiences, and to denounce the 

 absent friend before I had looked into thp 

 matter, or had had further pxplanation. I 

 mentioned the matter to the foreman of the 

 wood-working rooms. He said right off some- 

 thing like this: 



" Why. Mr. Root, there must be some mistake 

 about this. This person is a married man. and 

 in good standing, and he certainly would not 

 tell such a falsehood for just a few dollars 

 when he knows the whole thing must.be found 

 out very quickly." 



This seemed reasonable, it is true ; but I 

 think I must have been in an uncharitable 

 mood, for I replied: 



" Yes, I know it; but people do just such 

 foolish things in a most unaccountable way, 

 when the evidence is as plain as daylight that 

 they would be found out in just a few hours." 



Now. I want to make a little confession fur- 

 ther. As soon as the above charge was made 

 against the young man I began going back and 

 recalling every circumstance I could in his 

 history, to prove that he was vicious and un- 

 principled. What makes us in such a hurry to 

 think evil of anybody, especially when circum- 

 stances seem to be against him? Why, the 

 plain truth is. it is simply the work of the 

 prince of darkness, who goes about as a roaring 



lion, seeking whom he may devour. At such a 

 moment he creeps on to us and whispers all the 

 evil things he can suggest: for it is his whole 

 business in life to pick at folks, and find faults 

 in their character — to set neighbor against 

 neighbor and relative against relative. My 

 good friend Mr. W.. however, was not disposed 

 to diop the matter right there. He is almosc as 

 sharp and keen as a detective in unraveling 

 mysteries, and he took hold of the clews I had 

 given him, and commenced reasoning as fol- 

 lows: 



'• Look here, Mr. Root, one of the boys is 

 named Clare, and the other Carl. These are 

 their first names. Now, your time-clerk, and 

 the cashier at the bank, might easily mistake 

 one for the other. Their second names are 

 Barker and Rieger. Both end with er; and a 

 capital B might be easily mistaken for a capi- 

 tal R. Carl must have drawn Clare's pay; and 

 as the amounts due both of them were nearly 

 the same, neither he nor anybody else noticed 

 the difference. Let us go right in to the time- 

 clerk and see if Carl's proper envelope and 

 check are not still there uncalled for." 



In a few minutes it was found awaiting its 

 owner. I have never investigated where the 

 part the above came from in regard to u hat the 

 bank clerk said about Carl calling for Clare's 

 money. It is not worth while, for it is evidently 

 a mistake, like the other part of it. Nobody had 

 done any thing wrong in the whole transaction 

 — in fact, nobody was even thinking evil. 



Now, there are thousands of quarrels and 

 misunderstandings, and perhaps lawsuits, that 

 come about by an accident like this. Some- 

 times they are easily unraveled; and at other 

 times they may. perhaps, always remain a mys- 

 tery. During the height of the strawberry sea- 

 son last year, the proceeds of nearly a load of 

 strawberries were lost, and all our elTorts up to 

 the present time have been unavailing to de- 

 tect where the loss came in. I am perfectly 

 satisfied that my men and boys were entirely 

 innocent and honest. If there were any pick- 

 pockets in Medina I might think that one of 

 these light-fingered gentry picked the money 

 from one of their pockets. 



Once more: Before we adopted this plan of 

 sending our workmen to the bank to get their 

 pay, one Saturday night, when toward §1000 in 

 cash was brought down from the bank, about 

 $40.(K) had disappeared. It has never yet been 

 found, nor has any trace of it ever come to 

 light. The money was all handled by honest, 

 faithful women, who would not take a copper 

 any more than I would. And such things do 

 happen more less in business. The lesson to me 

 was, that money should not be handled in that 

 way. Our banks and banking institutions are 

 the proper places for money. It should go there 

 whenever the amount gets to be sufficient to 

 tempt people, and it should stay there till the' 

 owner calls for it. Since giving our employes 

 checks on the bank, instead of handling so 

 much loose money, I do not think we have lostj 

 a copper. 



I have gone into all these details because it 

 points out that prop(M' methods of doing busi- 

 ness will not only remov(^ temptation from those! 

 who might be tempted, but it will greatly lessen; 

 the chances of mistakes and loss. 



In the two cases I have mentioned above, it 

 would seem quite clear that somebody had been 

 stealing, and we might decide in our mindsl 

 Tiretty nearly who the person or persons were. 

 But even with very plain evidence we might 

 make a mistake. In fact, a great many times 

 something, perhaps long afterward, transpires 

 to show that there had been no stealing at all. 

 For instance, several months after the loss of 

 the money during strawberry lime, Mrs. Root 



