1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



6C5 



house to be bound and rendered helpless by 

 letting impulse and passion rule instead of 

 conscience and manhood. 



Perhaps, friends, some of you may think I do 

 not know. what it is to be tempted. Maybe 

 you think I do not have desires and impulses, 

 iike the rest of you. It is not true. 



A few days ago, in traveling over that nice 

 graveled road between Cuyahoga Falls and 

 Hudson, O.. I made 1)4 miles in 'M minutes, 

 with my new 24-lb. wheel. That is not very 

 much for one of the 6oi/.<*, I know, but I felt 

 rather proud of it. After paying friend Terry 

 a visit I started back. The wind was at my 

 back, I had just had a good dinner, and felt 

 very much like making speed. Just ahead of 

 me was a smart young horse. The weather 

 was very dry and hot, and even on this gravel- 

 ed road the horse and buggy stirred up a little 

 dust. I started to go by, as 1 usually do, but 

 the driver accosted me something like this: 

 " See here, my friend, may be you can go by us 

 and may be you can't. But let's be fair about 

 it. Here, I will give you the smoothest part of 

 the road, and I will not get in your way. Now, 

 sir. go ahead and put in your best licks." He 

 seemed so pleasant and fair about it that it did 

 not occur to me at first that I should be racing. 

 You know how I have stood out, both in teach- 

 ing and practice, against any thing in the line 

 of racing or gambling. Yes, even when Hubcr 

 urged me to go to the wheel -races to see him 

 rid-', I preferred to be excused. As his mother 

 thought it was an almost harmless amusement, 

 in the way it was conducted, I consented that 

 Huber should go if he chose: but I felt that I 

 could not conscientiously go, even with the 

 boys, to the fairground, where they were to test 

 their wheels and muscles.* Let us now go 

 back to the graveled road. 



I was so sure I could get ahead of the young 

 horse that I did not try very much; but I grad- 

 ually gained on him till I got ahead and then 

 slacked up. as it seemed to be only a pleasant, 

 good-natured test of what a modern wheel could 

 do. He was not satisfied, but wanted to try it 

 again. The horse was now getting warmed up 

 to business, and it took a little more muscle to 

 get ahead: but I finally left him far behind. I 

 slacked up again; but I gathered from his 

 manner that he was a little put out, perhaps to 

 think that an old gray -haired man like myself 

 should outrun his horse. He seemed to be try- 

 ing to do something to that horse — I could not 

 exactly understand what. But very soon the 

 horse started to pass me on a gallop. I had 

 heard the boys say that very few wheelmen 

 could distance a hofse on a dead run; but I had 

 gone by so easily before, I thought I would just 

 try it. I had work before me now in dead 

 earnest. The horse kept going faster and fast- 

 er, till he was bounding like a runaway. The 

 strokes of my feet on the pedals were also get- 

 ting faster and faster, and the light steel 24-lb. 

 racer was quivering and twisting with the 

 force of these heavy strokes like a willow whip. 

 I was getting somewhat near to the limit of my 

 strength; but I felt pretty sure that, if I would 

 make one more desperate offort, I could beat 

 the horse, even on a run. We were going at a 

 speed that was terrific — at least, it was terrific 



♦Perhaps I mig-lit add thiit Huber did come out 

 ahead in two contests amonfi- boys of his own age- 

 one for fast riding and the other for slow riding. 

 By my advice, however, he refused to accept any 

 prizes. I told him that, if I were in liis place, I 

 "Would not accept of even a doughnut or a stick of 

 candy. Suppose, liowever, some of the spectators 

 should chncise to bet on the boy's strength and skill. 

 Here is the trouble, friends. If you engage in any 

 contest, you may, without knowing it, encourage 

 tJie gambling and racing mania. 



SO far as my experience went. The man was 

 evidently vexed because I had beaten him 

 twice, and he was urging his horse on at a mad 

 rate. Of course, I was excited. Any one who 

 has Root blood in his veins will tell you that a 

 Root would die before he would be beaten — 

 that is, if he were to let impulse and pdssion 

 rule. Just here conscience began a remon- 

 strance. It seemed as if I could hear the voices 

 of both Ernest and Mrs. Root saying something 

 like this: "' () father! tatherl what are you 

 thinking of? and do you realize what you are 

 doing?" I slacked up and let the man go by. 

 May be he would have gone by any way. I 

 was not very much tired, and my strength was 

 not exhausted. A dozen times I meditated even 

 yet showing him what I could do. But I knew 

 it was not right. If we had been going through 

 a town where spectators were along the road, 

 it would have been the most natural thing in 

 the world for bets to be started. Some would 

 bet on the horse, and some on your humble ser- 

 vant. God forbid! Nobody shall ever bet on 

 me. or on any gift of brain or muscle that God 

 has given, if I can prevent it. Had any thing 

 broken about my wheel, or had even a screw 

 come loose, it would have been broken bones or 

 death. In fact, several deaths have resulted 

 already from some accident in wheel-riding in 

 this way. But that is not the point just now. 

 It is the gambling anu racing mania that we 

 need to consider a little; or, if you choose, in 

 the language of our text, it is the matter of 

 letting passion and the racing-craze bind the 

 strong man so that the poor victim really does 

 not realize what he is doing, or, may be, is 

 hardly responsible after he gets started. It is 

 the same with all other kinds of sin. We get 

 into it mconsciously. Again, I am not only a 

 professor of religion, but I am a deacon in the 

 church; and yet, there I had been straining 

 every nerve in my body for — what? To get 

 ahead of a man — a brother! Why. he toa may 

 be a deacon, for aught I know. Probably not, 

 however. You see, I am condemning myself by 

 my own actions. Well, I was quivering in 

 every nerve to get ahead — to get ahead of my 

 neighbor — ahead of that stout young horse 

 trained for racing. I really do not know much 

 about such matters, so I may be mistaken; but 

 this spirit of wanting to get ahead of others — 

 of your neighbors — what sort of spirit is it? 

 How does it harmonize with that text I have so 

 fondly repeated and quoted — "not to be minis- 

 tered unto, but to minister"? How does it 

 harmonize with the spirit our Savior taught 

 among the poor and lowly ? I hardly neea tell 

 you that this whole matter of racing, gambling, 

 prizefighting (and it all hangs together, dear 

 friends), is about as far off from the real spirit 

 of Christianity as any thing can well be. The 

 gambler, instead of following the injunction. 

 " Do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again," 

 grabs from his neighbor without giving him 

 a/iy .sorf of equivalent; without conscience or 

 scruple he takes a poor man's hard earnings — 

 the hard earnings that are needed to furnish 

 his wife and children with bread and clothing, 

 and he appropriates the same to himself. His 

 whole aim in life is to get ahead of his fellows 

 — to get above them by crowding them down 

 and back. If God has given him strength of 

 muscle, he uses that strength to wrest the hard 

 earnings from the weak and defenseless, and 

 yet he grows into this state of heart by easy 

 steps. The whole attitude of the people engag- 

 ed in our recent strikes has been so far off, and 

 so far from the spirit of Christ, and seemingly 

 so oblivious of the fact that Christianity is in 

 our land at all, that one may wonder whether 

 they ever heard of the Bible or Christian teach- 

 ings. Such is the result of letting this world 



