736 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1.5. 



that neigliborhood in one short day! Of cour-p. 

 this was not law. It was taking the law inio 

 their own hands. Perhaps this poor man did 

 not know that the laws of our land forbid nsing 

 poison. Yon can not even poison your neigh- 

 bor's dog or chickt'iis. no matter how much they 

 annoy you. Our laws are very strict in this 

 matter. If you have been annoyed and dam- 

 aged, you can I'ccover damages if you go aliout 

 it in the proper way; but you have no right to 

 undertake to administer justice yourself. The 

 illustration above shows you wht-re it leads; 

 and who can say where the end will be? 



A great many people become impatient at 

 the slow process of the law. When President 

 Carnot, of France, was stabbed in broad day- 

 light, a good many people wondered that the 

 authorities waited to go through the formality 

 of a trial. Of course, nobody questioned the 

 guilt of the assassin. He iiimself did not deny 

 it, and yet all the formalities and delays of the 

 law had to be observed. It was wiser and bet- 

 ter, because of the example it set before the 

 world. The element of fairness commended 

 itself to everybody. 



I can remember, when I was a boy, of hearing 

 a man make objection to the Christian religion 

 because it permits a man to be the veriest ras- 

 cal all his days, provided he repents before he 

 dies. This man said, that such a sinner was to 

 be received right into the fellowship of the 

 saints just the same as if he had been a good 

 man all his life. The speaker did not recom- 

 mend mercy. He probably recoinmended pun- 

 ishing a man all the same, no matter whether 

 he was sorry for his wicked acts or not. Per- 

 haps I should say lirst. that the Bible does not 

 teach this at all, if I am correct. Sin or sin- 

 ful lives will leave their scars; and the sinner 

 who is truly converted will feel remorse all the 

 days of his life for the sins he committed while 

 he was an ungodly man. It seems to me that 

 that judge was very much in the right when 

 he said we wanted to do that which was best 

 for our criminals. If the penitentiary will do 

 them the most good, then by all meanslet them 

 go there and stay there. Whenever it becomes 

 evident, however, that they will be good, or 

 turn to better lives, without the discipline of 

 the penitentiary, then let us use mercy.* The 

 experienced judge or officer of the law can tell 

 pretty quickly from the attitude and behavior 

 of a criminal whether his penitence is genuine 

 sorrow or not for his sinful course. Since I 

 have grown older I am getting to see these 

 things in a different light from what I did: and 

 it pains me to the heart to hear so much fault 

 found with the way in which the law is admin- 

 istered. The //•ie/ifZs of the accused, of course, 

 complain of the severity of the law and of its 

 officers. On the other hand, those who know 

 nothing of the circumstances, or perhaps those 

 who su if ere I from the sinful acts of the guilty 

 one, demand punishment ivithoiU viei'r.y, and 

 are not backward about accusing the officers of 

 being bribed to let the guilty one get off easy. 



Most of you who read the'-papers have seen 

 more or less of the serious charges brought 

 against the Sugar Trust; and several ministers 

 have taken the matter up in their sermons, 

 giving figures and scathing denunciations 

 against these "wholesale robbers" as they 

 term them. In a recent issue of the ^mcrierwi, 

 Grocer, one divine in the city of New York has 

 been called to order. The periodical above 

 copied the figures the preacher gave in his ser- 



* Along- in tliis line I may mention the recent plan 

 of letting criminals out on parole, or good hchiu ior 

 —especially intemperate ones. So long ;is tlu'v al)- 

 stain from drink, they are free men; biil as .soon as 

 they get on anotlier spree tliey are sent back to 

 prison to serve out the full time of their sentence. 



mon, and gave, as it seems to me, ample evi- 

 dence to show that these figures were greatly 

 exaggerated. The speaker probably obtained 

 them from the dailies. The American Grocei\ 

 in closing, said something like this: Nowadays 

 it is customary for each industry or class of 

 people to appoint a committee to have their 

 industry properly presented before Congress, in 

 order that it may have the recognition it de- 

 serves. Even the bee-keepers have done as^ 

 much as tiiis. The latter expression is my own, 

 not from the Grocer. Well, the Oroccr goes on 

 to say that the sugar-refiners have done this, 

 like other class organizations. Having large 

 capital, tht'v have, perhaps, been able to do 

 things on a larger scale than most other indus- 

 tries. Then they add something which I sin- 

 cerely hope is true. They say they do not be- 

 lieve that any member of Congress has been 

 hrlbccL to the extent of a dollar, to favor theiu 

 by any underhanded or unlawful means. Per- 

 haps the truth lies somewhere between the ex- 

 aggerated accounts of our political newspapers 

 and the statement made by the Grocer: but in 

 leaning to the side of the latter, I am reminded 

 of the statements made only a short time ago, 

 in these very same political dailies, about man- 

 ufactured comb honey. 



There are many dangers threatening us just 

 now as a people; and I can not help thinking 

 that one of them is the disposition to believe so 

 readily that all men are rascals, and then rec- 

 ommend that they be punished without mercy 

 to the full extent of the law; and when the law 

 is slow they take the matter into their own 

 hands, and shoot down the thieves and rascals, 

 or, if you choose, the apparent thieves and ras- 

 cals. A movement is already on foot to have 

 something done to prevent lynching: and mob 

 law — to prevent hanging a man before we are 

 really sure he is the guilty party. O dear 

 friends, does it not behoove us to be careful? 

 Ii is impossible to irame laws that will fit all 

 cases indiscriminately. In view of this, shall 

 we not get intimately acquainted with the of- 

 fender, and get at the lull facts of the case? 

 and then when we condemn him to prison or to 

 death, let us do it with a gentle and loving 

 hand if such a thing be possible. 



ON THE WHEEL. 



One of the boys said the other day, that one 

 could start out nov; and go anywhere without 

 any fear of being hindered by rain. You are 

 likely to be hindered in another way — by dust; 

 but we can manage the dust pretty well. By 

 the way, I wish to call attention to the social 

 element that the wheel develops. The boy or 

 girl who rides a wheel sees more people, gets 

 around among folks more, and knows what is 

 going on a great deal better than one could 

 very well witiiout a wheel. The wiieelman 

 soon gets to be known and recognized for miles 

 around in every direction. He sees how other 

 folks do things; his ideas are broadened; and 

 on general principles he is a more valuable 

 member of society. It is true, that, where he 

 is disposed to be vicious, it gives him extra op- 

 portunities to get among the vicious classes. 

 But we have to meet this at every turn. Even 

 education itself helps a bad man to be a worse 

 one; but we can not, even if that be true, dis- 

 courage the education of the people. 



