l8S(.i 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CLLTL I'J:. 



WHAT TO DO, AND HOW TO BE HAPPY WHILE DOING IT. 



Continued from Dec. l'>. 

 CHAPTER VII. 



For dust thou art, and unto dust Shalt thou return.— Gen. 8: lit. 



While on the cars on my way to New Or- 

 leans, nearly a year ago, I wrote something 

 like this : " I have jnst made a great inven- 

 tion." The above was pnt into an article 

 for Gleanixgs ; and as months passed and 

 nothing further was said in regard to the 

 matter, several of the friends inquired, 

 " What about the ' great invention'':"' Well, 

 the reason why I delayed giving further par- 

 ticulars was because it is a rather delicate 

 subject to handle ; and I do not know now 

 but that some of my good friends will turn 

 away in disgust from what I have to say in 

 regard to a matter that seems to me is one 

 of the great matters before the people of the 

 present age. My thought was directed into 

 this channel by the imperfect arrangements 

 on many of our best railroads for the accom- 

 modation of the traveling public in the way 

 of water-closets. On my return from New 

 Orleans, while occupying a l)eautiful cush- 

 ioned seat in one of the best palace cars, I 

 was suddenly surprised and annoyed by a 

 most intense steaming-up of foul odors. At 

 first I looked at my fellow-passengers suspi- 

 ciously. Then I noticed that my seat was 

 not very far away from the closet. And this 

 was in a palace car that cost an immense 

 sum of money. The makers had taken every 

 pains, and gone to great expense, in order to 

 have these things fit for cultured and intel- 

 ligent people. In some of our hotels we 

 have found much the same state of affairs. 

 It has seemed to me that this is the great 

 unsolved problem of the age. Princely ho- 

 tels, steamboats, palace cars, schools and col- 

 leges, expositions, and other places where 

 people of intelligence and culture do congre- 

 gate, have been planned and devised in vain. 

 Money has been expended lavishly, but only 

 to meet disappointment, and oftentimes 

 disgust. One great difficulty jn this matter 

 is the stubbornness of humanity. People 

 will be — I dislike to say it ; but, to come 

 right down to the plain truth, the word to be 

 used is,— nasty. Even well-bred people, or at 

 least those whom we should expect to be 

 well bred, and to be neat and orderly in their 

 habits, look on and see how money has been 

 expended, and how carefully the plans have 

 been laid to make these necessary places o 



they can be easily kept sweet and clean, but 

 they don't care. 



The most 2)ci'fect III uwfid place of the kind 

 leversaw^ anywhere in my life was at the 

 Ohio State Fair. I know it is not in good 

 taste to complain and find fault, but I know 

 there are others like myself who feel almost 

 desperate about the way this matter stands. 

 When I meet the great minds of our age ; 

 when I hear them talk at our conventions ; 

 when I witness what mind has succeeded in 

 accomplishing with inert matter and nature's 

 forces, I feel as if man were created in. 

 God's own image ; and when I meet good 

 earnest Christian people, I feel strongly that 

 there is a God part in tisall, as well as a rem- 

 nant of a savage and animal nature. At 

 such times I feel proud of my fellow-men : 

 but when I over and over again meet such 

 sights as I have hinted at, if I have not de- 

 scribed them, a kind of feeling comes over 

 me that man is largely animal still, and an 

 animal, too, of which some of the four-footed 

 dumb brutes might be ashamed. 



When I call attention to these things I am 

 met with the remark, "Well, what is a body to 

 do? " or, ''I do not see that there is any thing 

 to do but to put up Avith it as the rest do." 

 Probably the bad state of affairs comes about 

 as it does at our country schoolhouses (or, 

 if you choose, our town and city]scliool- 

 houses). Somebody goes a little way in 

 transgressing the rules of neatness and pro- 

 priety, and the next one thinks that, as that 

 seems to be the fashion, there is no way but 

 to follow suit ; and probably, without intend- 

 ing it, he is a little worse than his predecessor, 

 and pretty soon all scruple is trampled under 

 foot, and then we have sights that are just 

 awfid. Our sweet, clean, w^ll-dressed little 

 boys and girls are forced to see sights that 

 pretty soon break down all that a fond mother 

 has accomplished at home in the way of in- 

 stilling into the little minds a love for clean- 

 liness, order, and purity. I hope this state 

 of atfairs is not universal. I can not bear to 

 think it is. And, by the way, if any of my 

 readers know of a schoolhouse, college, or 

 academy, where they have something] to be 

 proud of in this direction, and, keep it up 

 month after month and year after year, when' 



