16 



GLEAKINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



mail-bag, with an expression something like 

 this : '' There! that man will get his price 

 list this time, I'll bet, for I addressed it to 

 him myself, and I know it is addressed cor- 

 rectly." 



Right here, friends, let me remind you 

 that clerks who do this (and who listen at- 

 tentively to every expressed want in any let- 

 ter, and who make it their business to scan 

 the letter through, even though it be a long 

 one, and see that every expressed want has 

 attention) command large wages; and one 

 who throws his whole, soul into his work, and 

 seems to have a sympathy and love for every 

 customer intrusted to his care, I canalfoid 

 to pay twice or three times as much as for a 

 half-hearted or indilferent clerk. While go- 

 ing over the ground, it almost seems as if 

 this sympathy and love for those whom we 

 meet in business can never exist without a 

 love to Christ. Now, please do not think me 

 complaining, dear girls, when I suggest what 

 should be done in all similar cases. In the 

 first place, all who read the above letter, no 

 matter where or what part of the factory 

 they work in, should have felt an anxious 

 solicitude for the rights of a misused cus- 

 tomer, and also for the reputation of the es- 

 tablishment where they work, and should 

 have said within themselves something like 

 this : "■ Now, I do not know just who should 

 write to this man, nor what answer should 

 be given ; but I do know it can do no harm 

 to give him a price list, and I will do that 

 anyhow, and give the letter to Mr. Root 

 when he comes in." It is true, if laid away 

 until I came along, even though I did come 

 in five minutes, the matter might have been 

 forgotten ; but even if it were forgotten, the 

 man had the price list anyhow, and so he 

 would know there was somebody alive and 

 kicking still, at the " Home of the Honey- 

 bees." You may say that I ought to have a 

 special receptacle for every thing needing 

 direction from myself. Well, I have now a 

 desk all my own, and I will at once have a 

 weight put on that desk, under which all pa- 

 pers should be put requiring my immediate 

 consideration. The clerk who opens the 

 mail has such a weight, and 1 glance at it so 

 often that my eve catches every letter with- i 

 in at least half an hour after it has come I 

 from the mails. I know, friends, that I am 

 guilty of the sin of half-heartedness, and I 

 am going to try to do better. Just another 

 illustration : 



A few weeks ago I wanted some eyelets for 

 our loom. I gave a young man a bundle of 

 strips of leather. Said I,'' Take these to the 

 shoe-shop, and have metal eyes put in each 

 one, just like thisold one I give you, only 

 have them a size larger.''^ To impress it on 

 his mind, I gave him a knotted string, and 

 told him the size must be large enougli to 

 let the string through, knot and all. When 

 he brought them back, the eyelets were ex-, 

 actly like the old ones, and he admitted that 

 he only told them to make the new ones ex- 

 actly like the sample. This sort of work, as 

 you may know, is not confined to boys alone, 

 for we have men and women, many of them 

 who want work too, who will do just half of 

 what they are told to do, when the latter 

 half is by all odds the more important part 



of the instruction. You may say the in- 

 structions were too long — that they can not 

 remember them. But, dear friends, the re- 

 sult is about the same when the instructions 

 are in the form of a letter, in black and 

 white, and I am sorry to say the instructions 

 sent here are sometimes filled in that very 

 way. We have tried clerks, and a good 

 many of them would fill half an order, and 

 skip the other half. What shall be done for 

 half-hearted people ? I have sometimes re- 

 monstrated in this way : " Dear friend, how 

 would you feel, if, having sent your hard- 

 earned money to somebody for a book, he 

 should put it up for j'ou in such a half-heart- 

 ed way as to send you a dictionary when you 

 waifted a book on bee-keeping? or suppose 

 you sent for a smoker and the ABC book, 

 and the clerk who got your letter should send 

 the smoker and then distribute your letter, 

 forgetting all about the book, that you want- 

 ed ten times more than the smoker V " 



•' Why, Mr. Root, I suppose I should get 

 pretty mad." 



There I had the frank admission, and yet 

 this same individual might go on doing the 

 same thing again. What shall be done with 

 them V I have sometimes felt, when con- 

 templating this kind of work, oh for more of 

 the spirit implied in those beautiful words 

 from our Savior. '' Thou shalt love thy neigh- 

 bor as thyself"! The one who did these 

 things admitted she would get pretty mad, 

 if used as she had used others, and yet this 

 same person went on in the same way. 

 Please do not accuse me now, my friends at 

 a distance, of keeping clerks in responsible 

 places who exhibit daily this half-hearted- 

 ness. Of course, they have to be told very 

 soon that I have nothing for them to do, un- 

 less they improve. I do not want this piece 

 altogether a sad one, and therefore I thank 

 God that I am able to tell you that the boys 

 and girls, and men and women, can be cured 

 of this grievous sin ; but as with the sin of 

 intemperance, I have been led to feel that 

 almost the only real radical cure is to be- 

 come converted. Becoming converted, in 

 the popular acceptance of the term, does not 

 always cure one at once of all these things. 

 But any man or woman who is seeking coun- 

 sel from God day by day, and toiling patient- 

 ly and earnestly every day heavenward, will 

 surely get the better of these evil habits. 

 But many of those who seem pretty well 

 along in the Christian life have a great bat- 

 tle to fight right here. A real, earnest, and 

 vehement desire to do unto others as we 

 would that others should do unto us, will ef- 

 fectually kill out half-heartedness in hand- 

 ling the property and. business of others; 

 and a desire to honor the name of our Lord 

 and Master will kill out the disposition to be 

 slothful and improvident about' our own 

 work. A good friend of mine once said he 

 thought one great secret of my success in 

 business, especially in employing so many 

 hands, was ray constant vehemence in sav- 

 ing every little scrap and odd or end that 

 could be utilized in any way. My frienc^s, 

 are you among the half-hearted ones of this 

 world ? If so, I want to tell you, " Seek first 

 the kingdom of God and his righteousness, 

 and all else shall be added unto you. 



