138 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



foftaffc ^clunjn. 



A STORE-KEEPER WHO WILt NOT SELL TOBACCO. 



m LLOW me, as a brother in Christ, to express 

 Jc^^ my pleasure in congratulating you on the 

 — — ' healthful, moral, elevating influence of 

 Gleanings in my family. I mean just what I say; 

 I very much respect you and your assistants for the 

 manly. Christian, outspoken, but kind tones of the 

 Gleanings articles and comments, and prayerfully 

 hope and trust you will go right on in the Master's 

 service, doing all you can for him who has done so 

 much for you and me. I hope some future day (if 

 you think proper) to send you an article on the to- 

 bacco question, and give you my experience thei-e- 

 in. Although a general store-keeper, I have fully 

 decided to sell no more of that health-destroying, 

 expensive, and filthy stuff. J. P. Doney, Sr. 



May God bless you, friend D., for your 

 kind words. For your encouragement I 

 want to add, that in "Medina there are ahiQOst 

 a dozen groceries, and only one among the 

 whole that will not sell tobacco. The young 

 man who tirst took this stand in this matter 

 is one of the bright new converts among our 

 young Christians ; and after he had carried 

 on business for over a year without tobacco, 

 he said he was willing to compare sales with 

 any grocer in the town ; so we have another 

 veritication of my old and well-tried text, 

 •' Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his 

 righteousness, and all these things shall be 

 added unto you.'^ 



I informed a friend of mine that you would give a 

 smoker to any one who would stop using tobacco. 

 He said if you would send him one he would stop; 

 and if he ever used it again, he would pay you for 

 the smoker. G. W. O'Kelley, Jr. 



Harmony Gi-ove, Jackson Co., Ga., Dec. 30, 1883. 



Will you allow an outsider to drop a few lines in 

 your valuable journal, which will come under the 

 head of Tobacco Column? I shall bs 21 years of age 

 the 20th day of January, and have been chewing and 

 smoking tobacco for 5 years, thinking all the while 

 it looked eloquent and smart, and believing all the 

 time it was injurious to my health, or, at least, older 

 ones told me it was, and so I have taken a pledge 

 not to chew or smoke any more tobacco. 



Miles, Ky., Jan. 9, 1884. J. C. Cloves. 



AN unexpected testimony. 



I was much surprised at receiving a Clark smoker 

 through the mail, and later, a postal statiiig that you 

 had sent it free, "no charge." I did not mean to 

 even hint at such a thing in what 1 said in a former 

 letter. Many thanks. But I can not imagine wlty 

 you sent it. It made me think of the Tobacco Col- 

 umn. But neither any of my near relations nor my- 

 self touch tobacco. Father learned to use it when 

 about eight years old, and was constant in its use 

 until his sons were becoming "big boys" about 

 him ; then for their sakes he resolved to be its slave 

 no longer, so he and four or five others, whom he in- 

 duced to join him, pledged themselves to quit its 

 use entirely for one year. 



I was too young at that time to remember much 

 about it; but I often heard mother tell about it aft- 

 erward. Up to that time he had been a very stout 

 healthy man; but during the first half of that year 



he became very irritable, lost his appetite, flesh, and 

 strength, to a great degree. In short, he became so 

 miserable that mother, fearing he could not live the 

 year out, besought him to begin using tobacco again. 

 He said, " Well; I will die, if that is to be the end." 

 He did not die then; he slowly but surely regained 

 even more than his former vigor of mind and body, 

 and lived to complete fully bi§ "threescore and ten 

 years," He often declared he was more than re- 

 paid in own person for all the struggle cost him. 

 But the kind Father permitted him also to see each 

 of his four sons become firm aiiti-iobiicco as well as 

 anti-whisky men, and still the good w( rk gva on, 

 for his three oldest grandchildren (cousins to each 

 other, and already rejoicing in their privilege of vot- 

 ing for next President), as well as some younger 

 ones, are each following fn the steps of their fathers 

 — so far, at least, as whisky and tobacco are concern- 

 ed. E. H. McClymonds. 

 Kittanning, Armstrong Co., Pa., Jan. 11, 1884. 



There, friends, I got the above good letter 

 by accident. You see, our friend got a smok- 

 er some time ago, which he said did not work 

 very well, and so I told the clerks to send 

 him one of the latest improved new ones, 

 and this brought out the above story. 



A RE.MARKAULE testimony, from friend ROGERS. 



DfMr Friend:— It seems curious, perhaps, for me 

 to addi-ess in this way a person I have never seen; 

 but I can not but feel, after reading Gleanings for 

 years, that you are indeed a friend, in the fullest 

 sense of the word, and I can not longer refrain 

 from writing you my thanks for the aid I have re- 

 ceived from your writings. I like the Home Papers; 

 and your Tobacco Column may have been the indi- 

 rect cause of my leaving off the use of tobacco. At 

 any rate, I jeered at it at first, and thought it a fool- 

 ish addition- to the pages of Gleanings. What I 

 think of it now, I leave you to judge after reading. 



MY experience WITH TOBACCO. 



■ I have read with interest all that has been said in 

 the Tobacco Column; but, not wishing to parade 

 private matters before your readers. I had thought 

 best not to say any thing about my experience with 

 tobacco. But the honorable reports from W. J. 

 Endley and others who have tried to abandon the 

 habit, and so far failed, have induced me to speak 

 out, with the hope that what I can say will not only 

 strengthen all in their good resolutions, but may en- 

 courage at least one struggling brother until he 

 shall at last succeed in freeing himself from the 

 chains which the habitual and long-continued use of 

 tobacco inevitably fastens about us. I say chains, 

 because I consider no person more thoroughly en- 

 slaved than the one addicted to the every-day use of 

 tobacco. To the veteran smoker I need say noth- 

 ing to substantiate this statement; but to the youth 

 just indulging in his occasional cigar, who thinks it 

 mere fancy, let me say, bitter experience in after- 

 life will show you that it is a substantial fact. You 

 may ask how I know. I will try to tell you. 



I commenced smoking a cigar octisionally when I 

 was Ifi or 17 years of age. At that time I had no 

 thought of ever using the pipe. In fact, the daily 

 sight of my loved father smoking his short clay pipe, 

 although apparently a comfort to him, made me re- 

 solve that I would never use it. But as I got further 

 along with the habit, a clean pipe was first- substi- 

 tuted for the cigar, and finally appetite got the best 

 of me; and even before I was 20, none but the long- 



