410 



GLEANINGS IN 15EE CULTURE. 



June 



nobly ; and when I go to bed at night, tired 

 out, I can, by swinging l)a<'k the shutters, 

 see the factory in plain sight, with lights 

 blazing from "many windows, and the roar 

 of buzz-saws tloating out on the still air at 

 every hour of the night. At just 12 o'clock 

 they" shut down for lunch and to oil the ma- 

 chinery, and tlien they have a good square 

 meal with colfee or lemonade, as they choose. 



In about twenty minutes the roar com- 

 mences again. Last night tlie clerks report- 

 ed that smokers and metal corners were in 

 danger of running short, so a part of the 

 hands in the tiu-shop worked all night, and 

 this morning we have plenty of both. 



A few days ago I overheard one of the girls 

 in the folding-room say the A B C books 

 were almost gone, and oiir new and enlarged 

 edition could not be gotten out until some 

 time in August, so our big press lias started 

 up to run day and night too ; and last night, 

 to keep it going, I worked witli tlie A B C 

 book, handling the lypes and pages until 

 half-past eleven, and was up and at it again 

 a little after four this morning. I told the 

 boys that the "Home of the lloney-Bees " 

 without any A B C books would be a'lmostas 

 bad as "ahome without a mother." I felt real- 

 ly happy last night in getting the new shining 

 types in my fingers once more ; in fact, I 

 felt a real love for the letters and commas 

 and periods and semicolons ; and when the 

 printers came round, and I had a " form " 

 all made up nearly ready for the press. I felt 

 happy again, and I thought, too. of how 

 many in a few days would read the work of 

 my fingers during these night hours. Once 

 in a while I took a turn in the saw-room, 

 where the boys, as wiiite as millers, with 

 basswood sawdust, were making the sections 

 fly ; then I went to the wax-room, and saw 

 the pleasant looks of those who had volun- 

 teered to work all night, and then again into 

 the tin-room. And wlien I went home and 

 could not sleep for a little while, I was so 

 tired, I still felt happy in thinking of the 

 boys and girls I had set to work and watched 

 over (and prayed over) during the past years. 



Once in a while a foreman comes round to 

 me and says, " Well, now. that boy So and So 

 is getting to be a pretty steady, manly sort 

 of a fellow after all ; " and as I look back I 

 fall to wondering whether it is not really 

 possible that he is going to gradually settle 

 down to be a steady, quiet, useful, and in- 

 telligent man. Some have come here who 

 lacked skill, and who at first did not seem to 

 be good for much of any thing — so much so 

 that, in a discouraged, dislieartened sort of 

 way I have continued to pay them wages 

 week after week, more because I felt sorry 

 for them, and hated to give them up, thaii 

 because I had any need of them, or dared 

 hope that they would ever pay for the trou- 

 ble they made ; but after long and patient 

 teaching they finally took a start and began 

 tx) grow, until many such are to-day valua- 

 ble, skillful, and faillifnl helpers — yes, real 

 helpers. As I think it over, the thought 

 comes up, " May God be praised ! " 



Now, these are my neighbors : and do you 

 wonder that I feel riioie faith in i)rayer than 

 I did when I first comnicnced praying a few 

 years ago? 1 know, dear friends, tlmt every 



thing here at our factory is not as it should 

 be, and some of you get very much vexed 

 at the way we do things ; but 1 feel encour- 

 aged through it all when I see how the 

 friends keep coming to us year after year, 

 even though we have many faults and fail- 

 ings yet. out of which we have not quite 

 grown. 



Ho which converteth the sinner from the error of 

 his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide 

 a multitude of sins.— James .5: 20. 



A PLEA FOR THE POOR DRONES. 



FKIEND DOOLITTLE ADMONISHES US TO BE CON- 

 SISTENT. 



ND God said, " Let us make man in our image, 

 after our likeness: and let them have do- 

 minion over the fish of the sea, and over the 

 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over 

 all the earth, and over every thing that 

 crecpdh upon the earth." — Gen. 1 : 36. 

 i In the last Juvenile oui'" worthy editor gave us 

 j some good thoughts and advice, under the above 

 I verse of scripture, and I would that all would heed 

 them and profit by them. But this text includes 

 more than cats and animals of all kinds, for it tells 

 us of " creeping things," so that we can just as ap- 

 propriately talk of cruelty to insects, as of cruelty 

 to cats, etc. Did any of you ever see children pull 

 the wings and legs off from flies, bugs, and grass- 

 hoppers, and then let them go, to suffer and die in 

 misery? I have, and it gave me pain to see it done, 

 also causing a word of mild reproof to be given by 

 1 me. I have also seen insect-collectors pin a beetle 

 j or a butterfly to the wall, there to suffer torture for 

 days, that said insect might become one of his collec- 

 tion after it was dead. I can not think this torture as 

 justifiable for any purpose, even if our good friend 

 ! Cook (who was so kind to the colt that he took him 

 into his buggy to ride) does tell us something in his 

 I book, " Manual of the Apiary," about such captur- 

 ' ing of insects for dissecting under the microscope. 

 Now, children, our good friend " Uncle Amos" is 

 guilty of cruelty to insects, as are others of our bee- 

 family, even if he does plead in such a worthy man- 

 ner for the pussy cats. Some years ago, it will be 

 remembered, I criticised the ABC book, in which 

 criticisms I took occasion to say that I always killed 

 as few bees as possible in the manipulation of my 

 hives; but where a bee's life was worth less than 

 my time in trying to save it, I killed the bee, for 

 bees were kept for profit by me. This brought a 

 shower of letters in Gleanings regarding myci-uel- 

 ty to the bees, each arguing that it was not the 

 profit we should look after, but for the comfort of 

 the bees, and that God would hold us accountable if 

 we killed bees carelessly. Just before his death, 

 friend T. J. Cook wrote of this, on page 727 of 

 Gleanings for 1883, in which he says: "I read of 

 bee-keepers who say they crush bees to death, even 

 those pets they love so well, when it pays better to 

 kill them than to save them. O ye of little faith I A 

 bee is very small to us, and one or two individuals 

 look very insignificant, and of small moment; but 

 consider that we are also of very small dimensions 

 in the eyes of our keeper, or God. Have mercy on 

 every thing beneath us, and then we may have I'ea- 

 son to expect mercy from those above us." All of 

 which is indorsed by the editor in his coiiin\ents at 

 the clos? of the article. 



