778 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov 



business, rain or sliine; and in due time, if 

 you faint not, mountains in reality sliall 

 jfive way before you. Yes, you can buy the 

 buzz-saw and extractor, and have some mon- 

 ey left, by the time the season opens next 

 year. — Our stenographer adds, that ''empty 

 churches." "stagnant business,'' and '• emp- 

 ty beer-barrels " generally go togethei-. 



THE TOBACCO COLUMN. 



A lady's t'KlTICISM IN KEGAKU TO SOME FEA- 

 TUIiES OK THIS DEPARTMENT. 



BEING a little amused and a good deal vexed at 

 some of the letters, such as, " I have used 

 the weed for five years, and am now oblig-ed 

 to quit, and if you think I deserve a smoker," 

 etc., I send a letter, not begging' a smoker, 

 liut hoping to show how it sounds: 



THE LETTER. 



Mr. iJoot:— Heerin as how you give away smokers 

 to everybody that had smoked till they had got sick 

 and quit I want to send in my name. I am one that 

 has used the weed for upwards of 35 years and now 

 it has about got away with me. Yes Mr. Root I 

 am about iilaycd out. That is I hev got the dyspep- 

 sy so bad that the doctors say I must quit tobaco or 

 die and tliat at the best I wont last long. Now you 

 know Mr. Hoot that 1 aint mercenarj- but the wldder 

 Mr. Koot is what I look at. And so I say that beln 

 as I hev used it so long you ought to give me a smo- 

 ker and a pictui-e (cromo they call em) If you will 

 do this I will quit if not I might as well keep on tor 

 the few days I live. I know it is askin a good deal 

 but in these days of prizes I hold a feller ought to 

 secure all he ken get for his widder. 



What little man there is left, seems to me, to de- 

 port in the appeal to be iiaid for doing a plain duty! 

 We all like your monthly, and I suppose you know 

 that we grind our coffee on one of your mills, and 

 light your matches from a luminous safe, and let 

 the baby ride on a wheelbarrow from Medina, or at 

 least from you. But, enough. Mrs. C. E. Martz. 



Mortinsville, 111. 



Thank you for your kind words and gen- 

 tle reminder, my friend ; but, are you not 

 just a little uncharitableV I know there is 

 always danger of going too far in trying to 

 hire people to do right; but yet I believe 

 that missionaries, ministers, school-teachers, 

 and humanitarians in general, agree that 

 presents rightly employed are a great lever 

 to draw people's attention, and get them to 

 move, even when tliey know their duty per- 

 fectly well and plain. This giving smokers 

 was "started as a bit of pleasantry : but it 

 seems to me you must admit, tliat (iod has 

 used it as a means of accomplishing great 

 good. While now and tlien some poor friend 

 has made mention of poor health, and that 

 it was caused by tlie use of tobacco, a great 

 majority of those who have taken a smoker 

 as a reminder of their pledge have been 

 abundantlv able to pay for a wagonload of 

 smokers, if they had wanted them. You 

 see, giving them a smoker to be paid for if 

 they ever break their pledge makes it an 

 easy burden to bear, and it is also a bit of 

 business transaction. No one gets an idea 

 that I am trying to drive people into my 

 wavs of thinking. We have now quite a lit- 

 tle band of those who have given up tobac- 

 co for a smoker, and a great many of them, 

 probably, would not have listened to any 

 other proposal. Among tliem are prominent 

 lawyers and doctors and divines, and I feel 



greatly obliged to them for tlie encourage- 

 ment they have given us in entering the lists. 

 The smoker is a sort of object lesson, as I 

 have told you before. It secures attention ; 

 gets people to thinking : and almost any 

 teaclier will tell you that when lie has got 

 tlie attention of his pupils, and has set them 

 to thinking, his work is more than half done. 

 While I write tliese words a great political 

 contest is going on. Things are bad in 

 many respects — very bad. Now, we do not 

 want to get the people all uj) by the ears, 

 and get tiiem stubborn and ugly, "and ready 

 to tigiit. We want to have theih fall in line 

 and go to work good naturedly and pleasant- 

 ly, even though their opinions be widely dif- 

 ferent. I do not suppose I could make the 

 smoker business work in politics; but if 

 some other simple trifling thing woidd di- 

 vert the attention of these vast multitudes, 

 and get them to smiling pleasantly and good 

 naturedly at their opponents, I think a great 

 good might possibly be accomplished. 



TWO LITTLE SISTERS. 



THE WAV THEV MANAGED WHEN MAMM.V WAS GONE. 



HEY rode before me all the way to town yes- 

 terday; and brighter, or more cheerful and 

 neat girls I don't often see. They had hitch- 

 ed the old gray horse to the buggy, and, 

 with their new winter hats and bright shawls, 

 their red cheeks and sparkling eyes, they made a 

 very charming picture indeed. 



They were having a merry time too. I could see 

 them smiling and nodding to each other, and every 

 now and then their happy laugh rang out; they 

 drove up to their grandmother's, and she came out 

 and talked to them a few minutes, telling them, I 

 almost know, to be careful about the horse, and 

 not let it run away with them. Then she tucked 

 the lap-robe closer about them, and they went 

 eantei'ing on. 



The names of these little sisters are Kuth and 

 Maggie Cadwalader, and they live in a big white 

 house close to the road where I drive along four 

 times a day. 



Three mouths ago their mother died, and left a 

 house full of children. There are big brothers- 

 big enough to i-un clover-hullers; and little broth- 

 ers, so little that it takes two of them to lift a fence- 

 rail and lay it on the fence; and there are Ruby 

 and Lizzie, who go to school; and last and least of 

 all, there is the baby; and for all these and the 

 father, these two little sisters have to do. 



Before the mother died she called the children to 

 her and talked to them one at a time, and told them 

 how to do, but to Ruth and Maggie she gave the 

 charge of the baby and the welfare of the family; 

 and after she had told them evei-y thing she turned 

 to a friend who was near, and said, " 1 am going 

 away, and the girls are young; they may forget 

 what I tell them; but, you will see them often, and 

 I wish you would remind them if they seem to 

 forget." 



But, they will not forget; they may forget a good 

 many things; but the words of their dying mother, 

 never. And all this pleasant autumn weather, as I 

 go and come, I see them at work on the long south 

 porch. Monday morning, when I go by at 8, they 

 are rubbing away and putting the things through 



