590 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1. 



one of the strips of wood, or plank, rather, that 

 we use when working among the plants. They 

 are made of 13.j-inch clear pine. (5 feet long and 

 8 inches wide. Nailed to each end is a block 

 about 2 inches square. When the plants are so 

 tall that this bar. as we call it. would crush 

 down their tops, we turn it over so it rests on 

 the blocks instead of flat down on the top of the 

 bed. We used about a dozen of these boards on 

 our quarter-acre plot. Half of the dozen are 

 painted slate color, and the other half are 

 painted bright red. I will tell yon why. The 

 red ones are made long enongh so the blocks at 

 each end will just i-each over the side-boards of 

 abed that is i^xactly the right width. One of 

 these red bars enables us to see instantly 

 whether, under the influence of frost and damp- 

 ness, the side-boards have been spreading. If 

 they have been spreading we run an iron rod 

 across the bed, hooking each end over the 

 afore-described iron stakes. This holds the 

 sides rigidly in place, and then there is no 

 more trouble from spreading. In this first bed, 

 at the extreme right end of the picture, you can 

 see one of these iron rods, the ground having 

 been scraped away so as to show it. They are 

 usually three or four inches under the surface 

 of tht- soil. Sometimes they make a little 

 trouble in spading or forking up the bed, but 

 not verv much. 



OURSELVES AND OUR NEIGHBORS. 



. . . And thy neighbor as tliyself.— Luke 10:27. 

 Who is my neig-hbor ?— Lcke 10:29. 



The above texts were biought to mind by 

 looking at a picture that appeared in the 

 Scientific Americnn of June J8. A few years 

 ago we might have said. ■• Oh! it is only a pic- 

 ture," and probably let it slip from our minds 

 by thinking likely it was an exaggerated view, 

 or that they tried to make it sensational, or 

 somethiiig of that sort. But. alas! the picture 

 is not an ideal one, but the reality itself, for it 

 is one of the half-tone reproductions of a photo- 

 graph from real life, for we find on it the well- 

 known impiini of Crosscup A: West, one of the 

 pioneer firms in making photographs print 

 themselves on the pages of almost every jour- 

 nal in the land. When I first looked at the 

 picture I felt like saying. '• May God bi^ praised 

 that the time is here when our periodicals ean 

 tell us exactly the condition of affairs in everv 

 part of the globe;" and at the same time I feft 

 a wish that this picture should be given the 

 largest publicity. It may shock people, and 

 jar on their nerves, and may be the memory of 

 it will haunt you not only thiough the day, but 

 in your dreams at night. I hope it will: and 

 that the picture may meet still more eyes (and 

 hearts too. I hope) than it has already through 

 the Scieiititic American, we have thought best 

 to give it a place here. 



The matter that comes with the cut was 

 furnishi d bv Frank Van Allen, medical mis- 

 sionary to Madura. India. But before making 

 extracts from the Scientific .^/Hcricroi I wish 

 to consider our texts a little. It is the Bible. 

 God's own word, that makes this somewhat 

 startling demand upon us, that we shall love 

 our " neighbor" as ourselves; and it was Christ 

 Jesus, the Son of God. who explained to us in 

 that well-known parable, that our ■■ neighbor '' 

 might live on the opposite side of the globe; in 

 fact, that (tnyhody is our neighbor who is in 

 trouble. Contrast for a moment the attitude of 

 heart of the people who have no Bible, and 

 who know nothing of New Testament teach- 



ings. We are sometimes told little stories 

 about the affection of the dumb brutes. I have 

 tried at times to see whether I could detect it. 

 As a rule an animal will scarcely turn its head 

 when its comrade meet- with an accident that 

 deprives it of its life. It might express fright, 

 it is true, under some circumstances; but as a 

 rule it goes on eating its feed or to its ordinary 

 occupation as if nothing had happened. If it 

 does notice what happened, it evidently seems 

 to think it is no concern of its own. There may 

 be exceptions to this rule, but I believe it is 

 quite general among all the brute creation. In 

 the great busy world we many times see brute 

 nature show itself, even among human beings. 

 An accident happens; somebody loses his life 

 or property. There is a class of people who 

 poke along, paying no attention whatever to 

 the sufferings of a comrade, especially if he 

 happens to be a stranger. Such people, of 

 course, can not be Christians. They may be 

 professors, but certainly they ar" not possessors 

 of the love that should fill the heart of every 

 follower of Christ Jesus. They evidently have 

 never felt any thrill of joy when reading the 

 familiar words that close with the first of my 

 texts — •• And his neighbor as himself." 



Again, there is a class of people who are very 

 ready to bristle up when something touches one 

 of their own family. lam glad of this, for I 

 like to see people loyal to tiidr brothers and 

 sisters. I like to see them show by their actions 

 that a blow struck at one of the family seems 

 to hit every individual meniber alike. But 

 even this feeling may be distorted into a kind 

 of low selfishness: but on the whole I like to 

 see it. In the same way we see a whole town 

 all in arms because a single individual has been 

 unjustly used. May be this individual is a 

 very quiet sort of fellow, and one whom nobody 

 knows very much about; but he belongs to the 

 town; and when he receives an undeserved 

 blow, every true citizen springs up as if the 

 blow had been aimed at himself, and our poor 

 friend who has been badly used finds a little 

 recompense in discovering he has a hundred 

 warm friends and earnest champions where he 

 had scarcely suspected one. Christianity, of 

 course, expands and enlarges this feeling. If a 

 man is in trouble he is a brother, and entitled 

 to our sympathy and our aid; and this should 

 be true, to a greater or less extent, no matter 

 what his color or nationality may be. Every 

 little while during my whole life, before I was 

 a Christian, and since I became a Christian. I 

 have been now and then astonished to see how 

 the great wide world — yes, the great busy 

 world, wouM at times droj) every thing — yes, 

 all consideration of gain, for the time being, 

 and spring forward to assist some one in dis- 

 tress. My first recollection in this line was 

 during the famine in Ireland. I confess I was 

 boyish enough then to wonder a little why peo- 

 ple should care so much about folks away off in 

 Ireland. Later I was shocked at the Chicago 

 fire, and rejoiced at the way in which people 

 whom the world generally considered parsimo- 

 nious opened their purse-strings. On the whole, 

 I have come to the conclusion a great many 

 times, that, after all. "this is a pretty good 

 world to live in." I think I first heard Prof. 

 Cook make that remark. Somebody, as a mat- 

 ter of course, was tt^ling at length of the injus- 

 tice, the cheat, and tlie fraud there is in this 

 world. Our good friend Cook very quietly 

 mentioned some of the good things about our 

 pi'ople and our country, and then ended up 

 with the expression I have quoted. 



Well, here we are. friends, more than half 

 way through the year 1892. Has ihe spirit ex- 

 pressed in the two texts at the head of my talk 

 to-day been growing during this 19th century 



