18«12 



CLKANlNdS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Kli 



llufiitial man. and is w.'ll olV; bin lie woiiUi 

 think this matter of the inttMTuptioii of the 

 >tiulit's so trillini; that it is not wofth while to 

 Tuiike a fuss ahoiii it." 



■• litit. Miy friend, thr interruption of the 

 Nn<(/i<'.v is a small matter. If that fellow who 

 was in here this afternonu should go and sit hy 

 a dautrhter of oiuir— yes. I have a «irl just 

 ahout the asre of that one, between fourteen 

 and lifteen— if that low-lived fellow should go 

 and sit in the seat, beside lier. and whisper and 

 look at her as he looked into tliat honest, child- 

 ish face half an hour airo. 1 eould hardly re- 

 strain myself from givinu' him a horsewliii)|)infi. 

 Ifthatiiirl's mother had seen what was going 

 on here this very afternoon she would he like 

 an enraged tiger, and slu' ouglit to be." 



I liad heard a good deal about the govern- 

 ment distillery, their nie-i' apparatus and beau- 

 tiful building, and I walked over and took a 

 look at it. It was not running then: in fact, it 

 hadn't been running for some time: but I looked 

 in through the windows, and saw the nice ap- 

 paratus, tiie beautiful furniture, the tine build- 

 ing, built without regard to expense, and pon- 

 dered. Such a i)uilding looked out of place in 

 that poor little town. Near it was a neat little 

 otWce. A sign over the door proclaimed it to be 

 the olhce of Governmeni Inspector of Liquors. 

 lean not remember the rest of it. Our young 

 superintendent had an entertainmenl at the 

 close of his school, to show the proliciency of 

 the scholars. They charged an ailmission Fee, 

 and he had worked hard that th<'y might hav(> 

 sulttcient proceeds to purchase a library for the 

 town and school. The pupils and teachers all 

 did their best, but they succeeded in raising 

 only a paltry sum. say between S:iO and $30. 

 The saloon-keeper across the way made h's 

 boast that he took in over $100; and my young 

 friend said there was a steady stream of men 

 and boys from the hall where the exercises 

 were held, across the way to the saloon, <liirin<j 

 Uti' irh{jle of the e.rercixr.H. and yet this was a 

 little town of less than a thousand inhabitants. 



Now, then, friends, if .St. John and I have got 

 things wrong, will some wise, honest, kind 

 friend set us right? I do not care what polit- 

 ical party you belong to: and it surely does not 

 make any difTerence wheilier you l)elong to tlie 

 same church I do or not: but I hope that, when 

 you attempt to set me right, you will do it vvitii- 

 out bias or prejudice. St. John says that igno- 

 rance and prejudice are the worst enemies we 

 have to battle with. May God liave the mercy, 

 gooflness. and love, to deliver us from both. 



You may think I am getting discouraged anil 

 disheartened lately. No. I am not. I am full 

 of faith in my country. My faith in (iod is 

 stronger. I am sure, than it ever was before: 

 and my faith in you, deal- reader, is hi'ight and 

 clear. I love my fellow-men — yes. I love them 

 while it grieves me to the heart to know that 

 they think our institutions may be built u]) by 

 sending beer and liquors to South America. 



No doubt it is a good thing to get "redhol" 

 occasionally, as the old deacon did; but we 

 want to be sure we are right beff)re we go 

 ahead: we must not be in haste to think evil: 

 but, in the language of our text, we as Chris- 

 tians must prove all tilings and hold fast to 

 that which is good. Temperance people and 

 Christian people often barm the very cause so 

 dear to their hearts by want of charity and 

 perhaps want of the virtue expressed in the 

 little text, ■■ Thinketh no evil." Let me illus- 

 trate: A few days ago an individual came to 

 me and commenced som'thing in this wise: 



" Mr. Root. I presume you are not aware of 

 the amount of liquor that is sold right heie in 

 our town, even though we have no saloons. 

 You are surely not aware that a liquor-car 



comes to our station here every .Sundav morn- 

 ing before daylight, bringing lieer and other 

 liiluoiN that are hurried off to peopled (-(hilars to 

 be afterward retailed out and divided around. 

 And perhaps you would not believe me if I 

 should tell you tiiat some of your own iiands — 

 some that yon regard as most faithful and 

 trustworthy, are engaged in this work. Now, 

 what I want is a little money to set a detective 

 at work an<l to go into these people's cellars and 

 show up to the litjlil of ilay the iniquity that is 

 going on here in our midst." 



" Hut. my friend, you are surely mistaken 

 in saying that any of oi/r help is in this busi- 

 ness, even if such a business exists." 



"Indeed. 1 am not; and if yon will consent to 

 believe your own ey(>s, just get an oflficer of the 

 law and see w hat vou will tind. Of coursi;. you 

 would not believe that >our friend X and your 

 friend '\' and your friend / w(!re in any work of 

 this kind. Hut. Mr. Root, you have yet to 

 learn how eager tlussci German people are to 

 turn a i)enny when they think they can do it 

 without being discovered." 



Now. I think I know our Medina people pret- 

 ty well; and I have always thought I knew my 

 German helpers pretty well; but as my inform- 

 ant went on, the poison began to enter my 

 heart. However, I had the good sense to insist 

 that the thing was impossible, even wiiile I 

 began to think these people might be capable 

 of such evil. 1 knew that a very good Chris- 

 tian woman lived at at least one of the places 

 mentioned, and I suggested that surely no such 

 proceeding could go on there without her con- 

 sent or knowledge: but my informant said 

 something like this: 



"This good woman of whom you speak did 

 at first stoutly object, and refuse to have any 

 thing to do with it: but by and by she said less 

 about it. then kept still, and is now as active in 

 making money out of it as any, and even her 

 rhilclren are helping." 



I liegan saying to myself, " What an awful 

 story of depravity is this I Surely sin and Satan 

 (tre abroad if this thing be true." But I kept 

 these feelings back, and simply said, 



"No, I will not give ten nor even .ftve dollars 

 toward employing a detective. My experience 

 with detectives has not impressed ine very fa- 

 vorably. I will, however, go to some of these 

 friends and get at the bottom, of this matter." 



"Ohl you must do no such thing; you will 

 put them on their guard, and make it impossi- 

 ble for us to get any clew. I was afraid when 

 I came to you tiiat that was just what you 

 would want to do." 



Within a few minutes I met one of the par- 

 ties mentioned. He was busy drawing dirt. 

 When I asked him if he could stop just a min- 

 ute he replii'd. "'Oh, yesi certainly;" and as he 

 jumped from his load and stood by my side 

 with his franlc, tuanly countenance. 1 felt 

 asliamed of my suspicion, and felt more like 

 asking (lod to forgive me that I had ever 

 thought an honest, hard-working man like 

 himself could be secretly engaged in the whis- 

 ky-traftic. In fact. I felt so much ashamed of 

 myself that, without touching the point at all. 

 I said. ■■ .\. do you know what I want to talk to 

 you about?" 



He at once smiled in his straightforward, 

 honest way, and replied, •" Yes, Mr. Root, I 

 guess I do." 



•' Well. X, how much truth is there in what I 

 have just heard ?" 



He dropped his head just a little, and then 

 he went on something like this:" 



"Mr. I\oot. you know my wife has a baby, 

 and she do(!S not gel along very well, and is not 

 very strong. The doctor said I should get some 



