932 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15. 



womankind are saints. If any one has ever 

 had that opinion of me, I think he will get 

 over it when I finish what I am going to say 

 now. Some way it always seems as if it were 

 ever so much worse for a woinan to act dishon- 

 estly than for a man; and therefore some of my 

 sorest trials have been in dealing with women 

 in this very line. Where work is all done by 

 the hour, as it is here, there is a constant 

 temptation to certain ones to want to get in as 

 many hours as they can, or, at least, have the 

 hours counted, and at the same time do the 

 least possible amount of work. I have known 

 women who got so hardened in this sort of 

 thing that it seemed almost as if they made it 

 a study to see how they could do the least 

 amount of work, and make it count the largest 

 number of hours. In the basement to our stores 

 there are several rooms that are not very well 

 lighted. They were too low to get in large 

 windows, and the small windows are often 

 covered with piles of merchandise. Well, more 

 than once I have found women in these dark 

 rooms, as we call them, standing in idleness, 

 that they might get credit for more time. The 

 foreman of their apartment had told them that 

 it was quitting time; but by loitering about they 

 could get in fifteen minutes or half an hour 

 more. As they received only small pay, and as 

 this was a matter of only four or five cents, I 

 often let it go, thinking it was not worth mak- 

 ing a fuss about; but it was just as I have been 

 telling you. If a sinner escapes detection in 

 little things, he gt^ts bolder and bolder. One of 

 these women accomplished so little that the 

 foreman told me he asked her to put her work 

 all in one place so he could see how much she 

 did during the afternoon. At night she showed 

 a very good record, and he was beginning to 

 think he had been mistaken, and that she was 

 doing more work than he supposed. Pj-etty 

 soon, however, one of the other hands said he 

 saw her carrying a quantity of finished work 

 from another part of the room to mix in with 

 her own. One who getsso consciencn-hardened 

 in m(7iute.s soon lays hold of property without 

 scruple. 



In many of our departments, where work will 

 permit of it, we have hands to work by the 

 piece. In this case they do not keep their time 

 at all, and one might think the problem was 

 solved, and that piece work ended the tempta- 

 tion. Don't be too sure. I have known w omen 

 — yes, bright-looking intelligent women — who, 

 when they worked by the piece, would, if op- 

 portunity offered, mix in finished work that 

 they were paid for the week before, so that, 

 when the foreman came to count their work, 

 they got pay the second time for the Sdvie work. 

 Now. dear friends, please bear with me when I 

 lay just one mor(! sin to the charge of woman- 

 kind. I have known at least two who. while 

 doing the very things I have been describing, 

 would be singing fragments of hymns to try to 

 make me believe they were honest, and loved 

 God's word aiid his holy teachings — '"stealing 

 the livery of heaven to serve the Devil in."* 



*Aiid, by the way, such .'spectacles iis this do more 

 to injure tlie cause of reliM'inn than pii'haps any 

 other one thing in the world. I haAc seen young- 

 people whose sense of honesty and tiulli had" been 

 outraged by tlie sight of professors of relijiinn who 

 did sucli tilings as 1 have described until it seemed 

 as if thej' would l)e eml)ittered toward Cliristianity 

 for tlie rest of their lives. Tliey say, "Tlie whole 

 tiling is ju.st cant and hypocrisy; and so mucli of it 

 is put on for the sole purpose of getting a better 

 chance to steal, that I beg to be excused from ever 

 going in with that crowd at all." I want to put just 

 one more tliouglit in this footnote. How much is a 

 man or woman worth in business wlio goes to worli 

 in tlie way I have described ? When we liire people 

 we do it with the understanding that they shall 



It pains me to the heart to tell these things; 

 but my prime motive in doing it is, that these 

 poor deluded friends may know that such 

 things can not be done without its being known. 

 When I let itpass. thinking it was a little matter 

 to make a fuss about it, others noticed it and 

 came to me about it until it seemed to be well 

 understood, and yet the poor deluded woman 

 thought nobody noticed or knew what she was 

 doing. Sin blinds not only the conscience, but 

 the eye and the judgment. Sometimes it is 

 hard to convince an intemperate man — that is, 

 after he gets sober — that he went reeling 

 through the streets so that everybody noticed 

 it and talked about it, while /le was perfectly 

 sure that he walked as straight and natural as 

 need be. So with the whole round of sins. 

 Satan persuades the poor victim that he has 

 succeeded in deceiving the whole wide world, 

 when ordinary good judgment and common 

 sense ought to have told the poor deluded one 

 what a fool he was making of himself. I have 

 wondered what must have been these people's 

 thoughts at these times, of God's all-seeing eye; 

 and then it comes back home to me, the fact 

 that I, too. am a sinner. My faults and in- 

 consistencies, perhaps many of them, in God's 

 sight are almost as bad as the ones I have been 

 narrating. There is a strange passage in the 

 sixth chapter of Genesis, to the effect that, at 

 one time, God almost or quite repented of hav- 

 ing made man. My grandfather, who was a 

 skeptic, used to be fond of quoting it — that the 

 infinite God, the great ruler of all and over all — 

 did things at times that he was sorry for after. 

 I used to wonder why such a passage should be 

 in the Bible; but now I begin to get a glimpse 

 of the great truth, even in that strange expres- 

 sion. God iionored us by making us free agents; 

 and if we go wrong, and commit sin. we do it 

 of our own free choice. We are all sinners. 

 We all choose voluntarily folly and sin. rather 

 than truth and wisdom: and when I look into 

 my own heart, recognizing that God knows it 

 all, just as I know it all. I have sometimes of 

 late thought it would be nothing strange or un- 

 reasonable if he. an inlinite being of truth and 

 love, should have been sorry more than once 

 that he ever created and gave liberty of thought 

 and action to such a poor miserable stumbling 

 sinner as A. I. Root. But let us not be cast 

 down, dear friends. Let us only feel the more 

 earnestly that we need a Savior; oh I I need a 

 Savior more than I can tell you. I need the 

 help and influence of Christian friends and 

 companionship; I need the spiritual uplifting 

 power of the prayer-meetings and the church 

 of God. If I should stay away — if I were to 

 receive no Christian counsel or encouragement 

 from friends around me. it seems to me as if I 

 should surely be lost. I need your prayers, I 

 am sure, and we all need the prayers of each 

 other. 



Now, if there is one among my readers who 

 is working for wages, and has been tempted 

 into any of the things I have mentioned in this 

 talk, let him read our text again. "Poverty 

 and shame shall be to him that refuseth in- 

 labor for tlie building up and development of tlie 

 institution they are worlting for. Wliile tliey put 

 money into their own pockets, by so doing they are 

 to put at least some into tlie Institulion. Itisex- 

 pected to be a little riclier or better ott for the work 

 they do. Now, instead of enriching their employer, 

 suppose they bend all tlieir energies towai-d trans- 

 ferring liis i)rop(>rty into their own I'oclsets. How 

 much wages should sucli a one receive? Had Jie 

 not better pay double— yes. four times as much, or 

 more — for an lionest and conscientious person of 

 the same alMlity ? Most surely. And now, friends, 

 I liope you are catching a g'limpse of the reason 

 why at least a great many unfortunates do not suc- 

 ceed in getting work. 



