344 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



MayI. 



Toward twenty years ago I was quite well ac- 

 quainted witn a bee-keeper who seemed to be a 

 very devoted man. He had some trouble with 

 another man in regard to the sale of some bees. 

 The matter was left to me. Both parties were 

 professing Christians, and we soon had the mat- 

 ter pleasantly adjusted. It was years after- 

 ward that I met my bee-keeping friend. It was 

 at a convention in a large city. 1 was sur- 

 prised that he did not seem very cordial, and 

 only incidentally referred to our former ac- 

 quaintance and the service I once did him. I 

 aid not exactly understand it. A mutual friend 

 explained. Mr. had got out of the bee busi- 

 ness, and gone into something else. He was 

 prospered, and became quite well off. With the 

 prosperity his Christianity slowly faded away, 

 and he excused himself from attending an eve- 

 ning session of the convention by saying that he 

 and a friend of his wanted to attend a place of 

 questionable amusement. As he took his cigar 

 out, of his mouth and looked over toward me 

 with a smile it brought a sad feeling to my 

 heart. I said to myself, "Is it really possible 

 that this is the man who wrote me those kind 

 letters, and expressed in them such devotion to 

 our Lord and Savior? and was it prosperity 

 alone that has changed him from what he was 

 then to what he is now?" 



Dear friends, this is a sad thing to confess. 

 Each and every one of us declares in our own 

 heart that, if God would only try us, he would 

 find that ive are an exception. While I write I 

 have in mind some plans of my own that have 

 not turned out as I expected. I have been pray- 

 ing over them, and was almost rejoicing in the 

 thought that God had answered my prayer. It 

 turned out, however, otherwise, and I have 

 been for several days feeling a good deal disap- 

 pointed, and I asked myself the question, " Had 

 God granted my prayer would it nave brought 

 me nearer to him?" I am afraid, to tell the 

 truth, it would not. I know that prosperity— 

 at least getting money easily— is not conducive 

 to my best spiritual development. Some of you 

 may think it a little strange that I. who have 

 been greatly prospered, should write in this 

 way. It is true, God has answered many of 

 my prayers that might be construed in the line 

 of worldly prosperity; but no prayer has been 

 answered that did not require faithful and ear- 

 nest hard work to bi'ing about its fulfillment. I 

 have tried to avoid any thing that might look 

 like show or display in the way of riches; and 

 could you visit our own humble home I am sure 

 none of you would say that Mrs. Root and my- 

 self have any thing about us that exhibits more 

 display of wealth than you meet among quite 

 ordinary people. I am afraid of what the world 

 calls riches; and I pray that God may keep me 

 from its "deceit," and, in the language of our 

 text, from " the lusts of other thingsentering In" 

 to " choke the word." Just a word more about 

 the gold-mining business: 



I confess I do not really know why it should 

 be so much in the hands of sharpers. I do be- 

 lieve a man might be a consistent Christian, and 

 manage a gold-mine. Let me give you a 



the world, aod enoug-b to build hotels (that cost 

 a million or more); and these things may be all 

 right in their places; but there is certainly not any 

 need in this world of ours tbit there should be 

 starving bodies, and (sadder still) that millions of 

 people should be starving for the bread of life. In 

 speaking of Mr. Healy I am reminded of a postal 

 card that came to me some time aero. Here it is :J D 



ZBro. Root:— In your sermon on p. 130 yoii'state that Bro. 

 Healy is a " joun^ Irishman, or at least he came from Ire- 

 land." This IS a mistake; he was born in lUbiois, of Irii-h par- 

 ents; was converted under the M. E. Church South, in Missis- 

 sippi. L. B. BELL. 

 Camp Verde, Arizona, Mar. 2. 



glimpse, however, of one little transaction in a 

 quiet rural neighborhood in Arizona: 



A stranger came into a little town and cau- 

 tiously approached the bank. He told the cash- 

 ier that he had some gold that he wanted to 

 leave with him for sate keeping. The cashier 

 handled the chunk with some curiosity, and 

 asked him how he came by it. He saia he got it 

 onto! a mine of his own, something like 80 miles 

 off among the mountains. The man seemed to 

 be very simple and uneducated. The cashier 

 showed the gold to a neighboring business man, 

 and they both asked the man more about his 

 " tind " away out in the wilderness. Before 

 many months had elapsed, the cashier of the 

 bank and this business man had bought an in- 

 terest in this mine, raking and scraping and bor- 

 rowing all the means they could get hold of. The 

 owner of the mine, in order to have every thing 

 fair and honest, permitted them to take entire 

 charge of the works and run them for a week. 

 The output of clean gold was, if I remember, 

 several hundred dol'ars per day, and the ore 

 seemed to be getting richer and richer as the 

 miners went further. As soon as ihis simple, 

 uneducated countryman, who could neither 

 read nor write, got possession of the notes and 

 securities, the yield of the mine suddenly drop- 

 ped to thirty or forty dollars a day instead of 

 three hundred or four hundred dollars as be- 

 fore. In spite of any thing they could do, the 

 new owners could not make it yield any more. 

 An experienced expert was finally called in. He 

 made a careful analysis of the ore, and reported 

 that the ore never did and probably never 

 would furnish gold enough to pay the work- 

 men. An expensive lawsuit followed, which 

 revealed the fact that the owner of the mine 

 had ■' salted " it during the week its purchasers 

 had it on trial. Of course, he was standing 

 around to instruct the new owners how to man- 

 age the different apartments; and while do'ng 

 this he had smuggled several hundred dollars' 

 worth of gold into the amalgamating works 

 each day. He invested something in doing 

 this; but his notes and securities amounted to 

 many thousands. Of course, this was a state- 

 prison offense; and although the evidence seem- 

 ed complete, the man in some way eluded just- 

 ice. I believe the purchasers recovered a part 

 of what they lost. In undertaking to dispose of 

 the expensive machinery they had invested in 

 they were swindled and cheated again until 

 it seemed as if the very spirit of the prince of 

 darkness himself had got a lodging-place in the 

 heart of every may who bought or sold, or had 

 any thing to do with the matter of mining and 

 working gold. 



As I have said before, I do not really know 

 why this should be; but this is true: There is 

 danger lurking about any spot where gold is 

 handled in considerable quantities. The pa- 

 pers are continually warning people— especial- 

 ly people who live in the country— against 

 keeping money in their homes. Some time ago 

 a man got an idea that our banks and govern- 

 ment were going to the dogs. He got all his 

 Possessions into gold, and then started to carry 

 is gold home, so as to have it safe. He was 

 warned repeatedly that he would be robbed, 

 and perhaps murdered, if he undertook to carry 

 out his plan. After he had passed through sev- 

 eral escapes, and had come near losing his life, 

 he carried his treasured coins back to the bank, 

 and concluded that he did not want anv more 

 of that sort of exoerjence.; 



There is a fragment of an old hymn that just 

 now comes into my mind. It may seem to you, 

 my readers, a sudden break in my talk, and a 

 very abrupt way of cutting away from my sub- 

 ject; but yet I am going to give you a verse 



