644 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1. 



the maimed and dying to the right and left, 

 crippled for life, and periiaps crippled and 

 maimed himself. Now, suppose this man 

 should say he did it for ///;/ — for a joke — 

 what would be thought of him ? Why, I am 

 afraid they would lynch him as they have 

 been doing lately, in terribly extreme cases. 

 If he were to try to get out by saying he had 

 suddenly become crazy, I do not know but 

 conmiuiiity would think such a crazy man 

 should be put where such a craze would never 

 get hold of him again. If anybody should 

 laugh at the occurrence, pretending he 

 thought it was funny, this fellow would be in 

 danger also. If our laws are not always thor- 

 oughly enforced, the one who undertakes to 

 trifle with human life in the way I have de- 

 scribed will pretty soon find there are officers, 

 and public opinion back of them. Let us now 

 go back to that little scene, the vitascope. 



This gray-haired man, a gentleman and a 

 scholar, possibly the proprietor of the estab- 

 lishment, deliberateh' plans something zvorse 

 than the crazy motonnan of my imagination. 

 He wrecks a home — yes, oftentimes makes a 

 worse wreck than will result from broken 

 limbs and mangled bodies. This good-looking 

 young woman, so skillful with her typewriter, 

 deliberately consents to be a party in making 

 this wreck and ruin. I do not put so much 

 blame on her, because I think the man (or 

 the person who is supposed to be a man ) is as 

 a rule by far the guiltier one of the two. He 

 coolly and deliberately breaks his marriage- 

 vow. He knows the consequences ; and, in 

 fact, if any one should presume to trifle with 

 his wife or daughter in the way he is doing, 

 he would very likely consider himself excusa- 

 ble for taking the law into his own hands. If 

 he used a revolver, our courts would almost 

 call him excusable. Oh what inconsistency ! 

 what a terrible thing is sin or vSatan when it or 

 he enters the human heart ! Do you say that 

 I am moralizing on a play in a vitascope, and 

 that no such thing evar happened ? Dear me ! 

 just take up one of our dailies and read a sin- 

 gle issue. IVIen, and women too, and men 

 who are not crazy, deliberately crash into and 

 break up a family, estrange husband and wife, 

 send the children out homeless and friendless, 

 to care for themselves as best they can, or let 

 the poor mother drag along and support them 

 alone. If we were not as a people losing prop- 

 er respect and reverence for the sacred insti- 

 tution of marriage, divorces would not be com- 

 ing as thick and fast as they are nowadays. 



Let us now go back to the bathing-ground, 

 with its hundreds and thousands in their cos- 

 tume that has been so much condemned. It 

 may be a dangerous place for both s-^xes ; but, 

 in my humble opinion, it is not a tenth part as 

 dangerous or as bad as a business office where 

 a man ( no matter what he professes ) sp°nds 

 many hours alone with no companion but a 

 prett}^ young woman to manipulate his type- 

 writer. I believe that men and women should 

 work together, but not two solitary persons of 

 opposite sex and not related. I do not believe 

 very much in private offices. Let j-our busi- 

 ness affairs and all your commvinication with 

 your fellow-men be of such a character that 



you have nothing to conceal from the eye of 

 God or from the eye of man. The bathing- 

 resorts are comparatively safe — at least what I 

 have seen of them, because there are such 

 crowds all around us. I accidentally found 

 out that policemen are stationed at every 

 hand ; and any indecorum, even if it be acci- 

 dental, is promptly looked after, and the of- 

 fender taught a lesson. I have often thought 

 of paraphrasing this beautiful golden rule that 

 I have chosen as my text. In fact, some of 

 the experiences I have passed through in this 

 life that God has graciously seen fit to give 

 me to live have made me meditate often on 

 this paraphrase, and I think I will put it some- 

 thing like this : As ye woiild that men should 

 deport themselves toward your daiigliter, sis- 

 ter, or wife, both in act, word, and in thought, 

 do ye also likewise to every other man's 

 daughter, sister, or wife, in act, word, and 

 thought. 



The great wide world seems to think that 

 lapses from virtue in the direction I have indi- 

 cated are only a thing to laugh at ; but, may 

 God be praised, of recent date once in a while 

 things of this kind are beginning to be recog- 

 nized in their true light. Parnell, with all his 

 scholarly attainments, wealth, and position, 

 did not succeed in getting mankind (and es- 

 pecially wofiiankind) to look at his sin and 

 crime as a joke ; and I for one protest against 

 the custom of laughing and making merry 

 over things of this kind, or in passing them 

 off as a joke, or even as a funny thing in any 

 sense of the word. It makes me sad to think 

 so man}- people will look at this particular 

 vitascope picture, and advise others to look at 

 it and laugh. Let us remember the old-time 

 fable of the boys pelting the frogs — " It may 

 be fun for you, but it is death for us." 



HIGH-PRESSXJRE STRAWBERRY-GROWING AND 

 SUB-IRRIGATION. 

 Under this head I expect to tell how every- 

 body can raise strawberries. If you live on a 

 farm, of course you have ample facilities for 

 growing them by the acre. But an acre is 

 almost too great an area to be employed in 

 high-pressure strawberry culture, unless, in- 

 deed, you expect to hire help. What I have 

 in mind more particularly just now is for 

 people who have just a garden — say a small 

 garden. But if you haven't groimd enough 

 for a garden, and have only a few rods where 

 you can get sunshine, you can grow wonderful 

 strawberries even there; and if there be such 

 who read Gleanings, who have not even a 

 few rods, if they have even a few yards of 

 ground where the sun may shine a part of the 

 day, and where the plants may get the benefit 

 of the summer showers, they may have much 

 enjoyment and much delicious fruit, even with 



