362 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1. 



I was a little prejudiced against him.-' His 

 former employer had turned him oflF, I was 

 told, for bad conduct, and I rather expected to 

 see something about the boy that was not just 

 what it ought to be. But I have not seen it. 

 Now, this boy was dismissed with hard and 

 severe words as I have been told (he never 

 said a word about it himself, mind you); but 

 if he was attending to his work there as indus- 

 triously as he has since been here, it is a burn- 

 ing shame. I wonder if it is really true with 

 the boys as it is with the horses, that they are 

 sometimes reproached and abused when they 

 are in no way to blame in any way or manner, 

 simply because their employer got angry or 

 contrary', and for the time being loved iniquity 

 rather than righteousness. These boys who 

 are learning how to do things never write for 

 the papers. They never tell their side of the 

 .story. That is not in print. Sometimes I have 

 wished they did, that we might get a glimpse 

 of things from the boys' standpoint. In my 

 talks with them sometimes I get their confi- 

 dence sufficiently to catch glimpses of the 

 other side ; and I tell you, friends, there are 

 two sides to almost every thing. May God 

 give us grace to see things once in a while 

 from a boy's standpoint. 



When I was over in Bermuda, on English 

 soil, I caught some glimpses of the great wide 

 world that lies outside of the United States. 

 Let us endeavor to consider the things and 

 circumstances that are outside or on the other 

 side of these narrow lives we are living, and 

 help us that we may unselfishly love right- 

 eousness and hate iniquity. Give us grace to 

 say, even when angry, " Look here, old fellow, 

 are you sure you love righteousness and hate 

 iniquity at this minute as much as you usually 

 do ? " When you are making a trade, and you 

 do not feel quite sure of the man you are trad- 

 ing with, how much would you give to know 

 that he loves righteousness and hates iniquity ? 



In our business of late, with electricity, 

 steam, water, power, and all the late agencies 

 for controlling force, we have been consider- 

 ably annoyed by meddlesome people ; and we 

 have had to put up notices requesting people 

 not to touch certain complicated pieces of ap- 

 paratus. We have also been obliged to forbid 

 hands from one department going into an- 

 other except on business. Notwithstanding 

 this, tools are carried off, cranks are turned, 

 and sometimes considerable damage is done. 

 The heads of business talked the matter over, 

 and declared that we would have to commence 

 suspending or expelling those who broke over 

 the rules. I urged that unexpected circum- 

 stances would come up ; that a good many 

 times we should find there were palliating cir- 



* Perhaps I ought in fairness to say that, since the 

 above was dictated (some days ago), reports have 

 reached my ears not quite in keeping with what I 

 have just said in regard to both the horse and the boy. 

 Alas for humanity and — horses.' It reminds me of a 

 favorite text that my good old father used to quote, 

 and sometimes he quoted it rather .sadly: " He know- 

 eth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust." 

 Yes, even the best of us are reminded, .sooner or later, 

 that we are but dust, after all. But we are told just in 

 the vense above the one I have quoted, "I^ike as a 

 father pitieth his children, so the L,ord pitieth them 

 that fear him." 



cumstances, but I finally consented to the en- 

 forcement of some severe penalties. Not long 

 afterward, a pipe was leaking in one of the 

 basements, and damaging goods. I put a tub 

 under the leak, and then went after a boy to 

 carry the water away before the tub could run 

 over. Luckily I met the foreman of one of 

 the rooms, and asked him if he could spare a 

 boy. He said there was a boy in the third 

 story I could have as well as not, and then 

 passed along out of sight. I feared the tub 

 would run over before I could get around. I 

 just then saw another boy carrying sawdust 

 and shavings. I asked him hurriedly if the 

 work he was doing was urgent. He said he 

 guessed not ; but to be sure I put it another 

 way. "Will it make any difference if you 

 put down your stuff right here and carry it 

 down to the boiler-room after a while? " He 

 said it would make no difference so far as he 

 knew. So I took the boy down into the base- 

 ment where nobody could find him and left him 

 carrying water until the plumbers could repair 

 the leak. Well, this little transaction of mine 

 actually caused a shutdown of our whole lower 

 sawroom, stopping all the machinery, and 

 causing a lot of men to be idle for fifteen or 

 twenty minutes. If we had put in force a cast- 

 iron rule, as we were talking about, I should 

 have been suspended or turned off because I 

 stopped a boy in his work, without asking the 

 foreman of that department if the boy could 

 be spared as well as not. 



Now, if we are going to love righteousness 

 and hate iniquity we must be very careful 

 about letting our indignation get the better of 

 us. Do not boil over and become vehement 

 at the rickety ways humanity has of manag- 

 ing, until you know whether the person meant 

 to be bad, and needed punishment (like poor 

 Jack with his sore mouth ) , or whether the of- 

 fender really and deliberately chose iniquity. 

 How many, many times I have declared to 

 myself, if I didn't out loud, that I would " not 

 stand this thing a minute longer," and then 

 afterward find out that the neighbor who of- 

 fended was as honest and innocent of any 

 reall}^ bad intention as poor Jack, or myself 

 when I stopped the boy in his work of carry- 

 ing the sawdust away from a leaky dust-pipe, 

 when stopping the hoy caused the pipe to clog 

 and fill up, necessitating another "shutdown." 

 In this case, however, the boy was to blame. 

 He should have found out what he was carry- 

 ing the stuff away for, and what ,the conse- 

 quences would be if he deserted his post with- 

 out giving notice to anybody. 



RECENT VICTORIES IN OHIO FOR THE ANTI- 

 SALOON LEAGUE. 



I wish every one of our readers who is in- 

 terested in temperance would send for the 

 April number of the American Issue. If you 

 live in Ohio it may encourage you to know of 

 the progress our State is making against the 

 open saloon. Just send a postal card to the 

 Anti-saloon Publishing Co., 38 Wesley Block, 

 Columbus, O.; or if you happen to be writing 

 us, just say you would like a sample cop)- of 

 the paper, and I will see that it gets to you. 



