1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



557 



and she is one of the sweetest little darlings I 

 ever met in any part of the world. The lady 

 right behind her, sitting in the chair, is Miss 

 Corning. The girl at the left is my little Por- 

 tuguese friend of whom I told you in a former 

 paper. The lady back of the triplets, if I am 

 not mistaken, is their mother, Mrs. Baker. 

 They have a beautiful home near by. The 

 broken tree right by the door is an oleander. 

 I have told you before that oleanders grow- 

 wild all over the island, and make thickets of 

 tall trees in many places. You will notice the 

 window-blinds are hung at the top and swing 

 out at the bottom. This is to admit air, and 

 at the same time keep out the sun. I think it 

 is an excellent fashion, and I do not see why 

 we can not have them thus in our country. 

 The window back of Miss Corning opens into 

 the room I occupied ; and as I look at it I can 

 recall every bit of the furniture, and think of 

 the refreshing naps I used to have there every 

 forenoon just before dinnertime. The window 

 right back of friend Morrison opens into the 

 pretty room where we had our Sunday-school 

 every Sunday afternoon. All of the people 

 you see were gathered there, and perhaps 

 nearly a dozen others. Miss Corning has quite 

 a pretty little organ ; and after the Sunday- 

 school she played while friend Morrison and 

 others sang beautiful hymns, sometimes tak- 

 ing the book and singing snatches here and 

 there almost all the way through. Dear 

 friends, you can not imagine what a great and 

 refreshing contrast this way of spending the 

 Sabbath is from the Sabbath of fashionable 

 life, with its tobacco smoke, drink, cards, and, 

 too often, the accompanying sneers at temper- 

 ance, purity, and every thing that we regard as 

 pure and holy. Give me the humble cottage, 

 the pvire and holy lives, with the Bible and 

 the hymn-books and God's sacred altar kept 

 sacred, not only Sundays, but on every day in 

 the week. 



As I write these words a struggle is going 

 on in our nation in regard to the matter of 

 stimulants and intoxicants in our army and 

 navy during this war time. I am told that in- 

 toxicating liquors of every kind have been 

 rigidly excluded from every American battle- 

 ship. The commanders have decided that, if 

 we are to excel in the use of modern artillery, 

 the men must be entirely free from the use of 

 stimulants. May God be praised if this thing 

 is indeed true. But our soldiers on land are 

 certainly a great way off from this as yet. A 

 new plan ot getting the soldiers to drink beer, 

 that has recently been inaugurated, is called 

 the "canteen station;" and we are told that 

 breweries are running day and night, produc- 

 ing carloads of beer to supply the demand 

 aaiong the soldiers, and that the discipline is 

 so loose or ricketty that boys from Christian 

 homes, who never tasted beer before, and 

 never thought of tasting it, are fast learning 

 the habit under the protection (and some say 

 encoiiragenient) of the United States army. 

 It it be true that men can not fight on board a 

 ship with intoxicants crazing their brains, why 

 does not the same thing hold true on land as 

 well? One of the newspapers suggests that 

 the reason why the Spanish fleet at Santiago 



did little or nothing in its own defense was 

 because the officers of the ships had given all 

 of their own wine to the sailors to make them 

 iight better before going into action. 



At our prayer-meeting last Saturday after- 

 noon the statement was made that the entire 

 railroad system of the United States had de- 

 cided not only to refuse to employ a man who 

 is intemperate, but that the different compa- 

 nies had agreed to go so far as to dismiss ev- 

 ery employee found patronizing saloons. If 

 this is true, we may say again, " May God be 

 praised ! " Now, it seems to me that it would 

 be going but a step further for the roads to 

 declare that they will no longer carry beer, 

 especially if they are satisfied that they can 

 not afford to keep a man in their employ who 

 uses it. 



GROWING WHEAT ON "HIGH PRESSURE." 



My high-pressure gardening for the present 

 season has taken a little different turn. Per- 

 haps I have not told our readers before, but we 

 have not been running our wagon around town 

 with honey, fruit, vegetables, etc., since last 

 Christmas. There were several reasons why it 

 was discontinued after having been kept go- 

 ing regularly, winter and summer, for almost 

 a dozen years. In the first place, I felt the 

 need of less care and responsibility ; and to 

 grow garden-stuff, especially on high pressure, 

 requires careful planning and oversight, both 

 early and late. Another thing, I have so com- 

 pletely filled the field for the past ten years 

 or more that other people who raise garden- 

 stuff complain that I have so well supplied the 

 town that there is no market for any thing 

 Let me remark right here, however, that, even 

 though I gave notice far and wide that I was 

 not going to supply the town with vegetables 

 any more, nobody else has occupied the field 

 to any extent. It is true, there are people who 

 go about town with surplus occasionally, but 

 no one makes regular trips all over town every 

 other day, as we used to do. I love the busi- 

 ness, and I think it not only a very pleasant 

 but fascinating way of making a living, to grow 

 garden-stuff, fruits, and berries, and hand them 

 over fresh to the consumers. By the way, I 

 do not know but I have educated our Medina 

 people up to a pretty high notch in some re- 

 spects. For instance, we often hear the re- 

 mark, " I want so and so, providing it came 

 right from the garden to-day. I do not want 

 any thing that was gathered yesterday," Now, 

 some people advocate selling your stuff to the 

 grocers, and letting them do the retailing ; 

 but let me ask such to tell me how often they 

 can get stuff that wasn't "gathered yester- 

 day," to say nothing about the day before, or 

 several days ago. I heartily believe in having 

 the producer meet the consumer. Learn by 

 practice how much stuff you will probably sell 

 of each variety every day, and manage so as to 



