1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



593 



He had things planned and arranged so he 

 could slip his paper out of sight when any- 

 body came around who might report. Finally 

 I found out he was making work for himself 

 at odd hours. By playing detective a little 

 I was finally able to prove that he received 

 pay for all the time he spent on work of his 

 own. As he was a good sort of man, and had 

 done me quite a favor by leaving his home in 

 the East, I good-naturedly let these things 

 pass. Finally he solicited work from other 

 people at lower prices than my own, doing 

 said work on the sly while he was drawing 

 pay from nie. I felt that something had to 

 be done. But even then for a time I put it 

 off; but when it came to appropriating gold 

 and silver, as well as precious hours of mj- 

 time, for these outside jobs, 1 told him I 

 thought we could not give him employment 

 any longer. There are several things I want 

 to sav right here in regard to cases of this 

 kind. The first is, that investigating and 

 proving charges like the above is, to my mind, 

 the most wearing and exhausting work that 

 any one ever did. If any one thing will 

 break down a person's health, it is being 

 obliged to follow up and prove things of this 

 kind. Again, with a life-long experience I 

 am not yet prepared to say that it is always 

 the best way, to tell a man plainly and 

 squarely that you have found him out. First, 

 there is a difficulty in proving conclusively 

 things that are clear enough in your own 

 mind ; and, finally, you make a man a life- 

 long enemy by telling him the truth, whereas 

 if you simply tell him you do not need him 

 any longer j ou and he may be on tolerably 

 friendly terms if you happen to be near each 

 other. Sometimes, by the grace of God as- 

 sisting you, you can tell a man faults of this 

 kind in a way that will make him a betier 

 man ; but it almost always requires a great 

 amount of grace to say just enough, especially 

 when you are provoked, and not say too much 

 or exaggerate the state of affairs. 



Dear friends, I started out in this Home 

 Paper to-day to say something that would 

 help you — at least a great part of you ; and 

 may God give me grace and wisdom to say it 

 as the Holy Spirit shall direct. 



This thing I have spoken about is wide- 

 spread. Men and women are complaining 

 because they are out of employment. Some 

 of them say that they can not get work 

 because they are "not in the ring." But 

 when I hear such speeches I feel almost sure 

 there is no " ring " about it. More people are 

 out of work because they are not conscientious 

 and honest than for any other reason. Yes, 

 even ivomen are dishonest. God knows how 

 it pains my heart to say it. Even women, 

 mothers of families, those whom we have a 

 right to expect to be all that is good and pure, 

 seem to have either never heard our little text 

 at the head of this talk or else they have such 

 an opinion of their own shrewdness that they 

 think themselves exceptions, and that their 

 peculiar "sins" will never "find them out." 

 Let me say to such, you may think your em- 

 ployer does not know of the things you are 

 concealing; but let me repeat with emphasis 



the words of our text, " Be sure your sin will 

 find you out." 



No doubt many people think us needlessly 

 particular in our establishment. During these 

 war times everybody wants to see a daily 

 paper, and the newsboys are pushing them 

 everywhere — that is, when they are allowed. 

 We have forbidden the delivery of papers to 

 our people while at work. I speak of this 

 because I know how strong the temptation is 

 to take "just a minute or two;" and if one 

 does it, another will. We have also been 

 obliged to forbid peddlers, book agents, and 

 agents for every thing else, coming on to our 

 premises. Now, if these agents were consci- 

 entious and honest, we might, perhaps, permit 

 them to come in before or after working 

 hours; but I have learned by sad experience 

 that it is not best to do even this. Do you say 

 we make a fuss about little things ? My 

 friend, this fuss is made for your own good. 

 The person who keeps his mind and his hands 

 busy on the work he is employed to do right 

 along through the working hours may be 

 worth 25 cts. an hour or more ; but if he is 

 stopping his work to notice every thing that 

 is going on, to go over to his neighboring 

 workmen to talk about things not pertaining 

 to the business, he will be worth to his em- 

 ployer only 15 or 20 cts. an hour, or even less. 

 Why, I have had men (and women too) in 

 my employ who finally became so demoralized 

 in this very way that I made up my mind that 

 they hindered business more than they help- 

 ed, and that we should get along better if we 

 paid them their wages to have them stay at 

 home and not come near us, and they had to 

 stay at home finally without any wages at all. 

 One reason why we have had such extreme 

 cases is because we all dislike to make a fuss 

 about things that look on the face of them to 

 be small and imimportant and so we good- 

 naturedly let the things pass until there has 

 to be a sudden reform. 



I want to say a word more about doing work 

 for yourself when you have hired out to some- 

 body else. If I wanted to get good pay in 

 any establishment I would be very careful 

 about small matters. If I wanted to write a 

 letter in regard to my own affairs while in the 

 employ of somebody else, I would speak to 

 my employer about it, and take out the time 

 it occupied, even if it did not take me more 

 than five minutes. You may say this is a 

 small matter; but small matters help to make 

 up solid character. The man who is known 

 to be scrupulously honest in details will very 

 soon get to be trusted, and will get large pay 

 accordingly. I can often measure a man's 

 worth the first day he works. A boy may be 

 excused for running to the clock every little 

 while to see what time it is ; but a grown-up 

 man should be ashamed to do things of this 

 kind. There are people who are constantly 

 hunting up pretexts and excuses to leave 

 their work and to go off after something. 

 I have had men who always wanted a different 

 tool from the one I gave them, and who would 

 spend more time in going after a tool they 

 pretended they wanted than it would have 

 taken to finish the work with the tool they had. 



