594 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug, 1. 



In regard to the old adage, " A new broom 

 sweeps clean," this ought to be exactly the 

 other way when applied to reasonable beings. 

 The man who has had charge of a certain line 

 of business for seveial years has learned many 

 crooks and turns. He has learned by long ex- 

 perience, and sometimes by sad experience, 

 how to avoid mishaps. There are many de- 

 partments where it really takes jears to be- 

 come proficient in all the details. The old 

 hand at the business should be worth two or 

 three times as much as a new hand. Now, 

 this is all true; but it is too often the case 

 that, instead of trying to keep up with the 

 times, and improve still more in his vocation, 

 he gets to shirking, and finally to cheating; 

 and then the adage becomes true. The old 

 broom must be replaced by a new one, not 

 because the new one is any better, but because 

 the old one absolutely will nof do that which 

 he knows very well how to do. 



During the dull season of the year we have 

 always been more or less annoyed by gossip 

 during working hours. Now, this habit of 

 gossiping with a fellow-workman is one of the 

 diseases that I have learned to fear is incur- 

 able. One who is addicted to it will certainly 

 get very small pay. Another thing, these 

 sins always grow upon us. A person who 

 succeeds in taking a few pennies out of the 

 money-drawer without being discovered, will, 

 in a few days, take more ; and you all know 

 where it ends. Our text tells it exactly. 

 Now, the person who begins to work at some- 

 thing belonging to himself while his employer 

 is away is exactly like the one who puts his 

 hand into the money- drawer. His sin will 

 grow upon him unless his employer's reproof 

 (or the influence of the Holy Spirit) stops 

 him in his career. The man who takes money 

 out of the drawer is called a thief ; but the 

 man who takes a few minutes several times a 

 day, and succeeds in skillfully concealing the 

 fact from his employer, will keep on taking 

 more and more. Yet such a person would 

 blush to be called a thief. But what is the 

 difference ? If you are receiving 30 cents an 

 hour for your work, and you succeed in get- 

 ting in ten minutes for yourself without being 

 discovered, you have taken a nickel from 

 your employer. And what is the difference 

 whether it be taken that way or from the 

 money-drawer? You may suggest that we 

 are oversuspicious; that a good many take out 

 the time, or work at some other time enough 

 to make it up. This is true. Before con- 

 demning a person he is generally watched for 

 quite a period of time; and he is almost always 

 greatly astonished to know that anybody has 

 been watching him. Let me make a sugges- 

 tion : If you take a little of your employer's 

 time, and afterward work enough or more to 

 make it up, be careful to speak of it to your 

 employer, or, if in a large establishment, to 

 the time-clerk, for he is very likely to be 

 questioned in regard to this matter ; and it 

 will be worth a great deal to you for him to be 

 able to say, " That is all right. This person 

 spoke to me about it at the time." The Bible 

 exhorts us to "shun even the appearance of 

 evil," and good business common sense 



should teach us the same thing. Let all your 

 acts be such that they will at any time bear 

 investigation without embarrassment or quib- 

 bling. 



I have said some pretty severe things in 

 regard to humanity, and it has pained me to 

 say them. Now let me say this : There are 

 many boys and girls in my employ who are 

 as honest as the day is long. Sometimes 

 things have come up that seemed to reflect 

 on these — I almost wanted to say " my jewels. " 

 Well, they a/r jewels indeed; and when any- 

 body hints at any thing that is crooked or 

 dishonest, or that even looks bad, you do not 

 know how it rejoices my heart to say, " Why, 

 that boy is as honest as the day is long. I 

 will guarantee that, whatever the grievance is, 

 if you will let me take hold of it I will bring 

 out the facts showing that he is clear and 

 straight as the light of day." Sometimes I 

 can add, " He is in my Sunday-school class, 

 and I know him through and through." Oh 

 how I do delight to get hold of such boys ! I 

 rejoice to take them by the hand, and look 

 them square in the eye. Whent ver an oppor- 

 tunity occurs I like to introduce them to my 

 friends, and speak an encouraging word in 

 regard to them. As a general thing, such 

 boys and girls are Christians. They belong 

 to the Sunday-school, and, of late, generally 

 to the Endeavor Society also, or some similar 

 organization among the young people. I 

 often predict that such boys and girls will fill 

 high places of honor in time to come ; and it 

 delights my heart to say in after years, when 

 1 hear that some one of them is a college pro- 

 fessor, or has gone to the missionary field, or 

 is filling some other important post, "There, 

 I told you so ! " 



Now, dear friends, whoever you may be, 

 please believe I am right when I tell you that 

 no one thing can contribute more toward get- 

 ting better pay, no matter for whom you are 

 working, than to keep in mind this little text 

 — -" Be sure your sin will find you out." And 

 when old age comes on, and grim death calls, 

 besides the better pay here in this world you 

 will find eternal life beyond, amid the com- 

 panionship for ever and ever of the good, the 

 honest, and the pure in heart. 



ROBBING SICK PEOPLE ; MEDICINES TO BE 

 GIVEN FREE OF CHARGE. 



In my work of investigation in regard to 

 medicines free, now so universally advertised 

 through nearly all of our home papers, I have 

 met with a very unexpected aid through the 

 columns of that grand home paper the Rural 

 Ne-cU-Yorker, in its issue of July 9 The 

 Rural was describing the Craig colony at 

 Sonyea, N. Y., for the benefit of epileptic pa- 

 tients. Permit me to say that it rejoiced my 

 heart to know that there is such an institution 



