776 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15. 



uttered a little prayer that I knew came from 

 her heart. The prayer was very much like 

 the one I have breathed so often — ■" Lord, 

 help me in my extremity." Do you wonder I 

 looked at the matter in a different light ? I, 

 too, prayed for grace. I studied this man 

 and talked with him, and finally decided that 

 his peculiar ways were not altogether from de- 

 liberate stubbornness. I began to discover he 

 had a fashion of going ahead with his work 

 without asking questions enough to be sure 

 that he knew what was wanted. Years have 

 passed. I rejoice now that I can call him 

 one of my particular friends. He has become 

 acquainted with me, and I with him. He is 

 cranky, and I do not know but / am cranky; 

 but I believe the grace of God has helped us 

 both to manage so that our respective crooked 

 cranks do not come in collision. Well, my 

 experience with him has helped me to get 

 along with oilier people. Day after day I am 

 beginning to find out that, if we are patient, 

 and keep our tempers down, we can get along 

 pleasantly with many things that seem at first 

 sight as out of the question. 



Once more: The things we often think at 

 first will not answer at all sometimes prove to 

 be blessings in disguise. The crooked crank, 

 when we become accustomed to it, helps us to 

 get through many troublesome places where 

 the straight one we thought we uiust have 

 wouldn't answer. What a blessed work it is 

 to try to make the best of every thing for 

 Christ's sake ! 



For a few months I have had considerable 

 to do with railroad men and railroad corpora- 

 tions. On my wa}' to Omaha, the baggage- 

 master of the iSTorthwestern R .R. said I would 

 have to pay extra for my wheel, even though 

 it was packed in a trunk with my other cloth- 

 ing, etc. I told him he was wrong, but he 

 produced his documents to show that wheels 

 and baby-carriages would have to go at own- 

 er's risk, and there was nothing said about 

 wheels being packed up in trunks being an 

 exception. I told him the wheel had gone 

 thousands of miles over that very road, pack- 

 ed in that trunk, as personal baggage; but he 

 said it was all wrong, and they ought to have 

 made me pay for every mile the}' carried it. It 

 was near train tini", so I paid the 80 cents de- 

 manded, and told him I would refer the matter 

 to the general baggage-master, on my return. 

 To my surprise, the latter gave his decision in 

 accordance with that of his under officer. I 

 felt sure I was right and they were wrong; 

 but I remembered my experience with the 

 crooked crank, and took it very good-natured- 

 ly, and asked him if he wished to have it go 

 out that they refused to accept bicycles as 

 baggage, even when taken apart and packed 

 in a trunk. The change in my attitude seem- 

 ed to have the efi^ect of producing a change in 

 the railroad official. He said it would un- 

 doubtedly make a difference, having the wheel 

 so it could be handled like any other trunk or 

 baggage, and finally said my 80 cents would 

 be returned to me. At first I thought he 

 would hand it right over there; and when he 

 explained to me that it would have to go 

 through a system of red tape with the neces- 



sary vouchers, and be sent me by mail, I 

 began to be impatient again. But a better 

 spirit triumphed. 



And now, friends, I want to put in right 

 here a little bit of defense for the railroad 

 companies. I wish to do so because I know 

 that many who have little to do with railroads 

 do not understand the matter. I have some- 

 times told you I could not manage a business, 

 especially a garden, unless I could go over the 

 premises every day, or, still better, every hour. 

 Now, no one man owns a great railroad. It 

 is owned by a company of stockholders. A 

 great part of the work is done hundreds 

 (sometimes thousands) of miles away from 

 where the boss or bosses live. Strict rules 

 have to be made, and measures taken so that 

 property or money can not be wrongfully 

 appropriated. Let me illustrate the way din- 

 ing-cars are now managed. You sit down to 

 the table, and the porter gives you a bill of 

 fare showing the price of each article ; then 

 he gives you a printed blank and pencil, and 

 desires you to write out what you want. If 

 you tell him to bring you a forty-cent beef- 

 steak and a cup of coffee he will say, "No; 

 you must write it down." This printed form 

 also directs you to pay the money to the 

 dining car conductor. None is to be given to 

 the porters. Then another printed li.st, giving 

 the price of each article, is handed you, and 

 the conductor punches out the price of just 

 what you have ordered. All this is so that 

 the proper officer can review the entire busi- 

 ness of the dining-car. The cash handed over 

 tallies with all these slips, and the whole thing 

 is so arranged that any kind of crookedness is 

 almost impossible. You notice the street-cars 

 are managed in a similar way. No money is 

 paid to anybody without a record. Ingenious 

 machinery, with the assistance of the great 

 purchasing public, keeps it all straight. Now, 

 the baggage-master who took my 80 cents 

 can receive money, but he can not pay any 

 back; neither can his superior officer pay any 

 back. Somebody might say, "Well, that is 

 the last you will ever see of your money." 

 Not so, my friend. The Northwestern can 

 not afford to do business in that way. I am 

 sure the 80 cents will be forthcoming, although 

 it may take several weeks for it to get around. 



While in Omaha I wanted to make a trip to 

 Mitchell, South Dakota. In order to catch 

 my train I was obliged to leave the exposition 

 grounds during a very entertaining exhibition 

 given by the life-saving crew. I calculated so 

 as to have plenty of time to reach the station ; 

 but when we got almost there the car stopped. 

 I told the conductor I wanted to catch a cer- 

 tain train. He said he would do his best to 

 make it. Just as I thought we were all right, 

 he said he was sorry to tell me that they could 

 not go another inch. For some reason, un- 

 known to him, " the stuff was off." " Stuff," 

 I found, was with him a short word for the 

 electric current. I told him I thought I could 

 catch my train on foot. He directed me where 

 to go, and said if he got started so as to catch 

 me he would do so. I found m}' train stand- 

 ing at the depot; but my wheel-trunk was not 

 checked. A long string of other .passengers 



