854 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15 



made in putting more expense into machinery 

 than is needed. I know it is a bad thing to 

 build too small and cheapl}'; but I do think 

 there is another sad extreme. In our own 

 town waterworks, which are very nice, and 

 work beautifully, in my opinion they put in 

 an engine and boiler at least twice as large as 

 they needed. In fact, it is four times as large 

 as they need to pump all the water there is in 

 the well. If the well gives a larger stream 

 the longer it is used, may be the apparatus is 

 all right; but I do think there is a good deal 

 of useless extravagance in much of the ma- 

 chinery put in for public use. 



Now, friends, I have told two different 

 stories. Perhaps they are both interesting 

 and instructive ; but I should not wonder if 

 not one in ten of nu' readers sees the connec- 

 tion. I] lie re are the wires that are to connect 

 the "dynamo" and the "motor"? Well, 

 the connection comes in right here. Some 

 people who ought to know said we had not 

 only invested !?8000 where less than a third of 

 that sum would have done the work, but for 

 all time to come we are going to be handi- 

 capped by the fact that a copper wire to carry 

 our power where wanted would cost more 

 than belling and shafting. Still further, the 

 electric people all admit that it costs nearly 

 ten per cent to convert steam power into 

 electric power, and another ten per cent to 

 get back again from electric power to mechan- 

 ical power. Ernest, John, and myself had 

 wasted a great lot of money, or at least it 

 looked that way; had got our buildings and 

 machinery all torn to pieces right in the 

 month of November, with cold storms upon 

 us, and no apparent method of retreat. To 

 go ahead was disaster, but to back out was 

 worse. We were like the little bee in my 

 opening story At the very outset I began to 

 pray about it. Satan whispered that this was 

 a matter that the Lord could not manage. He 

 said that, even providing God did hear and 

 answer prayer, when folks pushed ahead in a 

 sort of foolhardy way, the only way to teach 

 them better was to let them suffer, as a just 

 and fair punishment for their stupidity. I 

 quoted Scripture texts ; I referred him to past 

 experiences through all my religious life, and 

 I said the dear Savior had not only been a 

 very present help in trouble, but he had taken 

 care of my blunders, and even of my stupidity, 

 and broiight forth good fruit from a thousand 

 things that had seemed at the time to promise 

 only disaster. A few weeks ago I prayed for 

 physical strength; now I prayed most earnest- 

 ly for wisdom and understanding — mechanical 

 wisdom if you choose. I do not know but I 

 prayed more earnestly for help, and emanci- 

 pation from our troubles, than I ever did for 

 any thing in the same number of days before 

 in my life. I feel almost ashamed to say this, 

 because there are much greater troubles in 

 this world than such as I have described. 

 But this one had to be met and answered at 

 once. Machinists, wood-workers, carpenters, 

 masons, electrical experts, and a lot of other 

 people, amounting in all to nearly a hundred, 

 kept saying by their actions if not by their 

 words, " Well, what are you going to do about 



it? " I said, " We will tell you after a little." 

 What I meant by " after a little " was after I 

 had prayed more earnestly over the matter. 

 The wisdom I asked for did not come, and I 

 became somewhat discouraged, and began to 

 lose faith. I felt like the bee that had lost its 

 home. 



For little periods of time I considered push- 

 ing ahead through this world of trial and dis- 

 couragement with my own weak brain and 

 feeble strength and endurance. My health 

 began to fail. I lost my appetite (I guess the 

 real truth is, friends, I lost it for only a few 

 hours); finally I covild not sleep nights. Then 

 I thought of the lessons in the Bible in regard 

 to importunity. I remembered that passage 

 in the 3(3th chapter of Isaiah, 7th verse, where 

 Rabshakeh, the captain of the Assyrian army, 

 jeered and ridiculed God's people because 

 they believed he would hear and answer their 

 prayers. I told the dear Savior that I was 

 ready to do an}' thing he wished — give up 

 business, devote my life to work in his service 

 in any part of the world he would indicate ; 

 and I plead with him that, for the boys' sake 

 — the boys whom I had innocently led into 

 trouble— he would hear my prayer and at least 

 give me peace. I asked him to forgive my 

 lack of faith, and to help me in my efforts to 

 trust him. I thought of the words of our lit- 

 tle text — " my strength and my redeemer " — 

 my home. I said in substance, " O Lord, even 

 though I have been thoughtless, perhaps fool- 

 ish and worldly, give me back my resting- 

 place in thee.'' Then I thought of the words 

 David so often used, " Turn not thy face away 

 from me ; " and I rejoiced in hunting up such 

 passages — passage- that had always been 

 strange and incomprehensible to me before. 

 Dear reader, do you guess the outcome ? Peace 

 and tranquillity came before the question was 

 solved at all. I told the dear wife that God 

 was going to bring it about all right, but I 

 did not know exactly how. I told the boys I 

 wanted to consult an electrical expert who 

 had no interest in furnishing either kind of 

 machinery. He came, and I propounded my 

 questions. Said I, first : 



' ' If you wanted to convey 100 horse-power 

 100 feet from the engine, which would be 

 cheaper — electric transmission or belting and 

 shafting? " 



" Electric transmission will be about as 

 cheap, and a great saving of power, espe- 

 cially in your case, as you wish to make a 

 quarter-turn in conveying the power." 



Then he looked over our "predicament," 

 and said that, under the circumstances, as we 

 were equii^ped already with belting and shaft- 

 ing, the latter would have been very much 

 cheaper — especially at first cost, but that, all 

 things considered, especially the probable fu- 

 ture developments of our business, he thought 

 the boys and myself had adopted the best plan 

 we probably could have done, only that, in 

 many of the little details, there could be mod- 

 ifications that would save us expense. For 

 illustration : In just a few minutes he devised 

 a plan for cutting down $-50 worth of wire ; 

 then he cut down $50 on the switch-board, and 

 so on. He went on making changes and 



