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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1. 



OUR 



HOMES, 



BV A. I. ROOT. 



Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against 

 the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy 

 neighbor as thyself. — I^ev. 19 :18. 



If you kick a bee-hive the inmates all to- 

 gether sally out to protect their home ; and, 

 as a general rule, if you injure any single 

 inmate of that hive the rest behave themselves 

 exactly as if they individually had been 

 bruised or ill treated. If anybody should hit 

 you a blow on your foot you would be as 

 ready to resent it as if that person struck your 

 hand or even your head. In fact, it does not 

 matter particularly where he hits, so it is 

 some part of your body. You resent and 

 resist damage to any member — toe, finger, 

 tooth, or eye. Well, now, the bees behave a 

 good deal as if each individual bee was in a 

 like manner a part of every other individual 

 bee in the hive. And that is right. We ad- 

 mire that very trait. In fact, a very high 

 grade of patriotism prompts every citizen of 

 the United States to rush forward when the 

 life and liberty of any other citizen is threat- 

 ened. If an American in foreign lands is 

 misused, every American here at home resents 

 the indignity as if he himself had been insult- 

 ed or injured. Some foreign nations have 

 found this out to their cost. This trait may 

 not be particularly American, but I think it is 

 largely so. Now, if we could expand this so 

 as to cover all humanity, then we should come 

 into that broad open field where the Savior 

 stood while he was here on earth. He loved 

 his fellow-men, all of them. We are not told 

 that he ever made any exception, unless it 

 was that he gave his life more for the poor 

 and downtrodden than for the rich and the 

 noble. When we love our fellow -men as in 

 the text above, then we are Godlike. Of 

 course, it comes natural for us to feel a little 

 more responsible for the members of our own 

 family — for the children of our own home; 

 and as a band of bee-keepers I think it is 

 right and pleasing in God's sight to see us 

 unite together to protect our common interests. 

 I think God is pleased to have us exhibit the 

 little trait that I spoke of in the outset. If 

 any bee-keeper is wronged, all other bee- 

 keepers ought to be interested, and ready to 

 resent that wrong. 



In our issue for Nov. 15 I told you how bee- 

 keepers, or some of them, were being robbed ; 

 and the editor of the American Bee-keeper, in 

 a recent issue, offers to be one of a hundred 

 who will give one dollar or five dollars to 

 prosecute the men who managed to get Ed- 

 ward Smith's honey, and who have as yet 

 refused to pay a copper for it. I am alwaj*s 

 glad to see that spirit, for it is the right one. 

 The Bible says the way of the transgressor is 

 hard; and when we assist in making it hard, 

 we are helping the great God of the universe 

 to carry out his righteous laws. Permit me 

 me to say that these two men — Roe and Robie 

 — have never yet been heard from in any 



shape or manner. We have exhausted all of 

 our resources, and can not get them to answer. 

 In a recent issue of the Progressive Bee-keeper 

 this man Robie received quite a favorable 

 write-up; but the person who did so, of course 

 did not know him, and the editor of that jour- 

 nal had not noticed our warning under the 

 title of "Robbing Bee-keepers." When I 

 called fiiend Leahy's attention to the matter, 

 he expressed a readiness to do all in his 

 power to have such matters righted ; and I 

 think there is not a question but all the bee- 

 journals will heartily co-operate in holding 

 up to scorn (if we can not do any thing more) 

 all those who are robbing bee keepers by tak- 

 ing their honey and giving nothing in return. 



Now, some of the friends may protest and 

 say that friend Robie has probably had bad 

 luck, and can not pay the account. If so, 

 why doesn't he say so, and ask for a little 

 more time ? Or if he is so exceedingly un- 

 fortuate that there is no prospect that he will 

 ever be able to pay, let him say that he asks 

 to be forgiven for the wrong that he has done. 

 But he is the editor of an agricultural paper ; 

 and if he goes on unrebuked he may damage 

 a good many more honest hard-working people 

 — perhaps unfortunate people like himself. 



And now this whole matter of collecting 

 accounts conies up before us. What is the 

 right and Christianlike way of proceeding? 

 To cut it short, " what would Jesus do?" If 

 a man is absolutely unable to make even a 

 small payment on what he owes, of course no 

 Christian man or even a good and fair man, 

 would distress him needlessly. But if this, 

 person proposes (or does without proposing) 

 to continue to get things from others when- 

 ever he can do so without being arrested, then 

 he should be stopped by warning people 

 against him or by making him trouble. 



There is another phase of this matter that I 

 fear is often overlooked. A little incident 

 will make it plain. A certain kind of coal 

 was going off rapidly from one of our coal- 

 dealers. It went off in the night, and they 

 tracked it and found it in a certain man's 

 shed. No other dealer in town had that kind 

 of coal. The man who had been stealing it 

 nights owned up ; but instead of feeling sorry 

 he said he would do the same thing again 

 before he would freeze — that is, if nobody 

 would furnish him work. Well, some might 

 think this sounds very well, and that it is a 

 pretty fair excuse. But the coal-dealer was 

 also a poor man, comparatively. During the 

 severe weather he had sold coal on credit, and 

 to people who perhaps could not pay, until he 

 was in danger of being something like the 

 man who claimed that it was right for him to 

 steal so long as nobody would give him work. 



There has been a good deal said about the 

 sins of rich people. I want to speak of just 

 one of the sins of poor people. This man laid 

 the blame on the coal -dealer because he could 

 not get work, and tried to make it appear that 

 the coal-dealer alone should furnish his coal. 

 Now, no one thinks of claiming for a minute 

 that a man should starve or freeze without 

 doing something. In this case our town 

 would have gladly and willingly supplied him 



