L899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



277 



OUR 



HOMES, 



BY A.I. ROOT. 



Reconip use no man evil for evil. * * Live peace- 

 ably with all men. * * Avenge not yourselves. * * 

 If thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give 

 him drink. — Romans 12:17-20. 



The sentiment of the above extracts from 

 the 12th chapter of Romans is an exhortation 

 that runs all through the Bible. The Savior's 

 words especially seem to be full of the very 

 same idea. He said, " Love your enemies; do 

 good to them that hate you ; " and, in short, 

 the whole spirit of the Bible seems to plead 

 with mankind to forget and forgive. Let go. 

 Never mind. Even if a man has wronged 

 you and abused you, do not lay it up against 

 him. It is not worth while. Sermons have 

 been preached on this point ever since the 

 world began; but somehow mankind seems to 

 be of earth and not heaven, notwithstanding. 

 Not only unregenerate humanity pays people 

 back in their own coin, but even church-mem- 

 bers forget themselves, and return evil for evil. 

 Yes, in spite of all my teachings and exhorta- 

 tions on this subject, even / let spite get into 

 my heart. Well, a new thought has been com- 

 ing to me lately along this line. When we 

 get where we can really love our enemies we 

 sometimes make the wonderful discovery that 

 they are not enemies after all. W T e were mak- 

 ing a mistake. I have had some pleasant ex- 

 periences in this direction. Somebody who, 

 I felt sure, disliked me, and who seemed to 

 take pleasure in hitting me a clip, comes out 

 in a new light. He says in actions, if not in 

 words, "Why, bless your heart, Mr. Root, I 

 am not an enemy of yours. I like to poke 

 fun at you about your queer ways, and some- 

 times I smile to see you fighting your battles 

 against selfishness like the rest of us ; but I 

 have never laid up any thing against you; and 

 when you come right down to it I am more on 

 your side than anywhere elte." Then it begins 

 to occur to me that one of my besetting sins 

 is in being in too great a hurry to think evil 

 where no evil is really intended. Sometimes 

 I am accused of having too much faith in peo- 

 ple; but, oh dear me ! if I do once in a while 

 get imposed upon, there are other times with- 

 out number when I do not give people half 

 the credit they deserve ; and, oh how it does 

 rejoice my heart to find out that some persons 

 (some of the boys, perhaps) are a good deal 

 better people than I had given them credit for 

 being. Let us now apply these matters to the 

 actual business of every-day life. I wish to 

 submit to you a letter that came to us almost 

 a year ago. 



Gentlemen:— For the |2 60 inclosed, please ship me 

 the following goods as soon as possible, and prepay 

 the freight, and send me freight-bill, and I will remit 

 the freieht bv mail. T. D. 



May 27, 1898. 



The goods went pnmptlv; and when con- 

 necting lines refused to cairy them any fur- 

 ther without prepayment of freight (for friend 

 D. lives at what is calltd a " prepaid " sta- 



tion) we sent promptly the 43 cents to have 

 the goods go on through, and the book-keeper 

 asked him to remit us the 43 cents according 

 to promise in the above letter. Nothing was 

 heard from him, however, until the following, 

 which came about a month after the first let- 

 ter : 



, The A. [. Root Co. : — The wire netling I ordered of 

 you May 27, which you shipped June 4. has never yet 

 reached me. Please trace it up as quickly as possible, 

 and have it forwarded through at once. T. D. 



June 28, L898. 



On receipt of the above we sent a tracer, 

 but this tracer seemed to do but little good, as 

 you will see bj' the following : 



Gentlemen: — I have your card, dated July 2, saying 

 you had sent a tracer after the roll of wire netting I 

 ordered from you May 27 ; hut up to this time I have 

 not j et received it. lean not wait any longer for it, 

 as I wanted it to make a poultry -yard: and if you can't 

 find it you must either send me a roll at once or return 

 my cash by return mail. I hope you will give this 

 your prompt attention. 



July Hi, 1898. T. D. 



The above illustrates a thing that comes up 

 a good many times in business — yes, a good 

 many times in a large business. A railroad 

 company does not often lose goods, but a loss 

 happens once in a while ; and a good many of 

 our customers seem to take it for granted that 

 we do, and ought to by rights, pay the money 

 back when the goods do not come. In such 

 cases we have to explain that we can not do 

 this. After we hand the goods over to the 

 railroad company according to order, our re- 

 sponsibility is at an end. Of course, we pre- 

 sent a bill to the railroad company, and follow 

 the goods up until the company does make 

 good the loss; but sometimes it takes almost a 

 year to get the money back, and in years past 

 we have actually lost several hundred dollars 

 by peculiar combinations of circumstances. 

 Just as soon as we can get the money back 

 when the goods are lost and can not be found, 

 we return it to our customer; and where delay 

 on account of the loss of the goods makes 

 much trouble we often send them again upon 

 a written promise from a good man that he 

 will take both lots in case both reach him. To 

 undertake to make good all losses in transpor- 

 tation is more than we can stand with the 

 small profits we make on our goods. I know 

 seedsmen often guarantee safe delivery ; but 

 they charge enough so they can stand the oc- 

 casional loss of a package. We explained the 

 matter in answer to the letter above, but heard 

 nothing more about it until we received the 

 letter below : 



Gentlemen: — The wire netting I ordered from you 

 May 27, and which your bill shows to have been ship- 

 ped" June 4, has never yet been received. And I there- 

 tore inclose you the bill and bill of lading, and you 

 will please put in the bill to the railroad company, and 

 make them pay for it as soon as possible, as I don't 

 want to lose it. Please attend to it at once for me ; 

 and as soon as you get it keep out the lreight charges 

 on the wire and send me the balance. You will please 

 give this prompt attention. 



August 1, 1898. T. D. 



The above letter seems to be in the right 

 spirit ; and at the close of it you will notice 

 the first mention of the 43 cents we advanced. 

 And now comes a strange thing in the pro- 

 ceeding. The railroad company sent us word 

 that the goods had been traced up according 



