1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



019 



OUR 

 HOMES, 



BY A. I. ROOT. 



And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your 

 fathers ; and ye shall be my people, and I will be 

 your God. 



And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay 

 desolate in the >ight of all that passed by. 



Then the heathen that are left round about you 

 shall know that I the I„ord build the ruined plaets, 

 and plant that that was desolate : I the Lord have 

 spoken it, and I will do it.— Eze. 36 :28, 34, 36. 



Many of the friends will recognize the above 

 as extracts from a recent Sunday-school lesson. 

 It seems to me the United States of America 

 is getting a good deaf into the situation that 

 the Israelites were when the good prophet 

 Ezekiel gave them his divine messages and 

 exhortations. They had been disobedient, 

 and had trampled God's laws under foot, and 

 they were beset with a multitude of troubles. 

 Just now the people of the United States are, 

 as it seems to me, beginning to reap the con- 

 sequences of trampling God's holy laws under 

 foot. When a people begins to transgress the 

 laws of God, it is a very short step to trans- 

 gressing in a like manner the laws of the land. 



For quite a few years past, the fashion of 

 pushing certain kinds of business on Sunday 

 as well as on week days, or, if you choose, 

 pushing it more on Sunday than on any other 

 day, has been gradually growing and increas- 

 ing. At the World's Fair at Chicago the 

 managers gave a fair and square promise to 

 close up the grounds on Sunday if a certain 

 amount of help was given them from Christian 

 people. They received the money and paid it 

 out, and deliberately transgressed God's law, 

 the laws of the United States, and, to add 

 insult to injur}', they deliberately broke a fair 

 and square promise in black and white. In 

 doing this they established a great precedent 

 — a precedent that stood out strong and clear 

 "before all the world. Even foreign nations 

 were witnesses of the fact that great men in 

 high places where millions of dollars were 

 involved, did not hesitate to prevaricate and 

 steal, and then evade and avoid, and make it 

 one of the fine arts to get around their prom- 

 ises by studying up ways and means not to 

 obey the law. 



This thing has been going on in every part 

 of our land. The electric railway through 

 that wonderful gorge between Niagara Falls 

 and Lake Ontario was first started on Sunday. 

 They had a terrible accident, but nobody 

 seems to have caught on to the idea that there 

 is any retribution in it for breaking the Sab- 

 hath. Some people seem to think that Sun- 

 day is a better day to start big enterprises 

 than any other. They regard it as a kind of 

 P'ourth of July. The forecaster of the Weather 

 Bureau in Cleveland, O , has of late been tell- 

 ing the wheelriders when they are likely to 

 have a pleasant Sunday for their sports. Oh 

 how I have longed to have this forecaster 

 make some little suggestion in regard to re- 

 membering the Sabbath, and keeping it holy ! 

 Somebody may say that he meant to suggest 



it would be a good day to ride to church. 

 But if you are going to ride to church on your 

 wheel, the church-going should be the princi- 

 pal point, and the wheelride a secondary con- 

 sideration. It has really made me groan in 

 spirit to see men who occupy high and impor- 

 tant places — scientific men, and men who 

 have great skill in mechanics — and prominent 

 men whom one would think were really con- 

 sidering not only the health, but the best in- 

 terests of our great people — utterly ignore 

 churches, ministers, Sunday - schools, and 

 Endeavor Societies, etc. Why, one would 

 think either that they never heard of such a 

 thing, or else that they consider it old-fashion- 

 ed, and were taking it for granted that these 

 things were gone by. 



The examples that influential men have set 

 in the way of transgressing God's laws have 

 been copied, from the least to the greatest ; 

 and, as a natural consequence, the laws of the 

 land are being ignored. Just now the great 

 city of Cleveland is standing with open- 

 mouthed astonishment and wonder, and spec- 

 ulating why it is that neither policemen nor 

 military authorities can enforce obedience as 

 they did a few y r ears ago. Several street cars 

 have been blown up with bombs, and the 

 passengers maimed and killed ; and although 

 more than a thousand dollars' reward has been 

 offered for the arrest of the perpetrators, the 

 authorities do not get a clew. In fact, the 

 dynamite work seems to keep right on in defi- 

 ance of law. The car-tracks are obstructed, 

 even though the authorities have notified the 

 perpetrators that it is a penitentiary offense to 

 endanger life by meddling with the railway 

 tracks. Many of the rioters have been caught 

 in the act, and arrested ; but the judge fines 

 them from three to five dollars, and in some 

 cases ten dollars. I have thought that these 

 moderate fines (that their aiders and abettors 

 can club together and easily pay) only make 

 these people worse. They have a fair right to 

 presume that even the judge is on their side. 

 Many of the policemen seem to be conniving 

 wi'h the rioters, and great and good men are 

 wondering what the matter is. How does it 

 come that these outlaws have so many sym- 

 pathizers? Let me tell you what happened 

 yesterday (Sunday') right close to where I 

 write. 



An excursion with something like a dozen 

 passenger cars filled with men, women, and 

 children was on the way to Chippewa Lake, 

 five miles south of here. Somebody said there 

 was a wreck down the road, so this train of 

 excursionists was obliged to stop right in front 

 of our factory. As soon as they were inform- 

 ed that they were obliged to stop a spell, a lot 

 of men and boys tumbled off the cars and 

 began making inquiries for beer. Well, there 

 is a place close to the depot where beer has 

 been sold for some time on the sly. These 

 fellows got an inkling of the truth, and in no 

 time they rushed for the place. They swarm- 

 ed about it like a lot of bees. They tried 

 every door, and tried to look in every window. 

 The proprietor, probably feeling a little sore 

 from recent tussles with the Anti-saloon 

 League, I think, refused them admittance. 



