658 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Sept. 1. 



the pleasure-resort. Two fine large steamers 

 carry the people to and from the places, run- 

 ning every thirty minutes. When I first got 

 aboard, in finding a place to store my wheel 

 out of the way I ran across a lager-beer saloon, 

 and it was any thing but a pleasant place to 

 the sight, smell, or ears. I think a band is 

 employed on the boat. The members of it 

 have a sort of uniform. On my return, by 

 accident I got close to the saloon again. I 

 did not go there purposely, friends, to find 

 out what I could see. Men and boys were 

 crowding into the saloon. They had been 

 drinking more or less all day, and quite a 

 good many were well along toward intoxica- 

 tion. I had to pass the saloon with my wheel 

 when I came to the landing, and almost got 

 into the middle of a fight. The fight was be- 

 tween two or more members of the band. 

 The beer was the cause of it. Others interfer- 

 ed, and begged of them not to make a row on 

 the boat. The flushed face and bloodshot 

 eyes of one of the men indicated that he had 

 scarcely sense enough left to dimly realize 

 that a fight was not just the thing close to the 

 gang-plank, where excursionists were crowd- 

 ing to get off. The point I wished to make 

 was this: Even the drinking people who, 

 while in that great pavilion during the day 

 behaved themselves all right, may not have 

 behaved themselves after they got home at 

 night. What stories might be told if we knew 

 just what the results are after attending an 

 excursion where beer is sold all day long to 

 all who may call for it ! There are a good 

 many resorts, I know, where no intoxicants 

 are sold; but I believe they are mostly those 

 that are not kept open on Sunday. It seems 

 to me that good people ought to endeavor to 

 patronize the temperance places. Still, it may 

 be well for good people to know just about 

 how things are managed in these other places 

 where beer is sold and good order is preserved. 

 I have been told, since coming home, that the 

 performance that I have described is what is 

 called the "skirt dance;" and although 

 nobody has told me, something suggests to me 

 just now that the great pavilion, with its low- 

 priced refreshments, fine music, and free en- 

 tertainment of all kinds, is nothing more nor 

 less than a well-conducted beer-garden on a 

 large scale. These skilled performers, these 

 beautiful grounds and expensive buildings, 

 were built and all the expenses paid by the 

 profit that comes from their tremendous trade 

 in beer. If somebody had informed me that 

 I was invited to attend a performance at a 

 beer garden near the city of Sandusky, I 

 would have refused outright to go, and very 

 likely the same is true of thousands of other 

 people who go there. With a hope and a 

 prayer that what I have written gives a fair 

 and honest report of the existing state of 

 affairs at one of our great pleasure-resorts, I 

 close. May God help us in battling for the 

 right. May he give us wisdom to recognize 

 humanity as it averages the world over; and 

 may we have grace from on high to enable us 

 to avoid going to either extreme. We are in 

 the world; we are of the world; and may we 

 think again of that wonderful prayer, " I pray 



not that thou shouldst take them out of the 

 world, but that thou shouldst keep them from 

 the evil." 



TOBACCO AND THE PRESIDENT OF THE 

 UNITED STATES. 



The following was sent us by one of our 

 subscribers, in a letter. I can not tell from 

 what paper it was clipped, but it is credited 

 originally to the Chicago Register : 



It is said that, with the possible exception of Grant, 

 the present occupant of the White House, Wm. McKin- 

 ley, is the most inveterate smoker ever elected to the 

 presidency. So many cigars has the President cre- 

 mated in times gone by that recently his nerves began 

 to break down. He has smoked during all his work- 

 ing hours for years, and until a short time ago experi- 

 enced little ill effect. He has now, however, found 

 out that he must abandon or lessen the habit, or it 

 will cut his career short. 



The discovery that he was soaked with nicotine, 

 and was likely to become a wreck, according to a 

 Washington dispatch, caused McKinley to seek the 

 hot springs of Virginia, to take the course of baths 

 prescribed by his physicians to steam out of his sys- 

 tem the poisons instilled through the excessive use of 

 tobacco. The temperature of the water at these 

 springs varies, but seldom falls below 104 degrees. A 

 course of baths requires about ten days, one bath each 

 day. In this time, if Mr. McKinley can control his 

 appetite, the poison will be boiled out of his system. 



Now, very likely the above is an exaggera- 

 tion — at least I hope it is, and I shall be ex- 

 ceedingly glad if somebody who knows the 

 facts in the case will tell us how much is truth 

 and how much is error. 



Let me say just a word in defense of our 

 President while we are on this subject. His 

 pastor has just written a little note that was 

 published recently in the Christian Herald, 

 to the effect that our President still holds to 

 the habit of his life, Bible-reading and prayer, 

 before he goes to bed ; and that, even when 

 he has been kept up by important duties until 

 a very late hour, he still holds on to his Bible- 

 reading before retiring. May God be praised 

 that we have a God-fearing President to at 

 least this extent ! 



HUMBUG WEATHER PROPHETS. 



May be some of the friends think I am de- 

 voting considerable space to this matter; but 

 it seems as if, as with Electropoise and Oxy- 

 donor, our people need considerable exhorta- 

 tion and shaking up on the subject, especially 

 when so many people, who ought to know 

 better, accept as science such silly nonsense. 

 The Department of Agriculture at Washing- 

 ton has just sent out an exceedingly valuable 

 bulletin, entitled "Weather Forecasting." 

 From page 15 I extract the following, which 

 are the words of our able and efficient Chief 

 of the Weather Bureau, Willis L. Moore: 



At the present time I know of no scientific man who 

 essays to make long-range weather predictions, and 

 I would especially caution the public against the im- 

 posture of charlatans and astrologists, who simply 

 prey upon the credulity of the people. As storms of 

 more or less intensity pass over large portions of our 

 country every few days during the greater part of the 

 year, and as it is seldom that the weather report does 

 hot show one or more storms as operating somewhere 

 within our broad domain, it is easy to forecast thunder- 

 storms about a certain time in July, or a cold wave 

 and snow about a certain period in January, and 

 stand a fair chance to become accidentally famous as 



