944 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15. 



the effects of passion. But I managed to say, 

 as civilly as I could, " My dear sir, I have no 

 time to shake hands with anybody until this 

 fire is put out;" and as he stood there with his 

 hand extended, partly blocking the passage, I 

 ordered him out of the way. But he was not 

 so easily put off. He said he wanted only a 

 minute of my time, and he hoped I would 

 surely shake hands with him. " No, sir, I 

 will not. If you are any man at all, just turn 

 in and help me yell fire, and get our people 

 here to subdue it before it goes a minute 

 longer." 



But he kept on; and some of the others who 

 were so busy piling lumber suggested that it 

 would be a " long time" before the fire got 

 up to where they were, anyhow. I believe I 

 have generally had a pretty good opinion of 

 humanity — at least I have tried to have; but 

 at this crisis I stood appalled. Was it really 

 possible this world contained so many people 

 who would stand by with such indifference 

 when anybody of sense could easily see that 

 our zvhole possessions would be wiped out in 

 one hour at the rate the west wind was mak- 

 ing the flames leap from pile to pile? and yet 

 I was not able to get a single soul to do a 

 thing. 



The smiling gentleman who looked so good- 

 natured in spite of the way I treated him, got 

 in my way again, and begged for just a min- 

 ute. At this crisis I yelled to him to get out 

 of the way or I would strike him. 



"Why, dear Mr. Root, you can not be in 

 your senses when you speak so to a stranger 

 who has come a long way to see you — one 

 who has read your Home Papers with such 

 pleasure and profit all these years." But in 

 spite of my Christian teachings I felt more 

 inclined to mash his disagreeable face, and 

 take the smile out of it (if it were a possible 

 thing) than I ever felt tempted to do any 

 thing before in my life. He still urged that 

 what he had to present would take but a 

 minute, and actually whipped some papers out 

 of his pocket for me to look at. I told him the 

 time he had already occupied had enabled the 

 flames to get such a headway that perhaps 

 they could not be stopped; and then it dawn- 

 ed upon me I was stopping to quarrel with a 

 man while my property was burning up. I 

 might have reached the factory or the ma- 

 chine-shop certainly, if I had started out on a 

 good run when I first saw the flames. I do 

 not know where my wheel was just then. It 

 did not seem to be along. Two or three times 

 something whispered to me in my great dis- 

 tress that it was but a dream or " a vision of 

 the night ; " but I looked again, and the sound 

 of the crackling flames which had already 

 driven the workmen from their places was a 

 reality if any thing ever was. Then I awoke. 

 It was already past five in the morning, and 

 five is our usual hour of getting up. 



Now, then, about the part that was not all 

 a dream. Ever so many times to-day I have 

 fallen to wondering whether it is possible my 

 dream was not a pretty true picture of humanity 

 in some respects. Just before going to bed I 

 looked over the daily, and eagerly scanned 

 the message of the President to see if he had 



in it a word for temperance. I did not find 

 it. The next paper I picked up was a little 

 sheet called The Open Door, published at 

 Knoxville, Tenn. Well, in that paper I find 

 the following. I do not know whether it had 

 any influence on my dream or not. If it did, 

 it influenced me unconsciously. Here is what 

 I read : 



A hungry tramp who steals a chicken is a thief. A 

 man who picks your pocket is a thief. The man who 

 abstracts the ballots from a box and thereby elects 

 his friend to office is a thief. The man -who spirits 

 away from its proper place the act of a legislature 

 and thus prevents the enactment of the law is a thief. 

 Congress passed a law prohibiting the army canteen- 

 saloon. The intent of the law was well known, the 

 language plain and comprehensive. By a most vil- 

 lainous interpretation and construction virtually nul- 

 lifying the act, the saloon stole a victory over the 

 friends of temperance. What are we to think of the 

 attorney who gave the famous construction, the secre- 

 tary of war who approved the attorney's action, and 

 the chief servant of the nation whose silence gives joy 

 to the saloon interests of the nation ? When all these 

 rogues appear at the final great high court of the uni- 

 verse, the tramp's position will be envied by all the 

 others. 



I do not know who wrote the above, but I 

 judge it was the editor, and it seemed to me 

 as it it put the state of affairs into a nutshell 

 better than I have ever heard it presented be- 

 fore. The paper does not seem to be a politi- 

 cal one in any sense of the word. It has, how- 

 ever, a good deal to say about the W. C. T. U. 

 work in various places. Is it possible my 

 dream was providential in order to point out 

 to me the indifferent and easy don't-care way 

 in which almost the whole world is treating 

 this matter of intemperance? The Open Door 

 has got it exactly. Our various political par- 

 ties, with the exception of the Prohibition par- 

 ty, seem to have rather decided the fire will 

 not do very much harm, or it will be a long 

 while before it gets to us, or else it has got to 

 going already to such an extent we could not 

 put it out if we tried ever so hard. The saloon 

 element, the beer-brewers, and the liquor-deal- 

 ers are too powerful for us — they have got too 

 much money. It is not best to oppose them 

 too much, any way — it would just make lots 

 of trouble, and things are going on pretty well 

 as they are. It is only a few crazy fanatics who 

 think the flames will spread and destroy every 

 industry and all who have any thing to do with 

 it. For weeks and months back I have been 

 wondering whether the whole world was 

 wrong, or that it was only my little self who 

 was wrong. Just now I do not think I fear so 

 much the drink habit as I do this modern fash- 

 ion of ignoring law or coolly trampling law 

 under foot when it runs up against temperance 

 measures. I do not think that anybody pre- 

 tends that the anti-canteen law was not per- 

 fectly understood when we fought for such a 

 law. Our enemies understood it only too well, 

 and I think it is just as well understood now, 

 among all classes, that there has been a delib- 

 erate and concerted plan to defeat us by break- 

 ing the law after we have secured it. The 

 most astonishing thing to me is that our Pres- 

 ident stands with all the world just as the man 

 and boys did in my dream, and concludes it is 

 best not to say any thing nor do any thing. 

 The Sunday School Times in its last issue says 

 President McKinley does not and will uottrav- 



