1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



945 



el on Sunday. May God be praised for this; 

 but why does not the same devotion to God's 

 law and the laws of our land prompt him in 

 like manner to declare he will not sit still in 

 silence and see the temperance people of our 

 • land wronged and humbugged as they have 

 been during the year just past? 



The principal figure or actor in the dream I 

 have described was the man who came in the 

 guise of a brother Christian. Permit me to 

 say the dream had overdrawn things rather, 

 for I never met a book agent (or any other 

 kind of agent) quite as bad as the fellow I 

 have pictured. It is true, I have several times 

 had men come to my home saying they had 

 read my writings and had long wanted to see 

 me and take me by the hand; and before they 

 got through, or after I had insisted they must 

 come down to business, they would pull out a 

 book that had been concealed somewhere, and 

 when I promptly refused to purchase or even 

 look at the book they have sometimes tried (in 

 vain, of course) to make me a present of it so 

 my name might head the list while they went 

 around town. If I have been in times past 

 rude to some excellent people, especially be- 

 fore I really knew who they were, I hope they 

 will accept the above explanation and excuse 

 me. In fact, I would have it that our good 

 friend Dr. Miller had something to sell the 

 first time I met him, years ago. Well, now to 

 the point of our story. 



If some enemies, bent on ruining our busi- 

 ness, had picked put a man who said he could 

 get rid of me, by getting me into a quarrel, 

 even while my property was burning, it might 

 have explained matters. The saddest part of 

 it is, he did succeed in getting me so angry 

 that I for a moment forgot the burning lum- 

 ber-piles. I do not know but that, in the heat 

 of passion, I might have preferred to lose prop- 

 erty rather than forego the gratification of 

 giving him a pounding. You say, "Oh! that 

 was a dream." Well, my friends, it was not 

 all a dream. As I think it over, memory sug- 

 gests places here and there, scattered through 

 my past life where I neglected most serious 

 and important duties just to stop and quarrel 

 with somebody. Yes, and these fellows under 

 the tutorship of Satan have managed to get 

 valuable space in our journal occupied with 

 matter that was of no value to anybody. If 

 the story does not teach you a wholesome les- 

 son it certainly does teach me one. May God 

 forgive me for having been drawn so many 

 times out of the straight and narrow path by 

 some person like the one I have pictured in 

 my dream; and as old age pushes along in its 

 relentless march, may I have grace and wis- 

 dom from on high; in short, may I have of 

 that Holy Spirit that will enable me to stand 

 cool and steady, doing my duty before Gad, 

 swerving neither to the right nor to the left, 

 no matter how many subtile wiles may cross 

 my path in Satan's various disguises, to lead 

 me to waste time with straws and soap-bub- 

 bles, instead of giving my strength and reason 

 to the work that needs to be done. 



At first this picture I have been alluding to 

 looks like an extreme one; but. dear friends, 

 only a few months ago our Anti-saloon League 



was just about achieving a grand victory over 

 the liquor-men. The latter had resorted to 

 every hook and crook, but were driven into a 

 corner. Finally they drummed up an in- 

 famous story that had not a particle of truth 

 in it, and got the officers of the law to lend 

 their aid, and arrest a minister of the gospel 

 who was making it hot for them. Of course, 

 he proved his entire innocence, and got clear; 

 but they succeeded in preventing him from 

 making his appearance at just the time he 

 was needed most. Has any thing been done 

 about it? Nothing, so far as I can learn. It 

 was an easy matter to prove the whole thing a 

 sham, and that it was just got up to evade law 

 and nothing else; but it is so much the fashion 

 to evade, avoid, and humbug when prosecuting 

 liquor-dealers that nobody pays any attention 

 to it. The whole world is a good deal like the 

 crowd in my dream. 



As a matter of course, when we have the ex- 

 ample before us of law-breaking in one direc- 

 tion it is an easy matter to ignore and defy the 

 law in other ways. Yesterday's daily, Dec. 7, 

 tells of another negro, in Kentucky, who was 

 burned at the stake instead of being promptly 

 executed by law, as he would have been with- 

 out a question. After torturing him in every 

 way humanity could suggest, for over three 

 hours, they left his charred remains; and the 

 children, boys and girls, gathered sticks, grass, 

 and whatever they could get hold of to con- 

 tinue the burning. What do you think of 

 such an example for the rising generation ? 

 The officers of the law tried to protect him, 

 but there were literally thousands, women as 

 well as men, who threatened the lives of the 

 officers if they did not hand over the prisoner. 

 I understand the governor of the State is go- 

 ing to call for an investigation, and arrest the 

 leaders; but there are so many of them, and 

 they are such prominent people, that folks 

 laugh at the idea. What sort of state of af- 

 fairs is this ? The women defended themselves 

 by saying they wanted to give the man such a 

 punishment that no colored man would ever 

 do such a thing again. This may sound very 

 well; but what sort of justice can we expect 

 from the voice of the mob ? 



Now, please pardon me for one more illustra- 

 tion. A few weeks ago our good friend Ad- 

 miral Dewey was exalted to the skies. We 

 had Dewey strawberries, and at Yellowstone 

 Park they have a Dewey geyser; and it is 

 Dewey this, that, and the other. Dewey was 

 the hero of the present age, and a subscription 

 was raised without a bit of trouble, and he 

 was presented with a beautiful home. And 

 by the way, friends, when you make somebody 

 a present, to whom does the gift belong? Is 

 it not the property of the one to whom you 

 gave it, just as much as if he bought it out- 

 right with his own money ? If you say it is 

 not, I hope nobody will ever make me a pres- 

 ent again as long as I live. Dewey so under- 

 stood it, as a matter of course, and I think he 

 did an excellent thing when he presented it to 

 his wife; and I am astonished and pained be- 

 yond measure, to know that any true man or 

 woman in the United States should hurt his 

 feelings by even suggesting he did any thing 



