60 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 15. 



subject of the convention. Well, we have left 

 that, but I wish to say this for fear I shall for- 

 get it : It did seem too bad that there are miles 

 and tniles and miles of beautiful productive 

 soils which could be reclaimed if water could 

 only be put on them somehow, but which are 

 now the home of the cactus, the jack-rabbit, 

 the coyote, and the prairie-dog. Those tower- 

 ing Rockies catch nearly all the would-be rain- 

 clouds, and, as a consequence, these regions 

 are, perhaps, destined to remain arid, possibly 

 for centuries to come. 



"Why," said I, "Mr. Rauchfuss, is there 

 not water in that desert piece within a hun- 

 dred feet of the surface? " 



"Yes, probably." 



" Well, why couldn't they sink a lot of hun- 

 dred-foot wells and erect over them as many 

 windmills ? " 



Mr. Rauchfuss turned and smiled as only a 

 Westerner can smile at the exaggerated no- 

 tions of a "tenderfoot." "Why," said he, 

 "they could not afford it. The narrow belts 

 of land reached by irrigation could produce 

 crops so much more cheaply that windmill 

 irrigation would be impracticable ; and no one 

 is fool enough out here to sink a lot of good 

 gold in holes of that kind in the ground ; al- 

 though we have plenty of fools, ' ' he continued, 

 with a significant smile, " who fool away a life- 

 time and immense fortunes in trying to find 

 gold down other holes." 



Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law 

 of Christ.— Gal. 6-.'2. 



Every man shall bear his own burden. — Gal. 6:5. 



I have heard people quote the two texts giv- 

 en above, in order to prove that the Bible is in- 

 consistent ; that it says one thing in one place, 

 and then contradicts it and says the very op- 

 posite in some other place. I can hardly be- 

 lieve, however, that any one honestly thinks 

 the Bible contradicts itself in this 6th chapter 

 of Galatians. 



Almost every one, or at least every one who 

 has tried to make peace in the world, has had 

 some experience in helping people to settle 

 difficulties — or, perhaps I should say, in help- 

 ing people to get along with each other. 

 Sometimes two brothers can not agree. Yes, 

 and there are even husbands and wives who 

 do not get along, and think of separating. 

 Some mutual friend — a Christian man, we will 

 say^exhorts both of them to bear with one 

 another ; and if he is a wise man, very likely 

 he has a confidential talk with each one indi- 

 vidually. When the husband tells his griev- 

 ances, and narrates how he tried to do every 

 thing right when his wife persisted in doing 

 every thing wrong, then this good Samaritan 

 exhorts the husband not only to bear his own 

 burdens, but to put up with unreasonable and 

 inconsistent things in his companion. While 

 talking to the husband he urges strongly that 



he, the husband, should try to believe he is 

 largely if not mostly at fault. He exhorts 

 him to bear all his own burdens, and a good 

 deal more, for the sake of peace. When we 

 wish to straighten a wire or a piece of iron 

 pipe, we spring it beyond a straight line, be- 

 cause we know it will spring back more or less 

 as soon as released. This we do to make it per- 

 fectly straight. Now, this peacemaker exhorts 

 the husband to shoulder more than his share 

 of the blame, in order to get him (like a piece 

 of metal) in this overdoing to bear, probably, 

 about his full share. Well, when he talks to 

 the wife he pursues much the same tactics. 

 He endeavors to convince her, also, that it is 

 her Christian duty under the circumstances to 

 put up with a great deal — perhaps more than 

 really belongs to her. He tells the husband 

 that he is the stronger of the two ; that his 

 shoulders are broad, and exhorts him to bear 

 with the comparatively weak helpmeet. Then 

 he tells the wife that woman's great weapon 

 and vantage ground consist in being gentle 

 and winning. If he can succeed in getting 

 each one to promise to go more than half way, 

 he has probably gained the victory ; for hu- 

 manity is so prone to selfishness, especially 

 when it gets into a quarrel, that, when each 

 one thinks that he or she is doing a great deal 

 more than justice demands, he or she will 

 probably get it about right. 



Now, somebody who looks on, or somebody 

 who heard the conversation, to each of the 

 parties separatf-ly might say, " Why, that man 

 is an old hypocrite. He talks one thing to the 

 man, and then he talks another thing to the 

 wife." Now, the man is not a hypocrite at 

 all. He is not unfair, unreasonable, incon- 

 sistent, nor untruthful. He simply adapts his 

 talks and exhortations to the individual. 

 Whenever people are in a quarrel their judg- 

 ment is warped, and they must be pulled 

 strongly in the contrary direction to take out 

 this crook. Of course, you can not often per- 

 suade such people that their judgment is bi- 

 ased and unreliable ; and unless they exhibit 

 more than usual reason and intelligence it 

 will be a waste of breath to tell them so. We 

 find people all around us with their judgment 

 warped this way and that, and these prejudices 

 get them into trouble. It is our business, in 

 tr3ing to establish harmony, to pull some peo- 

 ple one way and other people in another way; 

 and the one who takes the responsibility on 

 himself of straightening out crooked people 

 should be exceedingly careful that he is not 

 warped nor prejudiced himself. 



Not very far from where I sit writing, a wo- 

 man recently murdered a man in broad day- 

 light, or almost broad dayliglft. Nobody 

 doubted her guilt, and yet she was cleared. 

 The general impression is that she was good- 

 looking and smart, and in this way she " warp- 

 ed " the judgment (or something worse) of 

 the whole twelve on the jury. May God help 

 us to recognize and beware of the things that 

 may warp t>wr better judgment or induce us to 

 put judgment out of the question, and yield 

 to downright dishonesty because the tempta- 

 tion is great. 



In my talk about plants in our last issue I 



