144! 



"IGLEANINGS IN BEE CUIvTURE. 



Feb. 15. 



OUR , 



HOMES,! 



BY A.I. R OOT. '^ 



Well done, good and faithful ser\'ant ; thou hast 

 been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler 

 over many things. — Matt. 25 : 23. 



Some of you may smile to think that I have 

 got down to my old text again; but I run 

 against so many people all the time who need 

 exhortations in the way of grasping hold of 

 the things right before them, studying out the 

 whys and wherefores of the strange events and 

 the teeming life that is going on everywhere, 

 that I feel there is more need of exhortations 

 along this line than in almost any other. 

 Some time ago P>nest placed a little pamphlet 

 on my table, and marked it, " Read this right 

 away, and be sure you read every word of it. — 

 E. R." I accordingly read it all through, al- 

 though I had read the same thing, at least by 

 extracts, several limes before. A few days 

 afterward our good friend Jenkins, of We- 

 tumpka, Ala., sent me the following : 



Dear Friend i—W. is good to get a letter once more, 

 signed "A. I. Root." It reminds me of old times. 



A short time ago I ran across an article in a newspa- 

 per, which strongly emphasizes some of the points 

 which you have from time to time brought out. Possi- 

 bly you have seen it. At any rate, I inclose it, think- 

 ing perhaps you have not, and thinking that perhaps 

 you may use it or part of it in your work. I liked the 

 piece .so well that I carried itin mv pocket for some 

 time, showing it to different ones, until I came near 

 wearing it out before sending it to vou. 



Wetumpka, Ala., Jan. 24. " J. M. Jenkins. 



The inclosure referred to in the above was 

 the same as the pamphlet Ernest recommend- 

 ed, and it is a little work you may have read, 

 entitled " A Message to Garcia." It is very 

 prettily gotten up in quaint old-style type, full 

 of ornaments, and printed on heavy deckel- 

 edged paper ; and we are just now told that, 

 up to Jan. 1, 1900, 1,021,000 copies have been 

 sold. If you want one to give away, to hand 

 to the children, or to make use of in some oth- 

 er good way, send 10 cents to The Roycroft- 

 ers. East Aurora, Erie Co., N. Y. By the 

 way, I have obtained permission of the pub- 

 lisher to copy it here, so here it is : 



MESSAGE TO GARCIA. 



In all this Cuban business there is one man who 

 stands out on the horizon of my memory like Mars at 

 perihelion. 



When war broke out between Spain and the United 

 States, it was very neces.sary to communicate quickly 

 with the leader of the insurgents. Garcia was some- 

 where in the mountain fastne.sses of Cuba — no one 

 knew where. No mail nor telegraph message could 

 reach him. The President must secure his co-opera- 

 tion, and quickly. 



What to do ! 



Some one said to the Presdent. " There's a fellow by 

 the name of Rowan will find Garcia for you, if any- 

 bodj' can.' 



Rowan was .sent for and given a letter to be delivered 

 to Garcia. How " the fellow by the name of Rowan " 

 took the letter, sealed it up in an oil-skin pouch, strap- 

 ped it over his heart, in four days landed by night off 

 the coast of Cuba from ai»open boat, disappeared into 

 the jungle, and in three weeks came out on the other 

 side of the island, having traversed a ho.stile country 

 on foot, and delivered his letter to Garcia, are things I 

 have no special desire now to tell in detail. 



The point I wish to make is this : McKinley gave 

 Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia ; Rowan took 

 the letter and did not ask, " Where is he at ? '" By the 



Eternal ! there is a man whose form should be cast in 

 deathless bronze and the statue placed in every college 

 of the land. It is not book-learning young men Lced, 

 nor instruction about this and that, but a stiffening of 

 the vertebrte which will cause them to be loyal to a 

 trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies : do 

 the thing—" Carry a message to Garcia ! " 



General Garcia is dead now, but there are other Gar- 

 cias. 



No man who has endeavored to carry out an enter- 

 prise where many hands were needed, but has been 

 well nigh appalled at times by the imbecility of the 

 average man — the inability or unwillingness to con- 

 centrate on a thing and do' it. 



Ship-shod assistance, foolish inattention, dowdy in- 

 difference, and half-hearied work seem the rule ; and 

 no man succeeds, unless by hook or crook, or threat, 

 he forces or bribes other men to assist him ; or, may- 

 hap, God in his goodness performs a miracle, and 

 sends him an Angel of Light for an assistant. You, 

 reader, put this matter to a test : You arc sitting now 

 in your office— six clerks are within call. Summon any 

 one and make this request ; " Please look in the ency- 

 clopedia and make a brief memorandum for me con- 

 cerniT g the life of Correggio." 



Will ihe cleik quietly sav. " Yes, sir," and go do the 

 task ? 



Oil your life, he will not. He will look at you out 

 of a fishy eye, and ask one or more of the following 

 questions : 



" Who was he ? Which encyclopedia ? Where is the 

 encyclopedia? Was I hired tor that? Don'tyoumean 

 Bismarck? What's the matter with Charlie doing it? 

 Is he dead? Is there any hurry? Shan't I bring you 

 the book and let you look it upyourself ? What do you 

 want to know for? " 



And I will lay you ten to one that, after you have an- 

 swered the questions, and explained how to find the 

 information, and why you want it, the clerk will gooff 

 and get one of the other clerks to help him try to find 

 Garcia — and then come back and tell you there is no 

 such man. Of course, I may lose my bet ; but, accord- 

 ing to the law of average, I "shall not. 



Now, if you are wise you will not bother to explain 

 to your ■' assistant " that Correggio is indexed under 

 C's, not in the K's, but you will smile sweetly and say, 

 " Never mind," and go look it up yourself. 



And this incapacity for independent action, this 

 moral stupidity, this fufirniity of the will, this unwill- 

 ingness to cheerfully catch hold and lift, f.re the things 

 that put pure .Socialism so far into the future. If men 

 will not act for themselves, what will they do when the 

 benefit of their effort is for all? A first-mate with 

 knotted club >eenis necessary; and the dread of getting 

 ■the bounce" Satuiday night holds many a worker 

 to his place. 



Advertise for a stenographer, and nine out of ten who 

 apply can neither spell nor punctuate— and do not 

 think it neces.sary to. 



Can such a one write a letter to Garcia ? 



" You see that book-keeper?" said the foreman to me 

 in a large factory. 



" Yes, what about him ?" 



"Well, he's a fine accountant : but if I'd send him 

 up town on an errand he might accomplish the errand 

 all right, and, on the other hand, might stop at four 

 saloons on the way; and when he got to Main Street he 

 would forget what he had been sent for." 



Can such a man be entrusted to carry a message to 

 Garcia? 



We have recently been hearing much maudlin sym- 

 pathy expre.ssed for the " down-trodden denizen of the 

 sweat-shop" and the "homeless wanderer searching 

 for honest employment," and with it all often go 

 many hard words for the men in power. 



Nothing is said about the emploj'er who grows old 

 before his time in a vain attempt to get frowsy ne'er- 

 do-wells to do intelligent work ; and his long, patient 

 striving with " help '' that does nothing but loaf when 

 his back is turned. In every store and factory there 

 is a constant weeding out process going on. The em- 

 ployer is constantly sending away "help" that have 

 shown their incapacity to further the interests of the 

 business, and others are being taken on. No matter 

 how good times are, this sorting continues; only if 

 times are hard and work is scarce, the sorting is done 

 finer^but out, and forever out, the incompetent and 

 unworthj' go. It is the survival of the fittest. Self-in- 

 terest prompts every employer to keep the best — those 

 who can carry a :nessage 'o Garcia. 



I know one man of really brilliant parts who has 

 not the ability to manage a business of his own, and 

 j'et who is absolutely worthless to any one else, because 

 he carries with him constantly the insane suspicion 



