1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



145 



that his employer is oppressing, or intending to op- 

 press him. He can not give orders ; and he will not 

 receive them. Should a message be sent to Garcia, his 

 answer would probably be, "Take it yourself, and be 



] " 



To-night this man walks the streets looking for 

 work. No one who knows him dare employ him, for 

 he is a regular fire-brand of discontent. He is imper- 

 vious to reason, and the only thing that can impress 

 him is the toe of a thick-soled No. !) boot. 



Of course, I know that one so morally deformed is 

 no less to be pitied than a physical cripple ; but in our 

 pitying let us drop a tear, too, for the men who are 

 striving to carry on a great enterprise, whcse working 

 hours are not limited by the whistle, and whose hair is 

 fast turning white through the struggle to hold in line 

 dowdy indifference, slip-shod imbecility, and the heart- 

 less ingratitude which, but for their enterprise, would 

 he both hungry and homeless. 



Have I put this matter too strongly ? Possibly I have; 

 but when all the world has gone a-slumming i wish to 

 speak a word of sympathy for the man who succeeds — 

 the man who, against great odds, has directed the ef- 

 forts of others, and, having succeeded, finds there's 

 nothing in it ; nothing but bare board and clothes. 



I have carried a diuner-pail and worked for day's 

 ■wages, and I have also been an employer of labor, and 

 I know there is something to be said on both sides. 

 There is no excellence, per se, in poverty; rags are no 

 recommendation ; and all employers are not rapacious 

 and high-handed, any more than all poor men are 

 virtuous. 



My heart goes out to the man who does his work 

 when the "boss" is away, as well as when he is at 

 home. And the man who, when given a letter for 

 Garcia, quietly takes the missive, without asking any 

 idiotic questions, and with no lurking intention of 

 chucking it into the nearest sewer, or of doing aught 

 else but deli^e'' it, never gets " laid off," nor has to go 

 on a strike for higher wages Civilization is one long 

 anxious- search for just such individuals. Any thing 

 such a man asks shall be granted ; his kind is so rare 

 that no employer can afford to let him go. He is 

 wanted in every city, town, and village— in every office, 

 shop, store, and factory. The world cries out for such ; 

 he is needed, and needed badly — the man who can 

 carry a mes.sage to Garcia. 



You know, friends, I have been furnishing 

 ■employment to a great number of people al- 

 most all my life, and I have studied ways and 

 means to open up employment to those whom 

 we can not take into our institution. I have 

 written a book on the subject, as you may 

 know. Well, this world is full of wants eve- 

 rywhere. There certainly is not any good rea- 

 son for saying you have nothing to do, and, I 

 almost said, not even if you are deaf or blind 

 or crippled. We have plenty of instances of 

 such people who have made their mark in the 

 world. I need only suggest the name of Helen 

 Keller. Pardon me for repeating once more 

 some things from my own experience. 



Some of you know of my craze for the bees 

 in the earlier years ; and I could not tell you, 

 even if I tried, how I enjoyed following the 

 subject up day and night until I was well 

 abreast with what is known in almost all the 

 world in regard to bees. Then as market- 

 gardening was only another branch of rural 

 industries, in my efforts to find something to 

 do for the boys, I studied that, and visited the 

 most successful plants devoted to high-pres- 

 sure gardening that we have in this part of the 

 world as well as in California, Florida, and in 

 Bermuda. I enjoyed that, too, as I did the 

 bees; and as it gradually unfolded little by lit- 

 tle in response to my researches, I was appall- 

 ed that people should remain idle, go hungry, 

 yes, and starve to death, with the possibilities 

 God has placed before us. 



I have talked with several of our missiona- 

 ries about the starving people in China. It is 



in consequence of their severe drouths. They 

 have plenty of water every year — in fact, too 

 much of it. All these people need to do, in 

 order that thfcy may have plenty and to spare, 

 is to construct reservoirs, and save up the wa- 

 ter when there is more than anybody wants, 

 until the time of need. But they do not like 

 the responsibility oi laying up something for a 

 rainy day, or rather, perhaps, for days and 

 weeks when it does not rain. 



Oh ! we do not need to go to China to find 

 helpless people. I suppose I shall now hurt 

 somebody's feelings by choosing some illus- 

 trations nearer home ; but any successful busi- 

 ness man will tell you the most good he ever 

 received -^2^% from somebody who talked plain- 

 ly enough to hurt his feelings. There is one 

 passage in the above Message to Garcia which 

 made me smile, and I guess each member of 

 our firm smiled when he read it, and remem- 

 bered at the same time some of our experience 

 here in the oilice. The passage is as follows : 



Advertise for a stenographer, and nine cut of ten 

 who apply can neither spell nor punctuate— and do not 

 think it necessary to. 



Our young people go to school and learn 

 book-keeping. Their parents send them away 

 from home to commercial colleges. Often- 

 times the father and mother get up early and 

 work late, and scrimp and save to keep the 

 girl or boy in college. Now the college and 

 schools are all right. The young stenographer 

 does very well, perhaps, when he is taking 

 down something with which he is entirely fa- 

 miliar ; but let him get out of his ordinary 

 run, and then what? Why, he has to get a 

 dictionary, and spend a great part of his em- 

 ployer's time in thumbing it. In regard to 

 punctuation, I have at times wondered wheth- 

 er they taught it in any of the schools nowa- 

 days as they did when I was a boy. Well, the 

 boy or girl with the dictionary, and much 

 prompting, gets over the spelling and punctu- 

 ation, but the letters do not make sense. The 

 employer says : 



"John, did you read this letter over before 

 you brought it to me ? " 



" Oh, yes ! certainly." 



" Do you always read your letters before 

 you send them off ? " 



"Why, yes. I almost alwaj's do unless 

 something is in a great hurry." 



" Did you read this letter ? " 



" Yes, sir." 



" Well, do you know any such word as 

 that ? or is there any sense to that sentence ? " 



John, admits he never knew such a word, 

 and he also agrees that he can not see any 

 sense in the sentence. But he may add : 



" That is just what you said, and so I put it 

 down." 



Now, I do not mean to say the employer 

 never makes a mistake in dictating. If he is 

 very much crowded it would be nothing unu- 

 sual ; but there are certain mistakes that a 

 man would never make, and a little reflection 

 should show the stenographer that he would 

 not. 



During the rush of business in the spring it 

 is sometimes exceedingly important that the 

 stenographer should catch something quick as 



