1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



231 



■schools, even if it requires a new edition of 

 text- books to bring it out. 



One man did consent to go before an experi- 

 ment station, and prove his ability to find 

 where to dig to get water. He was a gray- 

 haired veteran, and was an honest man. This 

 we know, because, when one of our bright 

 young students asked him to go over the 

 ground blindfolded, that he had just been over, 

 and see whether his forked stick would do the 

 same thing when he could not see, he at once 

 ■consented. I do not know the exact outcome, 

 only that the stick would not work, or else it 

 worked at points so contrary to the stakes he 

 had set first when his eyes were open, that he 

 owned up at once he had been all his life under 

 the influence of a delusion. Yes, he had ac- 

 tually grown gray in blindly leading the blind, 

 in supposing he knew better than anybody 

 else where to dig to find water. 



Now, there is no use in telling these old sto- 

 ries of the wonderful things that have been 

 done. They prove just as much, and no more, 

 as do the stories that are now floating every- 

 where about being cured by Electropoise or 

 modern telepathy or "absent treatment," 

 whichever you are pleased to call it. Some 

 years ago, when they were going to "drown 

 me out" by the stories about manufactured 

 comb honey, I offered $1000, as you may know, 

 to the person who would find a single pound of 

 such honey for sale on the market. No such 

 thing could be found (and has never been 

 found), and now the story is pretty much kill- 

 ed out. I wonder if it would help silence 

 these persons who speak so patronizingly of 

 the scientific world, if I were to offer $1000 for 

 a man who would go before an experiment sta- 

 tion and go through with his incantations with 

 a crotched stick, and make them tally, when 

 led about blindfolded, with stakes he had 

 previously set with his eyes open. If there is 

 not any such man, can not our agricultural 

 papers and everybody else relegate this whole 

 thing to the domain of witchcraft and astrolo- 

 gy, exactly where it belongs ? 



THE I.ATEST IN REGARD TO DR. DOWIE. 



The Rain's Horn for March 3d has devoted 

 that whole issue to exposing Dr. Dowie ; and 

 I am very glad indeed they have done so. 

 While we may not be able to comprehend how 

 it is that a man can quote Scripture, preach 

 as many good sermons as he has done, and 

 also by his prayers give actual relief to so 

 much suffering, yet it stands out strongly and 

 clear that this man, notwithstanding the 

 amount of good he has done in the ways men- 

 tioned, is a humbug and fraud. It is not any 

 use for him or his followers to make any " ex- 

 planations." I am personally acquainted 

 with some of those who have felt it a Christian 

 duty to show him up before the world, and I 

 have known for years of the life and character 

 of others who have been intimately associated 

 with him for one or more years. In regard to 

 the healing, Satan may have power to heal — 

 at least to a certain extent. Hypnotism and 

 mesmerism, or something along that line, may 

 account for other cases ; and finally I firmly 



believe that many people are healed by put- 

 ting their trust in God, and going to him in 

 prayer, and no doubt Dowie was instrumental, 

 more or less, in showing them the way to do 

 this. Successful healers are now starting 

 up all over the world at such a rate that it 

 seems as if humanity iniisl learn a great les- 

 son. Electropoise, oxydonor, and other hum- 

 bug apparatus, have been doing the same 

 thing that is now done without any apparatus 

 or any thought or care, on the part of the 

 healer ; and the men who heal, and do it suc- 

 cessfully, mind you, run all the way from low- 

 down criminals and sots to those who may be 

 partly honest in thinking God has given them 

 miraculous power to heal the sick. No won- 

 der so many people are going into the "heal- 

 ing " business ; for the proprietors are rolling 

 in wealth while their victims save up their 

 earnings from poverty and severe everyday toil. 

 When Dr. Dowie went over his rigmarole 

 about doctors, drugs, and devils, I protested. 

 He said one Chicago daily was persecuting 

 him without cause, and I thought it might be 

 true ; but when he hurled his curses at the 

 whole Chicago press. Christian papers and all, 

 I knew something was wrong. A little later, 

 when he began denouncing Christian churches 

 and Christian ministers, and demanding that 

 his followers should cut themselves loose from 

 all such organizations, I felt pretty sure of 

 what the final outcome would be. If you 

 want proof that can not be set aside, .send 5c 

 for Rain's Horn for March 3 It is published 

 at 110 LaSalle Ave., Chicago, 111. 



TEACHING HYPNOTISM, MESMERISM, ETC. 



Some little time ago I mentioned a profes- 

 sor who advertises to teach anybody how to 

 hypnotize, etc. Here is a letter from one of 

 our bee-keepers in regard to the man and his 

 business. I hp.ve omitted name and address : 



Dear [■iicle Amos: — Some time ago I saw you pub- 

 lished the hypnotism fellow here as a humbug. You 

 did right. It is the worst humbug out. I just saw in 

 our daily paper that their postage per day was — just 

 think— f50 to f75. It takes two men twice a day to 

 carry the mail from their office to the postoffice, in a 

 box with handles on like a honey-crate. The post- 

 office officials can't stop it, as he .says he advertises to 

 sell them the book for So. 00, and they gladly send him 

 the S5.00. I don't think one in a thousand who pur- 

 chases a book ever learns how to mesmerize any one. 

 This firm is piling up the money, and it mostly comes 

 from the working class. 



Our friend is right. The people who send 

 this man $5.00 for his worthless book are of a 

 class that do not know any better than to be- 

 lieve that he can really teach hypnotism, so 

 that any one who gets the book can hypno- 

 tize people, and thus manage to get ahead of 

 their fellows. One might be tempted to say 

 it serves them right. Well, I think our laws 

 ought to protect our youth and people who 

 are ignorant and unwary ; and, once more, I 

 do think the editor of any respectable paper 

 should refuse space to such an advertiser ; and 

 the average editor of any paper knows very 

 well that such advertisements are downright 

 swindles and nothing less. Perhaps this is 

 not a ca.se of robbing sick people, exactly ; 

 but it is robbing the credulous, and people 

 who do not know any better. 



