696 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1, 



work on this piece of ground, fitted it, graded 

 it, and fined it up as I have often told j-ou 

 about, in the most scientific manner. Then 

 he planted it to bctts, carrots, and other gar- 

 den vegetables, suited to his purpose. He se- 

 lected some beets with bright-red foliage. 

 Then he selected a variety of carrots with or- 

 namental tops. Who has not noticed the 

 beauty of carrot foliage ? I have often re- 

 marked that some branches were as handsome 

 as some of our finest greenhouse ferns. He 

 had other vegetables, but I do not remember 

 the names of them. Well, he grouped these 

 vegetable-plants in such a way as to make 

 an ornamental foliage-bed, and it very soon 

 began to attract the attention of passersby. 

 People stopped and looked at that bed of 

 ground in astonishment, and they asked ques- 

 tions about the wonderful new plants. Final- 

 ly it attracted so much attention the church 

 people begged to have the fence taken down 

 so that it might appear to be a piece of deco- 

 ration belonging to the church. Greenhouse 

 men, horticulturists, newspaper reporters, and 

 travelers heard of this bed, and went to see 

 it. They stood spellbound with astonishment. 

 Photographs of it were taken, and finally a 

 wealthy man from Philadelphia made Mr. 

 Gardner such an offer to go and decorate his 

 grounds in Philadelphia that he gave up his 

 position as janitor, and went to Philadelphia 

 at a large salary, leaving his family in Toron- 

 to. But he finally came back to Toronto, be- 

 cause he preferred smaller pay in order to be 

 with his own people. By this time Grainger 

 Brothers succeeded in securing him. Just 

 now they have an arrangement whereby this 

 Mr. Gardner designs and juts out the finest 

 ornamental and foliage beds in the city of To- 

 rorto. I think he stands at the head of all 

 their horticultural artists — not exactly as a 

 landscape gardener, but as a designer of dec- 

 or.itive plant-beds. Grainger Brothers furnish 

 tb.e potted plants, geraniums, achyranthus, 

 alternanthera, gymno-carpus, and other plants 

 that are generally used by gardeners, and 

 Gardner plans the beds, puts in the plants, 

 and takes charge of lawns and yards of the 

 finest residences of the city. If I am not mis- 

 taken, there is one place in the city where 

 several thousand dollars are expended each 

 year in this kind of ornamentation. The 

 above is by way of introduction of the person 

 I want to tell you about. 



Mr. Gardner is a devoted Christi.'an, and 

 from what I know of him (for I have since 

 seen him and talked with him) I can readily 

 imagine that, while he had the humble posi- 

 tion of janitor, he asked God to lead him in a 

 way that he could help himself, and do good 

 to his fellow-man. I do not think he was a 

 gardener at the time, but he was, without 

 question, an observing man. Well, one of 

 his tasks as landscape decorator was to fix up 

 the lawn of a millionaire. Things went on 

 very pleasantly for a time, and the whole fam- 

 ily regarded Mr. Gardner as an acquisition. 

 By and by, however, the millionaire came 

 home one evening intoxicated, as most mil- 

 lionaires are in the habit of doing, so I am 

 told. Oh dear me ! can this really be true. 



that a man who has millions of dollars should 

 so far forget himself and stoop to such folly 

 as deliberately to sell or dethrone his rea- 

 son and common sense? Well, this rich man 

 met Mr. Gardner in just the mood to find 

 fault and to abuse his best and most faithful 

 friend. He found fault with the work, called 

 Mr. Gardner bad names, and finally commenc- 

 ed cursing and swearing about it. I believe 

 friend Gardner recognized it was not worlh 

 while to talk with a drunken man, and for a 

 time made no reply. This seemed to encour- 

 age his rich employer to heap on abuse, and 

 to use more foul language ; but when it came 

 to blasphemy he spoke up and told him he 

 had never been sworn at by anybody, and 

 said if the work was really so unsatisfactory he 

 would take it out and restore the place to its 

 original condition, without charge. He then 

 would give up his place. 



This was so much of a surprise to the man 

 who had been in the habit of riding over 

 everybody it brought him to his senses He 

 made haste to apologize, and even got his wife 

 and daughter to come out and help him per- 

 suade Mr. Gardner to overlook the whole mat- 

 ter, and go on with his work. I hardly need 

 tell you this wealthy man was a skeptic. He 

 had many times bantered his landscape gar- 

 dener on his faith in God and his religion, 

 and I think he was the one who attacked Mr. 

 Gardner on a line that almost every professing 

 Christian has heard argued more or less. The 

 unbeliever commenced in something after the 

 following fashion : 



" Mr. Gardner, let us suppose there are two 

 men, and, if you choose, I will be one of them. 

 I am a man who has been fair and honest with 

 everybody all my life. I have paid my debts; 

 I have kept the laws of our land ; I have been 

 guilty of no secret sins or crimes ; I am not a 

 hypocrite ; the only fault you can find with 

 me is that I can not accept the Bible as the 

 word of God, nor can I accept or believe in 

 the God you Christians talk about. Now, the 

 other man who stands by my side has been a 

 criminal all his life. He has broken every 

 commandment and every law, almost, of our 

 land. He has committed murder, adultery, 

 and let us even suppose that he has even com- 

 mitted an outrage on my own family — violated 

 and trampled under foot every thing most 

 holy — a veritable fiend in human form. This 

 man, with his hands reeking with the blood 

 of his fellow-man, steeped in crime, and hated 

 by every respectable man and woman, goes 

 to heaven, while I go to hell. The excuse for 

 such a state of affairs is that this bad man, be- 

 fore he died, repented and accepted Christ as 

 the Son of God, which I am not as yet pre- 

 pared to do." 



I confess, friends, a picture something like 

 the above has been presented to me many 

 times by some one who seemed to take plea- 

 sure in picking flaws with the gospel of Jesus 

 Christ. I do not think that I ever tried to 

 answer this argument very much. I do not 

 know but I have sometimes admitted I was 

 unable to explain the matter, at least to my 

 full satisfaction. Now, our dear brother of 

 whom I have been telling you has never had a 



