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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



majority of the people object to liquor-selling 

 right around their homes, it is not best to let 

 them have their own way about it. He did 

 not say, but I shall take the liberty of saying 

 for him, that it would be best to let the brew- 

 ers plant saloons anywhere they wanted to, 

 no matter what the majority of the resident 

 people thought about it ; and the brewers are 

 already saying to themselves, at least I judge 

 they are, " Help yourselves if you can." 



The Chicago Advance is a very wise, careful 

 paper — in fact, I think it is a little too careful 

 about criticising the present administration. 

 Here is their version of the matter we have 

 been talking about : 



And what of the President's consent to the annul- 

 ment of the anti-canteen law? asks a correspondent. 

 It is one of the most serious mistakes of a good ad- 

 ministration. The most vulnerable point of McKin- 

 ley"s administration is not Imperialism, so - called, 

 which is good or bad according to the construction 

 put on it, but that he assented to the astonishing deci- 

 sion of his Attorney-General which turned a prohibi- 

 tory law into a permissive law. We do not call him a 

 "vile hypocrite," as does an indignant correspondent, 

 for we know that many men in army circles favor the 

 canteen as the best method of mitigating the evil of 

 drunkenness in the army. In this matter the Presi- 

 dent probably followed his favorite method : to learn 

 what is the prevailing trend of public sentiment, and 

 decide accordingly. The trouble is that he tried to 

 ascertain the trend of public sentiment from a partial 

 public, from army circles and the Cabinet ; for if he 

 had canvassed the Methodist Church and the other re- 

 ligious bodies of the United States, he might have 

 concluded that his Attorney-General had not been 

 able to think straight when he gave his famous, or in- 

 famous, decision as to the meaning of the anti-can- 

 teen law. It is true, and " pity 'tis 'tis true," that nei- 

 ther in the army, nor in society as a whole, is public 

 sentiment predominantly in favor of the entire pro- 

 hibition of the liquor-traffic. 



I have just one more point to consider. 

 "When the President failed to make any reply 

 to the temperance people, although montla 

 after month passed by, a delegation of women 

 visited him. I do not know whether they de- 

 manded an audience or not ; but they certain- 

 ly were some of the best women of our land. 

 He granted the audience. He listened to all 

 they had to say, but courteously informed 

 them the Griggs decision would have to stand. 

 He was really crowded into a close corner. He 

 was obliged to say something in defense of 

 himself and Griggs. As there was no other 

 alternative, and as he was determined to de- 

 fend Griggs, he said with Griggs, or at least 

 said in substance, the law was not plain — in- 

 timating that neither he nor Griggs under- 

 stood what the temperance people wanted. He 

 said if they would get a law passed that was 

 plain and clear he would see that it was en- 

 forced. Now, I think I am safe in saying that 

 there is scarcely a man or woman in the Unit- 

 ed States who believes anybody did not under- 

 stand that the people who worked so hard for 

 that law did not mean that it should get rid of 

 the canteen entirely. The Advance and other 

 Christian papers say it is " too bad," and let it 

 drop there. All our Presidents, from George 

 Washington down, have been, as a rule, able 

 and honest men. The father of our country 

 set a good example to start with ; and in all 

 the records of the lives of our Presidents, and 

 in the history of our laws down from that time 

 to this, there has never been a case before, I 

 believe, where the very intent of a good law 



has been so completely nullified as was the 

 anti-canteen law by the present administra- 

 tion. I do not believe much in the policy of 

 abusing our Presidents, much less President 

 McKinley. In the main he has given us a 

 wise administration ; but in the matter of this 

 temperance legislation I can not help feeling 

 that he has yielded to the pressure of the boss- 

 es instead of following the dictates of his own 

 good judgment. 



May God help us ; may he give us wisdom ; 

 may he help us as a people to be as wise as 

 serpents and as harmless as doves. May he 

 give us grace and strength to do our duty in 

 spite of the liquor-traffic, or in spite of Satan 

 in any other guise or form with all the follow- 

 ers he can scrape up and bring forward, even 

 though he rake and scrape to the very depths 

 of the bottomless pit. 



DO RAILROAD COMPANIES HAVE SOULS? 



We have been so often assured they have 

 neither souls nor consciences I take pleasure in 

 speaking a kind word for at least one railroad 

 company. During my trip to Canada, while 

 the train stopped at Niagara Falls I amused 

 myself by reading a great placard that said, 

 ' ' To-day you can go to Toronto and back for 

 only $1.00 " A little further on I had to 

 change cars at Suspension Bridge. The con- 

 ductor said we should have to wait about 

 twenty minutes. After that time a train came 

 up, and everybody rushed to get on in order 

 to secure a seat. I asked one person if that 

 was the Toronto train, and he said it was. 

 Then I asked another person if that was the 

 only train going to Toronto just then. He 

 said it was the only train. I thought the cars 

 looked a little shabby for regular first- class 

 passage, and when the conductor came around 

 he told me I had made a mistake, and got on 

 the excursion train — that my ticket was "no 

 good ; " but as they advertised to Toronto and 

 return for only |1.00, I thought perhaps I 

 should not be very much out of pocket to pay 

 my fare only one way ; but I had to pay 20 

 cents car fare and $1.25 on the steamer. The 

 purser said he could not make it any less, 

 even though I could have had the whole round 

 trip for only $1.00 at Niagara Falls. I thought 

 I had read in some railroad company's folder 

 that if, for any reason, we were unable to use 

 any portion of a ticket, if said ticket weie re- 

 turned to the place of purchase a reasonable 

 amount would be paid back. When I reach- 

 ed home here in Medina I made a statement 

 of the matter, and gave the unused part of 

 my ticket to our agent. In due course of 

 time I had one of my pleasant surprises in the 

 shape of $1.25 from the Grand Trunk Railway. 

 Almost everybody on that steamer paid really 

 less than 50 cents for passage ; yet because I 

 was unable, under the circumstances, to get 

 to Toronto on time unless I paid the regular 

 fare, $1.25, the Grand Trunk Railway Co. 

 made good the $1.25. Well, I should have 

 enjoyed that steamer ride across Lake Ontario 

 quite a little more had I known I was going 

 to get my $1.25 back again. It does me lots 



