610 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15 



OUR 



HoK/iEs; 



BY A. I. ROOT. 



Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee.— Psalm 

 76 : 10. 



I have for years been remonstrating" with 

 various religious periodicals in regard to 

 the character of their advertisements. 

 When Electropoise first came out they 

 vFcre among- the first to accept it, even vphen 

 our agricultural papers refused it. Our 

 older readers will remember how they de- 

 fended themselves; and many of the editors 

 of some of our most respectable journals de- 

 clared it was a good thing, because min- 

 i.sters used and recommended it, etc. I got 

 the United States Chemist, the best electri- 

 cians of the world, and all really scientific 

 men, to back me up, and then they, one aft- 

 er another, gave in. The Christian En- 

 deavor World, perhaps, was the most s ub- 

 born of them all; and it was not till I had 

 had a personal interview with Father En- 

 deavorer Clark that it was rejected from 

 their columns. Recently I have been re- 

 monstrating in regard to the character of 

 the medicine advertisements — not only with 

 the religious papers, but with our great 

 dailies. Let me give you an illustration: 



Two boys in our establishment, between 

 15 and 18 years of age, were found intoxi- 

 cated. Investigation revealed the fact that 

 they had sent to Cleveland for a jug of 

 whisky. They were called up before the 

 members of our firm, and underwent what 

 might be termed in the cities a "sweat- 

 box '' ordeal. For a time we could not get 

 them to talk; but the younger one finally 

 ventured the information that they saw a 

 piece in the paper abou a man who drank 

 " Dufi^y's malt whisky," and lived to be 107 

 3'ears old. Now, this same daily had some 

 of the most vigorous editorials, favoring the 

 Anti-saloon League, and all temperance 

 measures; but these boys failed to discrim- 

 inate between the editorial matter and the 

 statements they saw on the advertising 

 pages. I wrote this Cleveland daily, stat- 

 ing the circumstances, and remonstrating 

 because of the inconsistency of teaching 

 temperance editorially and advertising 

 whisky in the same paper. They replied 

 that they lamented (?) they could not see 

 their way clear to exclude such advertise- 

 ments. They said this particular whisky 

 came rather in the line of patent medicines; 

 and they expressed a doubt as to whether 

 they could legally exclude the advertise- 

 ments of this special firm when they accept- 

 ed other advertisements. This was a new 

 thing to me; but by the help of the New 

 Voice I quoted to them a decision of the 

 Postmaster- General, that the proprietors of 

 any periodical were at liberty to refuse any 

 or all advertisements that were not suitable 

 in their judgment for a home paper, or for 

 conscientious principles. I made haste to 



put this decision before the managers of 

 this daily, and received a very courteous 

 reply, thanking me for the pains I had tak- 

 en; but Dufi"y's malt whisky keeps right on 

 in every issue of that paper. At present 

 there is running in the I)ufi"y advertisement 

 a full-length picture of a Methodist preach- 

 er. This preacher declares he is not only 

 a minister of the gospel, but a temperance 

 reformer; but, notwithstanding, his life 

 was saved by Duffy's malt whisky when 

 the doctors had given him up. I presented 

 the matter to a Methodist clergyman, and 

 he said they had repeatedly chased down 

 such advertisements, and they have proved 

 to be fakes in almost every instance. As 

 soon as I saw the advertisement about the 

 man who lived to be 107 years old, I drew 

 my own conclusions about the truthfulness 

 of the statement. Now, I would suggest 

 right here that, if this statement is an out- 

 and out falsehood, the Methodist Church 

 could begin action on these " Dufl^y " peo- 

 ple by law, for slander on that great relig- 

 ious body; and we could come on them again 

 for ruining our boys by their false state- 

 ments in the advertising pages. Christ 

 said, " I came not to bring peace, but a 

 sword;" and I for one am read 5' to advocate 

 the sword, and take the lead if nobody else 

 will. Let me digress a little. 



Edward Bok, of the Ladies' Home Jour- 

 nal, has for years past been criticising 

 pretty severely our Sunday-schools, occa- 

 sionally the clergy, and finally the religious 

 press. When I saw the article on patent 

 medicines, in the issue for May last, I had 

 a big laugh, and I thought of our text, 

 " Surely the wrath of man shall praise 

 thee." I have before told you that my for- 

 mer pastor, A. T. Reed, evangelist, once 

 said in his morning prayer at church, " O 

 L rd, we thank thee for our enemies, for 

 they tell us our faults when nobody else 

 will do so;" and this thought has all 

 through my life since that time been an in- 

 spiring one. Do not grow weary because 

 3'ou have enemies. Try to receive their 

 hints (?) and hits, maybe, with a Chris- 

 tianlike spirit, a hopeful face, and your en- 

 emies will do you more good than your 

 friends. Now, 1 do not mean to say that 

 Mr. Bjk is really an enemy to Christianity, 

 but it has sometimes looked that way. The 

 article I have referred to contains the fol- 

 lowing: 



The following percentages of alcohol in the " patent 

 medicines" named are given by the Massachusetts 

 State Board Analyist in the published document No. 

 ;U: Alcohol 



I^ydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound 20.6 



Paine's Celery Compound 21.0 



Dr. Williams' Vegetable Jaundice Bitters 18 5 



Whiskol, "a non-intoxicating stimulant " 28.2 



Colden's Liquid Beef Tonic, " recommended for the 



treatment of alcohol habit " 26.5 



Ayer's Sarsaparilla 26.2 



Thayer's Compound Extract of Sarsaparilla 21 5 



Hood's S trsaparilla 18.8 



Allen's Sarsaparilla 13.5 



Dana'.s Sarsaparilla 13.5 



Brown's Sarsaparilla 13 5 



Peruna 28.5 



Vinol, Wine of Cod-liver Oil 18.8 



Dr. Peters' Kuriko 14.0 



Carter's Physical Extract 22.0 



