1116 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1 



saloons have been abolished from the city 

 (and those who attempted to sell illegally 

 have been repeatedly brought to grief) he 

 says not a single tenant has failed to pay up 

 his rent promptly. When the saloons were 

 running, drunkenness was his worst trouble. 

 He was not only obliged to keep dismissing 

 renters because of intemperance, but he 

 lost a good deal of money every time a 

 change was made. Now for my text and 

 my story. 



Rev. Charles Mitchell, pastor of the First 

 M. E. Church of Cleveland, 0., said some- 

 thing as follows: 



"When I first commenced in the ministry 

 I started in a little place in Kansas. In my 

 boyish simplicity I very soon opened up 

 without fear or favor on the saloon-keepers 

 in our town. Pretty soon the proprietor of 

 one of the oldest and worst saloons came to 

 me and spoke about as follows: 'Young 

 man, I confess I had rather taken a liking 

 to you. You came in among us in a friend- 

 ly sort of way, and went to work in right 

 good earnest, and we all liked you. Now, I 

 am an older man than you, and I have had 

 some experience, and I should like to give 

 you a little advice.' After a little more 

 friendly and patronizing talk he wound up 

 by saying, ' Now, young man, after this you 

 attend to your own damn business, and I 

 will attend to mine.' " 



The young minister waited a little to catch 

 his breath and to straighten up at such an 

 insult, not only to himself but to God's peo- 

 ple as well, and then replied: 



' ' Yes, you will no doubt continue, my old 

 friend, to attend to your own damnable busi- 

 ness ; and I want to tell you, too, that, so 

 long as you do this, I will fight you and all 

 the rest of your class just so long as God 

 shall give me breath. " 



The speaker smiled pleasantly while he 

 added, "As I have grown older it may be I 

 have learned to be a little more careful, and 

 perhaps not quite so vehement as when I 

 was a boy; but I think I have kept my 

 pledge pretty well in fighting this business 

 from that time up to the present day." 



It is well known there is a law in Cleve- 

 land, the home of this pastor, against hav- 

 ing saloons open on Sunday; but he closed 

 with a tone indicative of sadness by saying, 

 "Dear friends, I do not know of a single 

 saloon in the great city of Cleveland that is 

 now kept closed on God's holy day. Some 

 people complain because we say the saloon- 

 keeper is a law-breaker. He can not suc- 

 ceed in his business without breaking the 

 law. How does that statement look? " 



One of the delegates from York State 

 told us about going to a town to deliver a 

 temperance lecture. The only hotel in the 

 place contained a bar-room. The proprietor 

 was so busy in said bar-room he could hard- 

 ly be spared long enough to attend to a 

 guest, even though that guest was a minis- 

 ter who was to stay with him over Sunday. 

 Our friend was given a room right over the 

 bar. The carousing was so great during the 

 night he could not sleep. He finally got up 



and went down to see what was going on. 

 The whole gang was too drunk to notice 

 him or to pay any attention to him. In his 

 sermon the next Sunday morning he gave 

 the full particulars, and called on the people 

 of his congregation to take immediate steps 

 to enforce the law and bring that hotel- 

 keeper to a realizing sense of what he was 

 doing. The inn-keeper did not go to church, 

 of course; but the sermon got to his ears 

 before the good pastor reached the hotel- 

 door when he came home to dinner. Our 

 friend of the bar was by the doorstep, and 

 was going to forbid the pastor entering. He 

 said, " I do not like such treatment. I will 

 sue you at the law for damaging my house 

 and my reputation." 



But the Anti-saloon workers are generally 

 men of pretty good courage. The man of 

 God faced him and said, " My good friend, 

 if I were you I think I would put on my good 

 behavior just now, and be as quiet and civil 

 as possible. You know as well as I do that 

 you are breaking the law; and if you get off 

 without prosecution you may consider your- 

 self very lucky indeed." 



This, of course, cooled down our irate 

 friend, and he put it more mildly. 



"But, my good sir, our regular parson 

 and myself are good friends. He does not 

 pitch into me and abuse me in that kind of 

 way." 



"Very true," was the reply. "Your 

 parson is obliged to live here with you, and, 

 to tell the truth, I am sorry for him ; but / 

 am a stranger. I shall soon go aWay and 

 never see you again, perhaps. I am exactly 

 the one to tell you these plain truths, and I 

 tell them for your own good, my dear sir; 

 and I tay to do my duty well and faithfully 

 before God." 



Our worker was allowed to go in and get 

 his dinner; but just as he was about to 

 leave, the landlady came to the door and 

 called, "Wait a minute, elder. I want to 

 say to you, before you go, that you have a 

 lot of friends out ^ere in the kitchen. We 

 women- folks are right with you; and if you 

 had only had the courage to say to my hus- 

 band when you first came last night what 

 you said this morning, that shameful scene 

 of last night would have never happened. 

 Come again whenever you call this way. ' ' 



Let us now consider a minute these two 

 saloon-keepers — first the man who, with 

 such a poor comprehension of the sacred 

 caUing of a minister of the gospel that he 

 could say to him, "You attend to your damn 

 business," and then this other one. At first 

 our blood boils over with indignation to 

 think that educated and refined men among 

 God's ministering servants should be sub- 

 ject to such abuse as this. But when we 

 reflect a little more, does it riot indicate 

 that these poor fellows are to be pitied as 

 well as blamed? While we pray for them 

 and the class they represent, can we not 

 say, in the language of our text, ' ' Father, 

 forgive them; for they know not what they 

 do"? 



Supt. E. S. Chapman, D.D., LL.D., of 



