396 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



especially will do this; but what does it 

 amount to if we simply prolong life and do 

 iiotliing' for the immortal soul"? 



Lucy Page Gaston (may God bless and 

 sustain the woman) informs us through the 

 Union Signal that last year there were man- 

 ufactured in the United States iliree billion 

 eifjlit hundred million cigarettes. She says 

 that new factories are constantly springing 

 uj) to make cigarettes for the boys. Many 

 of tlie older factories are working night and 

 day, the demand is so great. If you take a 

 little pains you will discover that children 

 are learning to use cigarettes on the sly 

 almost if not quite all over the land. They 

 are hired by the manufacturers to distribute 

 cigarettes and heli) cultivate an appetite 

 for them. Many a parent does not know 

 his boy has ever touched a cigaiette until 

 the child is pretty well along in the habit.* 

 The government of the United States some 

 lime ago started a. crusade against "habit- 

 forming drugs," and later still a movement 

 against " baneful drugs." 



Now, wouldn't you think these two organ- 

 izations would hit cigarettes'? So far as T 

 can learn, they overlook or ignore cigarettes 

 because of the great American Tobacco Co. 

 The liquor business has shown itself to be 

 bigger than Uncle Sam; but just now Uncle 

 Sam is waking up and rolling up his sleeves. 

 The Anti-saloon League has sometimes 

 suggested that we should not undertake too 

 many jobs at once. I think that at one 

 great temperance convention they thought 

 best that Lucy Page Gaston should not talk 

 about cigarettes, as it might divert atten- 

 tion, just at a crisis in enacting laws against 

 the liquor-traffic. May be that is wisdom; 

 but, oh dear me! can we neglect our boys? 



Once more: A kind Providence permitted 

 me to save that boy's life. Is that all? 

 Shall I now drop him and let him drift 

 aAvay out of my sight among the multi- 

 tudes? God forbid. The poor mother said 

 he had not been going to Sunday-school 

 since they moved into Bradentown because 

 he could not dress as well as the other chil- 

 dren. But I talked with the mother and 

 with the boy, and I also talked with Mr. 

 Rood, the superintendent of our Sunday- 

 school, and he will look after the boy. Fur- 



* The city of Tampa is about sixty miles north of 

 Bradentown; and besides a raihvay there are two 

 steamers that ma!<e the trip from Bradentown and 

 return every day. These steamers not only bring 

 cigarettes but liquors as well into Bradentown, which 

 has never had a saloon, and, by God's grace, it never 

 will have. 



After the above was put in type I came across the 

 followinsr which I clip from the Union Signal: 



" In Tampa and Key West the conditions are ap- 

 palling. About eighty per cent of the children be- 

 tween eight and sixteen are or are becoming con- 

 firmed tobacco victims. The crusade there should be 

 continuous and persistent, educational, and in the 

 line of law enforcement." 



thermore, I am going to send the boy 

 Gleanings; and while you are reading the 

 words I am now dictating, the boy may be 

 reading them also. I prayed tliat his life 

 might be spared, and God heard and an- 

 swered. Now will you not unite with me 

 and pray that a higher and more important 

 life may be developed, and that the boy may 

 grow UI3 to be a benefit to humanity? And 

 while we think of him and pray for him, 

 shall we not also think of and pray for all 

 the boys (and girls too) of our great nation 

 and throughout the wide world? I am re- 

 joiced to know that there are movements on 

 foot to save the lives of the boys and girls 

 in India, Cliina, and everywhere else, where 

 they are neglected and sutfering. 



When I was two years old the doctors 

 told my good mother that there was no hope 

 — I could not live. But she i^rayed, and 

 had faith to belie\'e that I might live in 

 spite of what the doctors predicted. Of 

 course she was thankful for this; but she 

 was not satisfied, and kept insisting and 

 declaring all the time, until I was a married 

 man and had children of my own, that there 

 was a higher life for me that I had not 

 yet touched. I, a grown man, laughed at 

 lier faith and her continued jirayers and 

 importunity. She said, as some of the older 

 readers of this journal may remember, that 

 I was yet going to work for Christ Jesus 

 exactly as I had been so far working for 

 the honey-bees; and that is why, dear 

 friends, I am exhorting you all to-day not 

 only to care for the i^hysieal health, life, 

 and well-being of these little ones gTowing 

 up in your homes, but for that other life in 

 God's sj^iritual kingdom — that " kingdom " 

 we talk of in that wonderful prayer, " Thy 

 kingdom come, thy will be done on earth 

 as it is in heaven." 



SHOULD A MIXISTER OK SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER 

 USE TOBACCO, ETC. ? 



Dear Brother Root: — I say, God bless the man 

 who strikes such blows at the liquor, cigarette, and 

 (for that matter) all other conventional follies right 

 from the shoulder. May he give more strength to 

 your muscle. 



It is, perhaps, none of my business ; but candidly 

 I should like to know, if you were a regularly or- 

 dained minister, would you dare to speak as plainly 

 to your flock as you ^vrite with your pen ? If so, 

 I venture the assertion you would be asked to get 

 " down and out." 



Please come with me to one of the largest churches 

 on this coast. Its pastor gets a big salary — I can 

 not say how many thousand dollars. It makes me 

 feel unusually " warm above the collar " when I 

 think of another pastor with a large family who gets 

 $700, lives in a place where you would hate to put 

 your chickens to roost, and can't afford to give his 

 children a ten-cent ride to the beach while the other 

 takes his annual trip abroad or across the continent. 



Well, the pastor of the big church thunders against 

 the liquor traffic, white slavery, the slit skirt, tango, 



