396 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



May, 1917 



Insurance companies have piled up evidence show- 

 ing the increased mortality of drinkers. 



Experts have demonstrated the connection be- 

 tween alcohol and insanity, poverty, and prostitu- 

 tion. 



Civic bodies, such as the New York Board of 

 Health, organize definite campaigns to induce people 

 to abstain from liquor as a matter of public health. 



Literature is attacking the strong, romantic, emo- 

 tional appeal of alcoholism. 



Business is against liquor. The drinking man is 

 discounted everywhere, and an increasing number of 

 business concerns will not give employment under 

 any circumstances to the man who drinks. 



A large number of periodicals exclude liquor ad- 

 vertisements. 



Added force is given the prohibition wave in Amer- 

 ica by the acts of Russia, France, and England dur- 

 ing the war; all have more or less restricted alcohol- 

 ism. Five provinces in Canada are dry. 



It looks as if the world were rapidly making up its 

 mind that the arch-enemy of mankind, alcohol, that 

 has debauched the imagination and twisted the rea- 

 soning powers of the race for so many centuries, will 

 have to go. 



Curiously enough, the labor organizations, which 

 have most to gain from universal abstinence, have 

 done little or nothing to advance the movement. 



Curiously, also, it seems to be the West and South 

 that are threatening to impose 'prohibition upon the 

 reluctant Northeast. 



Robert A. Woods, in a recent article in the Survey, 

 quotes a Southerner's remark, that " as the North 

 had put abolition over on the South, now the South 

 was going to put prohibition over on the North." 



SOME KIND WORDS AND ALSO SOMETHING ABOUT A 

 PART OF CALIFORNIA. 



Brother Boot: — With all the probable crooked 

 work done in and around San Francisco at our 

 late national election, won't you, as well as I, be 

 very thankful that California, south of the Tehachapi, 

 seven counties with an area exceeding the states of 

 Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, voted solid 6 to 1 dry? 

 We worked night and day to bring this about; also 

 take notice that some four other states voted drv. 

 May God grant you the years to live to see 48 of 

 them di-y is my daily prayer. Yours truly, 



Glendale, Cal., Dec. 30, 1916. G. W. Bercaw. 



Do you know that Gleanings has been in our 

 family for well nigh 40 years? 



" straws (a great LOT OF THEM) SHOW THE WAY 

 THE WIND BLOWS." 



Mr. A. I. Root: — I enclose clippings from the 

 Milwaukee Journal. They will show you what the 

 anti-saloon people are doing in Milwaukee, which is, 

 so far as I know, the last stronghold of the 

 brewers in this country. The brewers' advertise- 

 ments will show what they are expecting to happen 

 soon. 



There is a bill before the Wisconsin legislature, 

 which provides for a vote of the people of the 

 state in November, 1918, on the question of state- 

 wide prohibition. I expect it to pass, and I expect 

 the voters to vote the state dry. I suppose I have 

 not sent all of the brewers' advertisements that the 

 Jonrnal published. They have been appearing for 

 some weeks past, two or three times a week. 



I hope you will live to see-»state-wide prohibition 

 all over the Union. It is not far off. 



Milwaukee, Wis. James L. Howard. 



Our friend sends with the above five 

 double-column advertisements. One of the 

 five has the heading : 



" DESTBTJCTION without compensation IS CON- 

 FISCATION," 



and this is a fair sample of the other five. 



ANOTHER STRAW. 



One of our readers sends us a flaming 

 advertising sheet sent out by a St. Louis 

 liquor dealer which starts out as follows : 



"Here is your chance to get some fine old whisky 

 at half price J" Great bargain offers ! Very rare and 

 old whiskies at half price on account of prohibition. 

 I don't want to get stuck! Bills now pending in 

 Congress and in the Legislatures may stop all liquor 

 shipments to "dry" states I This would mean that 

 our large stock of rare and old whiskies could not be 

 sold, and that we would be " stuck." 



A KIND LETTER, AND A GEM OF A POEM FROM 

 ONE OP ENGLAND^S FAIR DAUGHTERS. 



The letter below amply explains itself; 

 and the poem following is just now quite in 

 harmony with the wave of reform both in 

 England and America. 



Dear Sir: — My brother, Mr. T. W. Abbott (Abbott 

 Bros.), knowing you to be a strong advocate o<f 

 temperance, has asked me to send you a copy of my 

 verses, which I have great pleasure in doing. If you 

 like them, please make any use you can of them. I 

 shall be only too thankful for them to be of any US0 

 in so good a cause. They are not vet published in 

 this country, as we have not decided on the best 

 way of bringing them before the public ; but we in- 

 tend to do so later on. 



In alluding to my brother, Mr. Abbott, I have, of 

 course, conveyed to you that I am one of the daugh- 

 ters of Mr. C. M. Abbott, editor of the British Bee 

 Journal. At the time when he was publishing it and 

 carrying on business at Fairlawn, your address was 

 very familiar to me, and my brother has spoken of 

 you so often that I almost feel that I am writing to a 

 friend altho I have not had the pleasure of meeting 

 you. My brother is well, and desires to be very 

 kindly remembered to you. Hoping that you will 

 like the verses, and that thru you they may do good, 

 believe me. Sincerely yours, 



E. E. M. Freeman. 



Toybridge, Lady Margaret's Road, Southall. 



the super-thief. 

 Yes, I'm a thief; and, " the greatest of these," 

 Unarmed and unmasked I can take what I please. 

 In cottage or castle, in mansion or hall. 

 There is nothing too precious and nothing too small. 

 I go with my lord when he sits at the feast. 

 And leave on his visage the mark of the beast. 

 In my lady's boudoir I enter by stealth, 

 I rob her of innocence, beauty, and health. 

 It is part of my nature, and freely confessed, 

 To do the most harm where they love me the beet. 

 I am trusted alike by the poor and the rich. 

 But the working man's home is my favorite pitch; 

 I take of his wages a very large share. 

 And then steal his job tho it seems hardly fair. 

 From the cupboard and pantry, the wardrobe and 



shelf, 

 If there's anything good — why, I just help myself. 

 I empty the cellar and leave a cold hearth. 

 While nothing but ashes I strew in my path; 

 And still they entreat me: "Oh! stay with us, 



stay," 

 So fair is my promise, so pleasing m- way. 

 Now you know of my faults ; but none will deny 

 There are wonderful things I can do if I try. 

 I can raise to the peerage a man of low birth, 

 I can strive with the mighty and bring him to earth ; 

 I can kill a brave soldier and sink a big ship. 

 Entangle a bishop, and cause him to trip. 



