248 



GLEi\:j^INGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



so that he can take it up and carry it along, 

 or overloolv a new hand if I should be 

 obliged to set one at work. Another thing, 

 he seems to love his business. I often catcli 

 a smile on his face when we have made some 

 lucky hit in advertising, and orders begin to 

 l)our in like smoke. lie has a knack, too, of 

 getting low figures on goods. Just one more 

 thing occurs to me right here. It is only 

 once in a while we find a clerk, especially 

 among the younger ones, who keeps a con- 

 stant bird's-eye view, if I may express it in 

 that way, over what he is doing. ,Su])pose 

 interest is to be figured ; X. would at a glance 

 form an idea in Ins own mind about what 

 the result shovild be. before his computations 

 are completed, and thus throw out an error, 

 almost, as it were, Ijy intuition. One who 

 cultivates the faculty can learn, in time, to 

 guess almost to a dollar what a column of 

 figures will foot, before the addition is made. 

 Again, X. is extremely industrious. In 

 passing him a dozen times a day, I always 

 find him busy, and his hands moving rapid- 

 ly. He never stops any story or discussion 

 because I come along, and I never find him, 

 out of idle curiosity, looking at the work 

 which belongs to some one else, in working 

 hours. I know he is interested in new 

 books as they come out, and the new inven- 

 tions of the age ; but he never stops his 

 work to examiiie them, without asking me, 

 and I never find him discussing them or ar- 

 guing over them during working hours. 



" Xow, while I think of it, X. has always 

 been a good friend of mine. Why, he has 

 more than once ]K)inted out " to me 

 the fact that I was selling certain 

 articles for less than it cost me to 

 make them, and did it, too, in a respect- 

 ful way, and not at all in a way that implied 

 he thought he knew better how to run my 

 business than I did. I declare, I did not know 

 before how much I have been depending on 

 liim. Still one more thing occurs to me just 

 now. He seldom arguet!* points with me. 

 ^''ery few i)eoi)le like to admit they are 

 wrong, and it is not every one who will confess 

 himself at fault when the matter is pointed 

 out to him. I presume we are all too luuch 

 disposed to think the fault all on the other 

 side, rather than that Ave have done anything 

 amiss. X. has a fault in being forgetful, 

 sometimes. Once wlien he had forgotten 

 the same thing twice, may be three times, I 

 spoke a little impatiently perliaps ; he gave 

 me one of the best rebukes I ever had. Shall 

 I tell you how he did it? He said, — 



'''Mr. Jirown, I have been careless, and 

 now if you will justgiv^e me a scolding every 

 time I make tliis mistake, I will pretty soon 

 learn not to do it any more.' I finally soft- 

 ened down my face, and laughingly prom- 

 ised to do just as he said, buc he has never 

 made the mistake since. 



" I declare, it does not hardly seem as if 

 my business would stand it to pay — — a 



week ; I am in debt thousand dollars 



now. I can get plenty of men for what I am 

 already paying. Yes.T have had offers with- 

 out number almost, to hire ])retty fair writers 

 at a dollar a day, but for all this I am pretty 

 sure X. is the cheapest hand for me, e\en at 

 what he has been offered.-' 



You see, my friends, I am only guessing 

 at the circumstances, and projecting you 

 forward, as it were, to indicate roughly the 

 way in Avhich you may really earn more, as 

 you say you wish to. Am I making a picture 

 too near perfection, and requiring more of 

 poor humanity than it is as an average cap- 

 able of? Very likely I am, as humanity 

 stands luiaided ; but with Jesus' help, with 

 the oi)ening text before you as your motto, 

 it is all easy. The first point I mentioned 

 was being early at yoiu" post promptly 

 every morning. A'ery likely this one point 

 will require much earnest prayer, simple as 

 it is.. If you are not accustomed to it, a 

 thousand apparently real obstacles will stand 

 in the way. tio to bed early, as I told you 

 last month, and push through them. Our 

 city and town people need to learn a lesson 

 of the farmers in this respect. Stop going 

 out evenings, imless it is to your weekly 

 prayer-meetings, and then be sure you are 

 at home and in l^ed by 1) o'clock. Satan may 

 tell you tliat, unless you attend the lectures 

 and read the papers you will grow up in ig- 

 norance of what is going on in the world ; 

 but just make up your mind that ignorance 

 is better than being behind hand and in debt, 

 lie as prompt in going to church and Sunday- 

 school as you are in getting to business 

 week-days. If you are going to ask God to 

 help you, you must be consistent, and show 

 him by your daily life that >'ou are really 

 striving to obey the command, — 



Seek ye first the kiug-dom of Gud and his rifrht- 

 eousness, and all these things shall be added unto 

 you.— Matt. 6:33. 



Remember,— 



God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man sowoth, 

 that shall he also reap.— Gal. 6:7. % 



In regard to the clothes, I would go to the 

 places of worshii> any Avay, with such as I 

 liad, and trust God to ('nableme to get Ijetter 

 when I could. At the noon meeting, one of 

 the hands saidpr/de is the most grievous sin 

 that afflicts humanity, and I am sometimes 

 tempted to think he was not very far out of 

 the way. It is a glorious thing Avhen yon 

 get where you can tell God you are willing 

 the world sliall know you exactly as you are, 

 and that you have fought down the last rem- 

 nant of a "disposition to have the world think 

 better of you than yo\i really are. 



In regard to sickness and medicine : With- 

 out carrying things to too great an extreme, 

 I would recommend dispensing, in a great 

 measure, with the services of a physician. 

 Get up in the morning and go to work, even 

 if you do not feel well, and do not get into a 

 habit of " laying off: a half-day," even if you 

 do feel badly. Ask men and women who 

 have been really obliged to push through 

 work, sick or well, if they have not felt, hun- 

 dreds of times, as if they were about " too 

 sick to move," but that after they got right 

 into the midst of their daily tasks, they forgot 

 all about it, comparatively, and came out all 

 right without doctor or medicine. Old 

 Avatches are frequently j^oorer timepieces af- 

 ter having been at the watchmaker's than 

 they were before he touched them ; and I 

 have no doubt but that thousands, ay, mill- 

 ions of human beings are in poorer health , — 

 yes, in more Iwpelesslij poor health,— after 



