1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



833 



What sort of people were they, any way? 

 The paper tells us that several saw the boy 

 fall, and heard his cries; but not one of the 

 hundred attempted any rescue. Is such a 

 thine: really possible in any city in the Unit- 

 ed States? Were there no women in that 

 crowd of a hundred or more? Were there 

 no mothers there who could make a fuss and 

 call on some of the men to save the boy? 

 Surely there were plenty of swimmers in 

 that crowd; but not one did any thing or 

 made any attempt at rescue. It certainly 

 was an unusual crowd. God forbid that 

 there should be many such • crowds in this 

 land of ours. 



After the boy was dead beyond possible 

 resuscitation somebody called an ambulance. 

 Then, and not before, a man was found (with 

 the ambulance) who volunteered to recover 

 the body. By the way, I have often wonder- 

 ed why people the world over make such a 

 fuss and go to so much expense to recover a 

 dead body. I would not mind risking life 

 and risking money without limit to save the 

 lije of a man, woman, or child; but what can 

 anybody do with a dead body— that is. com- 

 pared with the importance of saving a living 

 body? This man Thrasher dived three times 

 before he succeeded in finding the body of the 

 boy. What did the crowd do meanwhile? 

 Did they have ropes or clothing tied together, 

 or something of that sort, to assist the diver 

 in getting out with the body? Did they en- 

 courage him with sympathy? Was a purse 

 made up for the man wno was wilHng to dive 

 down into the cold water to get even a dead 

 body? We are not told any thing of the 

 sort. What did this crowd of over a hun- 

 dred people do? Why, they stole his cloth- 

 ing while he was under the water in pursuit 

 of the boy who was dead! (I do not know 

 exactly why, but in some way it reminded 

 me of the soldiers who cast lots for the 

 clothing of our crucified Savior when he was 

 silent and still, nailed to the cross.) The 

 vest, perhaps, contained his watch and mon- 

 ey. The trousers and coat were of compar- 

 atively little value so they were thrown into 

 the lake. But why did not somebody tell 

 the diver, when he looked around for his 

 clothes, who it was that had stolen his "rai- 

 ment"? Come to think of it, why did not 

 somebody in that crowd of a hundred protest 

 against such inhuman work? The last sen- 

 tence informs us that this father and son 

 were Hungarians. Was that whole crowd 

 Hungarians? or what were they? Was that 

 crowd a sample of the people who are being 

 unloaded in the United States by the hundreds, 

 thousands -yes, I might almost say a mil- 

 lion—in the course of a year? They are 

 coming here, scattering all over our land in 

 order to become American citizens. The 

 task devolves on us who profess to love the 

 Lord Jesus Christ to educate and Christian- 

 ize these throngs of foreigners. I believe 

 something is being done in the way of re- 

 striction. Perhaps some are sent back who 

 might make good citizens; and maybe some 

 are permitted to come in here among us who 

 are hardly fit or worthy of an abidingplace 



on the face of the earth. May God help us 

 if this brief newspaper sketch is a picture 

 of some of the crowds that are peopling our 

 land. 



Now, friends, what are we each and all 

 doing to help preserve God's holy sabbath ? 

 What are we doing to preserve the dignity 

 and manhood of those who occupy our broad 

 acres? A very good friend of mine was at 

 work this morning on my automobile. He 

 is a bright young fellow with a wife and two 

 children. Both he and his wife are mem- 

 bers of the church. He is a very busy man, 

 and has a keen love for every thing that is 

 going on in this country of ours, especially 

 the mechanical world. He is bright and 

 keen to grasp hold of new ideas. I think he 

 reads quite a little in our mechanical books 

 and papers; but I was pretty sure he did 

 not attend church very regularly. Said I: 



* ' John, you are going to church nowa- 

 days, are you not? " 



He laughed, and hung down his head, and 

 said he was ashamed to say he had not been 

 much of late. He next told me of some of 

 the obstacles that stood in his way. I told 

 him about the clipping I have given above. 

 I reminded him of the tendency among peo- 

 ple who do not go to church; of the inhu- 

 manity, the stupidity, and the awful indif- 

 ference among those who know nothing of 

 Christianity and God's love. He has a girl 

 five years old who goes to Sunday-school 

 quite regularly, but he admitted th it he did 

 not go with her. I reminded him how much 

 his keen judgment and sense of right and 

 wrong might help in holding up the church 

 of Jesus Christ; and I also cautioned him in 

 regard to the danger of staying away from 

 church and Sunday-school and from prayer- 

 meeting. Dear reader, I felt a desire, when 

 I was talking with him, to talk to you in 

 about the same way. What do you think, 

 my friend, of that crowd that let that six- 

 year-old boy drown and did not try to save 

 him? What do you think of the crowd that 

 let somebody steal the diver's clothing when 

 he was under water ? Do you want to be 

 with such a crowd or in such a crowd? Do 

 you not believe the church, the Sunday- 

 school, and the prayer-meeting will be a 

 better place for you and your wife and chil- 

 dren on God's holy day? I know all about 

 the excuse that some of you make, that you 

 are shut up on week days, and that you 

 greatly enjoy a June morning out in the 

 open air or out in the country. But, my 

 friend, I do not believe that any of you 

 have to be shut up more than ten hours a 

 day on week days— perhaps some of you 

 only eight. There is lots of time in June, in 

 the morning and evening. At our house it 

 is light enough to see to get around at half- 

 past three in the morning. Then there is 

 lots of time in the evening before it gets 

 dark. Does not that give you time enough 

 to be outdoors? Then, again, the ordinary 

 church service now seldom lasts over half 

 or three-quarters of an hour. Sunday-school 

 takes only one hour, or let us call it that; 

 the Endeavor meeting and the evening se- 



