1906 



GLEANINGS IX BEE CULTURE. 



1138 



tired, perhaps hungry, it is a hard matter 

 for me to be sociable;' but feeling it to he a 

 Christian duty to lose no opportunity of 

 lending a helping hand I have dozens of 

 times overcome this feeling of wanting to l)e 

 let alone, and tried to extend a helping hand 

 to some fellow-traveler. On the way home 

 from this same Jenkintown meeting I roile 

 many miles in a car that was almost unoc- 

 cupied. Finally I crossed the aisle and sat 

 down by a stranger, as I supposed, and ask- 

 ed him some questions about our destination. 

 He replied, and pretty soon dropped some 

 remark indicating that he was a bee-keeper 

 and had been at the Jenkintown meeting. I 

 presume he felt a little hurt to think I had 

 not recognized and spoken to him and re- 

 membered him among the crowds I met 

 there. Well, we had a real pleasant chat for 

 an hour or two. I forgot my weariness and 

 hunger, and he told me about my connec- 

 tion.s. and where I could get a lunch without 

 patronizing saloons. He told me about his 

 home, church, Sunday-school, etc. Now. 

 would it have l)een Christianlike for me to 

 travel several hours without making ainj ef- 

 fort to find out whether there was not some- 

 body in the car whom I ought to know and 

 have a talk with? I do not think the word 

 ••disgusted" belongs to me. especially when 

 traveling. I greatly enjoy traveling: and 

 whenever I am tempted to feel disgusted or 

 disappointed with any thing unexpected. I 

 try to keep it to myself and overcome it. 



Such unkind words as the al)ove sometimes 

 do us good in another way. They help us 

 to have a higher appreciation for our friends. 

 They help us to enjoy kind words in a way 

 that' we perhaps could not otherwise. Some- 

 times in life I am obliged to be present where 

 low-lived, slangy, and blasphemous conver- 

 sation is going on. Of course. I ti'y to stop 

 it when there seems to be any possible way 

 of doing so. When not. I try to bear it as 

 well as I can; but. oh how such experiences 

 do help me to appreciate the companionship 

 of clean, pure, intelligent Christian people 1 I 

 have often said to myself that I did not 

 know how much I loved people who try to 

 Vte good in God's sight until I had to mix in 

 with those who were all for worldly things 

 and self. 



As an illustration, just contrast the follow- 

 ing letter from a dear brother whom I have 

 never seen, with the extract from that bee- 

 journal: 



Mr. A. I. Root:—! wrote to Medina for your present 

 address. You must long ago have become used to 

 praise, and I've for a good while had the desire to be- 

 stow some of it upon you, but have liept saying to my- 

 self. " He 'does not need it — doesn't know me personal- 

 ly, any w;iy;" or. " So many have said fine things to 

 him that he doesn't care for mine." 



Well, I looked upon your picture in a recent Gi^eax- 

 INGS, and then meditated: " Now. that picture is ten 

 years old. and here I've not written to Mr. Root yet, 

 and either he or I will die one of these days and then 

 I shall never have said my few kind words to him. " 



In the word we have a picture both of neglect and 

 lost opportunities in the sentence. "The harvest is 

 past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." 

 My lapse I can not call neglect, for I have blessed you 

 every two weeks for twenty years or more, upon the 

 arrival of Gleanings. It is rather a fear of being a 

 little too presumptuous, seeing I never came nearer 

 you in a material way than in annually purchasing 



some apiai-ian supplies either at the Home or in Phil- 

 adelphia. 



Really I will try to say only a little, Mr. Root, but I 

 mean it all. It is that I want to tell you how much I 

 have thought of you for the high-minded, vigorous, 

 honorable methods you have pursued in your now 

 greatly increased business, and call your attention 

 not only to what it all means right now, but for the 

 future, also, in getting your sons and sons-in-law in 

 the correct track of life's doings. Your works will 

 follow you in theirs. The boys have their own high 

 mindedness and honor as personal traits, and I don't 

 think they will mind my giving you credit for steer- 

 ing them into the best paths. You should be proud, 

 not only of what you started and struggled to main- 

 tain for years, but of the noble way in which the boys 

 are continuing. 'A good man leaveth an inheritance 

 unto his children's children.' So the sons and daugh- 

 ters should be grateful too. and in the best way proud, 

 for no inheritance in this world is the equal of that 

 from fathers and mothers of integrity and Christian 

 character. Improved by them, it is treasure in heav- 

 en. It can not be rusted, stolen, wasted, nor lost. It 

 is real saving. " laid up in store for themselves against 

 time to come." 



Please let me tell you, also, how much I think your 

 semi-monthly discourses on moral and religious 

 themes must have meant to hundreds of plain homes, 

 where people take no distinctively religious paper, I 

 have been a pastor for twenty-five years, and know 

 that, while some people, like Gallio, "care for none of 

 these things. " they all come at last to me for bap- 

 tisms, marriages, funerals, and, in time of sickness, 

 distress, or loss, for religious comfort and " the ef- 

 fectual fervent prayer." So we can and must not 

 stop for those who want all material and no spiritual 

 while all goes well with their health or their bees, 

 but go on "casting our bread upon the waters. " 

 "sowing beside all waters. " We get it back with 

 greater interest than any bank but heaven's pays. 



Mav the Lord bless you and your beloved Mrs. Root, 

 She mav take her good share of what you have been 

 and are to past and present patrons of your house and 

 to readers of Gleanings. If you are like me you will 

 be giving her credit, next to the Lord himself, for 

 what vou have been prompted and enabled to do. 



T. C. POTTEB. 



Glasgow, Delaware, March 19. 



Of course, the dear brother who writes the 

 above greatly exaggerates what I have done 

 for bee-keeping or for the world; but I do 

 not know but it is allowable, occasionally, 

 for those who have worked hard for years, 

 to let the world see the encouragement we 

 get in the way of kind words for these lives 

 we are living. 



On another page in that same journal 

 there is an intimation that our institution is 

 charging greater prices to bee-keepers than 

 we need to: also a suggestion in regard to 

 our "eloquent silence" in the matter. Per- 

 mit me to say that if any other manufactur- 

 ing establishment can supply the bee-keepers 

 of our land with any goods at lower prices 

 we will try to rejoice'with all the rest of you; 

 for God knows that I. and, I think, every 

 meml)er'of The A. I. Root Co. are seeking the 

 greatest good to the greatest number of bee- 

 keepers in our land. On page 755 (June 1) 

 I told my neighbor I should l)e just as glad 

 to find that those nice maple-trees came on 

 his side of the Avire as to find they came on 

 my side; and God helped me to make my 

 words true. Now, if you can buy your stuff 

 for less money, or, on' account of freight, get 

 it cheaper by purchasing near your home 

 than to buy of us. I will in like manner try 

 to be just as glad as if the order came here: 

 and if I am not living up to what 1 profess 

 in the above, may God help me in my efforts 

 to live up to it. 



Just a word in closing, in regard to the 

 wisdom of putting any thing in print like 



