1592 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15 



took away their tables, and tried to take 

 away their chairs; but the '■chair business" 

 seemed to be too much, and he cov;ld not 

 make it go. Of course, the good people of 

 the town helped him. The town had been a 

 great headquarters for gamblers; and the 

 farming community about, lost much of its 

 earnings, as what "did not go into saloons 

 went to the gamblers. Sometimes whole 

 farms were lost and gained in a single night. 

 This town has every so often what they call 

 a "sales day," when cattle and horses are 

 sold at auction. A big crowd congregates, 

 and they generally have a "high old time" 

 on such days. One sales day, while the sa- 

 loon-keepers were reaping a rich harvest, it 

 came near closing time. A delegation visit- 

 ed the mayor and offered him $50 if he would 

 let them remain open till 11 o'clock instead 

 of 10. Of course, he drew back on his dig- 

 nity at this, but the spokesman explained 

 that the $50 he had in his hand was for the 

 benefit of the town. They could build ' ' side- 

 walks, " etc. The mayor replied, " Gentle- 

 men, if you were to give me §50 a minute 

 yovi could not stay open one minute more 

 after the clock strikes ten. Go back, and 

 prepare to shut up promptly or I will have 

 you arrested and fined, every one of you. 

 God knows I would have you shut up all day 

 long and for ever if I could have my way 

 about it." 



Now, this mayor aroused more enthusiasm, 

 more cheers, clapping of hands, and more 

 amens than any great orator who spoke dur- 

 ing the whole session. It reminded me of 

 the beautiful but encouraging verse, I. Cor. 

 1 : 27, "God hath chosen the foolish things of 

 the world to confound the wise; and God 

 hath chosen the weak things of the world to 

 confound the things which are mighty." I 

 was on the platform not far from the speak- 

 er, and I had it in my mind to take him by 

 the hand and bid him Godspeed, and to tell 

 him I thanked God that he had been led by 

 the Holy Spirit thus to consecrate his life to 

 the work he was doing. But I did not say 

 it. I could not get near enough to him. 

 The audience climbed on the platform in a 

 body, and they pressed on him from all sides. 

 I heard one man say to him, "How much 

 money will it cost us to have you come and 

 talk to our people? Give us just the talk 

 you have given here." 



The mayor replied, laughingly, "Why, 

 friends. I do not know how our town can 

 spare me for a day; and I could not give my 

 talk over again to save my life. I do not 

 know what I have said. It was mostly in 

 answer to your questions." 



Now, friends, there is a great moral right 

 here. A lot of mayors and other officials 

 have the foolish notion in their heads that it 

 will not do to enforce our laws — they would 

 become unpopular, etc. I think this kind of 

 suggestion comes from Satan. It is just the 

 other way. Look about you and notice the 

 men who have arisen suddenly just because 

 they obeyed the voice of God rather than the 

 suggestions of the evil one. 



Just one thing more before I close, about 



the mayor of London. This man Cordray 

 has a peculiar gift. He perpetrated some of 

 his hugest jokes when he did not seem to 

 know he had got off any joke at all. He 

 stared at us with open mouth as if he were 

 puzzled to kaow what we were laughing at. 

 His very attitude and demeanor made that 

 great audience cheer again and again; and 

 the next sentence after he had the audience 

 still so he could say a word, generally prov- 

 ed to be a huger joke still; and yet his face 

 hardly softened into a smile. He is one of 

 God's great men, and does not seem to know 

 it. May his honest, earnest, boyish simplic- 

 ity never be spoiled by the applause and 

 praises of men. 



The 23 saloons in London are now reduced 

 to 17. He gave, as an illustration of the way 

 in which intemperate men will use their wits 

 to get drink, the following incident that oc- 

 curred in his town: A certain man had ex- 

 hausted his credit, and bartered all he could 

 lay hold of. Then he went to a neighbor's of 

 his and said that one of his hens had just com- 

 menced sitting, but he had no eggs to put 

 under her. Would the neighbor kindly loan 

 him a setting of eggs? After he got the eggs 

 he went and traded them for whisky. 



Joseph Clark, Secretary of the Ohio Sun- 

 day-school Association, sometimes known as 

 "Timothy Standby," gave us a talk about 

 Sunday-schools and temperance. In that 

 talk he said: 



" How many people in this building consider them- 

 selves members of some Sunday-school? Stand up." 

 (Practically all arose.) 



"The Sunday-school stands behind the Anti-saloon 

 League. The greatest temperance organization in 

 the world is the Sunday-school. I stand before you 

 as the training-master of the Anti-saloon League of 

 the future. I have had a vision. I had a vision of the 

 day when the Sunday-schools will pass out to Ohio 

 300.000 boys who have been taught in our Sunday- 

 schools, not only the principle of total abstinence, but 

 also the right use of the ballot against all the foes of 

 the people. God being my helper, if I am spared to 

 serve ten years longer I intend to pass along to the 

 commonwealth, ten years from to-day, 300,000 boys 

 who will vote right." 



THE NATIONAL CONVENTION AT ST. LOUIS. 



When I first got off the train at the great 

 union station in St. Louis I could noi find 

 anybody who knew where the First Presby- 

 terian church was located. It was almost 

 time for the first address, and I was very 

 anxious. I thought if I could hnd a corner 

 drugstore I could surely get some directions; 

 but every corner in that city seemed to be 

 occupied by a saloon, and every man on the 

 street seemed to be a saloon frequenter. I 

 hope St. Louis will forgive me, for it may 

 be there are more saloons around that great 

 station than anywhere else. I hope so. But 

 nobody — not even a policeman — could tell 

 me where the church was, and so I asked 

 the street-car conductors. They looked a 

 little ashamed of it when they had to confess 

 that they did not know where the First Pres- 

 byterian church was. Neither could any- 

 body on the car tell. In despair I did find a 

 drugstore, and the obliging manager told me 

 it was something over a mile away. But he 

 wrote 4100 Olive St. on a piece of paper and 

 told me to hunt up a conductor on a certain 



