1905 



GLEANINGS IN EEE CULTURE. 



433 



Abstain from all appearance of evil.— I. Thess. 5:22. 



Let your communication be Yea, yea; Nay, nay; for 

 whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.— Matt. 

 5:37. 



Dear friends, in this Home Paper I am 

 going to find some fault with some of the 

 modern methods of doing business; and real- 

 izing how easy it is to go a little too far in 

 criticising those around us, especially when 

 we undertake to criticise the heads of great 

 institutions, I have been earnestly praying 

 the Holy Spirit may guide me. Nay, I have 

 been praying that it might be close to me 

 while I dictate, so that I may be able to do 

 good and not harm. This same Holy Spirit 

 has been reminding me that I am getting 

 old, and these pushing business firms are 

 mostly managed by younger people who may 

 not feel and think just as we older ones do. 

 I can not agree, however, with Dr. Olsen 

 that people after they get to be 60 or 65 are 

 no longer needed in this world of ours. I 

 imagine by the comments of diff'erent peri- 

 odicals that there are very few in the world 

 who do agree with him. No doubt, how- 

 ever, there are places where the older ones 

 should step back or stand aside a little to let 

 the younger ones manage things. In fact, 

 that is just what I have been doing for sev- 

 eral years past, and I have found great 

 peace and happiness and enjoyment in so 

 doing, even though some of my pet schemes 

 and plans have been overturned and kicked 

 aside in the march of progress. With the 

 above preface I will tell you what I object to. 



For years past one especial trusty clerk 

 has been entrusted with the task of opening 

 all our mails. Perhaps I may as we'l say 

 that this trusty clerk is Mrs. Root's sister. 

 Sometimes when people accuse us or our 

 clerks of taking people's money out of let- 

 ters and then saying the money was not 

 sent, I have felt obliged to teli them that 

 the money is taken out of all the letters 

 that come to our office by Mrs. Root's sis- 

 ter, and I believe this has always silenced 

 all intimations that we have clerks to handle 

 our mail who might be dishonest. Well, 

 there has been such a great pile of letters 

 of late I have told Mrs. H. she need not stop 

 to read every long letter through, to see 

 what department of our business it needs to 

 go to; and I especially told her not to waste 

 her valuable time in reading letters that 

 were simply printed in imitation of a type- 

 written letter. Very soon she informed me 

 she was unable to tell personal letters from 

 our customers from imitations. As an illus- 

 tration, some particular friend of mine (at 

 least the letter looked that way) said that 

 he wanted me to make a test of a special 

 brand of Kentucky whisky, and gave his 

 reasons. Now, many of you know that it 

 would puzzle almost anybody to tell whether 

 this letter was written by somebody who 



was anxious about my health and personal 

 welfare, or simply a printed circular sent 

 out by the thousands. I explained to her 

 that, if she would turn the letter over and 

 look at the back side she would notice where 

 the periods had indented the paper in a 

 written letter, but with the printed letter 

 the paper would be left flat like any sheet 

 that comes out of a printing-press. When 

 I told the boys, however, that they could not 

 fool me with such imitation letters they be- 

 gan to laugh. One day I got a letter from 

 the Moody Bible Institute, reminding me 

 that I had at different times given them a 

 little assistance, and asking if I felt inclined 

 to remember them this year. The letter 

 started out "Dear Mr. Root." I turned it 

 over, and it had the period-marks of an 

 actual letter. Then I showed it to the boys 

 as an illustration of a personal letter from a 

 business man, and said, "Now, the writer 

 of this letter, I am sure, knows me, and 

 knows that I love the Bible, love righteous- 

 ness and hate iniquity, and perhaps knows 

 of my Home Papers, etc." My son-in-law, 

 Mr. Boyden, began laughing, and asked me 

 to wait a minute. After hunting over a pile 

 of letters he held up a perfect fac-simile of 

 my own, except that it commenced "Dear 

 Mr. Boyden." I confess it was quite a 

 shock ; for ever since I heard of D. L. 

 Moody, heard him talk, and kept track of 

 his work, I thought he was proof against 

 any sort of deception ; and I had faith, too, 

 that the work he had started would be car- 

 ried on in the same way. Ernest finally said 

 something like this : "Now, father, do not 

 be too hard on these people. My opinion is, 

 those two letters were actually written ; but 

 the stenographer was, perhaps, told to write 

 hona-Jide letters after that form to a special 

 list of persons. Why, I often tell our ste- 

 nographers to write the same thing to sev- 

 eral people." 



Then I remembered that, a few days be- 

 fore, a man asked a lot of questions about 

 sweet clover. Our new leaflets are not yet 

 out. so I dictated the main points to him. A 

 little later another letter came, so near like 

 it that I told the clerk to repeat what she 

 said to the former inquirer. Now, this may 

 be all right; but what I object to is going to 

 such pains to deceive people to make them 

 think a printed letter, which can be fur- 

 nished for a fraction of a cent, is a special 

 letter that it cost the writer time and ear- 

 nest thought to get up— such a letter as 

 might cost a dollar or two.* I may make 

 this plain by mentioning these absent-treat- 

 ment doctors. I am glad to say we do not 

 see or hear much about them now ; in fact, 

 I can not recall their names. Well, it tran- 

 spired that these doctors had a list of let- 



* Since the above was dictated I am informed there 

 are different inventions in the way of type, and also of 

 a blanket to put on the press, so the periods will print 

 through the printed work exactly as they do with the 

 typewriter. Now, men have gone to work systematic- 

 ally to perfect machinery for cheating people who get 

 letters: and all this in order that "even the very elect," 

 to use a scripture phrase, may be deceived and hum- 

 bugged. 



