1905 



GLEANINGS IN CEE CULTURE. 



435 



are managing a Christian institution will 

 sec that they are getting out of the straight 

 and narrow way when they permit cards Hke 

 the above, written so skillfully with a pen * 

 that even I did not think of its being a copy 

 of something gotten out by the thousands. 

 My good friends, you have no right to push 

 your literature into a busy office like ours in 

 the spring of the year, under the pretense 

 that you are a business customer. Now, I 

 do not mean to be unkind nor uncharitable; 

 but I do mean to insist, in the language of 

 our text, on abstaining from all appearance 

 of evil— especially if we claim to belong to 

 the Lord Jesus Christ. If people will not 

 pay attention to honest appeals for money 

 for charitable purposes, then go without it. 

 It makes me think of the colored people 

 down south who could not pay their minister 

 unless they raised funds by getting up a 

 chicken dinner. Well, they had the chicken 

 dinner. It was well attended, and they had 

 a joyful time ; but when they evened up 

 their finances they found the chickens cost 

 more money than they received in admit- 

 tance fees, and the poor minister was further 

 from getting his scanty salary than he had 

 been before. If we can not raise the money 

 for church expenses, or to pay the minister's 

 salary, in the way of honest square deals, 

 then let us work on a smaller scale until we 

 get a healthy enthusiasm worked up solely 

 for the kingdom of God and his righteousness. 

 Now, there is something else that wor- 

 ries me right in line with that word Miss 

 that was on that letter and postal card. A 

 great many times people will pay attention 

 to a letter from a woman when they would 

 not if it were written by a man; and if the 

 woman signs her name Miss instead of Mrs. , 

 probably she would stand a little better 

 •chance of receiving recognition. This is all 

 right in the right way; but it is not all right 

 in a wrong way. When I was in California 

 it was my great pleasure to visit the estab- 

 lishment of a woman florist— Mrs. Theodosia 

 V. Shepard. I think she was then in Ven- 

 tura. She told us why she started out as 

 florist, and how she surmounted the various 

 obstacles. While I was in Florida I visited 

 two young ladies who were growing flowers 

 in a canvas greenhouse. We all rejoice to 

 see women go into business— especially cer- 

 tain kinds of business such as growing flow- 

 ers, for instance. I do not know how many 

 successful women florists there are in the 

 United States. There are several in one 

 Ohio city. I was thinking lately they must 

 be succeeding, because the number is in- 

 creasing so fast. Well, a while ago in dis- 

 cussing the various avenues that are open- 

 ing by which women may support them- 

 selves, an advertising agent informed me 

 there are not so many woman florists in 

 reality. He said certain men who wanted 

 to push business had found that, if they 

 issued a catalog, and advertised the name of 



* Our stenographer informs me that the postal card 

 that fooled me so completely was produced by what is 

 called a "mimeograph," an apparatus used to copy 

 handwriting. 



a woman, especially an unmarried one, more 

 people would send in their orders.* Our 

 wives and mothers love flowers, and many 

 of them, perhaps, would feel more at home 

 in writing to a woman, and stating just 

 what they want, than in writing to a man. 

 Some of you will say again, I am pretty 

 sure, "Why, Mr. Root, what difference does 

 it make what special form or plan a man 

 adopts to attract attention to his business, 

 providing he fills orders promptly, and sends 

 out goods that are satisfactory ? What dif- 

 ference does it make to you who puts up 

 your goods if they give satisfaction ? " I do 

 not know how many of you will agree with 

 the above. God forbid that there should be 

 many of our people who say it does not 

 make any difference whether we have been 

 deceived or not, so long as we get exactly 

 what is wanted. The Savior said, "Let your 

 communications be Yea, yea; Nay, nay; for 

 whatsoever is more that these cometh of 

 evil." While I rejoice in progress in explor- 

 ing and developing our resources as much as 

 anybody in the world, I feel like saying, 

 God forbid that we have any more inven- 

 tions that enable us to get money or trade 

 by deceiving people as to the real truth. 

 Some of you may urge that I am damaging 

 the business of the women florists by these 

 suggestions that they may not be women 

 after all. Not so. Everybody who does 

 business is quoted by Dun or Bradstreet. 

 By going to any bank you can find out 

 whether the woman owns a greenhouse and 

 conducts busmess where the catalog or print- 

 ed advertisement says she does. Some of 

 you may urge that it is a woman's privilege 

 to have a man own her greenhouse, and have 

 his name quoted commercially, and that it is 

 all right. This may be true ; but if in our 

 anxiety to see a greenhouse managed by a 

 woman (perhaps to see how much nicer and 

 neater she v;ould keep the premises than a 

 man naturally would) we should make a call 

 on such a greenhouse, and not find any 

 woman around, nor any evidence that a wo- 

 man had any thing to do with it, would we 

 not be justified in deciding that the catalog 

 and advertisement were misleading? 



It is not alone missives by mail that are 

 planned to deceive people. The Rural New- 

 Yorker recently gave a column toward ex- 

 plaining, and cautioning people about being 

 caught by an advertiser who makes a spe- 

 cialty of selling farms and other property. 

 When you come to answer the advertise- 

 ment, however, you will find you have got 

 to send this man some money before he even 

 undertakes to make a sale. Well, his latest 

 trick is to send a telegram shortly after the 

 correspondence, worded in such a way as to 



* Friends, what do you think of a man who has a 

 man's strength and a man's opportunity in the world 

 feeling jealous of the success of a woman who has built 

 up a praiseworthy business? She may be a widow with 

 children to suppoi't; or she may be a young woman who 

 has an ambition to support herself by cultivating flow- 

 ers. Now, what do you think of a man who coolly plans 

 to rob her of a part of that business by representing 

 that his greenhouse is owned and run by a woman, or, 

 if you choose, a Miss somebody when such is not the 

 case? 



