1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



977 



who shot a friend by mistake. In one case 

 a friend crawled into a neighbor's house, 

 which house was just hke his own. He sup- 

 posed he was going into his own room. 

 When his folks went away they locked the 

 house up. In the darkness of the night he 

 made a mistake in the house, and his neigh- 

 bor shot him dead. Similar cases come up 

 every little while. When it comes to the 

 matter of taking life, for God's sake, dear 

 friends, go slow and be careful. 



Every little while there are neighborhood 

 quarrels. We do not need to go to Ken- 

 tucky, necessarily, to look up feuds of long 

 standing. Men have grudges against some 

 of their fellow - men. I have had them 

 myself. In a few instances it has been 

 hard work for me to keep from saying in 

 my heart, when I heard of such and such a 

 man's death, " I am glad of it." Where a 

 man has spent all his life in debauching and 

 ruining humanity I do not know but it is 

 right in God's sight to say "Thank God" 

 when such a man dies a natural death; but 

 when some person dies with whom you have 

 had personal difficulty, one who has had a 

 fair reputation with people generally, then 

 beware how you rejoice because God has 

 taken him away. The Bible tells us (I. John 

 3:15), "Whosoever hateth his brother is a 

 murderer." 



Somebody may say, "Mr. Root, you are 

 finding fault with that father for avenging 

 the ruin of his child. What would you rec- 

 commend or what would you have done?" 

 I will answer the question by mentioning a 

 case that occurred a few days ago in the 

 courts of Cleveland. A low-lived wretch 

 insulted a beautiful young girl of about the 

 age of the one mentioned above. She re- 

 ported him to the police, and he was sen- 

 tenced to a fine of $25 and six months in the 

 workhouse. During the trial two women 

 were present with their children— the moth- 

 er of the little girl who was insulted, and 

 the other one was the wife of the man who 

 was sentenced. This first mother, when she 

 saw her neighbor was a poor woman with 

 several children depending on the father's 

 daily wages for support, her heart relented. 

 In the presence of the culprit she went to 

 the judge and begged that the sentence be 

 suspended. She said to this guilty man, or 

 wretch, perhaps I ought to call him, some- 

 thing like this: 



"Sir, you are a stranger to me; but I feel 

 sure you are sorry for what you have done; 

 and while I find it a hard matter to forgive 

 you for the wrong you have done my inno- 

 cent child, for the sake of your perhaps in- 

 nocent wife and children I am willing to for- 

 give you; and I am sure that, since you have 

 looked at this case from all points of view, 

 since you have seen the trouble and distress 

 that it has brought into your own home as 

 well as mine, you will repent and ask God 

 to forgive you if you have not already done 

 so. For their sakes I am willing to beg that 

 you be released to take care of your loved 

 ones, for I feel sure you do love them, even 

 in the face of what has happened. ' ' 



The newspapers did not give the substance 

 of her plea, but it was probably something 

 in the line I have given above. Is not that 

 the Christian way, or, better still, the Christ- 

 like way? Do we not all honor and respect 

 that noble woman? Now a word in regard 

 to this man. In fact, there are a number of 

 them in Cleveland. Every little while they 

 are arrested for impure remarks to school- 

 girls. When the names of them are given 

 you will discover that most of them are 

 foreigners. They have had bad bringing up. 

 They have spent their time in saloons. Not 

 only do saloons contaminate by the drink 

 habit, but they are the hot-bed of foul sto- 

 ries, such as no man, especially a married 

 rnan, should listen to for a moment. These 

 vile and filthy stories are not entirely con- 

 fined to saloons, but mostly so. Once in a 

 while somebody commences to tell them in 

 my presence, but I have never failed in 

 stopping them. I have never yet failed, so 

 far as I remember, in finding in the crowd 

 some man who had manhood enough to stand 

 by me and declare I was right. These for- 

 eigners who come to our shores need to be 

 educated and looked after. We want to get 

 them on ' ' higher ground. ' ' Young boys 

 should be watched to see that they do not 

 get into the fashion of indulging in filthy 

 talk. Professor Cook tells us a little story 

 that I think I may repeat. At some 

 great gathering they were offering toasts. 

 One prominent man, as he held up his glass, 

 said something that reflected on all woman- 

 kind. Somebody else rose up instantly and 

 said the brother probably referred to his 

 own wife and daughters rather than to the 

 wives and daughters of those who were 

 present. The "brother" (?) jumped up 

 with an oath on his lips, and was going to 

 shoot the man who made insulting allusions 

 about his women- folks; but a lot of others 

 grabbed hold of him and told him to cool off 

 a little and reflect that he was the one who 

 threw out an insult that would includejall 

 the wives, mothers, and daughters of the 

 others present. 



The recent disgraceful newspaper reports 

 in regard to the Taggart divorce trial in 

 Wooster, 0., reveal the awful condition of 

 morals in at least some of our army posts. 

 Several good Christian people have mention- 

 ed the fact that this Taggart divorce busi- 

 ness is going to be an eye-opener in regard 

 to the custom of army officers and the way in 

 which they drag their wives down into the 

 slums and filth— at least some of them. One 

 witness testified that, even if it were true 

 that Taggart drank until he had to be con- 

 fined at times, he was not particularly worse 

 than the rest of the officers. Another one 

 said that, even if Mrs. Taggart did drink 

 beer and whisky, and smoke cigarettes, 

 she was not particularly worse than the 

 wives of other "officers." 



Now, with all this iniquity going on in our 

 land, is it to be wondered at that occasion- 

 ally a man gets into the Devil's clutches to 

 such an extent that he is guilty of such sins 

 as are mentioned at the head of this talk ? 



