26 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1 



OUR 

 HOMES, 



BY A.I. ROOT. 



So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breatli 

 came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their 

 feet, an exceeding great army. — Eze 37 : 10. 



A few days ag-o as I was passing- along- 

 the streets of Medina I met an old neighbor 

 who has been quite active all his life in 

 temperance work, and of late years espe- 

 cially in the Anti-saloon League work. He 

 has had quite a spell of sickness, and was 

 just able to be out in the sunshine for a 

 little airing-. Thinking- to cheer him up I 

 began to tell him of the temperance victo- 

 ries at the present time here in Ohio. He is 

 of a peculiar temperament, and given to odd 

 and startling- speeches. His reply to my 

 remarks, as nearly as I can remember, was 

 something- like this: 



"Why, Mr. Root, the people have g-ot so 

 tired of being- dead so long- that they can 

 not stand it a minute longer, and so they 

 are all waking- up here and over there, 

 and all around," sweeping with his hand 

 the whole face of the horizon. Of course, I 

 had to smile at the thought that dead folks 

 sometimes get "tired" of beings dead; and 

 as I pondered, walking- along-, I smiled out 

 loud, and since then I have several times 

 had a g-ood big- laugh at the thought of dead 

 folks getting- tired of being dead. Now, 

 please do not think me irreverent, dear 

 friends. While I laughed at Bro. Shaw's 

 oddity I thanked God ag-ain and ag-ain that 

 some of the dead folks we have all round us 

 are at length tired of being- dead, and that 

 Mr. Shaw's remarks are true. The whole 

 wide world is waking- up. In our Homes 

 for Sept. 15 I quoted from Bro. Reed's ser- 

 mon where he said there were dead people 

 all through the world walking- about — peo- 

 ple who are spiritually dead — people to 

 whom the Holy Spirit has ceased to speak; 

 those who have no care or anxiety for the 

 welfare of humanity, especially youthful 

 humanity. 



Now, if some of you still insist that the 

 world is just as dead as it has been all 

 along-, and is going- to remain dead — in 

 fact, prefers to remain dead — I want to 

 give you some facts. On page 951, Nov. 15, 

 I copied from one of the Cleveland papers 

 in regard to the movement on foot to retire 

 the old police officers, for they absolutely 

 ivould not enforce the laws against saloons. 

 If you have read the daily papers you prob- 

 ably know that from that time forward 

 a strict enforcement of law commenced in 

 Cleveland. One of the Toledo papers, in 

 commenting on the matter, said Cleveland 

 now-a-days was as dry on Sunday as a 

 "covered bridge." The saloonists were 

 surprised and astonished; 47 of them were 

 arrested and fined, Nov. 30. But even this 

 did not seem to arouse them to the fact that 

 the police, for at least once in the world, 

 "meant business." The next Sunday a lot 



more were arrested. One of the liquor 

 papers, in wailing about the way in which 

 old laws that everybody considered obso- 

 lete were enforced, "gave themselves away" 

 by declaring that they lost the sale of 2000 

 barrels of beer in just one Sunday. Some 

 of you say I mean 200 instead of 2000. 

 Nothing of the sort. It was 2000 barrels. 

 Now, mind you, I am talking about barrels 

 and not kegs. The brewers had been in the 

 habit of disposing of about 2000 barrels of 

 beer every Sunday in Cleveland; and the 

 arrest for intoxication on God's holy day 

 dropped off at once. Relative to this I make 

 the following extract from an address by 

 Hon. Frank Arter, of Cle%'eland, entitled 

 "The Saloon and the Christian Sabbath." 



■with a recent closing of the saloons on the Sihbath, 

 there has been a decrease of over .seve ty-five per cent 

 in the arrests nade for drunkenness on that dav, and 

 with no murders, no brawls, and with a i ossiliility of 

 decent people of the citv walking the streets without 

 fear of insult. On the first Sn day the .sal ons were 

 closed, there was less beer by 2r'00 barrels sold. 



On page 950, Nov. 15, I told you what five 

 kegs of beer did among a gang of Italian 

 railroad men. Well, the beer made here in 

 Ohio is exactly as bad as that made in 

 Northern Michigan. Some of j'ou may say, 

 "Oh! well, this may not last long. The 

 police of Cleveland have taken on a spasm 

 of law enforcement; and when you get down 

 to it you will find, Bro. Root, it is all for 

 political effect in some way or other. You 

 see if it holds out." 



God bless you, my dear friend, of course 

 it will hold out if you and I make it hold 

 out. The great Father above did not place 

 us on this green earth to go about as living 

 corpses; but he meant us to be live men, and 

 to insist on the enforcement of our laws. 



You may say these "spasms" of temper- 

 ance work are confined mostly to Ohio; 

 that the rest of the United States and even 

 the rest of the world is going on in about the 

 same old way. Well, if this were true I 

 should thank God that the people of Ohio 

 are waking up, and, in the language of our 

 text, "standing upon their feet an exceed- 

 ing great armv;" for it has been many times 

 said that Ohio is not only central in a geo- 

 graphical sense but that it is getting to be 

 central in an educational and moral sense. 

 Thank God again, if this is true. I am 

 proud to think that I was born in Ohio, and 

 at a time when I could help just a little in 

 the temperance work. Coming to life is 

 contagious. Michigan is getting the fever: 

 so is New York; and Indiana, and Kentucky 

 to s'"me extent Hn spite of her celebrated 

 whisky 1; and Virginia and Pennsylvania 

 are both beginning to turn over in bed and 

 give signs of restlessness if nothing more. 

 May God be praised, if it be indeed true, 

 that they too are getting "tired" of being 

 dead so long. 



But just now I want to tell you the good 

 news that is coming from Ohio. In our last 

 issue I told you of our victory in Collinwood. 

 In that place 36 saloons are now closed up. 

 Collinwood is one of the eastern suburbs of 

 Cleveland. Lakewood, a suburb on the 



