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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15 



So I commenced sending' claim after claim 

 for the overcharg-e on the potatoes. I told 

 them that, if our claim was not just and 

 right, they should let us know wherein we 

 were not entitled to it. I shall have to con- 

 fess that it was about six months after the 

 transaction that I got any reply. Then the 

 general freight agent at Baltimore wrote us 

 he had just been informed by the general 

 freight agent of the Cleveland and Detroit 

 Transportation Co. that my shipment did 

 not originate at Traverse City but at Bing- 

 ham, and therefore my demand for over- 

 charge was declined. 



May be you think that, since A. I. Root 

 has been largely relieved from the cares of 

 business, and left by himself out in the 

 woods to cultivate a Christian character, 

 he is always genial and kind, and does not 

 get stirred up. Well, you are a little mis- 

 taken. When I found these people had 

 waited six months while I had been telling 

 my story over and over again, and then de- 

 clared they would not pay me a cent be- 

 cause my potatoes were not battled to Trav- 

 erse City to put them on the steamer, I felt 

 like fighting. May be you have had some 

 such experience. I did not care particular- 

 ly for the S20 ; but when 1 had the figures 

 in plain black and white, to be turned off 

 in this shape I could not rest. It was the 

 principle of the thing more than the amount 

 of money at stake. I stated the case to a 

 good many people who had had experience 

 in such matters. I talked with the railway 

 men about it, and said, " What are these 

 general freight agents of the large railroad 

 companies employed for? Is it to see that 

 justice and fairness are done in every trans- 

 action? or is it to get out of paying any and 

 every claim against their respective com- 

 panies by some hook or crook or technicali- 

 ty ? " 



Most of the busine?s men to whom I pre- 

 sented the matter laughed at the way I pre- 

 sented it ; but pretty much all of them de- 

 clared that the general freight agent earned 

 his salary by saving the money of the com- 

 pany that employed him. I remonstrated 

 again and said : 



"But these transportation men are work- 

 ing hard to get trade. Almost all of them 

 have strong competition. They are trying 

 to turn trade into the hands of their com- 

 panies. They are especially anxious to 

 g-et carload orders like my two carloads of 

 potatoes. Such transactions as the one I 

 have mentioned would not advertise their 

 business. Do not railroad companies try 

 to treat their customers in such a way that 

 they will come to them again?" 



One man, who ought to know about these 

 things, replied : 



" Why, Mr. Root, if you have some more 

 potatoes to ship, that fact maj' have some 

 weight in getting them to return the over- 

 charge." 



Now, friends, as I have said before, most 

 of you have had some experience in this 

 kind of business. I am afraid the greater 

 part of you have fallen into the fashion of 



saying that "railroad corporations have no 

 souls, and it will cost more to collect the 

 overcharge than it is worth. If you go to 

 law abotit it, they have their own lawyers 

 who work on a salary. It would not cost 

 them any more to have these lawyers at 

 work at something than to have them sitting 

 idle; better drop it and lose it the way we 

 do." 



To all of this I want to say, God forbid. 

 I have met a few men in high positions who 

 were overbearing, and lacking in con- 

 science; but may God be praised it is only 

 a few. 



When I went back to Traverse City after 

 the transaction just mentioned, I decided to 

 call on the agent of the Northern Michigan 

 Transportation Co., Mr. Elwyn H. Pope. 

 He is the man who gave me the rates, and 

 the one who directed the steamer to call at 

 Bingham dock, and who also gave me a let- 

 ter to hand to the clerk on the steamer, 

 mentioning the rate they had agreed to give 

 me. I had in my possession the agreement 

 to move the potatoes from Traverse City to 

 Cleveland, but, unfortunately, I did not 

 have a scrap of any thing to prove that the 

 potatoes were to be taken off Bingham dock 

 at the same price. I gave the only piece of 

 paper, mentioning this, to the ptirser on the 

 boat. He kept it as his authority for stop- 

 ping at the dock for my potatoes. 



I was so busy in planting potatoes in 

 June that it was two or three weeks before 

 1 got up to Traverse City to see the agent. 

 During these two or three weeks I kept ask- 

 ing myself the question, "Will Mr. Pope 

 make his verbal agreement as good as the 

 written one I hold?" Quite a few assured 

 me that, when he knew just how I was 

 fixed, he would stand in first for his com- 

 pany, and let me lose my $20. The agent 

 seemed such a bright, fair, honest man 

 when I talked with him a year ago that I 

 could not believe it for a moment. Yes, 

 friends, the matter not only weighed on my 

 mind, but I prayed over it. I pray^ed that 

 God would help me to hold fast, not only to 

 my faith in him, but in humanity. I pray- 

 ed for that great and wonderful gift of 

 charity — the charity that seeketh not her 

 own, is not easily provoked, and thinketh 

 no evil. You know I am naturally hopeful. 

 I have faith and hope in poor imperfect hu- 

 manity. 1 prayed for that charity that 

 "hopeth all things" as well as " endureth 

 all things." 



When Mrs. Root and I got ready to go 

 back, our train was late and we had only' 

 about fifteen minutes to get from one depot 

 to another. If I did not catch that train I 

 would have to stay in Traverse City all that 

 afternoon, with nothing to do. I put Mrs. 

 Root in a bus with the baggage, and then I 

 ran over to the wharf where the steamers 

 stop. Mr. Pope was busy superintending 

 the unloading of a steamer. He put his fin- 

 ger on the paper where he was writing, 

 looked up, and I was keenly trying to read 

 the man meanwhile to see if I had been 

 mistaken in him. He did not remember me 



