730 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 15 



chine was run out of the wide door, and 

 tested on the race-course. The works are 

 on the old Lansing- fairgrounds, and this 

 old race-course is just the place for testing- 

 machines. At almost every hour in the day 

 one or more machines are flying around the 

 track. Each man, evidently, takes pride 

 in being able to make his machine do its 

 best; and all together a sight of that busy 

 workshop, and these new creations that 

 seem almost like a thing of life, stirred my 

 soul as it has not often been stirred. Let 

 me digress a moment. 



Man first went on foot; but he soon learn- 

 ed to appreciate a "ride" of some kind. 

 If I am right, mules and asses, perhaps al- 

 so camels, were one of the first inventioijs 

 to improve on going- on foot. Later, boats 

 were invented, and perhaps wagons. Lat- 

 er still, horses were found to be the thing 

 for speed, and then came buggies and car- 

 riages; but for long ages no invention of 

 man could go on common roads faster than 

 a horse. The wheel came, and is here j'et 

 (thank God) ; but this new thing, for travel, 

 leaves a/l behind. Just now it is in the 

 embryo; and not only the machine but the 

 people. 77/^ whole world is rubbing its 

 eyes and waking up, and slowl}' (shall I 

 say sluggishly?) making room for it. I 

 don't know who invented this machine. 

 The credit probably belongs to a great 

 many minds, but I am inclined to think the 

 inventor, and the skilled mechanics who 

 make the machines, have never recognized 

 how nearly they have been following the 

 works of God in this wonderful creation. 



Let us see how much there is about it 

 that is human- like. In the very center of 

 it there is a pulsating, beating heart, the 

 engine. There is a circulation to keep the 

 machinery cool, but it is water instead of 

 blood. It breathes air and consumes oxy- 

 gen, just as we do. There are nerves of 

 steel (piano wire) that run from every 

 point of its construction up to the hands and 

 feet of the operator. It has two big eyes 

 (lamps) to see to run by night. It must 

 have water, just about as much and as oft- 

 en as you give it to a horse. It doesn't need 

 oats, it is true; but it needs gasoline (anoth- 

 er of God's late and wonderful gifts), and 

 this is consumed in the very " intestines" 

 of the machine, to give mechanical force, 

 just as the oats and corn give mechanical 

 force. It gets hot when doing hard work, 

 just as the horse or man gets heated by ex- 

 tra exertion. To do its best work it must 

 have faithful and intelligent care, like the 

 horse. If man is made in the image of 

 God, is it so ver3' strange that he has (even 

 unwittingly) trodden in the footsteps of his 

 Creator in making a machine that is so 

 nearly human in its makeup? It lacks 

 brains, it is true; but its maker is its 

 brains, and holds its wonderful power at 

 the tips of his fingers — and toes. 



It was nearing noon time, and I felt the 

 need of my accustomed nan. I found a 

 quiet boarding-house, and a pretty young 

 waiting-girl opened the door of a nice little 



room that I should call a study, judging 

 from the books and papers, and told me I 

 could rest on a pretty clean lounge until 

 dinner was ready. I not only thanked my 

 young friend, but I thanked God for such 

 pretty and comfortable places and such peo- 

 ple. Yes, I thanked God for ivomatikind 

 as well as for mankind. My couch was be- 

 fore an open window; this window was 

 close to the race-course. As I dropped into 

 oblivion, car af .er car whizzed past my win- 

 dow with its driver covered with black 

 grease, and his hair flying in the wind, as 

 I have told you. He forgot his hat and all 

 else in his devotion to his machine. I was 

 just thinking I loved him with all his dirty 

 hands and greasy overalls, when the young 

 girl at her work trilled out a little song that 

 came in through the open vs indow. Do you 

 wonder that those thrills of joy and praise 

 to God came over me again and again?* 



I have been accused, you know, of writ- 

 ing up things and places in rosy colors, 

 saying nothing about the "thorns;" but I 

 am now going to speak of something worse 

 than thorns right in and about that auto- 

 mobile works. I may have been exalting 

 humanity a little too much. When I asked 

 how much I owed for my verj^ good dinner, 

 and the use of that neat little room, the re- 

 ply was, '■ Twenty cents." I tried to have 

 them take 2.^, but was told 20 was the regu- 

 lar price. On my way back to the shops 

 one of the men asked me how I liked their 

 boarding-house, and then said something 

 like this: 



"Mr. Root, a widow has charge of the 

 place, and she is trj'ing hard to make a 

 living, and she would come out all right if 

 it weren't for the boys and men who slip ofl:" 

 and don't pay their board-bills. There is 

 quite a lot of help here that is going and 

 coming. They stay a week or two weeks, 

 and put her off with some good excuse, and 

 then skip out." 



I replied: " Why, is it possible j'ou have 

 people, those who call themselves men, who 

 would thus impose on a weak woman who 

 has lost her companion and natural pro- 

 tector? Are there those who are so lost to 

 shame, strong men who would see this wo- 

 man purchase food and then work hard to 

 prepare it in such a wholesome and tempt- 

 ing wa3', and then sneak off without pay- 

 ing her?" 



Can it be, friends, we have such men and 

 boys? If so, Ihey are not in God's image by 

 a long sight. They are of the Devil's work 



*I have told you about thanking God for his giving 

 me a human life to live. As I sank to slumber I 

 breathed that prayer again, and thanked God that, 

 in his infinite love, he had given me a place, even 

 while I atn old and gray-headed, among the busy 

 boys and girls of our land. And then I fell to won- 

 dering how it was possible that any human being 

 should get wearv of life — this wonderful gift. Yes, 

 within the last few days two millionaires, I am told, 

 have committed suicide. How is this possible for ote 

 who can get a glimpse of this great teeming universe, 

 with its wondrous machinery and wonderful possibil- 

 ities? Surely this can not hajjpen to any soul that 

 has once had even a glimpse of Christ Jesus and of 

 God the Father, and of their wonderful love to human- 

 ity. 



