1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



889 



horror; and every man, woman, and child 

 sends up a protest of blame and censure 

 against one who is g'uiltj^ of leavinjj: such a 

 place unprotected; but I tell you it is true 

 there are worse places than these that our 

 boj's, and jjirls too, are falling^ into every 

 daj' in the year, and yet there is no ade- 

 quate stir being- made about it. Some of 

 you may sa}' I am an alarmist, and that I 

 magnify' the dangers; but if you will read 

 my text at the head of this talk I think you 

 will be compelled to admit that the dear 

 Savior recognized and emphasized just 

 what I have been saying. 



After Johnnie's papa lifted him out of 

 the well the mother cleaned up his clothing, 

 perhaps gave him a good bath, and he was 

 as good as ever. The neighbors may have 

 censured him a little for his childish heed- 

 lessness, but no one would think of laying 

 it up against him. But suppose, my dear 

 friend, a little later on Johnnie went to jail, 

 or perhaps to a penitentiary, for some foul 

 crime. Could the poor mother fix him up 

 " as good as new " after such an experi- 

 ence? When he fell in the well, he soiled 

 his nice clothing; but how about a soiled 

 and stained character? Can the mother or 

 the father wash out these stains? Can they 

 prevent the story of his crime following him 

 to the last days of his life? Away back in 

 Gleanings I mentioned a poor girl who 

 was rescued by the Salvation Army. When 

 she was but a mere child she was " sinned 

 against " by a certain relative who had been 

 appointed her guardian. Those who knew 

 the circumstances would hardly blame the 

 child for what happened. When she was 

 old enough she broke away from her life of 

 sin, and was taken in hand by the Salva- 

 tion Ar)ny, because nobody else would have 

 her around. She was a Christian girl, 

 skillful and competent; and in this day 

 and age when household help is in such 

 great demand, she found places without a 

 bit of trouble, and kept them, until the 

 story of the past came out; finally she went 

 away from home trying to find a locality 

 where thej' would not hear her former his- 

 tory. Do you know the result? Just as 

 soon as the story of her misfortune ( I am 

 sure that is the right word) reached her 

 new home she was promptly dismissed. 

 Not a word was even mentioned of incom- 

 petency in any respect; in fact, they seemed 

 to feel very sorr}' to part with her; but they 

 could not think of having a girl in their 

 Christian (?) home, no matter what her 

 present life and conduct might be, whose 

 character had been stained years before. 

 Now, I do not say this is right. God knows 

 my soul rebels against such injustice; but 

 it is the way of the world. If the child had 

 fallen into the well, and had been crippled 

 for life — or I think I can go further, and 

 say if she had lost her life — it would have 

 been better in the estimation of many peo- 

 ple than to suffer this very fall I have men- 

 tioned. If there had been no Salvation 

 Army around, very likely she would have 

 never heard about "Jesus and his love," 



and she would have gone down the custom- 

 ary path to a life of shame and ruin. In 

 view of this, dare you tell me that I am 

 mistaken when I insist there are worse 

 places for endangering not only bodily life, 

 but the life of the soul as well? and places 

 that exist not only in our cities but in al- 

 most every small town and hamlet through- 

 out our land? Our laws are progressive in 

 many ways. They are filling up wells in 

 onr cities where boards of health have de- 

 cided the water was unwholesome. They 

 are making-magnificent progress in getting 

 rid of the cause of disease — especially con- 

 tagious ones. Surgery is making great 

 headway. Perhaps we are making so)ne 

 headway along the lines of the whisky- 

 traffic; but, oh dear me! I presume there 

 are thousands of our readers who will ve- 

 hemently stand by me in what I have said 

 about fencing off dangers in the way of 

 covering wells and cisterns. Why, if some- 

 body discovers a hole in a bridge on any 

 of our country roads, no matter how great 

 his hurry he goes and gets a rail or board, 

 and sticks it up in the bridge so people 

 driving may keep their horses out of it. It 

 is a rather bad thing for a horse to get a 

 broken leg on account of a faulty bridge. 

 When men are digging through our streets 

 putting in water or gas pipes, they are 

 obliged by law to put a lighted lantern by 

 the side of the ditch; and not only that, it 

 must be a lantern giving a red light as a 

 signal of danger; but who is there that 

 takes the trouble to stick up a rail in front 

 of a saloon? No! I do not mean a saloon 

 after all. I mean a "blind pig" or a 

 "speak-easy." These places are, for all 

 the world, like the uncovered well in the 

 midst of the weeds and grass. They are 

 all through our prohibition towns, or near- 

 ly so. They profess to keep a restaurant, 

 or sell "soft" drinks— perhaps it is a drug- 

 store; and these things are like the weeds 

 and grass, as the business is carried on 

 "on the sly." 



Perhaps you turn away from my talk, 

 and think the matter is not so bad as I have 

 presented it. But I am not alone in my 

 protest against these things. Less than a 

 week ago a foul murder was committed in 

 Cleveland. This time, with commendable 

 alacrity, the police summoned their forces, 

 got evidence here and there, and in less 

 than a week had the two murderers behind 

 the prison bars, and their pictures appear 

 in the daily papers. They found where 

 the men had been all one Sunday after- 

 noon. They even proved how many drinks 

 they had had at this, that, and the other 

 place. The murdered man had been drink- 

 ing too. They had no spite against him — 

 that is, in their senses; but under the influ- 

 ence of the drink he was foully murdered, 

 just for the little money he happened to 

 have in his pocket when he went on a spree 

 with the other two. Here is what the 

 Cleveland News and Herald s,a.ys, in regard 

 to the matter: 

 The police are to be congratulated upon the arrest of 



